Just fell in love with my Farida P bass after new strings

[daz]

This bass here below

Steve_Soar recently intoned my beautiful to look at, Swamp ash with maple neck and rosewood fretboard Farida FPB 18 for me, a month back. It was certainly better, but still not to my liking. Indeed I have never liked the sound it gave, since i bought on sale it for a bargain £150 from Dawsons, reduced from its normal £350. For those who dont know about them. It is a P bass body with a Jazz neck, and some quality in house wound, Farida humbucks. It has a fine smooth satin finish to top it off, and just feels so good in the hands. Its got such great potential, that i didnt want to give up on it and sell it on. Not least because it was such a bargain. Also b ecause I'd not get what it was worth. Its worth more than £350 to me any day of the week.

Certainly I would stand my Farida up against any production bass, and have confidence in it, not been shown up. So have been looking for a way to use it to my liking. I have tried all sorts of strings on it. The strings it came with were ok, but didnt seem to suit it, as far as i was concerned. Just too trebley for me, no matter what i did, just sounded wrong to me. Also it was very loud, by far the loudest bass i had. Not that it was a bad thing, just an observation.

Anyway so I got some [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rotosound-Black-Standard-Flatwound-Strings/dp/B0002GNUYU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321556008&sr=8-1"]Rotosound RS88LD Black Nylon Flatwound strings [/url] from the Bass show last week. I put them on my old Westfield P - bass and they were ok but didnt seem right. The E string gave a dull 'thunck' played acousticaly and even plugged in it wasnt right, no matter what i did.

Anywho. I thought a swap might be in order. It certainly couldnt be any worse i thought. After I had the black nylon strings on the Farida. I tried it unplugged and they sounded ok ish but still the E string wasnt right. It was better than on the Westfield but still a bit 'off' So i obviously had to try it plugged in to my Hartke. When i did. WOW ! what a difference it made. I tried the bass line to 'Come together' by The Beatles (with its famous long slides) as recommended by Nigel Clutterbuck, to show off the strings, and it sounded just 'spot on'. I tried a few old faves and it sounded pretty damn fine. I tried playing the Stranglers track 'Princess of the streets', and i played it with a pick. Wow it sounded so good i played it over and over for maybe half an hour. I was so happy with the sound.

As an added bonus the old Farida strings sounded excellant on my Westfield P- bass, (they were barely used as i didnt like the sound so never played it) even though i'd had to widen the nut for the Tru Bass strings (they are an ordinary 45 - 100 size but the nylon covering makes them thicker to 65 - 115) and the 'A' string vibed a little if played open. Nevertheless the bass also played like a dream, sounding better than it was before.

Oh happy day !

Edited November 18, 2011 by daz

[Lozz196]

Nice one Daz, it`s strange how some different strings seem to breathe life into an instrument that previously just didn`t sound right. Only had this happen with a guitar myself, a Strat. I use Gibson Brite-wires on it, and the difference those strings make to the guitar is amazing.

[Pow_22]

would love to try a set of the black nylons on my Bison (apparently the bass they were invented for). Bit pricey tho and i do like the sound of the current Roto fkats i have on it

[jimbaby]

I had a similar experience recently with string suitability for certain basses, I bought a set of D'addario chrome flats and fitted them to a Squier precision, just couldn't get them to a set up I was happy with.

Swapped a set of lighter rounds from a Peavey millenium which I wasn't too keen on either, result on both basses was very pleasing, the Peavey was able to be set up with a much lower action with the chromes and the Squier benefitted with more pliable strings (the tension with the chromes was too much for me, ouch!).
Regards
Jim

[All thumbs]

I want your bass lol!

Just bought one myself which I'm head over heels about as you can see lol - http://youtu.be/Aks3fSHA1jU

Trouble is I want an [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]FPB 18 now but there aren't any :-([/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Let me know if you ever consider sellling :-D[/font][/color]

[daz]

Thats a nice bass Scott. As you say for 150 quid its brilliant. I dont plan on selling my FPB 18 any time soon, but I will give you first refusal if i ever do. Farida make wonderfull basses dont they? I just wish they were more widely known.

My FJB 20 is also pretty cool sounding ( if heavy) I have swapped the strings on the FPB 18 again. This time I have some Status Flats (made[i] in house,[/i] not re badged)

Here are my FJB 20 and FPB 18 side by side. The FPB 18 has really [i]hot[/i] pickups. The hottest pickups of any bass I have ever owned in fact.

Edited March 11, 2012 by daz

[Bigwan]

I had a Farida Jazz (maple neck with black blocks) with me for some repair work a while back and to fit a set of Wizards to. Brilliant bass for that sort of money it has to be said.

[bigsmokebass]

Pretty decent basses

[All thumbs]

[quote name='daz' timestamp='1331189614' post='1568988']
Thats a nice bass Scott. As you say for 150 quid its brilliant. I dont plan on selling my FPB 18 any time soon, but I will give you first refusal if i ever do. Farida make wonderfull basses dont they? I just wish they were more widely known.

My FJB 20 is also pretty cool sounding ( if heavy) I have swapped the strings on the FPB 18 again. This time I have some Status Flats (made[i] in house,[/i] not re badged)

Here are my FJB 20 and FPB 18 side by side. The FPB 18 has really [i]hot[/i] pickups. The hottest pickups of any bass I have ever owned in fact.


[/quote]Lovely :-)