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Newtone Platinums - What a difference a string makes...


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One of the things I have learnt from this forum is there are other bass sounds apart from zingy roundwounds. I find it refreshing that on this forum there appears to be more discussion on strings than on so-called 'tonewoods' for our instruments. I find variations in strings fascinating.

Flats are great, use them for Motown, perfect. For the funky band I needed some zing sometimes so I thought I'd try a set of Newtone Platinums. Came out of a request to Malcolm Newton regarding halfwounds. (He doesn't do those but is looking to add flats to his repertoire).

He talked me into a set of Platinums on a round core, I ordered a set of 46-90s. They use a finer gauge of winding wire, apparently to give a smoother sound and a focus on the 'fundemental note' and are a 'balanced' set. Expensive but, I don't change strings anywhere near as often as I used to. They were fine, very good I thought and I got on fine, they gave a solid sound with the treble wound off on my 'Ray and plenty of zing for slap with the treble boosted. I had a mind to try Rotosound Solos next.

Last night during some recording I snapped the 'A'. Replaced it with an I-don't-know-what roundwound (no silk, wasn't a Swing Bass) and I didn't realise what a difference a string could make. A nasty, clanky sound; a flappy, serrated feel; about half the output. I hadn't realised how good the Newtones were and how much I relied on their tone and equal output and how the important tension is. Another session today, I have swapped the 'A' for a better string from my arsenal of old spares, but it is still not the same, weaker, thinner sound. I'm now in a slight panic as I'm recording again today and March is a wonderfully busy month for music for me and I don't have a full set of Newtones.

I realise this sounds like an ad but I have just ordered 3 sets (and 2 spare 'A's - no idea why but I've broken 2 in a year) which will hopefully be a couple of years worth (paid for by a gig next w/e!) as I'm now scared to buy anything else. I can recommend them out if its a mellower sound you need but with more life than flats, but until I reverted to other strings, I didn't realise how much I can recommend them.

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