Played bass few times in 3 years - when do I change my strings?

[alyctes]

59 minutes ago, nilorius said:

Do You use harmonics much when playing songs ?

Not much.  But I'm mostly playing fretless, and not tuning it properly is another obstacle to playing in tune.

Edited June 8, 2022 by alyctes

[drTStingray]

On 31/10/2021 at 11:05, Skinnyman said:

Rick Wakeman tells the story of working with Chas Cronk on the Six Wives album. Forty-odd years later he worked with Chas again;

 

RW: “Is that the same bass, Chas?”
 

CC: “Yep. Same strings too”.

I bet he’d have got told what’s what if he’d asked Chris Squire the same question when in a band with him!

 

Seriously, there is nothing like a new set of roundwounds on a bass - flatwounds are a bit of a 60s throw back which have become popular again in recent years - but many players use muting technique to get a similar effect (can be dull thudiness) - but having the appropriate zing for other styles of music post dating the 50s/60s, but pre dating the modern trend for them. 
 

Flat wounds on a bass with extended treble sound like a Stingray can be cool (Bernard Edwards type thing), but too often, flatwounds simply sound dull to me (as do worn roundwounds) - just my view though. I think they stifle some of the flexibility of some basses (would you put them on an Alembic…..)

 

Of course, in the 60s, flatwounds were all you could get - in the 70s/80s they were simply unavailable generally in shops (U.K.) - it’s only in recent years that people have become more interested in them - it was the same in the 60s for guitars but how often do you come across a guitarist who uses flatwound strings now - few and far between, if ever in my experience. 

There’s no rule with all this - do what suits you and your playing style, many styles do not suit dead strings. As I first said, there’s nothing like the sound of new bass strings and especially roundwounds - poor John Entwhistle must be turning in his grave, all this talk of flatwounds!!! 😂

Edited June 9, 2022 by drTStingray
Software scrambling words again….