Rotosound BS66 Billy Sheehan Signature Stainless Steel Roundwound strings (43-110)

[AttitudeCastle]

Hey All,

My First review and shall build on it as i have several of these as a friend gave me a set as a gift, the set that came with my Attitude and the set i first bought as back up strings and thought why not! (i bought them for £25 or there abouts i think but i will double check really depends though)

Straight out the packet:
First thoughts, Good looking strings, red ends, dark metal (darker than i expected after using nickel for a while). gauges 43- (for lighter tension and easier bends, and it really helps, this plus scallops good technique and the strength means you can get ridiculous bends!) 65- 80 and 110 (to keep better tension when dropping to D via the hipshot Xtender, and allows a bit of a tighter E than the normal 100 or 105 gauges) The more even tension over all the strings really feels quite cool, not a massive difference, if you play closer to the bridge than I, makes no difference.

put these straight onto my bass, though i image most basses would need a tad of filling on the Nut to get the 110 in nicely, at first before the strings break in the treble is ungodly, i had to turn the treble to as low as i could and max the bass and roll of the tone before the sound was bare-able!

After some all neck playing and wanna be Sheehan shred (which made my brother shout at me for making stupid unmusical noises for most of it) the E and G were pretty much settled but it took a while for the stubborn A and D to settle!

After they did the sound was round and full but with a shine of upper(treble-ish/upper mid) Zing very present which is to my taste!

These strings (at least to me) don't have an over powering growl but with the right set up that would be easy as these strings have a slight rumbley snarl to them which i try to maximise!

The strings are very hard wearing on fingers and frets so be careful!

The brightness sinks a little with time and if you want that really bright sounds which i love you'll be changing strings every gig to be honest but when these strings "sink" they really mellow out, in my eyes widening their range just add a touch of treble and you re-brighten your sound, its not the same there is something special about this zing i love but thats just me!

Also, they have a slight "jangle" to them and despite the fact they are hard wearing they smooth and make you want to do ridiculous slides and bends which is fine by me!

and these strings really compliment the chordal stuff if you care (my guitarist to be honest is fairly useless so i do the ocassional underlining chord)

use these strings on any bass from My Attitude to a jazz bass and you will see why Billy uses them not sure how to word it (shows how good a reviewer i am using non real words half this time so i apologise!)

And thats about it really, happy to answer questions!

i would happily recommend these if you think you have a similar taste to me (the wierdo who likes neck dive )

thanks!
Adam,

Edited April 4, 2010 by AttitudeCastle

[Dood]

Ah yes!!! I used to use the BS66 strings way back when they came in the pink packet with Billy on the front mid 'hair spray hell' with that sweet BB3000 Yamaha in hand. The heavier E string was great for drop tuning too. I think if I played 4 strings, I'd still go for those gauges. Infact, on my 6er I prefer a lighter C and heavier B string - sooo.. kinda the same!

[AttitudeCastle]

[quote name='dood' post='796015' date='Apr 4 2010, 09:08 PM']Ah yes!!! I used to use the BS66 strings way back when they came in the pink packet with Billy on the front mid 'hair spray hell' with that sweet BB3000 Yamaha in hand. The heavier E string was great for drop tuning too. I think if I played 4 strings, I'd still go for those gauges. Infact, on my 6er I prefer a lighter C and heavier B string - sooo.. kinda the same![/quote]

nice one dood!

Still loving the old school ones seen the pictures,

and that rose blue BB3000BS was sweet,

yeah, once you start using slightly more even tensions it really grows on you, and becomes something i find hard to live without