Thanx for the vid! I stumbled over it on YouTube a few weeks ago
I was actually looking for a comparison of
all the strings available but didn't turn up much so I, errrr... went a bit mad on fleaBay one night (damn you, vodka!) and got one of everything
So far I have:
- The original black ones (well broken in)
- Aquila ThunderGuts (still in the post)
- Aquila Silver Rumblers
- Aquila Thunder Reds
- Pyramid Silver/Copper wounds (£15? New?! Yes please!!!)
I think that's all of them but if I've missed a set, let me know
I was wondering if it might be worth the effort to test all of them in one mega vid and how to go about it. (BTW I've only had a fretless Spruce-Top for a couple of weeks so I am in no way a master musician!)
This is the game plan I've come up with so far:
- Quick acoustic test: simple walking bass-line (need to shop for a better mic)
- Quick amplified test, Take 1: Sunshine Of Your Love (nice easy one!) fed into Guitar Rig 5. I plan to get a nice rock tone from the synthetic amps with the black strings and just reload for each string set for consistency.
- Quick amplified test, Take 2: optional tweaking of amps if necessary. I would imagine the Pyramids might need this.
After the sound test I plan to comment on the following subjects:
- Tips on restringing, e.g. whether to pre-stretch or not (I'm sure one of this lot snaps if you try it, eeek!)
- Relative weight/tension (compared to stock black)
- Relative size
- Sliding notes
- Tendency to roll
- Any intonation errors (bit harder to say on a fretless as one might unconsciously compensate but on my Stagg Uke steel string conversion the bridge needed to move given the drastic change in string density)
- One Week Later: any observations on stretching, tone changes, etc.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's little audio difference between all the rubbery strings. Obviously the Pyramids nod more towards that P-Bass sound so I might skip the vid making and just write-up the physical differences.
Phew! Looks like a lot of work; all I did on my Hofner was go from round-wounds to flat-wounds
If there's anything anyone would like me to add to the analysis then please do comment.