Try it! There’s really no question. Guitar is so ridiculously much worse that it makes any discussion of bass string pain feel kind of cute and twee in comparison.
I was not really exaggerating with my fork/knife analogy above.
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Absolutely agree, I’m in the middle of that pain right now, and the darn chords are just impossible to reach. I’m trying to grip a C#m7 add 9 only 4 strings but can’t seem to put my 2nd finger on 4 and 1st finger on 2 with the 3rd and 4th finger on 4.
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I even went with a set of 10’s on my 6-string - didn’t help. Felt like my fingertips were being garrotted the entire time 
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Think I finally build up some protection against guitar strings. Doing chords can still be painful since I am likely to tense up to play the correct notes.
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It sounds better when played, no matter what strings you prefer.
to BE HONEST, I would have to say I am almost always swayed by what looks cool. It is not a bad thing in and of itself, but many don’t want to admit to it. I have no problem doing so. I rather have a $20 dollar cup of wine and run around saying how great it taste, then geting served a $2 cup of wine, being told it cost $200, and start running around saying how much better it taste then a $20 cup of wine.
I love this one too!!!
Once your fingers heal over, they will feel like flats again, but it takes a solid 3-4 weeks.
I have been playing a little less, and my fingers are not as calloused as they usually are, but I am not minding the feeling on softer fingers, they certainly don’t hurt like brand new skin does at first.
For 3 weeks or so.
Maybe less since you are already a player, and you don’t play hard so you might get fully swapped over within 2 weeks.
Yeah, I am with Howard on this one.
IDK about this one.
Finger style is the hardest on skin IM, but slap, NO, rally the Pop is just a finger pluck. It wears in a different place, on different fingers, so you are really just fingers and location for slapping.
Slapping doesn’t really do anything to the thumb.
I am not a double thumper tho, at least not yet, so I can’t speak to this.
I can’t imaging a pick hurting the fingers, other then maybe muscle cramps for squeezing different muscles, but then, those would build up like callouses.
Why would you ever want to? It’s not a right of passage or anything.
Unless there are strings making sounds you want and can’t get any other way, I would just play what feels good.
yeah, this could be very true. I have heard of rough, AND dirty strings showing up on Glarry and cheaper instruments.
But you are getting a WHOLE bass with strings, strap, wrench, and gig bag. Can you really expect the best strings.
Just the fact you can get an instrument that is playable for that price, is amazing, let alone, one you upgrade with the pick ups and strings of your choice and, and have a bass that is not half bad, is pretty incredible.
I get large callouses, I just don’t mind them.
But when you compare with Guitar strings.
O.U.C.H.
Guitar strings are like razor blades, those things NEED Callouses to play.
But, the more bends you add to playing, the more bass strings start to wear on the skin.
Slides, Hammer Offs and bends certainly start to smoke the fingertips.
But Rounds I can feel on the bass, and read like a brail book. Flats, they feel weird. too smooth, feel much more rigid than rounds.
Just add to the song anyways. Not the hideous noises from too much treble, or too hot pick ups being boosted, etc…
But the bass noise is always there, you just don’t hear it in the mix very well, and what you can hear of it can be good.
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I’ve been using FastFret for a couple days now and it works great. The strings don’t feel oily at all. I really don’t know what @howard is talking about… have you even tried this product?
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I don’t. That’s not the point at all, it was actually a touch of humor. I think you missed the rest of my story, but that’s okay.
I have no desire to see or touch corduroy for the remainder of my life.
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I’ve never used it - I was asking based on the description of it being mineral oil based.
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I can assure you, after my brief experience, it doesn’t make the strings oily at all… not one bit.
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I have not.
Just Lubed sounds oily to me.
I read it, and I get it, that is kind of an extension on it.
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It’s like spaghetti with olive oil 
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Pasta in an aglio e olio (garlic and olive oil) sauce is yummy
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What a great album.
Beastie boys
Funny, I never knew what that meant before today, thanks.
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I was on a stipend in Jyväskylä in Finland, and there I met an Italian postdoc who taught me this one. He called it “drunkard’s pasta” except that after he fried the garlic, he tossed in either chopped chillies or chilli flakes. Either way, yummy.
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that’s part of it. Grandma used to make it. Really is good
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I use finger ease it’s a spray but no oily feel. On the gig before I use nose grease, works really well.
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It’s never even occurred to me that my strings needed… lube.
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Everything needs lube, lol.
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Well, except for those things that need Loctite, and, as everyone knows there ain’t no Loctite like a cross-thread 
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Or just any stainless fasteners w/o anti-seize 
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