I’m struggling to come up with a mechanism here. I believe the observation is correct, but I can’t think of a cause. Maybe something with the windings shifting relative to the core, or corrosion forming keeping the windings from shifting relative to the core?
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Yes, I get that… It’s possible that these professional players are extra aware of this, but I think there is something to it; otherwise, why mention it!? After all, he is trying to make a living playing bass and needs to have his tools in order.
This might readily develop into a nerdy deep-dive… 
I don’t think it’s an issue of windings with respect to the core. It’s more that materials change (experience stress/strain) under constant load. Why is a rubber band losing its elasticity when used a lot? I know, rubbers and metals are not alike and different mechanisms contribute, but materials age and change.
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I’m pretty skeptical of a creep/stress relaxation explanation for steel at room temperature at a relatively low stress compared to yield point.
There might be something to fatigue. My intuition is that you stay under the endurance limit of the core, but the mechanical advantage of moving a string under tension is large. I wouldn’t be super surprised if you can get high enough stresses for micro cracking.
I think the windings are held in place by mechanical interference from the tension they’re under. Some kind of explanation involving the core diameter shrinking and/or the vibration gradually causing the winding to find a lower tension state and no longer consistently carry the same load seems most likely to me.
I’m too lazy to look for it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some PhD has published research on how this works.
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See, I told you it was going to get a bit nerdy
You make some good points, and my own attempt to find an explanation was likely too simplistic.
(Disclaimer: I am no engineer and no material scientist. I do have a PhD, but that in itself is no guarantee for not making plenty of mistakes 
)
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Unlike many of us who plays in the comfort of our on cozy little practice space. Pros equipments are subject to more exposure and abuse than average bassists.
Siting in the case in a hot sun is not fun, sitting on a stand facing the hot sun is torturous. A flat wound string cover is essentially the harder inedible version of a sausage casing and once it’s damaged it would render that string useless.
My basses storing in a temperature stable shed hardly even go out of tune.
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Let’s merge 'em!
I’m putting this one here (84 responses) in with the other -
Flat wound vs Round Wound strings, as it has seniority and over 800 replies.
Thanks for helping to try and keep the place tidy.
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He was playing flats so they don’t get that dirty. Also, for much of his career, producers were looking for more of a dead/upright sort of sound.
The gauge of strings he was playing (52-110) don’t break very often his career wasn’t that long either, he probably could have managed with two sets of strings 
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Take it up with the guys who told these accounts. I only know what I’ve read of his contemporaries’ memories based on first hand observations and experiences with Jamerson. The general consensus was that Jamerson’s basses were grungy with gunk.
It’s likely due to fatigue and other physical damage that the strings suffer over time. Metal is subject to strain hardening but steel isn’t going to creep at temperatures a human would remain alive… strings do stretch over time and they may stretch unevenly. As well, wound strings will accumulate dirt and that could change how they vibrate along their length. Wraps on round core strings a likely more subject to slipping than a hex core string. They could also be subject to uneven strain hardening and accelerated aging from sweat/oils that occurs unevenly.
I really only change strings for 2 reasons: string is dead or it doesn’t intonate well and i’ve only really seen the intonation problem on a guitar with strings that were at least 5 years old and they for certain had “age related” problems 
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Maybe he would have been better off using some of that alcohol to clean the strings 
Where’s the fun in that? Better to pour down his gullet.
Jamerson contended that the Go Juice kept him loose. And no one in his right mind can argue with the brilliance of the lines he came up with on a regular basis, even those he improvised and recorded in one take while lying on his back on the studio floor.
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I was going to mention the story about him playing lying down on the floor
This was the time they had to go find him and bring him in to the studio?
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It depends which time it was 
i think that one of the times one of his bandmates bet him he couldn’t do it. I don’t think he did coke like Miles Davis did so he didn’t have that extra “bump”.
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Unfortunately, Miles’ favorite drug was heroin. Same with Coltrane and way too many other contempoy jazz greats, including Jamerson.
The vast majority of jazz musicians (esp in Harlem) were using heroin in the 40s and 50s. As far as i know Miles was clean from heroin from the mid 50s until the early 80s though.
Man, this has gotten off topic (as usual). We need to be able to set these messages to self destruct in 24-48 hrs
This explains so much
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A while back I was watching an interview with Herbie Hancock and he was talking about his crack habit that he had in the 90s and that really surprised me.
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Most of my arty-farty and/or techno producing friends party hard in the weekends (with every non-destructive chemical available) and smoke dope otherwise. Their lifestyle is far beyond living on the edge.
I see an obvious correlation between making astonishing pieces of art/music and “party behaviour” … so there is clearly something to it.
Ray Charles and many other notable musicians, actors and artists who came up in the 40s and 50s used heroin.
The only thing that fact “explains so much” is that life was mentally or emotionally unbearable for many sensitive and talented souls that gave the world so much originality and artistry, and the availability of a cheap means of escaping their lives’ iniquities and hardships was too tempting to resist.
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