Pickups and Strings - find your bass' tone

Then you don’t have to worry about getting glow in the dark fret markers.

funnily enough, The Beast as Luminlay side markers :eyes:

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Yeah, I have found strings don’t have to be expensive to be good. String price is probably set more by demand then by quality, as many things are.
Cheap strings from Ca have always existed, to compete with expensive strings from New York, I suppose, but search around, and you can often find more expensive strings cheaper.
And other strings like Fender and Silvertone and SIT (Stay In Tune) and a bunch others are relatively unknown or have very low demand, so they can’t demand the same price as Labella.
With so much competition for strings, what makes more sense for a string company is to have a huge catalog of inexpensive / quality strings readily available, and you certainly get that with Ernie Ball, D’Addriao and RotoSound
But if you don’t shop, often you will pay $35 for something readily available for $15 or $20. Flats almost always are more then rounds, and usually there are only a couple types from each manufacturer. Like Ernie Ball or D’addrio only have maybe 2-4 types of flats where they have 15-30 types of rounds, ranging from under $15 to over $30, but the flats are almost always higher, starting near $30 and going up.
And I have not found more expensive strings that have been more satisfying.

Silvertone are strings made by Danelectro, which started making amps for Sears as Danelectro, but Sears asked for full instruments, and Danelectro introduced Silvertone as an inexpensive yet quality instrument for Sears.
He cut corners on pick up design, inventing Lipstick pick ups, he cut corners on body materials, and actually binds the edges with tape, and he had strings made for him to market as silvertone, along with the whole instrument. Sears also allowed him to carry out and sell his instruments and amps with the Danelectro name on them. Often they had the same body and features, but a different headstock, with Danelectro getting the bottle neck headstock and Silvertone getting the dolphin headstock.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with those strings where you could not play them on another instrument, but Yeah, I certainly would not spend more then 1/3 of what I paid for an instrument on strings, accept for the rare example when I have gotten a bass for $50 or under.

I remember reading about these. He was cheap thrifty and got a bunch of lipstick tubes because they were cheap inexpensive.

I want to say I found some strings foir under $3 on Ali Express but that could have been the shipping XD

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The video I posted in the Short History of Rickenbacker thread, of The short History of Danelectro says the lipstick tube thing is part myth and part true.
It is a fact that he got the lipstick covers from the same company that made the lipstick tubes, and probably R&D’d it with maybe an already produced lipstick tubes, but that he didn’t just go get a bunch of lipstick tubes that were left over cheap.
But he did think outside the box and realize they could be used, and since they were already being made for low cost for lipstick, it didn’t take much for the factory to change over the design, / mfg process to make his design for the pickup covers.
Therefore,
True,
he did use a lipstick cover,
but
false,
he did to because he got a great deal on a bunch of old / used / recycled / discontinued, etc…whatever,

But since he did start from an already manufactured lipstick tube, They referred to it as “The lipstick pick up design” during R&D and the name “Lipstick Pickup” stuck.

Thats a little more accurate according to what I remember from the video I watched.
BUT
I watched the Short History of Danelectro, after watching a video on another channel called something like “Things about Lipstick pickups you were afraid to ask” and they DID say that Dan got a load of lipstick covers at a great price and used them to encase the pick ups.
So
When I then watched the more in-depth History of Danelectro, it sort of told what sounds like the more accurate version.

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Finally ordered some Stringjoys for the Mikro (should barely taper just before the close tuners) and for my 7-string baritone tuned AEADF#BE.

And, of course, they send all the crap to the Paypal email address and not my main email for the account was signed in to :joy: but the order is under my account. oof :smile:

companies always do this, even assigning me a “permanent role” for the wrong account email on their forum XD

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I like Stringjoy strings, interested to know what you think

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the Mikro is going to be tuned DADFA so I went with a .110 .080 .60 .50 .40 at their recommendation. I think I was originally going with .110 .80 .65 .55 .40

Their recommendation was for a more even tension iirc, mine was to maintain about the tension it is set up for atm XD But I’m interested in it, anyway, and it should pair well with my 8-string guitar that is FADADFAD XD

I forgot to mention the other possibility for the Mikro is to just make it a “piccolo bass” tuned EADGC. I’ll figure it out eventually XD

That is because they don’t get the Paypal seller protection if they send to a different address than the Paypal one.

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Well, first time ordering direct from Stringjoy (first was Amazon). I got them in just a few days really, from order to my door. I think it took two days to ship? The packaging is a good impression, too:

I guess they can afford custom envelopes with what they charge :joy: But it does feel like a Premium String Buying Experience :tm: already.

I got a sticker and a hand-written and signed note thanking me for the purchase, a nice touch.

The 7-string guitar pack had my gauges printed right on the box, which was nifty. The bass strings were hand-written on the label; Maybe their label printer isn’t set up for the larger size.

I’ll have to find time this weekend to restring and set up the Mikro for these gauges (.110 .080 .060 .050 .040 DADFA vs .130 .105 .085 .065 .045 BEADG); the 7-string set is going on after the current strings on that guitar wear out.

These were slated to arrive Monday so go USPS :smile: tbh the USPS is early more than anyone else for me; I suspect they use the Scotty approach to engineering when supplying dates so it makes them seem like miracle workers XD

Strings are still less than NYXLs, at least for bass, never looked at guitar. I think the quality is just as good. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

well, apparently their 32.5" is closer to 33" which may or may not be a problem… the full winding is going to be on the tuner, now, while 32.5" would be just off it. it was close, and while I know hand-made strings aren’t going to be 100% accurate it was rather important for this particular bass lol.

if it breaks I will send them an email for a new one, I guess.

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I like these strings. Very smooth to the touch and Stringjoy I believe claims some of the tightest windings which could explain that. It’s hard to compare because let’s be honest, this is a $200 bass with price-appropriate pickups lol. And I’m used to active basses right now, vs this passive one. They do feel a lot better than the other strings as far as tension and bending, and I do think they sound better. As with my SRC6, they sound very harmonically rich and had a presence to them for lack of a better word.

I can’t wait to hear them when I upgrade the pickups in this thing, but I’ll use them again and might even try them on one of my 5-strings. Maybe.

So far I don’t think the 5th/D string is going to break despite the winding issue I mentioned. It isn’t like someone putting 30 or 32" scale strings on a34" bass and breaking them repeatedly, as I have seen someone mention on another forum lol, and instead told themselves “I just don’t like X brand of strings, they keep breaking! Never had this problem with Y brand!” (I think they were Ernie Ball).

As an aside, it was interesting finding my scales on the new tuning, but knowing wtf I am doing now really helps with that. And old patterns give new ideas on the new tuning, too, which I initially discovered on my 8-string guitar tuned FADADFAD4 (ie crossnote D tuning with 2 lower strings), and that this tuning on a bass is designed to more easily accompany (or that’s what I told myself before I learned the fretboard more lol… I could probably do it fine on my main 5-strings now…)

It needs a setup but I want to let the neck settle some more before I get into that.

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I like Stringjoy strings. I like how they sound, the feel, the tension, but I’m a relative noob and not always as confident as I sound. So good to hear I may get something right.

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Another thing I discovered is that no matter how black my gorgomyte cloth is, using the f one oil the towel for that is just as black, too. There is a surprising amount of crap on fretboards lol, but cleaning conditioning them is now part of my string-changing ritual. When organizing my closet I also found another bottle of it in a box, dated February 25, 2014, and it’s in a clear bottle vs their current opaque blue. So I probably have a near lifetime supply of the stuff now :eyes: But I’ll be a good girl and actually oil/condition my fretboards, now, because I used to utterly ignore them lol…

I’ll keep using gorgomyte as it also cleans/polishes the frets, however lightly, and it’s only $8 for like 20 cleanings…

My fretting fingers were also blackened a bit when I was done playing XD

I just picked up a package at the PO box from Stringjoy, and one of their items was a bottle of string cleaner, I think like Fast Fret but non toxic.

I came home, and my Charvel was talking to me, so I picked her up to play. I applied the cleaner, and wiped it off with the towel per instructions, and I had all these black streak on the towel. I’ve only had the bass a week.

Really makes you think. Maybe I need to clean the strings every session.

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Remember there is a bunch o crap on them from mfg.
But yes, finger crud and enviornmental crud build up fast.
I wipe my saxes every time I play, but those are all silver plated so even more reason, I need to get better at doing same with bass and strings.

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I change the factory barbed wire, I mean strings, with Rotosounds first thing because I do not like Fender rounds. And I cleaned the bass with F1 cleaner, because habits. But point taken.

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Well @PamPurrs I am a true convert to GHS Boomers.
They are the first round wound that I genuinely like everything about.
Ordered another set to try on a J bass and see if I get the same reaction as my Edwards P, but man, they are just great.

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