refreshed mine the easy way… just put new ones on 
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I am poor, like on the brink of living on the street 
NOTE: That is not an actual picture of me, though I would like that moustache!
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“Questionable” was probably the wrong word. I may try the Ultrasonic cleaner; but find just keeping “touchable” parts of the bass clean works well; been doing it since "64. You’re right about flatwoundds, they stay cleaner, easy to clean, no dead sting gets into the strings, nice feel and , for me, I like the tone. You probably play a different type of music than me. Back in the "70’s I played in an Outlaw Country group and played one Sunday a month in a Lutheran Church; made for a long night; I’ve slowed down a bit. I use Citric Acid to clean my stainless steel water distiller, but not my cat ! Thanks for the tip !
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Can’t do that cause I start to burn as soon as I try to get over a treshold of a church
I do like Gospel though!
PS Don’t put your cat into an ultrasonic cleaner! I hope it’s not too late, but it was a joke. My humour gets often lost in the translation…
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Now you tell me. 
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I’m just guessing, but you might undo the damage using a microwave?
Don’t forget to put the cat in aluminium foil, otherwise it will taste funny!
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Ah yes, the old ‘microwave-and-foil’ trick—perfect if you’re auditioning for a villain role in a cartoon! But let’s keep the cat out of the microwave; it’s more into sunbathing than radiating!
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I’m really not a cat person, so I don’t know what to do with cats.
But did the ancient Egypts not do something similar? Obviously not with micro waves, but you never know … a friend of mine strongly believes they had alien technology!
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Found another application for the ultrasonic cleaner: cleaning tubeless valves.
After one season it’s always very sticky, cause of the sealant. You cannot really pump up the tyres anymore…
Up to now I did not find any good way to clean it properly.
Now: 2x 7 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner. And it’s as good as new.
60€ saved. Good investment!
The cores, or are you popping the tire out to take the stem off and put that in too?
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I did it with the cores first, as they did not move properly anymore.
Needed to do a quick ride, otherwise I would have cleaned nose to tail.
Will do that probably tomorrow and post some pics…
Ok, cleaned it.
Again, 2x 7.5 minutes
Before:
After:
Remarks:
- unscrewing and removing the valves was quite hard … so the process “cleaned” the threads already.
- I don’t see a huge difference here, but the water in the ultrasonic cleaner was very tainted, so I’m hopeful!
I will clean the threads and the rubber with alcohol too…
Tomorrow I’ll test if it all works as expected.
There was still some gum-like residue on the parts.
What’s good for gum? An electric tooth brush.
So I used that to clean it some more, then the ultrasonic cleaner again.
Ah, now there was some gum swimmig in the water. Good!
Now it looks like this:
If it were a bass ,I could sell it for a good price, cause road worn!
But, it’s free of gum, the valves move freely. I think they are as good as new!