15 Year Old strings on Dirt Cheap Bass???

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I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
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[chrisarias]

Bass player problems: When a pack of strings has a higher market value than your bass...

[deudex]

That scene at 4:02 isn't complete: drummer isn't drunk, guitarist definitely practiced before and looks like he knows what he's doing and, the most sacrilegious, there's no autotune or mic swallowing. And you guys call yourselfs professionals? What a bore.

[andresilvasophisma]

For a cheap bass it doesn't look that bad.

[captainhyperion]

I like the sound of the Old strings actually, its like more deep and less metalic.

But i dont like how the rithmic guitar fades all the sound of the bass.

Is a common thing than i hear now... with megabands like Queen, you can Actually hear the bass... sometimes the bass has the lead.

A lot of people understimate the bass.

[dispersemedia]

I like the mellow tone of old strings. But I'd rather use fresh strings with the tone knob rolled off.

[puffpaff]

I think this video really demonstrated the importance of a good bass player. I'm not trying to heckle the bass player here, because it has been made very clear that he is a guitarist and not a bass player. But, contrary to what many people think, a bass is not an easy version of a guitar. It's a completely different instrument, and it is quite obvious that this guy doesn't have bass as main instrument.

[jasonwitt]

As a bass player I've never understood why so many bassists refuse to change their strings. Grant it, bass stinsg can be 5x as expensive as guitar strings, but nothing sounds better than that fresh bright sound of new strings. I find that the strings start to go dull within a couple of weeks. If I could afford it I would change my strings every week, but then I've always been kinda odd.

[stevebadachmusic]

definitely night and day difference. Both sounds have their places.

[zeemon]

I love the metallic sounding growl you get with new strings. And a lot of high mids so you can hear every string being fretted. It just adds some life to the tone that something like a keyboard played bass track can never have.

[bluecollarbuddha]

Those dead strings sound pretty much what a P-bass blues player would actually want.

That said, I never like the sound of strings straight out of the package (ping and clatter). Strings sound best after a few hours of playing in my opinion.

[MobCorpOfficial]

Night and day. You can even hear the difference on phone speakers, seriously

[Wagoo]

Before you boil them, please try another common technique too: slack them off and slap the shit out of them (pull away from fretboard and let it smack back into the guitar to dislodge years of crud..) I've heard that add the top end definition back to shitty old strings for a while..

DISCLAIMER: not that I advocate using the same set of strings your whole life and then passing them down to your kids so they don't have to buy a cheap pair of strings EITHER :D

[fbacon]

i'm a firm believer in the new strings clan, but you've managed to make 15 year old strings sound passable in a mix. props to you for giving it an honest shootout instead of giving the old strings a bad tone on purpose

[freakfreak]

I don't know how anyone can deny there's a difference. Its like night and day. Dear god.

[corbanbutler]

Glen this video reminded me last night a cut the old strings off my acoustic and I was amazed at how good it sounded

[JulianWorden]

You know it's a massive difference when you can easily hear it on your phone

[poweredbyWatts]

For a non stings/guitar player, thanks for the demo. I’ve rewatched a few times and you’re analogy is right there. Thanks for this.

[instinctbrosgaming]

The first one sounded like something on ...And Justice for All.

[projectz]

even if you are playing rnb or jazz you really should restring your bass pretty frequently. with dead strings you dont just lose top end, but also a bit of mids as well, which impedes your ability to punch through a mix. you may not need to restring as much as a guitar player, but you really should restring at least every few months

[MrInitialMan]

Very well, Glenn, instead of saying "I liked the old strings better", I will explain what I liked in their sound--or rather, what I disliked in the sound of the new strings--and perhaps you can advise me from there.

With the old strings, the low frequencies came through loud and clear. I like low notes--which is why I play tuba and baritone saxophone and want to learn bass guitar.

The new strings were so bright that the low tones were just about buried--any brighter and it would sound like you had tuned the bass up an octave. Indeed, it seemed that if you scooped the mids in recording (like you advocate in "Recording Heavy Bass"), there would be absolutely nothing left of the tone to work with.

Now, as I've mentioned before, I'm a horn player. It's entirely possible I'm just too used to the sound of the low brass (specifically, my BB♭ sousaphone and E♭ tuba), but I definitely prefer a darker tone in my bass instruments.

There. I've said my piece. Have at the band geek!