• D'Addario EXL160-5 - An Honest Review

  
  As reviewed by Clint Greene on 4/28/2011

  I got these to replace the stock Fender roundwound nickel strings on my Precision bass and was very pleasantly surprised. These strings are very well made, especially for the price. The silks are even and smooth and did not fray or "fuzz" after playing for many hours. The tone is bright, but not overly so--I can still adjust the tone knob and get a nice deep, full tone. I do like how they accentuate the mids on my Precision, allowing my bass to cut through the mix when I play alongside an electric and acoustic guitar. Note, though, this may not be the same on a Jazz with both pickups set evenly, as that cancels out the mids on purpose (giving the classic jazz tone). I find these strings to have a nice long life. I typically get 6-8 months (or more) playing about 2 Sundays a month in church (plus 2 additional practices on those weeks). One tip: wipe them down with a soft cloth and isopropyl alcohol prior to installation, as they do tend to have a bit of nickel dust on them from the production. I feel this gets the grit out of the grooves, improves the tone, and extends the life. A solid 5 out of 5 stars!

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• Underthought

  
  As reviewed by Stephen on 5/15/2011

  I just picked these up for my Traben Array 4 string which I decided to tune down to B instead of picking up a custom set for a 4 string. I generally like D'Addario strings, I use them on my electric and acoustic guitars and they're just fine. These strings do not have silks, which doesn't make a bit of difference to me. Sure they make a nice finished look but really... not going to make me give them a 2 star rating. The winding tapers off too early. The B and E strings rattle loosely in the nut because the winding is not the full .135 and .105 that they claim that far down the string. According to Traben's page the Array has a 34" scale length which is pretty standard for 4 strings and a 5 string often will be 35". On my bass I need another half an inch of the full gauge winding for these to perform as expected. That said, everything fretted sounds just dandy and they sound exactly like I would expect a D'Addario string to sound. I'm completely disappointed in this though since they should expect and plan for 5 string players to have 35" scale and to string through the body if their bass is built for that. I'll still play them, just never below C and F on those lower strings. (And really, when would I need anything lower than that?) Next time I need new strings I'll try the Ernie Ball strings of the same gauge.

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