D'Addario ProSteels EPS165 Light Top/Medium Bottom Long Scale Bass Strings

Awesome strings for my Ibanez

I used to use these exclusively because the gauge combination is what came with my first bass. Since I've gotten more into hard rock and metal (and better basses), I find that light gauge just doesn't have enough presence, so I use mediums only. EPS165s do still have some usefulness in those genres if you want to play double or triple stops that include a lot of dissonance (depending on your pedal or amp, octaves and 5ths may sound fine, but a flat 5th may not--with my setup the flat 5th just makes it sound like muddied gravel to the point of unintelligible pitch). With EPS165s, you can turn the distortion down and play root + flat 5th on the top strings. They're not as affected by the distortion as the mediums, so you can clearly hear a double or triple stop. The medium strings on bottom still leave you with a dark, impressive tone for the rest of your playing. I'm going to try overdrive with mediums in the future instead of doing this, because it's kind of limiting and doesn't let you growl enough (especially for extreme metal), but it is an option to consider if you're chording and want the pitches to come through cleanly.

Steel strings from any brand are the brightest sound available. Stainless steel takes the longest of any string material to tarnish, so that brightness stays longer than any other material available. Quickly stated, best initial sound quality, & longest lasting sound quality

Okay, these strings...not the best. Might say they're repulsive but they do have some usefulness. Description says, "...harmonically rich, brilliant high-end and deep, focused bottom." Well that's true, harmonics jump out (on f.jazz bass) perfectly with lots of presence. Slap actually sounds pretty great, focused lows and bright pop. But wait! What about mids? There aren't any. Thumb and finger techniques are basically useless with these strings. Lots of online reviews say these strings tend to have a prominent 'boom' and they do, excessively. I tried eq'ing with different amps but nothing worked. Took them off and put them on a semi hollow bass; they ended up sounding plain weird. Now, I'm just using them to practice unplugged (since all strings sound the same that way basically) which I more or less recommend. Being steel strings, they are a bit rougher than nickel and toughen up your hands which makes playing nickel a breeze. Hear mention that they are stiff but if they are it's only a little. I personally like the tension because I tend to be a brute player. In all, I think these are great slapping and possibly metal, with distortion. But if good round tone is what you're after, I'd go with D'Addarrio's EXL 165 strings.

I must say I HATE these strings. They looked and felt old right out of the box. They have the tacky feel to my fingers of oxidized aluminum. I have an Ibanez that has 20 year old strings. These felt, looked and sounded exactly the same. I have no idea why they say "super bright" on the box, they are dull and lifeless. And this is after I just installed an Audere preamp module on my 2004 Fender Jazz bass. This is not a knock on D'Addario because I love their strings. I have them on my Fender 50's reissue Tele, '82 Lead III and '91 Strat, plus my Gretsch White Falcon, Deering Golden Era banjo and my Martin D16. I had the D'Addario EXL 170's on my bass before and loved them. I wanted to go to a .105 E but still keep the light top. Reviews mentioned the "piano like tone", that's what I like and why I tried them. If people like these strings, more power to 'em but I hated them. Going back to the EXL's.

By far the best Strings for a Rock bassist. On my Active Jazz Deluxe I get great tone, note separation, awesome sustain, and the perfect balance. These strings are a little hard on the frets, but they are stainless, so that's the price you pay. My band has a song with a classical intro and i get a great piano tone from these strings, and when we turn up the heat and get heavy.....couldn't ask for anything better.