Rotosound RS77LD Jazz Bass Monel Flatwound Strings

These sound great. They started out bright and now after a couple of weeks the have that worn in soulful sound. No need to blow a bunch of moneys on LaBella unless you just have to have the LaBella sound.

If you're coming from the double bass and want to try bass guitar, these will feel more familiar to you. They're described by many as "a little too stiff", which means you are less likely to over-play them with your caveman double bass strength.

I was shopping for new strings for my fretless. I was getting too much "mwah" from other strings and I wanted to try stiffer strings to reduce that. I read on several message boards that these strings feel stiffer than other brands so I decided to give them a try. These are different from other flats. Yes they are stiff and I was able to reduce the ammount of "mwah" from my fretless but they are very bright almost like a broken in set of rounds and they are not as smooth as other flats almost like half rounds or pressure wound. Very little finger squeak even with being less smooth. The monel has a certain timbre that reminds me of pure nickel strings that is different from stainless and I find it refreshing. If you are looking for something a little different from other flats I would definitely reccomend giving these a try.

I just picked up a set of the 45-105 flat wound 77s to put on my new Schecter SLS bass. Overall, I like the tone these strings generate paired with the instrument. They're not quite as polished as the Fender 50s I played on my previous J bass, but they still emit a lot of character while smoothing out the fretting noise. My only complaint is the silk binding; particularly on the E string. After feeding the string through the body of the bass, I noticed that the silk wrap was extending over the nut and ever-so-slightly beyond. This wouldn't do as it lifted the string higher in the slot and above the fretboard, so I ended up trimming the wrap back with a razor blade. I have a feeling that the wrap will start unwinding in time, so we'll have to see how long they hold up.

After recording a gig I heard a lot of fret noise from my fender jazz bass with round wound strings. I've used flat wound strings before on my other basses so I knew I could eliminate some of that noise. I was concerned that I might lose the ability to slap but I'd rather not hear what I was getting. After putting on these strings, making neck and string height adjustments, these strings did what I wanted. I also found that I was still able to do some slapping on these strings. I do like the tone of these strings. They are not as warm as others have been. The strings are a higher tension than the round wounds so they will feel stiffer and did require neck adjustments.

Let me say, I have nothing against rotosound strings, but these, wow. I've purchased on three occasions over the years. The first two were so dead and lifeless, they both came off within the day, not the pleasant thud of an aged string, but just well, dead. The last set had more life, but the tone was so off-putting I came close to returning a new bass I'd purchased, thinking it was the instrument, thank goodness I put old set of another brand and life was good again. Maybe, it's just me, I don't know, but I can't imagine buying them again, well until I forget about it of course.