acoustic bass strings??? what do you use?

[Kev77]

So i scored a rad little acoustic bass,, bless
and need to restring it?,, anyone tryed the nylon filment strings? or have any recomendations?

[Vince]

Cool! I love ABGs. What kind did you score?

Strings: I use the Martin SPs, not sure what else is out there, but I know that, even if I move to Mars, I will find the Martins. Nothing worse than breaking a string and then wondering when and where you'll get replacements.

I think they're the cheapest, too. But, if like most bass players, you're not going to change the strings every couple of weeks, that might not be relevant.

They're phosphor bronzes, which (as you probably know) means that when you put them on they are very bright indeed (almost painfully so) but they start to quieten down after a few days (YMMV) and then settle into a nice long stretch of being just bright enough to sound acoustic. Lovely golden tone shimmering over the top of the note. After which they sound like pretty much any other bass strings.

[NZRS-Dave]

When I used one, I used the d'addario phosphor bronzes that we had on the wall at work. It was the only model we had at the time.

I can't offer you any comparison because the old ones were semi rusty and grubby as hell ... so the change in strings was out of this world. I also didn't play any other type of strings because I left them on when I gave it back at the end of the shows.

So meh, no great recommendation, but they were really nice and worked just fine.

[Kev77]

.,.,., dont you work in sales dave?

[ThatGirl]

I think my current set on the acoustic are Dean Markley’s – phosphor bronze. All I remember is that they were bloody expensive.

[NZRS-Dave]

.,.,., dont you work in sales dave?

Not really. I process the occasional order for Rockshop Online and sometimes I get called out on the floor ... but for the most part I am a LCD Watcher.

[Kev77]

just being nosey but were you a "rock shop floor guy" and then moved up?
seems like a rad option to work in the music world, but without having to listen to groms shred all day

[NZRS-Dave]

Okay, sorry I missed what you meant. I started out part time behind the counter and being a part time specialist in hi tech. This is back around 10 years ago. I spent a lot of time configuring PCs to run on Logic (when it was dual platform).

After a while, I got on to the website side of things and basically wrote the website that we had prior to 2004 from the single page listing that we had originally.

I started spending less time on the floor and more time in the office answering emails and coding stuff. Then we made the change to the site that you see today. Although it was SOOOOOOO much simpler back then.

So it's been a steady move. I do still get called out onto the floor and I do still get people coming in saying 'Oh is Dave here, he sold me my such n such' so it's cool. And being somewhat in a senior role here, I get asked lots of questions from the juniors about protocols, procedures and deals etc.

All in all ... it's a great job. I totally love working there, and while people may not always see it, we are a great company and we go out of our way to do right by customers - I respect that and I like that.

But here, I am just Dave ... shreddily-dee-wish-I-could-play-faster Dave.

So that's me.

[sonicfantom]

My dream job is to design guitar-related products.

Yeah, like that's going to happen.

Anyway, to answer OP, I'd use D'addario. (Kinda) cheap, plentiful (at the RS, anyway) and pretty good quality overall. Their electric, acoustic, and bass strings are winners, so their acoustic bass strings can't be too bad.I string everything with D'addario, except for my Strat. That gets Fender strings, because they're cheaper and I go through a set so fast.

By the way, Dave, which RS you work at? I'm gonna pop in to say hi sometime if you're in Auckland (and can be assed going anywhere besides the North Shore shop, because I can walk to that one).