Rotosound Strings

[Mike B.]

Hello, Gang!

Any opinions on using Rotosound strings on Alembics?

Full disclosure: I'm good friends with the owners of Rotosound. I use their strings on all my other basses.

I'd love to hear all opinions!

Mike

[pauldo]

If you use them in your other basses and are happy with them, then they will shine on your Alembic!

Many members (myself included) have quested for the “best” string.  Alembics are sooo good (How good are they?) Alembics are so good that you could string them with bailing wire and they would still sound great.

Paul (who recently switched to flatwounds and wonders why it took me almost 30 years to find such joy)

[edwardofhuncote]

Prefer T-I Jazz Flats, but always keep one Alembic strung with T-I Jazz Rounds. No experience with Rotos, but like Paul said, if you like 'em, go for it.

One thing to bear in mind, on a long-scale Alembic, there is still some afterlength of string behind the bridge to account for... make sure the set you're using will reach. As you're also about to discover, changing strings on our Alembics is a snap... a 5-minute job. Good opportunity to tweak the action/intonation too.

[Mike B.]

I LOVE flats and am thinking of Rotosound RS 77 45-105 flats.

Mike

[jacko]

Tried rotosounds on my sig dlx.  didn't like them. I found they had much more tension than the DR black beauties I usually play and that they tended to drag on my fingers. 

Graeme

[Mike B.]

I've always like the tension of Roto flats, but, of course, that's always up to the individual player. I've never really enjoyed the strings that felt like spaghetti. LOL

Mike

[peoplechipper]

How are Rotosounds for fret wear? I've heard they are bad for that so I've resisted trying them...I used to run stainless strings on my Distillate but after getting a refret I've decided the chewing up of frets and fretboard weren't worth it. Too bad, I love the piano tone of new stainless strings but not worth the damage done...Tony

[pauldo]

By number of hours of playtime my Distillate saw mostly GHS Boomers*.... I had the frets dressed once since I have owned the bass (30 + years).

*Boomers are a nickel-plated stainless steel... it seems that Roto’s are straight stainless, so not apples to apples at all.

Paul (who sometimes just likes to hear himself spiel)

[cozmik_cowboy]

A friend who replaced the fretless maple board on his '76 P with fretless ebony in '81 recently told me he kept Rotos on it for over 20 more years before going flatwound, and it's fine (but it was Jaco-poxyed).

Peter

[Mike B.]

Rotosound does make rounds in nickel! Just look for RS 66s in nickel. When I use rounds on my '59 P, these are the ones I use.

As I have used Roto flats almost exclusively for the last 30 years, I can tell you that there's NO fret wear! LOL But, many years ago I used Roto stainless rounds on a variety of basses (Fender, Gibson, Rick) and never had fret wear problems. And I hit the strings hard. But that's just me, of course. Other folks might have had a different experience.

Mike

[Svein Håvard]

Love Rotosound strings. Have used them on all my basses for years.
On 4 string basses I use RB35, and RS66 on my 5 strings.

Svein

[StefanieJones]

Didn't like the feel of rotos. I stay with D'Addario. Nickel wound rounds. I've been using them for a long time now and wouldn't change unless I had to.

[hankster]

Can’t wait to get the TI flats off my Stanley. Back to Alembic rounds as soon as possible for me. Just an 80s guy I guess.

I like them on my Stingray though.

[jazzyvee]

I have never tried rotosounds mainly because of all the threads I have read on line about them being responsible to excessive fret wear. I use Alembic strings and D'addario Pro-steels.

[LMiwa]

I have used the Rotosound 66's for a while on another bass, but don't like them on my Alembics. They seem a little dull.