Stings on new Gibsons...

[Blackbird]

Gang - what are the strings that come on the Gibson basses of recent years?

[uwe]

E, A, D & G, except on 5-stringers ...


(ducking ...)

It used to be Epiphone strings (wherever these were made) and it might be D'Addario these days. They have used/use D'Addarios on their guitars. The bass strings feel D'Addario'ish to me, but I'm not ruling out GHS either. The packaging of the Gibson own brand guitar strings certainly looks suspiciously GHS'ish.

[Dave W]

Some of the basses on Gibson's website do name the strings as "genuine Gibson strings." Years ago I believe Gibson had their strings made for them by Sterlingworth in the Kalamazoo area. Sterlingworth is now American Winding (parent of Dean Markley), they also make a number of private label strings but no idea if they make 'em for Gibson.

[Blackbird]

Nice one, Uwe.  But I use C#, G#, C# and A#

I'm asking because I actually like the feel of them, I have D'addario Pro Steels as replacements but I don't love'em.  Roto's are cool, but like Pro Steels.

Are they nickel?  The feel smoother overall.

[Dave W]

Fairly easy to tell nickel plated from stainless. Even the finest stainless rounds are like little files.

[copacetic]

The last 2 Gibsons (an SG Faded & the TBIV) bought in the last year actually both had a little round plastic washer attached to the 3 Pt said "genuine Gibson Strings". They were rounds. I put GHS flats on the short SG and these new model DR Vintage flats on the Boid and both come up trumps.

[Blackbird]

Fairly easy to tell nickel plated from stainless. Even the finest stainless rounds are like little files.

For sure Dave, I just don't have them anymore - only the D'Addarios on the two birds now.  Maybe I'll try a nickel set to see if I get closer to that feel. 

Files is right!

[Highlander]

Phew... for a minute there I thought the Police were endorsing Gibson...!

[Blackbird]

Phew... for a minute there I thought the Police were endorsing Gibson...!

LOL - oops...an underedited overedit!!

[uwe]

Well, Sting at least played an Explorer Bass in mid-period Poice for a while, albeit an Ibanez one. Probably the only non-hard rock or -metal bassist who ever did.

I find Gibson's factory strings merely ok, neither junk nor of the quality you would find on, say, Ibanez or many boutique basses. Unless one of them sounds significantly less bright than the others in the set (which happens more often than it really should), I keep them on and wait for the next string change.

[gearHed289]

Hamer 8 string fretless...

[uwe]

Dang(doodada), all four things I did not know:

- that it's a Hamer,
- a fretless,
- an 8-string to boot AND
- it doesn't go out of tune in the cold!!!!

[Granny Gremlin]

They're both using Hammers - endorsement deal or what?  ... also, I've never heard a (studio) Police song that made me think - "yep, he's using an 8 string."  Sting's tone was never anywhere near as unmellow as that.

[uwe]

Summers was a Hamer endorser early on, they even built a signature model for him in the early eighties which was first called the "Prototype" and then some other name that never stuck in my memory.

Sting was always willing to try new things as a bassist, disenchanted with Police's limitations as a trio (don't tell ME how he did his best music in that format, TELL HIM!!!), he was always looking for new colors: From fretted to fretless, from passive to active, from bass guitar to electric double-bass, I don't doubt for a minute that he would have tried an eight-string fretless in the studio or live as well - eight-string AND fretless, even I haven't come up with that combination yet! I assume that Hamer used some of their know-how from Tom Petersson's eight-strings in the process.

[dadagoboi]

eight-string AND fretless, even I haven't come up with that combination yet!

Mark "Surf Rat" Rowe who runs 12stringbass.net and his fretless 12er.