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Are treble nylon strings a scam?
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at_leo_87
Posts: 3055
Joined: Aug. 30 2008
From: Boston, MA, U.S.A
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RE: Are treble nylon strings a scam? (in reply to Florian)
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[quote="Florian"]I cannot stand the Composites for some reason...( are they the ones that have the trebles white or grey instead of clear nylon ? unless i am confusing what the others are called) [/quote] I think you're thinking of rectified trebles. They're the polished trebles that look kind of frosty. and sound really boring. Composites are the ones by d'addario that come with two G strings, one coffee colored one made from the composite material, and one normal clear one. I like to flip my basses after two weeks to let it wear out evenly. And it sounds almost like putting on new basses. I leave the trebles alone until after a month, then I change the whole thing. But I bet I can get away with changing trebles every two bass changes. The only reason to change the trebles, I think, is because the intonation starts to go bad. That usually happens before the tone dies, at least in my case. Andy, I've heard of people tuning their basses down a couple whole steps then bringing them back up, which supposedly will make them sound a little brighter for awhile. Haven't tried that yet. Flipping the basses does wonders for me. That, and wiping them down. As for humidity, I think it definitely has an effect on tone. My guitar sounds pretty dead when the humidity is high, like say on or after a rainy day.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Jan. 5 2009 23:06:29
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mrMagenta
Posts: 942
Joined: Oct. 25 2006
From: Sweden
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RE: Are treble nylon strings a scam? (in reply to Munin)
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quote:
Andy, I've heard of people tuning their basses down a couple whole steps then bringing them back up, which supposedly will make them sound a little brighter for awhile. Haven't tried that yet. Flipping the basses does wonders for me. That, and wiping them down. While experimenting with the nut-bone (loosening strings almost entirely, replacing the nut, tuning up, repeat etc) I was surprised to hear how much my dead old basses came to life. Funny thing is, after i had filed the nut bone like i wanted it i put on fresh strings.. and they didn't sound much better to my ear, which is funny, because usually the contrast is huge. the 5th and 7th fret harmonics actually sound more muted on the new strings (listened to them a lot because of tuning/loosening the strings many times). The strings I had on were EJ45, i changed to EJ46 (normal to high tension). Any clue why the harmonics would be more muted on the new strings?
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Date Jan. 6 2009 11:58:35
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Ron.M
Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland
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RE: Are treble nylon strings a scam? (in reply to kovachian)
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quote:
I used to use Hannabach Flamenco medium tension and I hated the trebles. They had what I could've swore was a smooth and polished feel to them, and thus lent a smooth and mellow tone which I don't like in my trebles; I prefer something raspier and snappier. The basses are great though, they're pretty stable and sound nice and bright for a while. This was before I switched over to LaBella but I'm not against using some Hannabach basses if the situation calls for a string change. Hey Kov, Your post made me think to back in the 60's. There were three main music shops in Glasgow, one (McCormick) just used to deal with hardcore electric, but the other two, (Biggars and Cuthbertsons) were more general and dealt in violins and pianos etc as well as guitars. In the 60's the guitar had taken over a big pecentage of sales, so Biggars had devoted a whole basement to it, with guitars lining the walls of the entrance corridor (behind glass cabinets). I bought a couple of guitars from there in my youth including a great 12 stringer! They also had a great selection of finger picks and harmonicas etc. They always had a fantastic selection of strings..full sets of every make...custom strings by guage, lite, super lite, ultra lite electric...wirewound basses, tapewound basses, recording basses..... In fact the selection was so vast that it took up the whole wall behind the desk, with all the various options kept in dozens of small deep drawers. When I changed my interest from steel string to Flamenco, that's when the problems started... I went in and said I needed a set of nylon string basses E, A, D. The guy looked at me... "Nylon?" he said, and looked at the other shop assistant as if to say, "We've got another one of them poofs in again." Anyway, he went to this one little miserable drawer at the end, marked "Classical" and had a rake around. "Sorry", he said, "we've got 6's and fifths, but no 4ths....we can order it for you if you want, but it'll be a week....apart from that, there's only a full set" Note that no specific make, guage or tension was mentioned, but just "Generic nylon". How things have changed eh? Another thing that's just come into my head is this.. On Saturday afternoons, folk would be down trying guitars out. They had two sections, a big glass windowed room full of amplifiers for testing the 'lectrics and a little glass "cubicle" for trying the acoustics. Inside the big room you could always see some long haired guy sitting on a Selmer or Vox amp testing the latest Epiphone, Guild or Rickenbacker "George Harrison" style guitars, dressed in a fancy shirt, flares and cuban heel boots, playing the intro to "I Feel Fine" at the loudest the shop would let him. Meanwhile, in the glass cabinet, there would be a guy with short hair, horn-rim glasses, a shirt and tie, with "Stay-Press" flannel trousers and a sports jacket, holding a Classical guitar with great precision on his footstool raised knee, pinging single string octaves and harmonics with his head bent in great critical concentration. As the years moved on, the guys in the big room would be sitting on Marshall, H&H or Soho Orange amps chewing gum, with ripped jeans and "Grateful Dead" tee shirts, playing Hendrix likks with a wah-wah pedal and distortion as loud as they could. And in the glass cabinet there would be a guy with a sports jacket and sensible shoes...... So I guess that's how the "nylon string" set got treated by the young shop assistants.... Actually, the first person in Glasgow I ever met who was trying to play Flamenco was a guy from Lebanon (called Kamile..I think?) He was a student at Strathclyde Uni. I met him in Cuthbertsons trying out a guitar. The guy behind the counter was pretty cool too. He used to string up new guitars and them test them out by playing "Michelle" (McCartney) as an instrumental, with a chord change on practically every note. Very impressive! He was always very open to hearing new stuff and was very interested in my attempts at some Flamenco stuff. Nice chap. I wonder what Kamile is doing now? Sorry to rant on...I've had a few beers!.. cheers, Ron
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Date Jan. 7 2009 13:04:44
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