boomers vs TI rounds vs la bella nickel rounds for a mikro

pcake

pcake

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Sep 20, 2011
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#1
i'm not a fan of bright strings, and since i don't care for the feel of flats, i tend to use nickel wound rounds. i wasn't crazy about d'addario nickels on my jag ss - they were sort of nasal - so now i'm looking for strings for one of my mikros, they're not high on my list.

unfortunately my list is pretty short. jason at bassstringsonline told me that DR strings won't fit a mikro. drat! they were my first choice. my second choice was La Bella Nickel Plated Steel Round Wound bass strings extra lights, but they're out of stock and won't be in for a while. so that seems to leave me with 3 choices -

La Bella Nickel Plated Steel Round Wound bass strings
TI Jazz rounds
boomers (no round core for short scale strings)

i'm looking for warm, rich tone primarily with a good amount of flexibility due to wrist issues. a smoothish feel is always a plus. i don't mind some mids and highs, too, but i'm not crazy about the chorus effect i've gotten from some strings.

so does anyone have any experience with any two or all three on my list on a mikro? comparisons would be nice. your descriptions are good, recordings are good, too.

thanks!
 
#2
Jazz rounds are even longer than the Sunbeam shorts at about 35" ball to silk. However, they are very flexible I've seen them installed on short scales but it isn't ideal... Kind of an expensive string to risk breaking too...
 
#3
SLaPiNFuNK said:
Jazz rounds are even longer than the Sunbeam shorts at about 35" ball to silk. However, they are very flexible I've seen them installed on short scales but it isn't ideal... Kind of an expensive string to risk breaking too...
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curses - foiled again!

how about the short scale boomers and the la bella nickel rounds? will they work on a mikro, and does one have more low end or flexibility than the other?
 
#5
#6
Personally I'm using D'addario EXL220S ( 40/95) rounds on my Mikro at this time and they are lovely.

Rated "bright" but in fact they don't sound like it to me. Lots of bottom end and I can dial the treble down to make them sound "flatlike".

They play nice. ( I use fingers, not pick).

Some other strings I've used play very nice also but there has been a tendency on some brands of flats for my fretting fingers to sort of accidentally slide off the neck on the E-string due to low tension and rubberyness.

I get better fingering on the EXL220's.
 
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#7
ZenG said:
Personally I'm using D'addario EXL220S ( 40/95) rounds on my Mikro at this time and they are lovely.

Rated "bright" but in fact they don't sound like it to me. Lots of bottom end and I can dial the treble down to make them sound "flatlike".

They play nice. ( I use fingers, not pick).

Some other strings I've used play very nice also but there has been a tendency on some brands of flats for my fretting fingers to sort of accidentally slide off the neck on the E-string due to low tension and rubberyness.

I get better fingering on the EXL220's.
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coated, huh? i also use fingers, not a pick, and i like a smooth feel. i'll add them to my "try" list. thanks! and i have used many strings from d'addario that said they were bright but just weren't.

i don't mind low tension strings, and haven't had a problem with sliding off the neck, although as an aside, i did have that with larrivee guitars all the time.
 
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#8
pcake said:
coated, huh? i also use fingers, not a pick, and i like a smooth feel. i'll add them to my "try" list. thanks! and i have used many strings from d'addario that said they were bright but just weren't.

i don't mind low tension strings, and haven't had a problem with sliding off the neck, although as an aside, i did have that with larrivee guitars all the time.
Click to expand...

The White Copper tapes are relatively big in diameter. All tapes 'seem' to be bigger than regular flats as far as 'feel' goes.

I've tried just about everything that will fit a Mikro. I like the flats and tapes for tone. But there's just something about the Mikro where I feel like tapes and flats are too big for that bass.

So I have to watch my fingering very closely and I don't feel at ease as I'd like.. Even though the Mikro is one of my favorites to play.

As I said , flats and tapes sound good. But I was looking for a string that had a bit of 'tack' to them so my fingers "stick" a bit and also the string feels right for that bass.

The EXL220S's for me , fit the bill currently. Although they are rounds they are effortless to play (for me) and still have a bit of finger sticky that you get with rounds.

I love my Mikro but it is one finicky little $$#@^&!! when it comes to strings....:facepalm:
 
#9
ZenG said:
The White Copper tapes are relatively big in diameter. All tapes 'seem' to be bigger than regular flats as far as 'feel' goes.

I've tried just about everything that will fit a Mikro. I like the flats and tapes for tone. But there's just something about the Mikro where I feel like tapes and flats are too big for that bass.

So I have to watch my fingering very closely and I don't feel at ease as I'd like.. Even though the Mikro is one of my favorites to play.

As I said , flats and tapes sound good. But I was looking for a string that had a bit of 'tack' to them so my fingers "stick" a bit and also the string feels right for that bass.

The EXL220S's for me , fit the bill currently. Although they are rounds they are effortless to play (for me) and still have a bit of finger sticky that you get with rounds.

I love my Mikro but it is one finicky little $$#@^&!! when it comes to strings....:facepalm:
Click to expand...

i'm 5' 3" with little girly hands, so maybe that's why i don't go over the edge when playing them.

i tried pressurewounds on my green one last time, and while i liked the tone a lot, they were stiff for my wrists. i tried d'addario nickels and while i liked them on my traveller, i didn't love the sound on my green mikro. i like smooth, so the EXL220S's will be added to my list as the search continues...
 
#10
SLaPiNFuNK said:
The short scale boomers and la bella fit appropriately. They are both pretty standard overall assuming you are referring to the la bella nickel plated steel round wound series. The rx are more flexible.
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wanted to thank you for suggesting the RX strings. too soon to tell how much i'll like the tone, as they have a slightly chorusy effect i'm not in love with but that could go away after they're broken in. and as you said, they are definitely very flexible, so fun and easy to play, and the 40-100s went on the mikro like a dream :)
 
#11
I don't have a mikro, but I just put the LaBella RX on my L-2000 and have been using Boomers on my L-1000 and L-1500. They are more similar than different. The Boomers are a little warmer out of the package and the LaBellas have a bit more bottom end to them, but both feel and sound great to me. The L series are extremely sensitive to string differences, so you may hear even less difference than I do.
 
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#14
lakefx said:
Not that I've noticed. Usually when I've had that, I had the pickup too close to the strings and lowering it fixed it. This is also dependent on the nature of the strings and how magnetic they are, so maybe the RX are higher output than what you had on there before.
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the strings were super magnetic when we were putting them on, but the pickups are the same height they've been for several other types of strings. i guess i could try lowering it and see what happens.
 
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#15
Lefty Duke 1.JPG I have the short scale Boomers on this Kramer Duke Special - and, AFAIC, it'll never wear anything else. But, the Duke is a special case, in that it's forte' is faking a Jazz and a P-Bass. With the Boomers, it does it very, very well. You might like them on your Mikro; you might not. Normally I'm not a big fan of round wounds (don't like the brightness, the feel; or the - comparatively - short life), but I'll make an exception in this case...
I also have DR Sunbeams on my Warmoth mini P-Bass. They were the only decent short scale strings I had at the time, so on they went.They aren't bad strings - for rounds - and they do sound pretty good; but... bright round wounds is not the sound I want from a P-Bass. And, they feel like rounds... when they die, on go the GHS Precision Flats...:whistle:
 
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#16
GIBrat51 said:
View attachment 1149578 I have the short scale Boomers on this Kramer Duke Special - and, AFAIC, it'll never wear anything else. But, the Duke is a special case, in that it's forte' is faking a Jazz and a P-Bass. With the Boomers, it does it very, very well. You might like them on your Mikro; you might not. Normally I'm not a big fan of round wounds (don't like the brightness, the feel; or the - comparatively - short life), but I'll make an exception in this case...
I also have DR Sunbeams on my Warmoth mini P-Bass. They were the only decent short scale strings I had at the time, so on they went.They aren't bad strings - for rounds - and they do sound pretty good; but... bright round wounds is not the sound I want from a P-Bass. And, they feel like rounds... when they die, on go the GHS Precision Flats...:whistle:
Click to expand...

i used to use boomers on my first and second basses, really liked them, so i figure i might like 'em on the mikro.

jason from bassstringsonline says that DR strings won't fit on mikros. anyway, while i'm not a fan of flats, i'm also not a fan of bright :D
 
#17
pcake said:
as they have a slightly chorusy effect i'm not in love with
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try lowering the pickups first, then try to loosen the strings, pull them out from the bridge (do not remove the strings from the tuners!). when you have this chorus effect, often is because the strings are kind of "warped" on theirselves, so they need to return to a straight position.
 
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#19
Pier_ said:
try lowering the pickups first, then try to loosen the strings, pull them out from the bridge (do not remove the strings from the tuners!). when you have this chorus effect, often is because the strings are kind of "warped" on theirselves, so they need to return to a straight position.
Click to expand...

i may mess with pickup height, but i gotta tell you, i just spent some time playing the green mikro (the one with the RX string) unplugged, and it has that chorusy sound even unplugged. the strings don't seem to be pushing any harder toward the pickups, and i suspect they may not work and pay well with the underwhelming mikro bridge.

ZenG said:
Rounds tend to sound like flats after they've aged for awhile.
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yeah, true. i like 'em best after they're well broken in. i've had the same flats on my long scale basses for years till they finally went actually dead, and i was happy with them. i don't enjoy "new string sound", and bright strings aren't my thing.
 
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