Ah! I got those new strings on my bass this afternoon, ready for the evening service. I tend to leave my strings on for a long time but there is something delicious about the timbre of brand new strings. The problem is that the aural glow only lasts for a week or two but the strings remain perfectly serviceable for much, much longer.

If I were regularly playing gigs and doing recordings that earned a small amount of money, that might pay for the luxury of new strings more often. As it is, I think I will stick with it as a rarer treat. After all, some of the classic bass sounds, like James Jamerson’s Motown lines, were recorded with strings that were definitely towards the thuddy end of tone (and, in fact, flatwounds).

The new strings also seem to be pretty good at holding their tuning, even though I haven’t had that long to break them in. I wonder if that is partly a function of using slightly heavier gauges? Anyway, I’m set with these for a good long time now; I’ll get the bass out and re-evaluate the tuning tomorrow.