Strings. Which "innovations" are worth trying?

Roland

Am I stuck in a rut? I've always used 10-52s. They suited the heavy handed style I had when I was 16, and I haven't really changed since.

Now I see suppliers advertising heavy core, light core, and balanced tension strings. That's in addition to different alloys and coatings. Before I spend money, and more particularly time, trying these out I'd like your opinions.

english_bob

I'm a sweaty beast, so I'm a big fan of coated strings. Of the ones I've tried, Elixirs are best. The DR Dragon Skin ones run them pretty close, but they're more expensive and harder to find. Either way, the extra cost of the strings is more than offset by the savings I make by not having to replace them so often.

Some people say they don't sound as good as uncoated strings- a friend of mine who does a lot of home recording argues that they might not sound so bright when you first put them on, but they'll sound more consistent throughout their life than a standard set that go from super-bright to horribly dull.

RE: alloys- I pinched this from Stringbusters' website  

Nickel Plated - The vast majority of electric wound strings made today are made of a steel alloy that has an electroplating of 8% pure nickel. While an unplated steel alloy is ideally suited for magnetic pickups its sound can be a bit too bright. Nickel-plating warms up the sound a bit and improves oxidisation resistance. Nickel plating also provides some surface softness which reduces finger noise and fret wear. Many strings labelled as nickel such as Ernie Ball's Slinky range, are in fact nickel plated.

Pure nickel - Most strings of the 50's were wound with an alloy called Pure Nickel and they have become more popular in recent years for a more vintage sound. Pure Nickel strings are warmer sounding than nickel plated and have a smoother feel better suited for jazz and blues. Not being as magnetically effective as steel their volume output is lower than nickel plated strings.

Stainless Steel - A low grade stainless steel is used for the windings as pure stainless is non magnetic. Stainless steel wound strings have exceptional brightness, volume and sustain. They don't tarnish so quickly and corrosion is reduced, and are very durable. Stainless steel has a different feel to nickel plated strings and being a harder material than the nickel silver normally used for frets causes more fret wear. Their bright sound is a little too harsh for some but they are becoming more popular.

SNAKEBITE

I have always used Ernie Ball super slinkies but dabble with the various flavours available.

Do I notice a difference?

Not really, but then I'm not a fantastic player so I never expected to. I just do it on impulse.

vale

i once bought a cheap vintage matsumoku bass that came with black plastic coated strings.
it takes a moment to get used to feeling less (minimal friction on the fingers as you move up and down the frets) but the sound is very phat & jazzy & mellow. none of the accidental sawy zippy scratchy buzzy slappy noises that you kind of mentally filter out when you are used to regular strings (they can be nice as a feature if you want them).
so a mellower sound. maybe because they allow you to push controls further up without adding clacky metallic noises that are a natural consequence of regular bass strings.

when one broke & i replaced it with a normal nickel wound (that was all i had on the day) the difference really struck. made the new string sound really clunky & rattly in comparison.

worth a try if you're a bass player. & nice & slippy under the fingers.

pintspiller

I tried heavy-bottom for a while. Not sure why I stopped though. Pre-internet, so I guess my local shop stopped stocking them.

bluechargeboy

I was reading a Steve Vai interview and he mentioned cobalt strings. Dunno how much of this is endorsement marketing, but still:

"I use Ernie Ball, but they just sent me these new Cobalt strings. At first I didn’t like them. There was something very stretchy and slinky about them that felt uncomfortable. I was so surprised that somebody could make strings that felt so different and responded so differently than what anyone else was making. If you took any brand of strings and put them on my guitar, I’d be hard pressed to tell you whose they are—because a lot of these strings companies get them all from one source. But Ernie Ball really processes strings to make different sounds and different feels. When I got these Cobalts, I was set off a bit because of the slinky-ness, like I said. I told Thomas [Nordegg, Vai’s guitar tech] to take them off the guitar, but he left them on. I had them on five guitars here at the house, and I just started using them—I don’t like taking time to change strings—and I started to get it. I was like, “Wow, they’re so much more controllable.” And the way the notes ring together when you clang them is very different, so I really grew into them and I like them a lot now."