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ChristopherM wrote:
Yes. I've done it several times.

You're Philip Guston? Awesome.

madlee wrote:anybody ever break their bass strings? Is it possible?

Sure it's possible. The bassist in here the other week broke an A during a take. Seen some E's break at shows. I've never broken one myself. I never changed the strings on the first bass I ever owned. Which puts their life at about 5-6 years. Lots of practice and show hours on those things. Being a dumb kid I never noticed a difference in the sound. Looking back it sounded like ass. I sold that bass with the (then legendary) set of strings to a friend of mine, I don't believe he's broken or replaced them either.

After my bass and ear (playing maybe?) has gotten so much better in the past year or two when strings start to get old it drives me crazy. I'm cooking them now and that helps. If I had the money I'd get new ones every month and give away the "old" ones.

BadComrade wrote:

that damned fly wrote:$6 for guitar strings by DR.

$30 for bass strings by DR.

lame. though i boil my strings for more life.

DR string sound great... for about 5 minutes.

i think they sound good for about 2-3 months with some conditions.

clean hands, mostly.

i like them better than any other stainless string i've tried.


and also, i've broken many strings.

E's and A's mostly.

it, like bad comrade's breakages, was caused by burrs on the saddle.

since i had fenders, i just swapped the whole bridge whenever i saw a deal on a badass bridge.

used they can be found for about $25. the cost of a pack of strings.

If you want Motown sound, keep the strings on for a long long time, but clean them well. This is more for P or J bass blayers, not the Warwick / Ibanez clanky types. Those old dogs were too broke to change strings, and they used flatwounds much of the time which can last longer. If you want clear harmonics you gotta change that shit! If you pop hard or pick hard you are gonna break that shit someday no matter what, though if it happens a lot you either need to fix your bridge, get better strings, or (most likely) work on technique (put that pick down you pansy!).

And FUUUUCK Fender strings (except for the tapewounds) because they are horrible garbage and give you warts. Tiny burrs on the improperly finished surface can get under your skin and have you growing fleshpearls. Dean Markleys are relatively pimp and you can get them for 25 bucks for 5-strings.

Also if you write / call Hartke they sometimes send you free strings, any gauge for 4 OR 5 stringers. Pretty cool if you're broke and they sound/play decent right out of the package.

I completely did not answer the question though.

F+ to me

I broke my G string recently (hardy har har etc), I think because the lad playing guitar was way louder than me so I overcompensated by playing much too hard.

I play my bass so infrequently that I have never changed the strings. The strings on it are the same ones I bought it with, about 12 years ago or so.

I should boil them, perhaps.

I'm just gonna guess that they contain a lot more metal than their 6 string counterparts? Also I'm sure they fact they break less doesn't hurt when manufacturer's consider price.

BadComrade wrote:I used to break D strings now and then. I play really hard, so I always attributed it to that. Then after about 10 years of occasionally breaking D strings, I took a close look at the saddle for the D string on my bridge, and noticed that it had a tiny, tiny little "point" in the bottom of the U channel that the string sits in. I used a metal file to smooth it out, and I don't think I've snapped a string since. The bass is 30 years old, I'm surprised the person that owned it before me never noticed in the 20 years he owned it.

Had the exact problem with my bass. haven't broken a string since then, and Im using a metal pick..

BadComrade wrote:I used to break D strings now and then. I play really hard, so I always attributed it to that. Then after about 10 years of occasionally breaking D strings, I took a close look at the saddle for the D string on my bridge, and noticed that it had a tiny, tiny little "point" in the bottom of the U channel that the string sits in. I used a metal file to smooth it out, and I don't think I've snapped a string since. The bass is 30 years old, I'm surprised the person that owned it before me never noticed in the 20 years he owned it.

Interesting. I too attributed it to my playing hard and with a metal pick. But now that you say that, I'm think that my breaks were probably caused by something similar as the basses that I've used in the past have all had fairly cheap bridges.

We'll see...because I should have my Electrical bass here any day now. If the breaks stop, I'll know that's what it was.