There's no way bass strings cost more because they have more raw materials in them.

Stores/distributors/manufacturers sell way fewer bass strings than guitar strings, so they cost more.

I'd bet there's less than a dollar difference in materials cost, shipping, packaging, and selling costs between packs of guitar and bass strings.

Simple.

Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=economy+of+scale&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

I, too, have broken many strings, especially E's. In addition to saddle burrs, playing with metal picks, etc, I think the level of string tension (affected by string gauge and bridge design) plays a big role here. Picking close to the bridge as well.

I used to use mid-gauge strings, .105's, and my string breakage was only moderate.

One day years ago, I noticed that GHS had a set of extra heavy Bass Boomers out: 50 - 115's.

Intrigued by these monstrous strings, I switched to them and proceeded to break more strings than ever before in my life. In the space of one summer, I broke about 4 E's and a bunch of other strings in addition.

I attribute it primarily to the considerable increase in string tension brought on by the ridiculously heavy strings. Despite their thickness, they just would not hold out long, since the tension was stressing them out.

A while after that, I switched back to 45-105s, and the problem was gone.
And a while later still, I started concentrating on fingerstyle as opposed to pick.
Since that, I haven't broken a bass string in years.



Edit: Why are they so expensive? As mentioned above, the amount of metal and windings may play a role. But it shouldn't account for price 400% than that of guitar strings. I suspect the companies have all just gotten used to the fact that people will pay whatever they ask for them. Christ, there are sets of strings going for $50 and $60 out there.

They can cost even more in Europe. I've seen sets of acoustic guitar strings in Germany that go for EUR 14 ($18.13 US), for fuck's sake.

I used to pay $35 for a set of really heavy GHS Bass Boomers. Now that a Guitar Center opened up in Beaumont, I only have to pay $ 17.

ChristopherM wrote:

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.

When I was a pro bass player, i used to break strings on any bass I used. It was always at gigs too, never at rehearsals. I just used to rock the fuck out of them. I was using a heavy pick though and i'm a hard player.

ChristopherM wrote:

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

Yes. I've done it several times.

Me too.

I even saw the bass player from the french band Les Thugs breaking his E string.
That was impressive.

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

My band played with a French band called "Le Singe Blanc" in november. One of their bassists (thye had 2) broke 3 strings in a 50-odd minute set.

Luckily, they had 3 re-stringing songs.

3 bass strings though. 50-odd minutes. Impressive.