💥Are Heavy or Light Gauge bass strings the best? The final battle! Metal Bass Monday Ep.19! 

Nice comparison. I like a 120 gauge for C. The sound isn't really the thing for me, its that I'm a little heavy handed so it helps me to fight a tighter string.

So much appreciate you sharing the way you won your battle with the click. I had been doing all the same stuff. This has been my battle for a long time too! Thank you so much, man!

Great video man, a lot of great info. Keep up the good work !

Your revelation makes so much sense! For a while when I started playing bass I had the exact same issue, I used to cut at 2k to try and get rid of the noise and lost so much definition

Thanks, this just answered all my questions!

Thanks Rodney...nicely put

Your channel is amazing im so happy i found you. Just what i needed

This is a must see for all new players. Clever experiment, even the most inexperienced bassist can understand and employ. Nice work coach McG.🤘

great video man, love your sound on E string (lighter gauge) real heavy metal tone man ...

In the beginning, I have no idea which gauge I played :D Then I consciously started using 45-105 several years ago, trying out both nickel and steel. I played in E standard back then, and now I'm playing E standard, drop D, and half step down, all on 45-105. Currently I'm using nickel Elixirs. Cost an arm and a leg, but damn I love that sound! Got myself a new pack which I'm going to use solely for recording. When the live shows come back, I'm gonna try out cheap ass Harley Benton 45-105 nickels. Let's see how well they will perform under pressure!

As soon as you said you were going to compare the EQ frequencies of the 2 strings I subscribed. Not only are you metal, you have a freakin' big brain. Now back to the video!

Fantastic advice - it really is all about adapting. Too many musicians complain about the smallest things, but adjusting your technique (including picking/plucking up higher toward the neck for more "roundness") is really all there is to it.

Great video content , Huge Tone and very helpful storytelling for the young ones and the older ones ,who think that they know everything! So much truth in everything you told! Cheers from a guitar player.

thank you sir for a great educational video!

I used to play a 4 string Warwick in B with 45/ 125 and it was just fine I loved the looseness it had

Loving the content, knocking it out the park here. I fought with strings until I realised that each bass needed something to complement its voice. Now I play three types over two brands and will never get endorsed by either haha.

i just started to have my own bass guitar. damn. that "story time" at the end" really got me. will try it. thank you!

Kalium makes great piano wound set for your lowest of low tunings F# and lower

Awesome content! I really liked the after part where you talk about fret buzz. I'm in the exact same place, getting higher action each time I play, to remove the clank and there is always a spot where it keeps irritating me. Guess it's time for a change in the bass setup, lower the strings and EQ from there. Thank you very much for the story, gonna put your knowledge to practice here. Cheers from Brazil!

The Uncle Rodney name drop had me cracking up good sir lol!! Man I definitely went through a short period in which I was doing the whole billy Sheehan stereo thing but with my own approach to it and at the end of it the journey I ended up just simplifying my rig and going for a more mid EQ sound(been happy ever since). So you’re definitely right in the terms of experimenting and going against the “advice” you stumble upon the internet. Either way it was another great episode!

After trying many different brands and gauges of strings, I've determined that medium gauge Daddario Pro Steels are my string of choice for the time being. Im open to anything though. Such an over looked way to effect your bass tone. I definitely enjoy experimenting and trying new brands and materials. Hope you are doing well Rodney. Looking forward to everything you've got coming for us. Appreciate you brotha!

Fascinating information

Hahaha that's exactly what I did and thought about those clicks :) Thanks for the video

Interesting, I tend to edge towards heavier strings because I like the timbre of it, ive had both heavy and thin strings , 40 to 100 tuned to drop b,it's not my thing. I like action low as the width of a business card with really heavy strings and its what feels right. my experiment with early tone chasing was a cocked wah at its highest point with an ampeg ba combo bass on ten mids on 6 treble on 8 and i couldn't figure out why I couldn't hear myself and tried adding highs ad nauseam and now i got low mids on 10 low on 3 highs on zero on a carvin pro bass 300 with a big 2x15 crate cab and i hear my bass clear as day

For me I finally found my tone when I started using the bridge pickup more. I'm barely dialing in any neck at this point

The first heavy-set I ever tried on my bass was the Rotosound Billy Sheehan set.110 for the E string, having the tension to hold its own for drop d tuning. Lighter gauge for the g-string , easier for tapping.

Hey man! My notifications were set to "Personalized" and not for all. That has been fixed!

Great video! I use roundwound DR 45-130 for GCGCF - the sound is more nasty & has more dirt IMO.

Great advice Sir play, setup bass to what your ear tell you what you like. And also love your straight forward approach to things its awesome😎 I prefer low clanking distorted bass sound Love that darkglass tone but I'm still learning. I use heavy gauge on my 5 string 135 on low string and 105 on my 4 it feels good to me for finger style right now but I'm open to change all the time but for now I like my sound I'm hearing when I practice when ever I get the chance these days. 🤘 oh by the way do you like any darkglass products? Just curious.

Yeah, there is a journey that is called "finding your tone". When I started in 1975, everybody was like "stay back, have a fat tone, support guitars, not too loud, not too much midrange...." I played this game until 1979. Then, when the first band had some success, my stage tone was the typical GK 400 RB plus a Thiele Small 115" or (In my case) 215" with EV 15L and my old Precision. The most interesting thing in this setup was the boost knob on the 400 RB, that made the tone real grittygritty.and gnarly. I kept this tone when I upgraded to the 800 RB. Then there came the 1990's, and everybody was into SWR amps with a brilliant, scooped, HiFi kinda tone. I bought a SWR Redhead Combo and a Goliath 410" and had a high end 610" - stack. First thing, I swapped the tube in the preamp to one with more gain, next thing was a Warwick Streamer Stage I active, a bass that snarled and roared just like the famous white Spector of Eddie Jackson. The tube gave the Redhead a wonderfull slight overdriven midrange, and the semi parametric mids helped a lot, too. I had a tone to dream of. This was in times of Eb standard tuning. I played (quite some time) Schack steel strings, a .40 - 1.00 set. Then I was thinking of trying even lower tunings, and used the same Schack set for B standard tuning, with an added 1.25 B - string on the Streamer stage, tuned to B-E-A-D. The SWR Redhead Combo just had 300 Watt @ 4 Ohm, not verry much when there are two guitarist with a Full Stack.To cut better through the mix with my setup, I started playing with a pick - and developed a picking technique where I angled my pick and picked slightly "to the back", scraping along the roundwound string with the blade of the pick while picking. This gave me a nice attack, and I was able to cut through much better. The biggest problem with the Schack strungd was the lack of available B strings. There have never been enough of them, and I had to change them often. My hand sweat just covered them in rust. I checked out all strings I was able to lay my hands on, and found Elixir Nanoweb nickel in .45 - 1.05 (1.30) as the best ones for my tone, I now tune down to A standard, and the Elixir strings do a great job, have a good tension, a nice mid range, I like the feel of the strings on my fretting hand a lot. I checked out the 1.35 low B string for a short time, just when we started tuning down to A, and I didn't like it. I didn't get the mid range, the B-string was not able to cut through, just as you said. The 1.30 strings are absolutely enough for A standard tuning, they do the trick verry well. Problem: with my "special pick technique" I literally scraped the nanoweb off the strings. Just because I was curious about the outcome, I started playing fingerstyle again. I saw several bass players, like Steve Harris and much more, digging in hard, and I adapted the "aim for the pickup" - technique. The tone was even better. From this time on the amps and cabs changed, the basses remained (mostly) MusicMan StingRays in 4 and 5 strings, and the strings are Elixir Nanoweb Nickel ever since. I found my tone through my playing technique and the strings, no matter what amp I play, I allways have "my" tone. And I played (emergency puchase) the Marshall MB 4510 Combo, what made some people laugh as this is a budget Amp (but a sleeper). Then I found my favourite amp, the GenzBenz GBE 750/1200. I love the punch and fat tone, the feel of real power, that these amps give me. Therw is a Peavey Vb3, a Genzler Magellan 800, a Bugera BVV 3000 (Ampeg SVT knockoff) and an Ampeg Vb4, with all kinds of cabs, but with all of them - I have my tone - as long as the preamp is able to provide a nice tube overdrive, and the EQ does work. I found it to be true, what they use to say: The tone is in the fingers.

As a guitar player, I've gone thru them all, after the last decade of live shows with 74 thru 13s , my fingers are pretty tough...but at my age, arthritis comes into the mix so now I've switched back to 8s on both the 6s and 7s and all of a sudden the feeling of floating when you're in the zone is back. Very cool feeling of effortlessness. I thought the tone would suffer but Im able to get a ripping sound with my current setup so now I run 45 thru 105s on the bass too and its like Im a kid again with 18 year old fingers!

I’m currently using a set of DR DDT strings that’s come in 115, 95, 75, 55 and time to C and found my sound I was originally using Ernie Ball Slinky’s with 110.

Thanks for this I asked about this previously. Also I seen Ra from suicidal tendencies playing that bass on a video that came out today on I believe metal injection. And great story! 🤘

Yes!! Finally! I can show this to a guitar player friend of mine who's been insisting to get me Heavier gauge strings it sure works for guitar but for bass I like a little lighter strings to get my attack on point!

Rodney, thank you so much for this video! I am struggling for quite some time now to get a good sound out of a CGCF tuning on Bass. I just completed a recording and it was a nightmare. Problems turned to more problems turned to more problems... string noise, shitty sound, too high action and so on. I really like your tip with the 5 string tuning with two low Cs. I will try that tuning - CCGCF - on a five with the string gauge in your video (just a coincidence) and a 4 stringer with a 110 gauge E string tuned to CGCF and see how each feels next. Guess it takes more time to experiment with the sound, but this video helped me a TON with seeing light at the end of the tunnel. And one more thing... I always thought this was an "easy" topic (it sure sounds easy when my guitarists confront me with it... ) and that I was just behaving like kind of an idiot when it comes to those things. Now I got more confidence in myself knowing that this actually is a more complex problem then it seems at first and it takes some time to master.

I'm sorry if my comment is too late but! I absolutely loved the video, it's probably the most informative, greatly put together video I've ever watched on the matter. Most other guys are really boring to listen to, but you kept me listening, all killer no filler. One question, what brand of string did you use on this? Keep it up!

I use and alternate between Ernie Ball Flatwound Cobalt strings in .105-.050 and Rotosound Swing Bass 66 Stainless Steel Roundwound strings in .110-.050. I play mostly fingerstyle (index finger and middle finger) and I tend to play quite hard en dig in. To avoid fret buzz and too much fret clacking, I usually go for heavy gauge strings. I play mostly in standard tuning with a four string bass with EMG 35DC's. I've tried lighter gauges, but those simply didn't fit my playing style.

Great demonstration of different sound of different gauges. What is your opinion about stringing through body vs top loading? Any noticeable difference in sound or feeling, in your experience?

I've started using 65-130's recently because I'm playing more in B standard, Drop A, and sometimes Drop G.

Very instructional video!!! I need to drop to DROP A my 5-string bass... What string gauge you recommend me, of course, to play metal, modern metal

I got heavy gauge stainless steel Daddario strings when I got my Schecter Riot 4 for drop B (that I discovered from your video on the Riot 5!) and it just lost some of the magic. It didn't sound as good to me in my plugins or amp. It probably is a good call for the tuning, but I just prefer the smack and brightness I get from a standard set. Everyone's opinions are valid tho!

The bass at the end is fat!! Holy shit. Awesome video, a light totally went on in my head.thanks fellow metal brother!

.125 is a great start for low B strings if you want to drop A too

What you strarted talking about at the 14 min mark is exactly me. Like that is the exact thing that drives me nuts and I've been doing the exact same thing. Raising the action, to a crazy amount. After watching one of your setup vids, I took that into consideration and lowered. I play with a pick as well and I'm a big aggressive and heavy on it. What did you do to dial back that "click" sound? Am I need to focus on dialing back the highs or mids? You said you made it consistent but dialed it out.

SIT silencers for fretless and rock brights for fretted...

I built my 5 string bass from a kit and am still using the generic strings supplied with the kit. I’m going heavy as possible for my next string gauge. Hopefully I can eliminate the harmonics that ring out during fast 3 finger gallops and triplets on the A, D, And G string. That’s a real problem because fast 3 finger plucking on those strings sounds STUPID.

Just got my P bass back from its first setup ! I went with 50,70,85,105 for standard D tuning. Its a nickel plated set. I am usually better at taking than giving advice, but i wanna mention something.We need to talk to our luthier and let him know what we want, and insist on our preference, even if the luthier has a different vision regarding the setup he is about to do. If we dont ask for certain things we will never manage to try them. Some luthiers (not all of course) hate low action for an unknown reason, if u ask them for a fretboard grind type of setup, they find 1000 excuses in order not to do it. Did you ever experience something similar ? Thank you for Another great video and honest teaching Rodney, we become better bassists here.

The bass sounds great, what are you using on this video? Cheers!

Rodney, FYI your updates sometimes show up as a notification but always show up in my "new uploads from your subscriptions" thumbnail view on my youtube home page. At least for me that is how your updates are appearing.

Got my 5-string (Lefay fanned fret) since 10 years and been fighting a clicking B-String (and only the B-String - regardless of tuning and Strings) since I have it. After watching this, I lowered the bridge (went all the way) and straightened the neck almost completely flat. Can't get the B-String to start buzzing - the sound is clean and the click is still present. I can even feel the "click" in my hands, I drives me nuts. :( What is going on with my Bass? lol Anyway now it's is hitting the Pickups of course and that brings me to an idea - maybe you wanna share a story and thoughts about pickup height? That topic almost never seems to be covered in depth...

Switched to 40.60.80.100.130 from 45.65/85.105.135 o my btb 675 which happens to be a 35" scale. Thickers strings we're making my playing rusty and sounded dull to me. The moment i put lighter strings my bass came to life.

I was obsessed with fret buzz. It went so far even that for a couple of months I kept going through different bass guitars, buying and selling almost constantly, because I was convinced that the instrument itself was the culprit. I just couldn't stand the zing noise that popped up everytime I played. I went trough a lot of different strings and set-ups (more relief, less relief, higher action, lower action, higher pick-ups, lower pick-ups and every gauge of string in existence), but eventually I decided to listen to the isolated bass tracks from Frank Bello, Steve Harris and Rex Brown. My eyes were opened. Since then (about three weeks ago) I have embraced fret buzz, clicking of strings against the fret board and not being able to hit notes perfectly every time. Being a fingerstyle player and playing mostly rock and metal means your consistency cannot be 100% all the time. David Ellefson gets pretty close though. But he is a pick player. A while ago I left a message under one of your videos, Rodney, about that I used very heavy gauge strings, because of my aggressive plucking technique and to minimize fret buzz and string clicking. I have rather small hands and my habit of playing bass several hours a day caused me to have wrist, hand and forearm problems, due to the very large force I had to use to fret notes. It affected my speed in a big way. Now I use Ernie Ball Extra Slinky (.095-.040), which are their thinnest strings! Fretting notes is a breeze now and I have adjusted my plucking to be with a much lighter touch. Having such a small gauge gives a huge sound without too much force anyway! I love the mid presence of this gauge too. No more pain in my arms, wrists and hands.

I always wanted to improvise and play what I was hearing. So I practiced ear training but couldn't get where I wanted to when playing. My mom who heard that and knows nothing about music told me maybe I should learn to read. I dismissed that idea but at some point I realised and had to admit that all jazz greats can read music. So I had nothing to lose and out of ideas, so I started to learn how to sight sing, and finally I figured out what my ear was missing for improvising. So learning to read music wthout even touching a bass is the thing that helped me the most for improvising. That's totally counter intuitive 🤷🏾‍♂️

Drop C - 125 -90-67-50 I use d'addario balance tension EXL160BT. Sadly gotta buy the 125 as a single and I don't use the 120 that comes with the set. The difference really matters to me, I can't stand my low string having less tension than my other 3 strings. I actually have one bass I use a 130 on.

Respect.

Hi Rodney, Long Live Heavy Metal. Love your program. I'm a novice Bass player. What can I do to start, or how to start playing my Bass. People told to start with scales, but I do not know wich scales to start with. Please advise. Thank you, Long Live Heavy Metal & keep it Alive.

Suddenly the singer in my band decided we wants to tune down a whole step. I play a 5 string and had a hell of a time getting my Schecter Apocalypse set up a half step down. Now a whole step?! That's ADGCF to you and me kids. Thinking my strings were gonna be like wet noodles! I waited to get some new strings before setting it up again and put on some light gauge Elixirs. Wow, no set up necessary! You get what you pay for! No dead notes, no farts. B string sounds like an A0 on a piano!

I play in BEAD with 40-95 gauge roundwound strings. Sound is very bright and the strings are super flexible, which are both what I like! Currently I’m using steel strings but I’m thinking about trying out nickel in the near future, might trade some of the brightness for a little extra warmth :)

For me. Probably normal 45-105 mediums are perfect. I enjoy low action and fret buzz and theyre still perfect for playing chords or initiating slap style. So I'll swear by some DR Black beauties on my Epiphone T Bird and going down a half step or a minor third

I got tired of drop tuning, I don't play a 5 or 6 string. That said, I use .050 - .105 Ernie Ball strings. I play all night with one bass tuned natural. My board starts with an TCE Polytune 2 tuner, hits a SansAmp, then an Ampeg Classic Pre. Now for the sauce, they all hit a Digitech Drop pedal into an Xotic Sp compressor into a GK Legacy 500 and out 2 Markbass 2x10 Travelers. It can give you a punch in the chest but the tone is deep, Rich and full. It doesn't flood the room, it fills it up. The Spector bass pre-amp makes the notes cut through clean & crisp while still being buttery.

Your music for Voice of Dissent isn't on spotify anymore. What happened? Because I really enjoyed your music.

Something I've found recently is cobalt bass strings. I think they sound great but I've heard that they damage frets much more than nickel or stainless steel. Is there any truth to the idea that cobalt bass strings are bad for your frets?

I play fender jazz bass..most of the time i play iron maiden staff But i like your bass sound And its solid and determine I know you use professional input But for i only had compressor and digital input on my laptop And about the heavy gauge does it 110 , 50 is heavy gauge from roto sound roundwound For my style

Many 5 string sets say that they have a tapered B string. What is the difference between a set of strings that have a tapered B string vs a regular one?

You said the second eq graph was the inversion of the .105 string. So the second eq graph is not the actual graph of the heavier .136 gauge string?

I take offence at the click when you lift off the fret. I'm trying to up my right hand muting to before I lift off

A question, the schecter stiletto stealth-4 has an humbucker slot compatible with Seymour duncan music man humbucker style?

No rules :) In my main band Süngehel, we use standard D tuning for guitars and bass and I play bass with 40-95 gauge Ernie Ball Cobalt Slinky strings. Because I like thinner strings, it's easier to play and somehow it suits the style of Süngehel and we play black metal. When I started playing the bass guitar then I went thru quite a lot of different gauges and about 6 years ago I bought those strings and imminently it sounded right for me. So 2016. we went to the studio to record our second album, at the begging I was a little bit worried but after soundcheck and playing the first take from the song. I don't remember which song it was maybe this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-82ogyz_Ph9c.html . After that recording session, I have carried on with the same string gauge.

Best string for finger playing, super bright, nice low and easy on the fingers. Does that exist?

Since you're going on about the esoteric arcana of bass string guage, if anybody cares, I've been experimenting with different string guages since 1985, and I'm not accepting the standard sets available from most brands. If you want to try something besides the good ole Standard Slinky, or D'Addario XL sets, here's what I've learned in my experiments. First, most sets feature a G, and especially D string that are way heavier than the rest. Maybe you like it. I don't. That's why Ive been buying custom sets since 1993. Now you know. Second, guage, and materials are only part of the equation, even assuming consistent, high quality manufacturing processes. Not every roundwound string of a given guage is the same, and this is especially true when you get into extended low range strings. The guage of the core wire, the wrap wire, and the number of wraps will all affect tension, flexibility, tone and feel. Until recently, my all time favorite strings were Ken Smith stainless steel roundwounds when they were more available in various guages. Currently the best roundwound strings for tone and feel, so far, in my admittedly not so humble opinion, are String Joy. Hands down. You can get custom guages and sets, whatever you want. That alone makes them worth the money for me, but they do sound richer than Ernie Balls or DAdarios as well, and last a long time. Unfortunately they don't offer flats and I'm on an old school kick, so I've gone to Just Strings.Com and put together a custom set of GHS Precision Flats and couldn't be happier. Just Strings also has their house brand roundwound singles in both nickel and stainless steel, although I haven't tried either yet. If anybody cares, for a standard scale, standard tuned 5 string, I've settled on .125, .095, .070, .050, .035, for a round wound set, and .0125, .095, .075, .055, .040 for a flatwound set. These guages seem to work with a variety of brands, and if you're local brick and mortar guitar store has bass singles, you can interchange D'Adarrios and Ernie Balls in a pinch. I know this seems a bit light to most players, but it provides very balanced tension across the fingerboard, clear tone, and easy articulation through difficult pieces. I keep asking local stores to offer better options for modern bassists by keeping enough bass singles of all guages as well as extended scale options, instead of trying to offer enough sets to cover the myriad needs of the myriad bassists, and their myriad styles of basses. When every bass was a 4 string with a 34 inch scale length, several options for guages made sense. Today, not even taking into account individual players' preferences, there are basses of all different sizes commonly available, in addition to the new fad of fanned fret multi scale basses with countless variances in geometry. A well stocked case of good quality single bass strings is the only sensible way to serve the needs of the entire modern bass community. I'd rather buy from a local store and all that, but they need to keep up. So there you go take it from a crazy old music nerd with too much coffee and reefer: String Joy for the best nickel roundwound bass strings, and Just Strings has both nickel and steel house brand roundwound singles, as well as various others options for sets and singles of all types from all the brands. Peace out.

What brand is this 0.135? Also ideal string gauge comes down to 3 things. Tuning, scale length and feel. I personally recomend 45-105 +130 for B standard and 45-105 +135 for A standard on 35". For 34" 45-105 +135 for B and forget about A unless you fancy selling your kidney for custom gauge bass strings.

Man, I feel like your MBM series is just you narrating exactly what's happening to me in almost real time. Concerning strings, a few months ago I went through a phase where I was changing them every couple of weeks between different brands and different gauges. I did the super heavy strings with super high action thing (HULK SMASH). I did the medium set where I tried to really fine tune setup and string height to even things out. I did the EQ thing. The thing that always bothered me was the difference in tension across the strings. After a little research, I finally found what I liked when I ordered a set of the D'Addario balanced tension strings. The medium version of this works perfectly for how I play for lower tunings, and the light set perfect for standard tuning. On the string clack thing, I didn't realize I was even doing this until a couple of weeks ago when I picked up an older 150 watt Peavey 1x15 combo amp from a buddy who wanted to get rid of it for a great price. I'd been playing on a small Fender 25 watt thing that I bought as a learner amp, and didn't realize what was and wasn't coming through with my playing until now.. The new amp sounds great, but holy shit does it really emphasize that clack! I was normally playing with high end added to emphasize overtones and distortion, but it's just too damned much now. I've had to dial in the EQ to mostly get rid of the harshness. The other thing I did was tweak my bass setup such that if I pluck over the neck pickup, I get the clack 100% of the time if I want a super aggressive sound, and can adjust EQ to taste. If I want something that's not so intense, I pluck over the bridge pickup a bit less agressively and only get very occasional clack coming through. Still a bit obnoxious when it does, but I think I can clean up my plucking technique to fix that.

Ok. My weirdness. 4 string P bass - medium round wound strings, tuned E standard. 5 string Jazz bass with heavy gauge flatwound (yep, rotosounds) tuned standard E standard. Occasionally sees drop A flat. 4 string jazz bass with heavy roundwounds tuned D standard. I have a separate channel for the P bass, different settings and preamp. The other two are set up for heavy strings through their own channel, settings ( more mids and high) along with my AMT PANGAEA ULTIMATE ( on the advice of sime dude on youtube, haha). The heavy basses are animals, im a heavy handed bass player ( im a truck mechanic), and i like the agressive, thunderous tone of those heavys. The Pbass is primarily my iron maiden, volbeat, metallica, etc bass. The other two are for heavier metal. I like the versatility, very little tuning down, and it fits my playing. I do have higher action on my basses, im not a slapper or a tapper. I just rip. It took me a long time to get the heavys sounding good, because at first they had a huge thud sound to them, but i found the majority of the issue was the bass. A decent amount of set up changes. Not tooting my horn, just putting out there i use heavys and love it.

For the guys who think that you have to have heavy gauge to support a band low end, just check dug pinnick sound. Dug play with 100-40 roundcore strings wich is looser than a 100-40 hexcore set. So he have basically a light gauge string set. Now check out his sound. His bass low end is huge and he fill up the spaces in his band. So when people say you have to have 105-45 hexcore to support the band low end it's completely crap.

Mind if I asked a quick question about your Riot-5? I bought the Riot-4 recently. Did you happen to change your action? Out of the box, my E and A strings sounds like they're smacking hard into the frets when I finger pick no matter how lightly I pick. I didn't notice it in this video. But, I did notice it in your MBM Episode 10 at around at around the 11:20 mark. My D and G strings are fine. I had to raise the action of my E string tremendously and back the saddle up all the way back to get the intonation corrected, to the point that the spring is a little warped. I just had to make a slight change to the A string. It doesn't seem like fret buzz to me. Maybe I'm just being a noob and it's supposed to do this. It just picks up on my mic and it sounds like I'm beating the strings, when I'm not. Any advice or corrections you can give me would be much appreciated. I still love the bass. The high action is still much more comfortable than my Peavey was.

Where are you moving to? If there's a better youtube than youtube, I'm there.

Personally i don't like the feel of a regular gauge going down a step to D, A etc. The tone isn't so much the issue for me. Also it kills my strings faster and I don't like that. Eb Bb is fine, Happy medium. I have never put a heavier gauge on bass before. But I'm just some novice/recreational guy.

Too many words

Too much talk

The scale also makes a difference or? I hope I didn’t go too heavy. I have a 37“-35“. I want a flexible setup that can go from B or Drop A to Drop G Because of the scale length I have tk go all custom strings. .050 .065 .085 .115 .160 Hope I didn’t make a mistake and the tone will suffer….