Rockshort N : Lovely, smooth sound!

I absolutely love these strings. I've been using them for years on several different basses. They are one of my favourite strings.

These are pure nickel strings so they are smoother sounding than most roundwounds. Less high end clank. These strings also have none of that nasty hollow sound that some roundwounds suffer from. Let me put it this way: If you love D'Addario XLs (I can't stand their clanky, hollow sound) you probably won't like the Pyramid Pure Nickels but if you want something smoother and fatter that isn't a flatwound, give them a chance!

Being PURE nickel (not just nickle plated) they are slightly lower output than most strings but this is no problem at all.

These strings sound pretty good straight out of the box so unlike some of my other favourite strings a long break-in period isn't strictly necessary. But they keep getting better and better with regular use. They are really at their best when they've mellowed out over several years. They don't really go dead in a bad way like many roundwounds do. They just get incredibly fat and organic sounding. On a P-bass they sound absoutely MASSIVE in the mix after a couple of years of use.

The only downside is that over the years I've had several sets go bad within a week or so. Not the usual lovely worn in sound that I like about these strings but completely dead. After searching a bit online I suspect these strings may be roundcore but all the info I found about this was hearsay from forums so I have no idea if this is correct.

If they ARE roundcores it may explain why I've had several sets go bad as I didn't take the necessary precautions when installing them. But if they really are roundcores I find it very strange that the manufacturer doesn't provide any info about this on the packaging with instructions how to install them properly.

There is of course also the possibility that I somehow got several bad sets. But it seems strange that I should get problems with 3-4 sets in a relatively short period while other sets just keep getting better and better after YEARS of regular use.

I've had no problems whatsoever after I started installing them the way I would with roundcores though.

HIGHLY recommended for sound. A small question mark about quality control if they are NOT actually roundcores. I'll just keep installing them like I would with roundcores and hope I don't get any more problems.