Cleartone EQ Hybrid Metal Acoustic 7812

Probably the best Drop D bass ever - exceptional balance

I have played O-size Lowdens since 1999, my current workhorse is a 1985 Irish S-22, same as a later O-10, mahogany/cedar. I tune DAdgbe and use the wound strings along with open-string chords ranging up the neck, which need intonation accuracy for unisons and octaves/bi-octaves. In the past I've used D'Addario EXP16 coated, but the design of the Lowden bridge means some other strings I like such as Rotosound Nexus with 54 bass don't fit - the doubled winding at the ball end on the 6th string is too fat for the bridge 'tunnel' hole.

I have also experimented with 80/20 and PB strings mixed to improve balance and intonation on other guitars, and with silver-plated copper (mostly on vintage/historic instruments). Copper is the heaviest of the metals normally used to wind basses, but corrodes with skin contact (goes green and very rough!) which is why it's normally only found in silver plated form, often on silk/nylon classical guitar basses. When I saw the specifications for Cleartone EQ Hybrid Metal Acoustic 7812 I realised the new coating method made a copper wound bass practical without needing the fragile silver plating which always wears off fast. At 53 gauge, this string should have about the same weight as a regular bronze 54 or even 55 - and when the strings arrived, it proved to have a slim ball end winding which fitted the vintage Lowden pinless bridge perfectly - the ball is not too big (some are and jam in the hole) and the winding not too fat (which can spoil tone by jamming in the hole) or long (which can even touch the saddle with some makes).

The first time I played with this string set I was approached afterwards to ask if I had some kind of amplification, and how I got such a strong bass. It's something which I now find is commented on even by non-guitarists. The bass is best after an hour or two of playing in. A set on one of my other guitars, played for a few months, now has a more fundamental 6th string tone (harmonics reduced) making it sound like a double bass, still plenty of volume and I rather like the thud I can get from basslines on the drop D with the well-used copper string.

Overall these are probably the best balanced and most accurate intonation strings I've used in recent years, from handwound uncoated Newtones to pioneering Wyres. And... they are half the price of most coated string sets. I'll be gutted if they ever become hard to find.