Warwick EMP 38301M 5B

These are my go to strings

These are my go to strings, mainly because I play Warwick Stage 2’s.

That said all new strings sound great and mixing it up a bit when there are offers or sales doesn’t hurt and may save you money over time.

That said I always return to EMP’s I like the touch finish and do believe they last longer…. Better to say you get good tone from old one’s.

They are also great New onto a Musicman pre Sabre and HH 5 string Ernie, both which can be a bit bright and unforgiving when fitted with new strings.

Did not live up to expectations

Preface: these are my first ever steel strings (and coated at that) and my first ever set from Warwick.

The B string is tapered. This is not mentioned in the product description. Not a big deal: only required raising the saddle a bit and would be even less of a problem for longer bridges like those of Warwick.

The sound: these sounded mellower and darker than my previous old, rusted set of nickel coated Daddario. And supposedly steel is brighter than nickel coated, especially a brand new set. Not impressed.

They also looked darker than my previous rusted set, but looks are not an issue for me, i just found it odd.

Pros:

- coated (of course cannot tell how good the coating is yet)

- they feel quality when playing

Neutral:

- tapered B string

- dark colour

Cons:

- expensive

- dark sound (of course personal, but this to me invalidates the coating, which is supposed to keep the strings sounding bright)

Conclusion:

I will not buy these again and would not recommend.

A solid "meh..."

All I can say about this product is "meh." The sound isn't all that great - at least not what I'm looking for - and for what they are, they are extremely expensive. The only advantage is the tapered B string which sits nicely on Warwick bridge. I purchased 2 sets, and in one of the sets, E string is DEAD.

All in all, save yourselves some money and just go buy Ernie Ball.

Pros:

Smooth on the hands

Relatively tighter tension

Tapered B string - good for Warwick

Cons:

Price

Price

Price

Dead E string, and ridiculously expensive

Not worth the money. I've never changed the strings and then put the old ones back on before I purchased this garbage.

Best coated strings

A few years ago the manufacturer of the first coated bass strings (Elixir) promoted his new product in germany with a give-away campaign. As it was for free, I ordered some. The first few months the strings felt and sounded quite nice, but short time later the coating peeled away. After this experience i never tried coated strings again.

Meanwhile I got a Warwick Streamer, whose typical dark-growling warwick sound in my opinion is supported best by Warwick strings. After a few sets of black label strings i decided to try EMPs. Warwick states that the strings are coated with some new and inconspicuous "enhanced molecular protection" (=EMP), which provides extreme long lifetime.

And they deliver what they promise! I put on the EMP strings in late april 2013 and they still sound great today. Maybe not as bright as in the first few weeks, but still acceptable. The coating is still on and if you don't know they are coated you would not notice that they are.

Great stirngs from Warwick

Nice strings from Warwic, my only wish could be that there could be more string size options, f.ex. 5th. 130 and 4th. 100. :) Highly suggested!