D'Addario Bass Guitar Strings - XL Nickel EXL165-5 Perfect Intonation, Feel, Durability For 4 String Guitars 45-135 Regular Light Top/Medium Bottom 5-String, Long Scale

I've been a D'Addario user for many years, and my main touring/recording basses (that use rounds) have always got a set of EXL165's on them.They sound great with pick and fingers and have a great overall tone. When I use a pick I tend to have a heavy attack and use thicker picks to really get that growl out of a hot P-bass pickup and these strings always deliver a great sound that is balanced.Their lifespan is decent too, when touring I could do several gigs without compromising my tone (and pocket!).If you have used other brands like Ernie Ball, GHS, or similar and are looking for a change, these will not disappoint.

I have been trying various strings on my MIJ Mustang bass and I think these are the best so far.I was using LaBella 760F-MUS flats, but on the short scale they are a bit flabby and underwhelming.This heavier 50-105 set has higher tension and real solid thump.Have yet to try D'Addario chrome flats and Tomastik JF324.

Be warned that the 32" scale is the length of the fully wound part of the string. My bass is a 30" scale but has 2" between the bridge and the tailpiece so in fact they are not quite long enough for it. Having said that, as the strings don't have a silk binding but just taper to the lowest winding, I could use them and they are actually fine. Decent sound, far better than my (very) old nylon tapewounds that they replaced, but intonation up the neck as always with short scale basses is still not great on the lower strings. Didn't notice it in performance though.

Only problem is caused by my main bass's neck, they add enough extra tension on that I am not comfortable putting them on a set in neck, but I am completely fine putting them on my J-Bass with removable neck.Would buy these all the time if I could afford an accident, but to be safe I keep them on my cheaper backup bass and use it for heavier play styles.

Over the last few years I've messed with different brands and gauges of bass and guitar strings. Most notably switching between Ernie Ball and D'Addario. This specific gauge of nickel wounds is incredible, and I pretty much use exclusively D'Addario on all of my instruments as of sometime in 2019. These strings don't last the longest, but they last much longer than other brands and have an amazing tone to them that isn't overly bright but isn't too mellow either.