Rotosound SM665 Steel Roundwound, 40-125 Swing Bass 5-String Set, Long Scale, Hybrid Gauge

Description

• The most popular Roundwound bass string ever.  Rotosound was the first string company to produce this kind of string. Introduced in 1962 it changed the sound of the instrument instantly.
• Bright, punchy high energy sound
• The favourite string of many players including Billy Sheehan, John Paul Jones and Geddy Lee.
• Available in all popular gauges and scale lengths.
• The steel used to produce these strings is unique, combined with a highly secretive manufacturing process.

The John Entwistle connection 1966:

“It was in 1966 and I was looking for that Danelectro sound again. I tried everybody’s strings but the E and the A’s just didn’t work. It was the same with Rotosound but there was something about them that was almost there but not quite. To solve the problem I got in touch with James How and told him his D and G strings were great but the E and A didn’t vibrate properly.

He told me to take my bass along to Rotosound and have some strings made until they got it right. After a couple of hours, we realised that the problem wasn’t in the wire winding, but in the core of the string. You could see that the strings vibrated in a big circle and that was wrong; the core needed to be thicker.

We also made the overall gauges a bit heavier and they sent me away with 12 sets to use. A couple of days later they called and asked if I objected to them putting my name to the strings and selling them commercially. I told them I didn’t mind as long as they kept me supplied with free strings!

But then we had to do the same with medium and short scale strings because I had loads of different basses by then. Those strings, the RS 66 sets, were the first that vibrated properly other than the Danelectros.”