So, I like the Chromes. In fact, I think they stack up nicely against the Thomastik Jazz Flats, which are more expensive. The Chromes seem to be higher tension than the Thomastiks. Not much, but somewhat tighter. This is a double edged sword, as looser can be faster, but tighter is, well.... tighter. Overall, I would say that given the price tags, I lean towards the Chromes over the Thomastiks.

Now, somehow, I decided to string this thing B-E-A-D. Yeah, a 33" scale bass with a B. People complain about floppy B strings on a 34" scale bass, and I go and put one on a short scale. Well, the good news is that the B string is not flabby, though it is not perfect. In fact, this set (I can't remember what guage we're talking about) seems pretty tight.

That aside, I don't notice much difference in the Slowound strings from other D'Addarrio nickels. They feel nice, and sound good, too. But that's $5 a set you could be spending on beer or sandwiches if you bought XL170's instead...

At first, I thought these were nothing special. Just between you and me, most strings are nothing special. In fact, I thought, "who cares?"

The other night, though, I finally brought the bass I put them on into the recording room. They actually play pretty nice. They're not overly bright, which is fine for me on a 5 string, since I generally do not do funky slap stuff on anything other than a 4 anyways. So, for me, feel is the big thing on a 5 string. And these feel pretty good.

As you might have guessed, these are very run-of-the-mill nickel roundwounds. Is that the good news, or the bad news? Well, it's good news, I think, if you're the type that buys whatever nickel strings are on sale -- D'Addarrio or Charlie Stringers or whatever. The Bass Rockers certainly feel okay, and sound fine unamplified. The guage is very regular -- 100, 80, 60, 40.

I guess it's bad news if you are a die-hard for a particular brand, especially if you pay a lot to get a particular brand. This is because the Everly strings don't have any particular strength besides their price. If you are a DR die-hard, the Everly strings won't change your mind. If you aren't, though, the $2-3 savings per pack over the closest competitor might win you over.

The package says these are made of "... a specially magnetic alloy called Alloy-52 ... that is incredibly resonant and tarnish resistant." Looks and feels like well polished nickel winding to me.

The B-52 strings sound good to my ear out of the box. Even sound from E-G, with the bright, lively sound that you should expect from a new nickel roundwound. A nice slapping string. Feel is good, not coarse, but not as slick and smooth as some strings I have played. I like these strings, both in terms of feel and sound, than the Bass Rockers I tried.

The sound of these strings was a bit of a surprise- they add a bunch of mids to the tone; very growly sounding. I will try these on a fretless bass next, as they seem to be well suited for that. The highs are less shimmering than the DRs. The bottom is full and tight.

A word of caution- do not attempt to use these on a 35" scale bass, or a bass with through body stringing! On the 34" scale test bass the silk windings cleared the zero fret by about 1/2". The 4 string set is available in super long scale, but apparently not the 5 string set.

When I first threw them on, I was unimpressed. I was expecting magic strings -- gleaming chromium superstrings that melt in my hands. They weren't gleaming chromium, and that disappointed me. In fact, they are dull-looking flats that are visibly indistinguishable from most other flats.

After playing them for a while, I like the feel of them. It's a slightly weird guage -- .043 .056 .070 .100 -- but I think that may be why they feel good. The guage determines how much tension you need on the string to tune it to pitch, and so by tweaking the guages, you can get a more consistent feel from string to string, and a softer overall feel, which the Jazz Flats have.

I can't decide whether or not I like these better than the GHS Brite Flats. They are less bright (not surprisingly) than the Brite Flats, which on a fretless, has its allure. They also feel different -- they almost feel less bright, which also has its appeal. In some ways, they sound and feel more like a fretless to me.