I've got some restringing to do...

[bloke]

The four string's flat wounds are emitting false vibrations.
(I honestly don't remember when I put those strings on this bass.)
The strings that came with the five string (that I just bought) are dead.
My son's six string hasn't been restrung since it was new - at least a decade ago.

I've got some horns to fix first.

[iiipopes]

Congratulations on your new strings. But don't get me started on a discussion about strings generally. I will rant about history, reasons for conventional gauging that really don't apply anymore, current brands, shut down brands and models, favorites, strings that disgust me for being overpriced and underperforming, all the different sets I use on my dozen basses and why, and so forth, until @LeMark shuts down my bandwidth!

[bloke]

One thing I'm NOT going to do is to buy a set of Thomastik strings about which everyone shrugs their shoulders and which cost me $150 wholesale.

[prodigal]

One thing I'm NOT going to do is to buy a set of Thomastik strings about which everyone shrugs their shoulders and which cost me $150 wholesale.

Their strings have always been overpriced, especially the bowed strings. Dominants are just fishing line with some windings.

(Sorry, I'm a Pirastro fan.)

[GC]

DR Lo-Beams and Dragon Skins all light gauge for me. Long lasting, soft touch, good tone. I sold my 6-string 8 years ago when I realized I could go an entire gig and touch the high C string only a few times. I'm not a soloist or chord player, just a foundation bassist.

[bloke]

The six string is my son's.
It has a really straight through-neck, I bought it for him for fun back when Korean stuff was made really well and cost very little.
He's never played a gig in his life and never will, but he has fun thumping around on it upstairs.

He's mostly been playing around with his keyboard, because his bass strings are so dead. He's been doing a lot of work around here cleaning stuff up and making some things better, so I decided to get him a new set of strings for it. The strings on there currently are original to the bass.

The strings on my five string F-J may have been original to it as well.
They were so tight and dead that it was impossible to slap and pop.
Now that the new ones are on, they vibrate very widely and offer the twang that would expect out of round wound strings. (I actually had to raise the bridge up just a little bit for the B and E strings, because the new ones' vibration patterns are so much wider), and of course they are way louder.

[bloke]

I may put the new flat wounds on the four string tonight after I get a bunch of work done on a French horn.

I had two surprise repair visitors today who sort of pulled me out of everything.

I found one picture of one of these five-strings with tuners all on one side. Almost all of them have four of the big Kluson-style on style on one side (as with my four string) and a fifth one over on the label side. I think I like five in a row better. I think I've seen some Kluson-style with smaller plates on the back that might fit this bass, so I would get a combination of the classic look along with five in a row thing.

The twang of these brand-new strings makes me giggle a little bit.

They have changed a lot of little things over the years. I haven't kept track of any of them, because I haven't been playing bass for a long time. The one on the left is 54 years old.
I do know that the choice of fingerboard materials has been available for a very long time, and also that - besides California - they've also been made in Mexico and Japan.
.