What's your favorite string gauge(s) and tuning on bass guitar?

[AD Chaos]

Hi,

So, as the title says, what do you consider the best gauges for your bass guitar, and what tuning do you use?

I bought a 5 string and the factory set of strings it came with is quite sluggish and mushy (for a 'standard' B0-E1-A1-D2-G2 5-string tuning), I had to tune every string up a semitone just to get more tension, which worked great on the top two strings, but the lower ones are still rattling and fretting all over the place. I think I'd still like to tune to standard, or do you guys usually tune your basses lower? (that'd be lower than B0 on the thicker string)



Thanks much for your opinions!

 

[Max Morton]

Well I use 125 gauge for a B string, and it's pretty soft, but it works great for me, much better then the heavier gauges, but if you need something really strong, perhaps you should try 50-135 gauge. I believe, most of the standard 5 strings go with 45-130.

 

[AD Chaos]

You like soft strings on your bass? I thought I did too at first (because of the rattling when picking hard), but the sluggishness on it drives me nuts tbh, haha.

 

[Max Morton]

Well my clients are superhappy with the tones and performance
Here, check out my session bass work(also, mixing and mastering ): http://joncofy.com/files/Joncofy-RorschachInkblotsEP.rar

You do not have to hit them as hard as possible, the soft strings are really great to control.