I used to use rotos in the 70s ... in the 80s I used Kahman ... in the 90s DR ... these days I use Copley or D'addario ... and I prefer that sound of a slightly broken in string with a little playing time on them ...

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I have had quite a few Ricks since the 70s and I have always used Rotosound Swing Bass strings.
When I got my CS in January 1991 it came with Ric strings and they were very good but after so many years of the Rotos thats what I replaced the Ric strings with.
Both Chris Squire and John Entwistle used Rotosound Swing Bass.Entwistle may have changed in later years but in the 70s in England Swing Bass were just about the only roundwounds in the local music shops.
The exact set is RS66LD 45-105.
And YES they destroy your frets!
I used to play in a Who tribute band and now I have a YES tribute band that I launched in Feb this year called SEYES (www.seyes.co.uk).In my experience I would say the thing about frequent string changes isnt so much to keep the twang but the risk of a string breaking during a live performance.I rehearse with the old strings and I think they sound better when they are bedded in a bit.Its a shame to change the strings sometimes but you cant have a G break during The Fish.
After fifteen years of constant use my CS is ready for some fret work but I dont know who to trust to do it.
Rickenbacker emailed me to say that their service dept are full so if anyone knows a good Rick luthier (in Britain if poss) please let me know.

lemme know if your band comes north of the border, Seyesbass ! And.. Rotos are, for me, the best. Tried most strings and always come back to RS66.

Hi Toastie.
We had a mail from YESSCOTS a website devoted to YES stuff in Scotland.
We definitely will be going north of the border next year or sooner if things work out.

I've been told by my guitar tech to NOT go above 95 guage on ground roundwound strings on my 74 4001 (neck tension etc)
Any views PLUS - anyone using roundwounds on a 74 4001, what guage are you using? - thanks

I had several 4001 basses ... 1968, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979 ... they all handeled roundwound strings ... even though those strings stressed the 4001 beyond its design specs ... I would use 100 or 105 E string sets ... these days I play the 4003 and 4004 ... you can string them with anything and they do fine ...

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Good engineering practice requires that every product is built with some safety margin beyond average use, typically in the 100% range. This was true of the 4001 when we were talking about the low tension strings that were available back in the era when it was designed. Unfortunately, high tension strings like the RotoSound came on the market later and cut that safety factor to almost nothing. When you add that to the variability of the wood, it can be problematic.

Nevertheless, good care and adjustment practices have allowed many of these old instruments to handle these strings just fine, even if the margin for failure is not as large as desirable. Innstruments that were not cared for have not fared so well.

I also don't believe that there's that much difference in fret wear between brands, although obviously a soft nickel flat string has to be kinder to the frets than a stainless round one. The difference in amount of use is a fair greater factor and some people use their instruments much more than others.

Chris uses Rotosound Swing Bass .95, .75, .60, .40. Thats where all the twang comes from. I know he used to use 105-45 standard set, but switched to this other gauge for the tighter sound. He says he was happier with this guage. On the earlier Yes albums there is a lot more bass end, that's the standard gauge. Close To The Edge onwards, he uses the lighter custom set.

I've used round wound strings gauged .100 .080 .065 .045 on my 4001 basses for the past 25 years. I usually use the D'Addario brand.
Because my 4001 basses have been properly set up, they have never had any problems handling the tension of the strings I use. I'm sure I could also set them up to handle a slightly heavier gauged set (with a .105 E string) without a problem.

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Throw that piece of firewood where it belongs and get yourself a Rickenbacker!

I'm thinking of going back to D'Addarios. with my bc rich, the 34" scale got a lot of fret buzz, and i couldn't find many brands with heavier strings than 105, so i got GHS (i think the E was a 115...) and now, i have that fret buzz problem fixed, so i use lighter GHS on it now, but I have yet to check out D'addarios on the Ric... might as well give it a shot.