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My 14 year old nephew is jones-ing to play bass...so I'm about to dust off something and hand it over.What would be a good playable string for the young lad? I played a cheap bass at a store recently and I couldn't believe how soft the strings felt...but no-one was in sight to help me track the strings down.I'm not worried about tone or durability...just something easy for him to get started on. If he's still at it at Christmas then upgrades could be in order at that time...Thanks all!

What style or styles will he be attempting?

In my experience the actual brand of string usually doesn't make much of a difference. What is going to make a big difference in the feel of the instrument is the string gauge and the action. If you want it to feel as comfortable as possible, get the lightest gauge of string you can buy and make sure that the action is set fairly low. -Steve

Hey devin!These are usually the cheapest that I come across, but still have good tone/sound to 'em. Bass strings ain't cheap, almost no matter where ya' look, but these are pretty good prices IMO. Don't think you can get any lower than $7.99 for a set of 4. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass-gui ... .htmlI-468

If you are looking for a soft touch, try some flat wound strings. They are a bit easier on the fingers.

There are more than enough options to confuse a cat. Reason I asked, flatwound, groundwound, tapewound and those plastic-coated and nanoweb ones will not get the bright, springy sound that many funk players prefer; for other styles it may not matter. The wraps, whether they're nickel (warm) or steel (bright) will affect the tone some, and it's hard to hold tuning and get a good solid thunk! with strings that are too light. Maybe I'm overthinking this, and a medium set of Rotosounds is all that's required.

Thanks all!I'm going to guess he's going to start with some basic rock, most likely leaning towards the heavier side (versus picking up on pop). He's a couple of hours away from me, so I don't see him everyday.I-man...the drop in prices never cease to amaze me....in the 80's I was looking at $40 to restring, now I can do it for under $15 up here. If I had invested the $25 difference back in 1982, I wouldn't need Halifax!The cheap 15W garage-sale amp he's going to get will probably limit his tone as much as the string type would I guess...light gauge it will be then!If he's still annoying his parents 6 months from now, we'll negotiate with Santa for something more substantial.Cheers all!

ahh i got lucky, bought some decent sammick Korean bass stringsfor 5$ ...sold to me by an older gentleman at the shop ourband's guitar player teaches at..since he just said 5,000won($5)i felt too guilty to ask for more than one set if it was indeeda mistake:) but not THAT guilty to accept one pair for that much:)so Devin, if you are at the local music shop see if they areselling a set of sammicks for that price

Perhaps I should try some on my Samick bass?