Your cart is empty.
Your cart is empty.Product Description
A light yet balanced custom gauge derived from our Swing Bass 66 range that is perfect for slap bass.
From the Manufacturer
This set was originally developed in conjunction with Mark King who revolutionised bass playing with pop funk chart toppers Level 42.
Hiram Wylie Justus
July 30, 2025
Yeah, these strings are light and bright. I have been a devoted Rotosound customer for three-and-a-half decades. I put the basses up for a while, and, when I returned to them devotedly in the last two years, I discovered that I had a number of repetitive motion injuries which tempered my pleasure with pain. The first thing I did to address the problem was look around for a lighter gauge set: Rotosound had a solution to the problem. The FunkMaster balanced set (30, 50, 70, 90) is a joy to play for my aching hands. They have a nice, elastic feel, though not overly so. It does facilitate bends, though I don’t really need to bend strings very often. The elasticity of these strings allows me to do more with less fatigue. The tone is quite good, perhaps not exactly that of the legendary 66 sets, but good nonetheless. These went on my four-string, which is loaded with pre-Fender Bartolinis and matching pre-amp, and which runs through an older SVTIII and Hartke 4200. The tone is excellent. While there is a little bit of sacrifice to be had by going to the lighter strings, in truth, these are very similar to the bottom four strings on any six-string bass. Honestly, there is very little noticeable drop off in tone compared to the 66 sets, despite the lighter gauge. On the plus-side, you will notice less fatigue, a possible increase in dexterity, and hear that typically fat and bright Rotosound tone. So far, I’ve put sixty or seventy hours into this set with really no appreciable dropoff in brightness or elasticity. It appears that these strings will also possess the longevity of the chubbier Rotosound sets.I am so very pleased with this set that I likely will stay with them for as long as Rotosound will make them.Addendum after 11 months of playing these: I have put many, many hours on this same set since the review above, playing nearly every day for an hour or so up to a few hours...I have been trying to recover dexterity that I once had twenty years ago. These strings maintained their elasticity for about seven or eight months, and the tone remained the same (minus the bright that naturally rolls off a new set of strings) after about a month or so. Any fall-off in brightness was easily offset by a little touch of the tone pot. They do, however, experience a point at which they become a little dead, and that came after about ten months on this bass. It is definitely time to swap them out, but I put a lot of hours into these, maybe twice or three times the hours of a casual player. They are long-lasting and hold on to their bright and powerful tone, but they do grow a little dead at the end of much vigorous use. Still very, very happy with this set. You will be too.
Aaron Hong
July 7, 2025
I have these strings on my Musicman Stingray, and they are great! I mostly play jazz - participating in a non-music-major Jazz Combo class at the University of Southern California.These strings are by far the most fun set of strings I have ever used. While not for everyone, if you are looking for a set of strings for slap-style bass or tapping, you will have a lot of fun with these. Of course, these are light gauge strings - and will not produce the deep sound or have the same bass-presence as heavier gauge strings.Since these strings are so light-gauge, you WILL have to adjust your truss rod and play with your bridge saddles. Once you get these on and your bass adjusted for them, you will definitely be able to get ridiculously low action with these strings. This, combined with the low tension, makes tapping extremely easy - playing the Overjoyed cover by Victor Wooten was made so much easier when I tried these out.The low tension also makes these great for slap bass - it is very easy to slap and pop these - and more importantly it just FEELS much better and more fun.As far as sound goes, I will first say that of course, these strings will not produce the same sound as a heavier gauge set of strings. The presence of the notes will not come out as much. HOWEVER, these have a nice sound to them that sounds great with funk-slap. The sound these strings produce is definitely much bigger than I expected though - with surprisingly more fundamental frequencies than you would think. These strings have a VERY bright sound - plenty of high overtones, as they are made of stainless steel. Mark King uses these strings - and listening to his recordings will give you a good idea of what these sound like.
Cliff
June 30, 2025
The product is perfect but was Delivered to neighbors mailbox. uspc.
Steve C
June 21, 2025
I play a variety of styles professionally and teach. For the past couple years I've strung my 88 music man with rotosounds. Its a perfect match. I love how the roto's get a little rubber bandy as they break in and the tone matches the pickups great, and I like the tension. Recently I got a set of funkmasters, holy cow these strings rule. With my funk trio (drums, bass, keys/vox) I started taking guitar parts into my playing, doing a lot of string bending and hammers/pulls. Playing Jaco style stuff they have a nice bounce. They feel like low tension strings in theory, but in plucking they are very springy and nice. I always play low gauge and with gentle but controlled plucking, and rotos in general (funkmasters especially) always respond great to that style of playing. If you like to dig in and go nuts these may not be for you, but if your like me.... Great strings, recommend them to anyone who wants to play funky and light, gentle slappers, and educators. Playing "Come Together" on these strings can make any 14 year old crap their pants
Aaron Frisch
June 14, 2025
I've played light and extra-light strings for years. La Bella and Smith, etc. These are great for slapping and also less fatiguing for finger style playing than heavier gauge strings tend to be. Tone is true and bright, sustain is really good. The only drawback to me is that because they are so light, they lose their snap relatively fast. I only play in my home studio so I change them every few weeks to get that bright slap sound. If you play out and practice every day, you'll definitely have to change them more often. But you really can't beat these for $17.
Customer
June 11, 2025
I’ve used various brands of 45 - 105’s for my entire bass playing career, but I’ll be sticking with this gauge from now on, they sound just as fat and bright as thicker gauges, but allow for some extra fingering tricks due to their lightness and flexibility, and I’ve still yet to break one after laying into them with a pick and slaps and pops for a good few weeks now. Sound equally as good on my Fender Jaguar Bass with 2 jazz bass pickups and my Warmoth with P-J pickips. A 5 string option would be a good move.
webrockers
June 3, 2025
Hätte, hätte, Effektkette...Hätte ich gewusst, dass es noch leicht dünnere Saiten-Sätze gibt, als die Swing Bass RS66 LB, hätte ich die schon früher ausprobiert.Ich bin begeistert, da ich mehr so Lead-Bass, also mehr wie eine Gitarre spiele.Endlich funktionieren Läufe, die ich trotz Übung nicht hinbekommen habe.Das sind jetzt meine Standard-Saiten für meinen Bass!
ãŸã£ã“ã‚“
May 4, 2025
実ã¯ã€é–“é•ãˆã¦è³¼å…¥ã—ãŸã®ã§ã™ãŒã€‚ã›ã£ã‹ããªã®ã§ä½¿ã£ã¦ã¿ãŸã‚‰è‰¯ã„æ„Ÿã˜ã§ã™(^â—‡^;)
Paul Burchill
February 18, 2025
Big bass sounds from flexible strings
Zaza
January 15, 2025
Never experienced such a playability. Miss some tone definition but so lovely
Recommended Products
