Roundwound Bass Strings

Roundwound strings have a bright, clear, often metallic sound with longer sustain. They are the most commonly used today, capable of producing
a wide range of tones that are distinctive to many styles of music.

Roundwound strings are critical to the clear, percussive effect of slapping and popping in players like Wooten, Marcus Miller, Larry Graham, etc.

Jaco Pastorius had a legendarily expressive sound, which was the result of roundwound strings singing directly against the wood of his fretless bass.

Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, John Entwistle of the Who, Geddy Lee of Rush , Chris Squire of Yes All and countless others used roundwounds.

Note that roundwound strings *can* be tougher on frets and particularly on fretless, due to the textured metallic wrapping.

Roundwounds are typically made of either stainless steel or nickel.

Stainless steel roundwound strings fall furthest on the bright, "metallic" end of the sound spectrum. You often will hear the buzz, grit, clang (or whatever you would like to call it) in the sound, which is desirable in many styles. Observing the comments of numerous players online and offline, the consensus seems to be that stainless steel are the clearest, brightest strings out there, often increase the perceived output in sound from the bass, but also tend to be more rough on the fingers and instrument.

The aggressive, cutting, sound in hard rock and metal is generally the sound of stainless steel roundwound strings played aggressively with a pick.
Bassists Brian Bromberg and Steve Swallow also use stainless steel strings made by LaBella.

Nickel feels a little softer on the hands and has less of the metallic high end treble in the sound than steel strings. This also equates to less finger noise coming through  and a smoother, mellower sound than steel while still falling on the bright/clear end of the spectrum.

Victor Wooten uses nickel roundwound strings.

Use the menu on the right to select some of the most popular brands of strings- you will find more information about each, as well as a description of what the different product names are in terms of material, feel, etc.

Also, the "reviews" section contains links to many descriptions of different strings based on personal impressions from serious players.