D’Addario 12-String Bass Strings


The D'Addario brand of round-wound 12-string bass strings were introduced in 2006. They are made in the USA and are 34" long scale:

  • Fundamentals: G .045, D .065, A .080, E .100

  • Octaves: G .018, D .025, A .035, E .045

D'Addario strings are packaged all rolled together and have the colored ball ends to differentiate the various string gauges.


An older version of the string package.


The D’Addario Q-Code

D'Addario uses a date code on every package of strings, they call it a Q-Code. It is found on the plastic corrosion intercept bag that contains the strings. The Q-Code allows D'Addario to track the date and production run of when the strings were made. This allows the company to track exactly which batch of strings is involved if a problem is discovered; if multiple problems from the same production run ever occurred, the entire batch could potentially be recalled from dealer stocks.

The Q-Code is applied using an inkjet printer and always lists the Item # and the Code #. The first number in the code is the last number of the year of the production date, in this case 2006. Months are designated by the letter in the second position and follow the alphabet with "A" being used for January, "B" for February, etc., so the "C" would designate March. The '3' dates this set to March 3rd. The remaining characters refer to the specific production run.

Review - D'Addario Strings for the 12-String Bass

by Steve Robertson

Last month I bought a set of D’Addario 12-string bass strings on eBay and decided to give them a try. It had been a while since I restrung my 12ver and nothing beats the sound of new strings! I paid about $28.00 for them plus shipping. A few years ago I was paying twice that much for strings.

When I opened the package the first thing that jumped out at me was the different colored ball ends. D’Addario does that to cut down on packaging and I knew they did it with guitar strings but I didn’t know they did it with bass strings too. The different ball end colors suck! My Hamer B12A is the cherry sunburst finish so the green and red string ends look really bad. On the plus side, I like the fact that the headstock end of the lower strings don't have red colored threads, so the strings are silver colored all the way. I never understood why some companies put red ends on their strings.

The other thing I noticed is that there seems to be more tension than the SIT strings I have been using. I switched to SIT strings two years ago (after reading Surf’s review) and they have less tension. Previously I had been using Hamer strings. Since the Hamer strings are also made by D’Addario they both have about the same tension. The difference in tension from the SIT’s isn’t really extreme but it is noticeable. I prefer the lighter feel of the SIT strings.

I have played the D’Addario strings for a couple of weeks now. They sound good and feel good, even though there is a little more tension. They seem to be staying perfectly in tune and I haven’t had any string slippage at all. They are definitely a good quality, good sounding set of strings but I think I’ll be going back to S.I.T. strings.