Who says you can’t teach an old dawg new tricks?

Why would a seasoned veteran like Randy Jackson—who has produced, played bass or performed on over 1,000 Gold, Platinum, and Multi Platinum albums—want to change his strings? Jackson, a Dean Markley string endorser for the largest part of his career, recently approached Dean Markley, looking for one string that would be versatile and long lasting, and which could be used for virtually all of his recording and live applications.

In order to achieve the goal (to create the “Ultimate Bass String”), Dean Markley Strings had to re-align its thinking and re-design certain manufacturing methods. After months of R&D the company’s engineers developed a design that incorporates three different styles of strings into one combination string. The new Randy Jackson Alchemy Bass strings have a unique core-to-wrap ratio for proper tension, and sound and feel. And they have Stainless Steel under wraps and our proprietary MC394 Gold cover wrap treatment over Silver-Plated NPS for added life.

The end result is a string that delivers the sound benefits of a Stainless Steel bass string with the feel, tension, and growl of a Nickel Plated Steel string that will last a long, long time.

“We’ve taken another important step in the evolution of string design,” notes company president Dean Markley. “Its taken a versatile artist of Randy’s caliber to provide us with a significant challenge, and we’re all very, very pleased with the results.”

Randy Jackson Alchemy Bass string sets come in the following gauges: LT (45/65/80/100), ML (45/65/85/105), and MED (50/70/85/105) for 4-string bass, and LT (45/65/80/100/125), ML (45/65/85/105/125), and MED (50/70/85/105/128) for 5-string bass.