| TI Rounds
Hey Steve,
I use the TI Flats and love them. However don't expect the TI Rounds to be the round version of the flats. They are not.
I just finished testing (for myself) the JR344 rounds over a grueling 6 month rehearsal / gig schedule so here are my impressions. Remember that this is only my opinion(s).
They are certainly the lowest tension rounds I have come across. Extremely flexible. Also the smoothest round I have ever come across.
Now here are more specifics based on the last 6 months.
They are great for fingerstyle, a little thin sounding with a pick, and although I do very little slap/pop they are not good at all for that.
I found the E & A strings to be very nice to play with an even natural feel when going from string to string.
The G string has a rather muted sound without any high end snap at all. I didn't want a lot of sizzle or crispness, but some brightness would have been good to pronounce the notes better. Since there was none I saw that as a shortcoming because high notes got lost in my opinion.
The other odd thing was that the G string didn't seem to get picked up as well as the other strings. Playing alone wasn't that noticeable but add a band and that slight "drop out" was noticed. But in fairness others have said they never had that problem, while a few have said they had to raise the pup to solve that problem.
Put it down to say that each bass / pup combination / player is different so each person should see how the G string is for their own situation.
My main gripe was the D string. The gauge just never felt right and it seemed to have more zing than the other strings.
I think a little thicker gauge would have solved that problem but there was no way to check.
When coming across the fretboard E to A felt natural, warm, and smooth. From the A to the D felt like a drop almost to a guitar string with more zing, less warmth. Then from D to G felt like going back to a bass string with a muted warmth type of sound.
The E & A broke in very nicely, the D took a long time to "calm down" and the G went from some zing to muted.
The other issue I encountered was staying in tune. After a normal period of time the E & A stayed fairly close to tune but the D had a tendency to drop down repeatedly. Even though I check my tuning after each set, suddenly I had to really raise the D back up to pitch all the time.
The G tended to swing up/down in tuning although not that badly.
I noticed that even slight temperature changes caused the strings to go out with the D always being the worst. I used that strings from January to July (winter to summer), as well as in cool clubs as well as hot clubs.
I've only seen one other player post about this problem, but again in fairness the majority of players said they had no tuning issues.
Personally I do like these strings but that D was just too annoying in feel, touch, sound, and tuning.
Even so, I would still encourage you to give them a whirl if only for your own observations. Different basses/fretboards/hands get different results.
Many players seem to really like the Jazz Rounds, so I tend to be in the minority with my opinions.
On the other hand the Jazz Flats are great and I doubt I'll use any other flat after trying a bunch and finding the TI Flats.
I think these could be among the greatest RW strings if TI does some tweaking with the D & G strings.
FYI - I used a 4 string Warwick Thumb through an Epifani UL 502/UL310 and always use a strobe tuner if that helps. Of course the Warwick's wenge fretboard could have had an influence on the tones so take that into account. The unusual feel of the D however would have still felt the same imho.
Last edited by Gene Leone : 07-05-2006 at 11:26 AM.
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