Rotosound 77

seanm · #1 10-02-2011, 09:06 PM

I have been playing a set of heavy gauge rotosound 77 flats for at least a couple of months now. Thought I would give them a mini-review.

I am not good at describing sounds, so don't expect "it had a hint of low-mids with a bouquet of highs and hints of raisin and liquorice".

My overwhelming response to these strings is meh. They don't have the great thump of the LaBella's, nor any of the brighter, but still great tone of chromes.

The tension is not as high as I expected given the heavy gauge (50 75 95 110). They are very smooth and do not have the stickiness that the Chromes or Fenders have out of the box.

They also don't seemed to have changed tone too much (although I could be remembering wrong). They seem to sound about the same out of the box as two (three?) months later.

I have not gigged with these strings, they are on my practice bass. They probably sit ok in the mix, but given that I have other flats that are more interesting, I probably won't bother switching any of the gigging basses to them.

They are about $30 (for 4 strings) at JustStrings.

Catbuster · #2 10-02-2011, 09:45 PM

I don't really care for them. Steve Harris does, but they seem like they want to be too harsh and midrangey for what a set of flats should be, IMO.

Mojo-Man · #3 10-02-2011, 09:59 PM

They are not among my favorite flats.
They just seen average, nothing special about tone.
Tried a set once, would never buy them again.
But that's just me.
I prefer.
TI-JF344 flats.
GHS- Precision flats.
Chromes.
La Bella 1954-flats.
In tat order.

seanm · #4 10-02-2011, 10:33 PM

Mojo-Man, have you tried LaBella 760FL or 760FS? I would love to hear a comparison between them and the 1954 flats.

blr2 · #5 10-02-2011, 11:43 PM

To me, Roto77 are not better or worse than any other brand of flats, just different. Yes, they don't thump like Labellas or old Fenders. They don't have the mids of TI or the brightness of fresh Chromes, bit they do have their own sound signature.

seanm · #6 10-03-2011, 12:22 AM

blr2, I agree. I guess it is like amps; some people want clean, some want coloured. In flats, I guess I want more colour than the 77s.

I will definitely keep them on my practice bass. To be honest, for practice they are near perfect because they have a great feel and the neutral tone works very well.

PBnJBassist · #7 10-03-2011, 02:51 AM

I'll chip in and just agree. I tried Roto-77s (heavy set also) and I went back to my GHS Precision flats (regular "fat" set). Something about those Rotos that are just so darn appealing... I do like the packaging art - it's very stylish.

Leverus · #8 10-03-2011, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanm

My overwhelming response to these strings is meh. They don't have the great thump of the LaBella's, nor any of the brighter, but still great tone of chromes.

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought about hem when I tried them a while back. They're not terrible, but they don't have much going for them. The set I had was horribly sticky feeling on top of that.

If I go back to flats, I'll stick with Chromes or GHS Precisions.

Deaky · #9 10-03-2011, 11:55 AM

I had a set on Pbass for a while but I kinda grew to dislike them. No bottom or top end just midrange. They were quite rough in comparison to other flats and the E string always sounded dead. They had quite low output too.

For flats I dont think you can beat LaBella. I like TI's too though...