These are what I am using these days. Low tension feel but a much brighter and modern sound than LTFs.
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La Bella LTF-4A Low Tension Flexible Flats .042-.100 vs 760FL Deep Talkin' Bass 043-.104
- Thread starter Tom Tater
- Start date
These are what I am using these days. Low tension feel but a much brighter and modern sound than LTFs.
I see them! And it's hard to justify their presence otherwise (there's no outer silk in the first place).
@skygazer:
you documented your misadventures, and subsequent workarounds, with La Bella Low Tension Flats on headless basses here
I just love the feel and sound of LaBella Low Tension Flats, but they are problematic with a hipshot-style headless... in my case, a Kiesel Vader 5. A few months after I installed my first set of LTF's, the B-string started to slip... out of tune, when I tried to tune it up I could sense it start to unravel! A little later, the D-string did the same thing. Ugh! This is a shot after I tried to recover the B string:
LaBella service is very helpful, but they are very clear about not cutting their flat wound strings below the binding! Still, they did tell me [This invalid...
LaBella service is very helpful, but they are very clear about not cutting their flat wound strings below the binding! Still, they did tell me [This invalid...
Hey all, I have a broken LaBella LTF E string somewhere.
I will try to find it and post pix this weekend.
Interesting if they have a silk dampening layer like TI Jazz and orchestral strings.
I love TI Jazz Flats for fingerstyle and pick, but find them slightly inert for tapping/slapping, like the string soaks up a bit of the energy, reducing the attack and not ringing out the same.
I think I had a similar take on the LTFs and that could explain it!
I will try to find it and post pix this weekend.
Interesting if they have a silk dampening layer like TI Jazz and orchestral strings.
I love TI Jazz Flats for fingerstyle and pick, but find them slightly inert for tapping/slapping, like the string soaks up a bit of the energy, reducing the attack and not ringing out the same.
I think I had a similar take on the LTFs and that could explain it!
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If you find something, I might volunteer to butcher my entire set of unused LTFs, bought this year....
I just got out my slightly used set of Low Tension Flats, to see if I could spot any stray fibers around the ball end, and I spotted this where the string had been wound around the tuner:
an undyed strand of something non-metal, tangled up with the silk for a couple of inches. Could this be what we're looking for?
Very possibly. Any other explanation I'm able to conjure up - such as, uuuh... a layer of white outer silk just to make the pink pop up more? - sounds somewhat farther-fetched to me...
Ok, I've been pulling it apart. No sign of that whiteish stuff at the top end. When I cut into the section it was showing the material crumbled away like dried glue. Cutting further down the string, just after the silk starts, no sign of it. Have cut the string in several places, shearing off a bit of the flat wrap, and no sign of anything other than the round core.
This has been the G string. Will have a look in the A string next.
A string:
{Deleted}
E string:
1. Round core
2. Roundwound wrap
3. Roundwound wrap
4. Flatwound wrap
Edit - HANG ON
Found fibers between the inner roundwound wrap and the core of the E string
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Same structure as the E. Flat wrap, 2 round wraps, fibers, core
Also, the core of the E string isn't perfectly smooth, as if it isn't simply a round bit of wire. But this is getting on a level of minuteness too far for my fingers and eyes - need tools and a magnifying glass.
[Edit - if you blow up these photos you can just about see the grooves in the core that I can feel when I run my thumbnail along it]
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Went back to the G string. Can't find any fibers.
And that core *does* feel smooth
And that core *does* feel smooth
Maybe it serves as a lock washer - a spring between two pieces of almost incompressible steel - to replace the bite of a hex core.
(Why else would a hex core be used except to bite into the first winding?)
Is it audible?
Thank you. Very interesting.
(Why else would a hex core be used except to bite into the first winding?)
Is it audible?
Thank you. Very interesting.
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If that's true then it's the opposite of what we've usually thought, that a silk or nylon layer let things move more smoothly. But it still must be more flexible than steel on steel.
But if it serves to keep the first winding locked on, then we must wonder about any round core strings that *don't* have a silk/nylon layer. Do they develop a microscopic "rattle", sooner, or what? And is *that* audible?
But if it serves to keep the first winding locked on, then we must wonder about any round core strings that *don't* have a silk/nylon layer. Do they develop a microscopic "rattle", sooner, or what? And is *that* audible?
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I only played my set for two months, so was only getting going on the breaking in phase, but I could hear a difference between the G string and the rest - brighter. I had assumed it was to do with it having only one wrap. Now I'm wondering if I was hearing the lack of a dampening material around the core.
But before we starting coming up with explanations for what we think we can hear and feel, I think someone with proper magnification and nimble tools needs to take apart a set of these strings - clearly there's a lot going on, and my investigations have been pretty clumsy. Fingers, wire cutters, phone camera.
But before we starting coming up with explanations for what we think we can hear and feel, I think someone with proper magnification and nimble tools needs to take apart a set of these strings - clearly there's a lot going on, and my investigations have been pretty clumsy. Fingers, wire cutters, phone camera.
LTF4A on Jazz bass still sound like 760FL but slightly airly . I prefer EB Cobalt flat which make Jazz bass sound juicy meaty shine !
Happy to see your both nice China made CV P and J. I been own both previously . CV60P with 760FL and CV60J with Fender 9050L.
But i only keep the Matt freeman P currently.
If you able find a China CV50P for your collection , i am highly recommend LTF4A for it.
