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Are Thomastik strings easier on the hands
- Thread starter Swipter
- Start date
They're both "low tension" and "flexible", so yes, they will be easier on your fingers both for fretting and plucking.
TI Jazz Rounds are noticeably lower tension than their flats (and the flats are already low tension). Takes a soft touch to play them well, which sounds like what you are after.
IMO, yes, in some ways. However, some dont like the change in attack of a note, the extreme focus on mids, the lack of true highs, and the wider excursion of the much more flexible string which requires changes in plucking technique as well as bass setup to accommodate the perceived “looseness” due to smaller diameter core and overall smaller diameter of the strings.
I had a set of them a few years ago. Ran them on a G&L JB5. I liked the tone. Definitely not going to give you flatwound tone IMO, but it is a good tone. If you need low tension (sounds like you do), you can get a good sound out of them with the right setup (meaning you may want to EQ them slightly differently than the Labella flats).
Another possible low tension round is the Hellborg Rounds from Dogal. Ran these on an L2500 for a year or so. Liked the definition on the high end. Present but not overly harsh high end IMO.
Either low tension option likely requires you to setup the bass for it. Took significant* adjustment to get everything dialed in when I switched to the Jazz Rounds.
*Significant adjustment meaning more adjustment than usual for a string change. Was not a concerning level of adjustment.
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Yes both of those are the same with different packaging. I have bought TI strings for years and only received the yellow packaging version (even when buying from listings showing the blue packaging).
I would think these could be P bass sounding on a P bass. I know i don't normally eq and only use the tone knob. I don't care much for thud thump of old strings, like I hear. Thomastik seem to have more character.
You said these are even lighter than the flats? You haven't, by chance, used d'addario exl170 strings? They are on my jazz consistently and I know that tension. Is there comparison between Thomastik flats and those?
EXL170 > TI Jazz Flats > TI Jazz Rounds for string tension.
Specs are available from manufacturers at:
EXL170 (click on string tension chart): EXL170 Nickel Wound | Bass Guitar Strings | D'Addario
TI Jazz Flats: Jazz Flat Wound Bass Guitar | Guitar Strings | Products | Thomastik-Infeld Vienna
TI Jazz Rounds: Jazz Round Wound Bass Guitar | Guitar Strings | Products | Thomastik-Infeld Vienna
You can see the TI Jazz Rounds are significantly lower tension than the Jazz Flats and Daddarios that you mentioned. I have played all three sets and you can feel the difference. Jazz Round difference being the most obvious by feel (supported by the charts as well).
Specs are available from manufacturers at:
EXL170 (click on string tension chart): EXL170 Nickel Wound | Bass Guitar Strings | D'Addario
TI Jazz Flats: Jazz Flat Wound Bass Guitar | Guitar Strings | Products | Thomastik-Infeld Vienna
TI Jazz Rounds: Jazz Round Wound Bass Guitar | Guitar Strings | Products | Thomastik-Infeld Vienna
You can see the TI Jazz Rounds are significantly lower tension than the Jazz Flats and Daddarios that you mentioned. I have played all three sets and you can feel the difference. Jazz Round difference being the most obvious by feel (supported by the charts as well).
If you add up a 4 string set, the flats end up being a decent amount less tension in total (though some strings are fairly close). Assuming I used my calculator correctly....
in lbs
EXL170: 165.7
Jazz Flats: 140.2
Jazz Rounds: 122.3
Relative to EXL170, Jazz Flats are ~15% lighter.
Relative to EXL170, Jazz Rounds are ~25% lighter.
Measured specs do not translate perfectly to feel particularly when comparing round to flat (since string surface feels different). That said, the Jazz Flats feel lighter than the D'addarios. The Jazz Rounds feel lighter than the Jazz Flats. Specs show the feel difference is reasonable to expect given actual tension difference.
I recently replaced some D'Addario Chromes with Jazz Flats. Noticeably lower tension, I had to fiddle with the truss rod for a while before I could dial in the action properly again. To me, they feel much nicer, but I've always had a fairly light picking hand anyway. If you play heavy they're probably not going to be fun to play.
I kinda suspect the blue package is for distribution in Europe and the yellow package the rest of the world. I ordered mine from Thomann so they shipped from Germany and I got a blue package. If my guess is right then people who order Jazz Flats and Rounds from Amazon probably also get a blue package because the cheapest ones ship from England.
