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Brightest Nickel Rounds

#241
Im gonna laugh so hard after all the string testing you do D addario ends up being the "go-to" string for you.

But hey good job on the reports, as much as I despise d addario it's at least doing the job :)

EDIT: I kinda find Addarios being the brightest strings out there hard to believe. In my ear I hear Rotosounds being the most brightest for me.
 
#242
sonojono said:
Im gonna laugh so hard after all the string testing you do D addario ends up being the "go-to" string for you.

But hey good job on the reports, as much as I despise d addario it's at least doing the job :)

EDIT: I kinda find Addarios being the brightest strings out there hard to believe. In my ear I hear Rotosounds being the most brightest for me.
Click to expand...
I have a love/hate relationship with Rotos. I like the way they sound, but I've never liked the way they feel or the fact that they go dead so quickly. Also, this thread is only looking at nickel rounds and Roto nickels are nowhere near as bright as their SS strings.

There's quite a good chance that the D'Addarios are the final pick, but how can I know until I've given everything else a shot? This little odyssey of mine has already turned me on to several really nice string sets that I didn't know about before and I have plenty of basses to keep strung - not all of which have the same needs, so it's all useful research even if I end up going with the first set I tried.
 
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#243
So the Foderas are moving on to another bass and I just strung the test bass up with LaBella SN45 Nickel Plated (formerly "Slappers").

I don't think I've ever tried any round wound strings from LaBella, so I was looking forward to seeing what these are about.

My right-out-of-the-pack impression of these strings is that the emphasis is on upper mids. The bass is not nearly as strong as it was on the Foderas and the overall output doesn't seem as loud, either, but the tone - thanks to those hi mids - is definitely brighter. The treble seems pretty bright, too, but it's too early to tell so soon out of the pack.

Going from the round-core Foderas to these hex-core LaBellas, the strings feel a lot less flexible, although I don't think the tension is substantially higher. The outer wraps on the LaBellas are much more even, giving them a very smooth feel.

I have a two-hour rehearsal booked this evening, which should help to knock off the new string 'zing', and a gig booked for Saturday. I'll report back with findings.
 
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#244
Well, I'm surprised. Pleasantly. In all the years I've been playing, I never really considered LaBella for anything but flats. They make great flats, but I never gave them another thought.

It might still be too early; they only have a couple of hours of playing time on them, but these strings seem to be hitting all the marks. Since I started this thread I've found some great all-rounder strings that I never knew about before, but these may be the first to give real competition to the D'Addario XLs in terms of what I'm looking for for this bass. It's been so long since I tried the early sets in these tests (including the D'Addarios) that there's going to have to be a second round for the finalists anyway, but I suspect these are definitely going to make the playoffs.

At the rehearsal they delivered a really bright tone (I actually had to turn the bass UP a little - something I haven't had to do with this bass in a very long time), good overall punch, smooth feel and the stiffness I noticed this afternoon wasn't as noticeable. Maybe they loosened up a bit? Maybe I just got used to them? I can't say. What I can say is that these are nice, bright strings and definitely in the running.

...for now. :) We still have to see how they last and whether or not that brightness hangs on after they've broken in some more. I'll update after Saturday's gig.
 
#245
Curious to hear how the La Bella's age for you. I've really liked the feel of all the La Bella strings I've tried (Deep talkin flats and rounds, Superalloy, White Tapes). The rounds I've used from them sound great too but I've found they loose a lot of the sweet zing they have fairly quickly. I keep thinking I want to give them another shot.
 
#246
Played the gig tonight. House backline was.... argh!!!! I don't even want to get into it.
Let me just say that there was very little useful information I could obtain from the experience. Very disappointed.

I really wanted to give these strings a fair shake and I'm not sure I'll get a chance to do that before they go dead. Crap.
 
#247
So, now that I'm not still peaved, here's what happened: the house bass amp was in the shop. so the club's workaround was to send the bass through a DI directly into a power amp driving the house bass cab. The result: I had no control of my volume or tone throughout the gig, and the tone was mostly overpowering low end with a faint hint of clicky treble. As a result of having trouble hearing what I was playing, I managed to give myself a fine blister from digging in too hard and it was an overall unpleasant experience.

It's typical for NYC clubs to have inaccurate information on their websites regarding their backline. I expect to see different gear than what they list. I also normally bring a backup head in case theirs is shite. In this case, we played early and I had to go straight from work, so bringing a head was not really an option. Luckily for me, an L2000 has a lot of tone-shaping onboard so, with much twiddling, I was able to find a tone that could work. I wouldn't say it was good, but it worked. Still, the controls had to be set so far from where I would normally have them, it gave me no clue what the strings really sounded like.

On the positive side, the cab was an Ampeg Classic series 410, so it could have been a lot worse. They also could have just said I was out of luck and sent me straight to the PA (maybe that plus some foldback in the monitors would have been better....). The audience wasn't hearing what I was; they were hearing the PA feed, which I assume was better than what I was hearing. The house soundman was a nice guy so I just made the best of the situation. In the end, we played a good show and the crowd seemed to enjoy it which, ultimately, is more important than what strings I'm using anyway!

Still, it would have been nice to be able to get a report out on these LaBellas. :rollno:
 
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#248
Played a gig at one of my favorite NYC dive bars last night; Otto's Shrunken Head. Using the house cab ( a recent Acoustic 15) and my TH-500, I was able, finally, to get a sense of these strings in a band setting.

Obviously, the fresh-out-of-the-pack treble zing is now gone from these, but they still had good presence in the treble and high mids and good overall clarity.

The feel remains flexible and smooth - pretty comfortable all around.

Based on my (admittedly feeble) memory, these strings have a lot in common with D'Addario XLs and will definitely move on to a later round of testing - whenever that might be.

That band doesn't have any other gigs on the books for a while, and it's the band I most often use that bass with so it may be s few weeks before the next update. Not that you're not all used to that from me by now! :unsure:

Maybe I'll use that time to start assembling my next string order.
 
#249
Lo-E said:
Played a gig at one of my favorite NYC dive bars last night; Otto's Shrunken Head. Using the house cab ( a recent Acoustic 15) and my TH-500, I was able, finally, to get a sense of these strings in a band setting.

Obviously, the fresh-out-of-the-pack treble zing is now gone from these, but they still had good presence in the treble and high mids and good overall clarity.

The feel remains flexible and smooth - pretty comfortable all around.

Based on my (admittedly feeble) memory, these strings have a lot in common with D'Addario XLs and will definitely move on to a later round of testing - whenever that might be.

That band doesn't have any other gigs on the books for a while, and it's the band I most often use that bass with so it may be s few weeks before the next update. Not that you're not all used to that from me by now! :unsure:

Maybe I'll use that time to start assembling my next string order.
Click to expand...

What's going to be on your next string order?

I had stopped looking myself after settling on D'Addario XL165s for my Precision, but I'm thinking about giving a few different NPS strings a try for my old Jazz bass.
 
#250
crucislancer said:
What's going to be on your next string order?
Click to expand...
Well, I need to try the Super Brights, for sure, but I also need to go back through this thread and make a list of strings that people have recommended that I haven't tried yet.

It's been the suggestions that have been driving the study ("study" makes it sound really scientific and legitimate, doesn't it? "Conducting a study" sounds a LOT more impressive than "Trying some strings"!) TB-ers generously sharing their collective string experience on this thread has steered me in a lot of really good directions and is really what's given the thread legs. All I had to do was solicit the opinions and the TB community did the rest. I just need to get caught up now and order some more sets. Gotta go back and read through it all again....
 
#252
You might be pleasantly surprised by the labella m45 set. The old hard rockin steels. SS, but in a mild way, and not so scooped as most SS. And they last a looong time in a good state. Used them on jazzes and pbasses.
 
#258
Lo-E said:
Well, I need to try the Super Brights, for sure, but I also need to go back through this thread and make a list of strings that people have recommended that I haven't tried yet.

It's been the suggestions that have been driving the study ("study" makes it sound really scientific and legitimate, doesn't it? "Conducting a study" sounds a LOT more impressive than "Trying some strings"!) TB-ers generously sharing their collective string experience on this thread has steered me in a lot of really good directions and is really what's given the thread legs. All I had to do was solicit the opinions and the TB community did the rest. I just need to get caught up now and order some more sets. Gotta go back and read through it all again....
Click to expand...

I tried the Super Brights recently, and I liked the tone, but not the elastic feel of the strings.
 

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