"Flat wounds in black plastic" and string ID (Air)

[Prodigus Filius]

Some people call nylons flats because they’re not ribbed like rounds. I don’t think he meant flats under the nylon.

Ah yes. See post #42 Here by HaphasSard who mentions the confusing history of flatwound strings being called tapewounds and tapewounds being called flatwounds

 

[Just Wrong]

Ah yes. See post #42 Here by HaphasSard who mentions the confusing history of flatwound strings being called tapewounds and tapewounds being called flatwounds

FWIW, Janek Gwizdala often refers to tapes as flats in his videos. Magma also calls their tapes “flat wound black nylon” and “flat black nylon.”

And La Bella at least once made round tape wound strings: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/la...opular-nylon-tape-wound-bass-strings.1662008/

 

[Prodigus Filius]

FWIW, Janek Gwizdala often refers to tapes as flats in his videos. Magma also calls their tapes “flat wound black nylon” and “flat black nylon.”

And La Bella at least once made round tape wound strings: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/la...opular-nylon-tape-wound-bass-strings.1662008/

Seen those pumpkin tapes. So round tape on rounds instead of flat tape.

 

[Tim Schnautz]

"Flat wounds in black plastic"​

That almost sounds like a Moody Blues song…

 

[Prodigus Filius]

D’addario adds to confusion about tapewounds vis a vis flatwounds with this on their tapewounds page. If you didn’t know better you’d think they were flatwounds with tape over them. I thought this myself at one point till TB cleared up the business of all but GHS being roundwounds under the tape

And the highlighting of steel flatwound construction on the Tapewound page makes it more potentially confusing

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Short- and medium scale Rotosound Jazz Bass 77 are closer to the G and D strings from their long-scale sets than to the long-scale E and A: they're much smoother than the latter, and not nearly as bright, even out of the box.

This makes sense. I haven't tried the short scale sets in a VERY long time, I remember they were too light for my playing style. The strings in the video actually sound quite similar to the D+G string you typically get with long scale Roto flats, but are lacking the upper mid bite you normally get from the E+A strings. The E+A strings are usually much brighter with the long scale sets, almost like roundwounds, and need a very long time to mellow out.

Or at least that's what they used to be like in the past. Recently I've installed two sets of Roto long scale flats for customers where the E+A strings were considerably smoother (both with regards to feel and tone) than the Roto 77 flats I've used and loved in the past. All the strings had a similar feel/tone out of the box. If it wasn't for packaging and the uniquely colored ball ends I would never have guessed they were Rotos. The Roto flats I've used in the past, for over 30 years, have ALWAYS had significantly rougher/brighter E+A strings. These recent Roto flats also felt less stiff, particularly the E+A.

Have they changed the design? It might just be an out of spec batch I guess. Roto flats have always seemed a bit inconsistent, with the physical roughness of each individual string (particularly the D+G) varying considerably from set to set. These recent sets disappointed me. They sounded closer to any other flats, lacking the upper mids presence that make Roto flats toally unique. I hope this isn't a deliberate change by Rotosound. If that's the case, my favorite flats are gone.

 

[iiipopes]

The light blue silk is also on La Bella medium and short scale black nylon tapewounds.