I know jazz guitarists like TIs as well....maybe they last too long!Well they make violin strings, too
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Issue with Thomastik Infelt Jazz Flats
- Thread starter InstantEctobass
- Start date
Yep. And/or maybe they added airgaps (by using larger-diameter round wire for the intermediate wrap?). I'm just relaying what the company representative wrote. Your point is totally fair.
I don´t want to sound inexperienced, but I just bought a set of JF344 TI Flats and to my surprise :
- B and D strings are brighter than A and G. It doesn´t mater which fret (0 to 21) and even acoustically this is very noticeable. Plugged into amp and to no surprise the same happens.
- A and G strings are almost already broken-in-dull-sound right out of the box.
Is this normal? I know that with time they all will get duller. Just to rule out any obvious defect.
I didn´t have this with my Labella 760FX. All strings sounded even when new and and now they sound "dead" (but right) when used !
- B and D strings are brighter than A and G. It doesn´t mater which fret (0 to 21) and even acoustically this is very noticeable. Plugged into amp and to no surprise the same happens.
- A and G strings are almost already broken-in-dull-sound right out of the box.
Is this normal? I know that with time they all will get duller. Just to rule out any obvious defect.
I didn´t have this with my Labella 760FX. All strings sounded even when new and and now they sound "dead" (but right) when used !
Last edited:
Cave Puppy
"Humph Bo, he's wond!" - John Lennon
I tried them several times, too. Not my thing. I found they felt like ice picks under my fingers. The gauge is too thin for me. TI fanpeople are like fans of Rickenbackers, etc., cofirmation bias reigns supreme there.I'm with you on that, as I disliked them, too, though I use their Superflexible upright strings and I do love them. But TI JF lovers love them like no other string I've ever seen, and many of them get very insulted and angry if you don't love them as much as they do. But I gave them 4 months to impress me because of people telling me I needed to give them time, and they never did, so I gave up. I'm sure if I'd have hung in there another 3 or 4 days, my feelings would have been different
Try LaBella LTF, my current favorite flats, i tried almost all of them. Second favorite is Cobalt Flats, but that is for another completely different sound.
Eventually, all TI strings will even out their tone with time. But why right from the box the E is much brighter than A or D much brighter than G ... just escapes me. I scratch a nail and pluck a bit and the E ressonates like a roundwood whereas the A ressonates much darker, like a flat.
Never "seen" this.
Never "seen" this.
I've been saying that on this forum, too. Nobody seems to notice. Instead we read people obsessing about the color of their silks, or lack of them.
Professional orchestral musicians mix and match their strings as they like them. A guy from Thomastik-Infeld told me, years ago, that they can't seem to make a set of 'Cello strings without having one of them being replaced by the player. So why shouldn't electric bass guitar players?
Hi all. Can someone help? I posted above a discrepancy right from the 1st minute in my new JF344 strings. A and G are "dead" sounding and "E" and "D" are totally bright, as expected (when new).
I see no reason for this to happen. Eventually, "E" could be a bit duller compared to others right from the box, but nothing too different or that with a couple days or a week would not even out with the others.
But my JF344 set right from the box as this difference. Totally weird. Are the dull strings defective ? I had them before and never had this issue. They were all bright when new and progressively got duller with use.
I see no reason for this to happen. Eventually, "E" could be a bit duller compared to others right from the box, but nothing too different or that with a couple days or a week would not even out with the others.
But my JF344 set right from the box as this difference. Totally weird. Are the dull strings defective ? I had them before and never had this issue. They were all bright when new and progressively got duller with use.
I suggest you make a record then share here via soundcloud.
Some bassist set their mind the bass should has big fat sound on both thick EA string and piano bright on both thin DG string. And some bass like Ibanez SRFF805 i own before shown kind of character.
I've come to enjoy mixing sets on electric as well. I've had a bass stringed with three different string sets and types for a few months (six string with a different B and a TIJF C - yes, a flatwound tossed into a roundwound environment).
Now, on double bass... give me a full set of Spiro weichs all day every day.
That´s not the point. Right out from the box, there´s a timbre difference between A+G when compared to E+D.
A+G sound like 2 year old flatwounds.
E+D sound like new bright flatwounds (which is what they are supposed to for a while and them mellow with time and use)
Even scratching a nail on E or D makes that zing sound whereas in A+G there´s no zing at all. They´re dead as if they had a few years of use.
It´s the mis-match that worries me. It totally failed in band context.
I could understand if right from the box the "E" string would be just a bit darker sounding than all the others. But this is not the case and the difference between them is dramatic. It sounds as If I have 2x roundwounds and 2x worn flatwounds.
Can you make a sound clip or video clip share here and feedback to Thomastick infeld customer service department.
They should even out but will take a few weeks, my experience is that the A,D and G even out and the E stays a tiny bit brighter
You can, but I have not had much success. I like strings to feel the same. I don’t even like to mix them on my upright. Tried a few times and couldn’t deal. Silk colors don’t matter to me either
. Tone and volume issues do, as well as feel.
IME:
- The G is pretty mellow out of the box. My favorite G ever.
- The D is bright out of the box, but mellows quickly. So quickly that, until I figured out what was going on with the A, I thought the D was dead in comparison and possibly defective, but it's actually fine.
- The A is very bright with lots of overtones, and it takes a long time to break in. On some basses, like one of my fretlesses, this is maddening (the string sounds like it comes from a completely different planet), so I've gone so far as to replace it with a new LTF A. I tried a lot of different flatwound A's, and this is what sounded best (I used a Sadowsky Blue Label for a while with some success before discovering the LTF). This was surprising because the LTF set doesn't sound much like TIJF overall, but a new LTF A mixes well with a newly broken-in set of the other TIs.
- The E starts out kind of bright (for an E) and a bit undefined and hollow sounding. But it breaks in faster than the A and eventually gives you a nice not-too-thumpy low end.
Based on this, I'd say you probably have a defective A, unless they were kind enough to provide you with one that was pre-broken-in
. Contact the TI US distributor and they'll send you a new one and ask you to send yours back to them for study. But another option is to just wait for the E+D to break in and see if your mellow A fits in with them, without having to wait for the A break-in period.Well, meanwhile the seller accepted me to return the strings and granted me a new set.
From new and until now... E+A and brighter than D+G which are mellow.
E+A are almost like broken in roundwounds. They´re not like the typical flatwound (La Bella, for instance) and feel different on the fingers too as you can almost feel the wound itself.
The D+G strings feel a lot silkier and sound duller (they get broken in way faster too than E+A.
I placed the strings the same way I did with the previous ones and I guees that probably the other set was defective. Now, that old A string was dull but didn´t sound bad by itself. It was just un-balanced with that set. I wonder if my E and A strings from the "new" set will ever sound that dull as they still sound a bit bright after 4 months or so.
From new and until now... E+A and brighter than D+G which are mellow.
E+A are almost like broken in roundwounds. They´re not like the typical flatwound (La Bella, for instance) and feel different on the fingers too as you can almost feel the wound itself.
The D+G strings feel a lot silkier and sound duller (they get broken in way faster too than E+A.
I placed the strings the same way I did with the previous ones and I guees that probably the other set was defective. Now, that old A string was dull but didn´t sound bad by itself. It was just un-balanced with that set. I wonder if my E and A strings from the "new" set will ever sound that dull as they still sound a bit bright after 4 months or so.
Resurrecting a zombie thread.
I put a set of TI Flats on my Rickenbacker 4003 at the beginning of August last year & have played it pretty much every day since for at least 3hrs.
I'm extremely disappointed with these strings
I have a lot of experience with La Bella's (albeit not on RICs) but these are shockingly uneven in comparison.
The E sounds like a DEAD flatwound.
I don't mean "played in"
I mean "Okay, I've had this flatwound on for 20 yrs and it finally reached the end Time for new strings. Rest well old chum".
The AD & G are still almost zingy.
Now.... my first thought was that perhaps I had botched up stringing it despite being unbelievably careful and anal about the way I string my basses, carefully measuring out exactly how much I need to get 3 winds round the post, making sure the string isn't twisted at all in any way from the ball up to the silks, putting a bend in the string at the length I want before snipping it beyond the bend to ensure the wrap doesn't become disconnected from the core etc.
But I couldn't have the E was actually fine for the first four month then it went from:
"Hmm. It's been four months, I suppose they aren't as bright as they were but, these strings are a bit zingy still, I wonder if this is as worn in as they get?"
to
"Hang on. The top three strings are still a tiny bit brighter than La Bellas would be by now but this E string is just kaput"
just over the space of the first 6 wks of this year.
I've not done anything weird to it.
I wipe my strings down after playing on each of my basses every single time without exception.
I give them a light coating of Fast Fret being careful to wipe off the excess.
I think these strings are just junk - or at the very least looking at back at the activity on this post their quality is wildly inconsistent.
I only bought TIs instead of La Bella's because I wanted to avoid re-cutting the nut and the JF344's are almost perfectly sized (in fact the E is fractionally narrower).
It's not like I can buy a single TI E string to replace it.
That was unnecessarily expensive experiment that failed miserably
I'll never buy another set of them again
I've decided screw it, I'm gonna throw rounds on it again.
From McCartney to Foxton
I put a set of TI Flats on my Rickenbacker 4003 at the beginning of August last year & have played it pretty much every day since for at least 3hrs.
I'm extremely disappointed with these strings
I have a lot of experience with La Bella's (albeit not on RICs) but these are shockingly uneven in comparison.
The E sounds like a DEAD flatwound.
I don't mean "played in"
I mean "Okay, I've had this flatwound on for 20 yrs and it finally reached the end Time for new strings. Rest well old chum".
The AD & G are still almost zingy.
Now.... my first thought was that perhaps I had botched up stringing it despite being unbelievably careful and anal about the way I string my basses, carefully measuring out exactly how much I need to get 3 winds round the post, making sure the string isn't twisted at all in any way from the ball up to the silks, putting a bend in the string at the length I want before snipping it beyond the bend to ensure the wrap doesn't become disconnected from the core etc.
But I couldn't have the E was actually fine for the first four month then it went from:
"Hmm. It's been four months, I suppose they aren't as bright as they were but, these strings are a bit zingy still, I wonder if this is as worn in as they get?"
to
"Hang on. The top three strings are still a tiny bit brighter than La Bellas would be by now but this E string is just kaput"
just over the space of the first 6 wks of this year.
I've not done anything weird to it.
I wipe my strings down after playing on each of my basses every single time without exception.
I give them a light coating of Fast Fret being careful to wipe off the excess.
I think these strings are just junk - or at the very least looking at back at the activity on this post their quality is wildly inconsistent.
I only bought TIs instead of La Bella's because I wanted to avoid re-cutting the nut and the JF344's are almost perfectly sized (in fact the E is fractionally narrower).
It's not like I can buy a single TI E string to replace it.
That was unnecessarily expensive experiment that failed miserably
I'll never buy another set of them again
I've decided screw it, I'm gonna throw rounds on it again.
From McCartney to Foxton
They are as even as any other string I’ve tried, more so than most.
I love those strings, and anyone who doesn’t is just an embarrassment to the bass playing community.
I love those strings, and anyone who doesn’t is just an embarrassment to the bass playing community.
