There's other old Fender flats from the 60s or 70s with black silk too. Different silk colors for different gauges possibly?
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So after some more research, Fender had 3 different gauges available during that time, the 80s light, 850s medium, and 90s heavy. Also, as far as silk goes, it looks like during the 50s, 60s, and 70s they had the blue silk like on JPJs bass in the Bath footage. The green silk on bass strings didn't happen till later. So with Labellas only having blue on their heavier gauge sets, these have got to be Fender flats.
From memory I don't remember much or anything on his solo albums that sounded like flats, but I would have to go back and listen.
Just for kicks here's a version of When the Levee Breaks he did this year. Quite the colorful collection of silks on the Jazz he's playing. Rounds round-ish to me, but idk.
Listening to the various clips in this thread makes me think what a joy it must have to play in that band with Bonham.
And also, if jpj had the same strings from LZ 2 through 4, how dead/gnarly must they have been by the end?
And also, if jpj had the same strings from LZ 2 through 4, how dead/gnarly must they have been by the end?
I remember reading him saying in an interview that he changed his strings fairly often, even the flats. It's funny because with how well known it is he used Rotosounds in LZ, they don't list him as a 77 user, so I think he may have never really used their flats much, and I don't think he ever did in the studio.Swing Bass 66s on his 51 P and Alembic, PSD 99s on the 8 string. I wanna say he used flats on his fretless P for In My Time of Dying too, but not sure.
I checked the book and he did use the Jazz on Presence. So Achilles Last Stand and Nobody's Fault But Mine were recorded with a Hagstrom 8 string with Rotosound PSD 99s, and the rest of Presence was the Jazz (presumably with flats) according to the "All the Songs" book. He got the Alembic and Becvar basses between the recording of Presence and the 77 tour. I happen to have two American Original 60s Js, both are currently strung with DR Legend flats, and I just ordered a set of GHS P flats so I'm going to A/B them. I did find a thread on here that says the old Fender flats were round core, which is interesting because DR Legends are round core. GHS P flats are hex core. I haven't played P flats in a long time since they stopped making them in the 37.25' winding length, but according to GHS they're flexible enough so that extra part of the string wrapping around the tuner on the E isn't an issue. So we'll see how it goes, but I do have extra DR Legends just in case lol.
I do agree the wrap appears to be flatwound here, but for the sake of thoroughness, were there roundwounds at the time with blue over-the-saddle silks?
I'm not 100% sure but AFAIK the only rounds available in 1970 were Rotosounds and GHS Boomers, which of course have slightly different red silks. JPJ definitely did not use rounds on his Jazz in Led Zeppelin. I think that's safe to say given all the photos of him during LZ with the obvious shine of flats on his J. Not to mention his tone. It's also obvious when he IS using rounds on his 51 P on Immigrant Song and Black Dog. It's even more obvious on live recordings. One bootleg I have called "Snowblind" live in Vancouver 1975 is very bass heavy and it's obvious he's using flats.
Weird that I just stumbled on this thread. I just watched a video and of course I can’t remember the title of. Anyway… Was a late ‘60s performance and noticed JPJ’s ‘E’ string looked really floppy. I’ve played Roto flats for decades; they’re not floppy. Roto flats players I’m sure would agree.
Oh yes. I have lots of experience with Roto flats. Stiffest flats on the market. I played in an Iron Maiden tribute band for a few years and I used his signature P bass with his signature 50-110 Rotosound 77s and they're bridge cables. Even the 45-105 set are too.
I've tried the 45-105 77s on most of my 60s J reissues over the years too and they just don't have the sound that JPJ has. He's listed on Rotosounds site as a Swing Bass 66 user but not a JB77 user so that's why I'm convinced he didn't use their flats a lot, and if he did at all it was minimal. There are some pics of him with the J where red silk is visible at the headstock but not a ton.
Makes sense. He may have used flats by other companies, though.
What other companies? Rotosound, Fender, and Labella were the only widely available bass strings at that time.
