La Bella Deep Talkin round wounds ???

[BooDoggie]

I pretty much stopped playing bass on a regular basis about 20 years ago. At that time, I used La Bella Deep Talkin round wound strings (45 - 105) on my Fender PJ. I used to change my strings about every 6 months or so as we played every weekend and even 5 nights a week for almost a year.

A friend of mine has offered to bring his 60's vintage Fender P bass and his amp over to my house and leave them for me to play around with for some recording I'm working on. I offered to put a new set of strings on the bass for him mainly because he doesn't remember when they were last changed. (He has retired from playing.) I have searched and can't seem to find the round wounds anywhere. Are they no longer available? Any suggestions as to a good replacement set with the same voicing and tone as those.

 

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Discontinued a while ago.

 

[BooDoggie]

Discontinued a while ago.

Just my luck I loved the sound of those on both of my basses...
Any suggestions for a good set of round wounds?

 

[ajkula66]

There's still some old stock floating around, if you *really* want these.

I'm in the similar boat as yourself, having pretty much exclusively used these strings on my short-scale basses for three decades...

 

[Root 5]

Just my luck I loved the sound of those on both of my basses...
Any suggestions for a good set of round wounds?

La Bella still make great sounding stainless steel round wounds. Super Steps ( exposed core) and their other series (M series I think; like set # M40 ).

 

[BklynKen]

Those other ones (M40, M45, etc.) are simply called Stainless Steel. Used to be called Hard Rockin' Steel. The Rx, from what I understand, are similar to that, but lower tension.

 

[TimB 619]

The M40 stainless rounds are really nice. D'addario pro steels are good too, as are DR low riders, and Hi Beams.

 

[BooDoggie]

Thanks for the info... I think the guy told me that he used a 45-105 set on his P bass, so the M45's should be perfect. I'll wait until he drops it off to me before I order a set. I need to make sure of the scale length and be certain of the gauges. No need for a complete neck and bridge setup if not necessary...

 

[BklynKen]

The M40 stainless rounds are really nice. D'addario pro steels are good too, as are DR liw riders, and Hi Beams.

I've tried all of those and found them all quite different.

@BooDoggie The question here is what did you like about the Deep Talkin' Rounds?

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Memories of how something sounded are often misleading. In fact, even audio tests done side x side right now can be hard to interpret.

Do you like high tension or low tension?
Do you want more fundamental, or more harmonics?
Are you more Motown/blues, or more punk/grunge?

-Flats that sound more 'flat-like' are GHS Precision Flats, LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass, TI Flats.
-Flats with zing are D'Addario Chromes, EB Slinky Cobalt Flats, Fender 9050s.
-Popular rounds are DR Low Riders, DR Fat Beams, D'Addario XLs, RotoSound 66. Dunlop Super Brights get a lot of love here, to me they have a 'modern' sound.

@SLaPiNFuNK is a great resource to guide you in making a selection. But it's rare to get it right first shot. You may wind up trying a dozen types. To make matters worse, some strings like Chromes and LaBella DTBs may take months to break-in and sound like they were designed. OTOH, RotoSound 66s sound best fresh out of the box, then tossed every week, or even at the end of the gig.

 

[BooDoggie]

@BooDoggie The question here is what did you like about the Deep Talkin' Rounds?

I think it was mainly the deep lows with the bright overtones that really made each string level and punch relatively equal. They sounded great on my 62 Fender passive jazz , and on my 89 Fender active PJ. Of course I had a rack mounted Ampeg SVT II preamp with a 200 watt power amp and mostly used a 4x10 or my Ampeg 8x10 cab.

 

[BooDoggie]

Memories of how something sounded are often misleading. In fact, even audio tests done side x side right now can be hard to interpret.

And 20 years after all of the ear abuse I can't really hear the way I want to anymore. I had a hearing test done just last week and was quite shocked at how bad my hearing has deteriorated. My high pitch loss starts to drop off dramatically at 3khz. And my left ear has significant low pitch loss as well.

 

[BklynKen]

I think it was mainly the deep lows with the bright overtones that really made each string level and punch relatively equal. They sounded great on my 62 Fender passive jazz , and on my 89 Fender active PJ. Of course I had a rack mounted Ampeg SVT II preamp with a 200 watt power amp and mostly used a 4x10 or my Ampeg 8x10 cab.

Understood. Well if you're interested in sticking with La Bella, I think their Stainless Steel (M45) and Rx could be to your liking. The SS are higher tension and Rx lower tension.

 

[BooDoggie]

Understood. Well if you're interested in sticking with La Bella, I think their Stainless Steel (M45) and Rx could be to your liking. The SS are higher tension and Rx lower tension.

I really don't necessarily need to stick with LaBella, but I always tend to "go with what I know". I am open to buying other brands if they have that same "mojo that I know" kinda sound.
I had another friend's Aria Pro II that I took to a local luthier and had it full checked out and setup with new strings that the guy I borrowed it from told me that he prefered. I think they were D'Addario. I could not get that bass to sound worth a crap when recording into my Studio One DAW software. The E and A were very loud and boomy and the D and G sounded like a crappy guitar with faulty pickups. I adjusted the pickups every way I could try and it still sounded like junk.

 

[TimB 619]

Understood. Well if you're interested in sticking with La Bella, I think their Stainless Steel (M45) and Rx could be to your liking. The SS are higher tension and Rx lower tension.

Haven't played the RX series, but the M40 sets I'm using are quite comfortable to play on.

 

[BklynKen]

Haven't played the RX series, but the M40 sets I'm using are quite comfortable to play on.

Yeah, I haven't either, but I really like the M45 I have on now in every way. They and Rotosound's RS66 are my two current favorites.

 

[formulaz]

See my PM. I may have an unused set lying around home somewhere.

 

[rob_thebassman]

Speaking of discontinued, what happened to la Bella stainless steel singles? @SLaPiNFuNK

 

[gitfiddl]

Let me preface the following by saying that for the last several years, I've been more of a keyboard player than a bassist. My bass playing had been relegated to filling in, casual jamming, and noodling around up until a couple months ago when my son and and I decided to try and put together a band of our own.

That said, I just put a set of the stainless La Bella RX-S4D's (.045-.105) on one of my Peavey Foundations two weeks ago. I like the RX a lot. I bought them on a whim, looking for a set of SS strings. I figured at $16/set, they were worth the gamble. They've got that bright stainless tone, but without being harsh and "planky" like RS66 and other SS strings can be, and the brightness is easily tamed with the tone knob. The windings feel smoother than the Rotos. and the strings seem to be well-balanced. As for the tension, I can't honestly remember what strings I had on that bass (Dean Markley Helix SS of the same gauges I think; it had been a year or two since I remember changing the strings), but the RX feel just a little stiffer, and I had to tweak the truss rod a tad. Long story short, I've never played the Deep Talkin' Rounds, but I really like the RX. Plenty of fundamental bottom oomph and a nice top end. Just my .02.

 

[AndyPanda]

For recording you might want to try it with the ancient strings first. I find that dead strings can give a nice thump and actually work much better in the mix than new, zingy strings.