La Bella DTFs vs LTFs on Precision bass

[cdwillis]

I'm mostly a guitar player that's had a bass to mess around with on the side for years and I'm starting to take my bass playing a little more seriously. What this means is I've mostly used P basses with rounds (Fender and EB Slinkys).

A few years ago I had a 5 string SUB Ray bass and tried some Chromes out. It's been too long for me to remember if they were the light gauge, medium light, or medium gauge ones, but I do remember how much stiffer the strings felt. That's been a few years ago and my hands are lot stiffer and arthritic than back then lol. I'm not trying to tear my hands up proving how tough I am for playing a heavy strings.

Fast forward to now and that bass is long gone. I'm back to having a Mexican standard P and I feel like it suits me better. I play with a pick about 75% of the time, 25% with fingers, and I don't slap. The bass came with Rotosound rb45 strings, the 45-105 nickel plated rounds. Not bad strings as far as I'm concerned, but I'd like to try some flats.

Because of my previous experience with the Chromes I read up a little more on flats. I see a lot of praise for La Bella Deep Talkin Flats and their Low Tension Flats so I'm going back and forth between them. Part of me is afraid that the LTFs are going to be too loose with the pick attack when I play, but at the same time I'm hesitant of using a DTF set if they're going to be as stiff as the Chromes were on the Ray. I was hoping some people had direct experience with the two. Would the light gauge 760FL DTFs be a good compromise between the LTFs and the medium gauge DTFs? I wish La Bella published the tension of the DTFs too.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

Since you've mentioned these three strings, this might help:

I recently have tried 45-65-85-105 Chromes, 49-69-89-109 LaBellas and 50-70-90-110 Roto Bass all on the same bass. I found them much of a muchness in regard to stiffness and actual tension.

(The LaBellas, though, did seem to be wanting to be played harder, they're less responsive than the Roto and Chromes.)

So if I were wanting to replace a 45-65-85-105 set of Roto Bass with flats, I would first try either the 43-60-82-104 LaBella 760FL, or the 40-60-80-100 Chromes ECB84.

I know I like Chromes, but with a P, I think I would first give the 760FL a chance.

Lots of other opinions will be along soon, I'm certain

 

[Space Pickle]

The Labella Deep Talkin' Flats are absolutely my favourite flatwound string, but they are certainly hard to play. Hard to obtain where I live, too.

 

[michael_t]

I play with a pick about 75% of the time, 25% with fingers, and I don't slap. The bass came with Rotosound rb45 strings, the 45-105 nickel plated rounds. Not bad strings as far as I'm concerned, but I'd like to try some flats...

Part of me is afraid that the LTFs are going to be too loose with the pick attack when I play, but at the same time I'm hesitant of using a DTF set if they're going to be as stiff as the Chromes were on the Ray. I was hoping some people had direct experience with the two. Would the light gauge 760FL DTFs be a good compromise between the LTFs and the medium gauge DTFs?

Are you okay with the overall stiffness of the Roto Bass 45-105? If so, you should be fine with the 760FL (43-104). I've tried them on my P bass in the past and didn't find them uncomfortably stiff. I think they would suit the pick style better as well due to the firmness of the hex core.

 

[cdwillis]

I don't have any issues with the tension of the current Rotos on the bass. If anything the E feels a little floppy compared to the rest of the strings as far as tension goes.

When I was bored last night I spent some time trying to find the tension for a few sets of strings to compare them to the Rotos. The Deep Talkin Flats and the Chromes aren't really that far off from the tension of the current strings, but tension doesn't translate exactly into the stiffness of the string from what I've been reading.

Rotosound RB45 nickel rounds
45 48.27
65 51.30
85 47.06
105 38.60
185.23 lbs total tension

Chromes "regular light” long scale
cb045 47lbs
cb065 53.94
cb080 47.52
cb100 40.29
188.75 lbs total tension

Chromes extra light
40 37.6
60 45.2
75 45.8
95 35.2
163.8 lbs total tension

La Bella Low Tension Flats
42 36.2
56 34
75 30.5
101 34.2
134.9 lbs total tension

I'm leaning towards the Deep Talkin Flats. Going off the string gauges I'd imagine the tension was pretty balanced. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind most string sets having a higher tension A and G string and whether or not it's good/bad to balance them all out. I'm probably overthinking things and would be happy with any of the strings I mentioned.

 

[Spidey2112]

Dude, your avatar! Hilarious! Captain Mario Kirk!

 

[michael_t]

I'm leaning towards the Deep Talkin Flats. Going off the string gauges I'd imagine the tension was pretty balanced.

What I liked about the La Bella 760FL (43-60-82-104) was how balanced and even across all four strings they felt. The Chromes ECB81 (45-65-80-100), on the other hand, were very uneven in feel with a very tight D and a relatively loose E.

 

[Yahboy]

70% pick playing.

LTF4A, if you always play moderate pick style close to bridge along with palm mute. String can get floopy if you play fast note from above pickup forward to neck neck area .

DTF 760FL or FS , if you are aggressive rock pick player with medium to high action. Since both are stiffer than LTF4A, your fretting finger could get tired if play to long on a show. So, strong hand and finger priority.

I also recommend you a look to EB Cobalt flat 45-105 or 50-110 for aggressive pick and she just great for loud rock band !

Hope help

 

[GIBrat51]

I'm mostly a guitar player that's had a bass to mess around with on the side for years and I'm starting to take my bass playing a little more seriously. What this means is I've mostly used P basses with rounds (Fender and EB Slinkys).

A few years ago I had a 5 string SUB Ray bass and tried some Chromes out. It's been too long for me to remember if they were the light gauge, medium light, or medium gauge ones, but I do remember how much stiffer the strings felt. That's been a few years ago and my hands are lot stiffer and arthritic than back then lol. I'm not trying to tear my hands up proving how tough I am for playing a heavy strings.

Fast forward to now and that bass is long gone. I'm back to having a Mexican standard P and I feel like it suits me better. I play with a pick about 75% of the time, 25% with fingers, and I don't slap. The bass came with Rotosound rb45 strings, the 45-105 nickel plated rounds. Not bad strings as far as I'm concerned, but I'd like to try some flats.

Because of my previous experience with the Chromes I read up a little more on flats. I see a lot of praise for La Bella Deep Talkin Flats and their Low Tension Flats so I'm going back and forth between them. Part of me is afraid that the LTFs are going to be too loose with the pick attack when I play, but at the same time I'm hesitant of using a DTF set if they're going to be as stiff as the Chromes were on the Ray. I was hoping some people had direct experience with the two. Would the light gauge 760FL DTFs be a good compromise between the LTFs and the medium gauge DTFs? I wish La Bella published the tension of the DTFs too.

I use - or have used - all three, so here are my impressions.... I should also say that I've been playing basses with flat wound strings for... going on 55 years, now. I've played lots of different ones, of many makes, scale lengths, and gauges. So...
- D' Addario Chromes. I had a well broken-in set, taken from an old bass I bought for a project. Years later, I put them on a new-to-me '15 G&L Tom Hamilton Sig. ASAT bass - which uses "Hamiltone" pickups, rather than the normal ones. Anyway... I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary with them, as far as actual tension or stiffness went. Very similar to Fender 9050Ls, in fact; not too stiff, not too "limp". They were brighter than I really like, but I could dial most of that out easily enough. I was... satisfied... with them, until they started to die after about 2 years on that bass. I didn't like them enough to put a new set on that bass, though. I replaced them with a set of Fender 9050Ls. Which are not as bright - a little more lows, and low-mids - and just a touch more suitable for what I like to play on that bass.
- La Bella DTFs. Well, first of all, for a long scale bass? You can get them in 4 gauges; not including the 760FGS Gold Flats. Sadly, they no longer make the long scale 39-96 760FX's - which I like a lot. So, depending on which set you get, they will vary - some - in tension and stiffness. The 45-105 Gold Flats, while the same gauge as the 760FS DTFs, feel a little less stiff - and sound a little less "Old School" thumpy, too; due to the different outer wrap wire, IMO. But, all the long scale DTFs that are available today, are certainly stiff - the 52-110 760FM "Jamersons" set are very stiff, indeed. And they all pretty much define the term "flat wound thump"... So, pick the ones you want. Other than the now-cancelled 760FXs and a set of the Gold Flats (on my Jack Casady Bass), I use the 43-104 760F's on some of my long scale basses. As for actual tension? Well, they don't give me any signs that it's particularly high. Certainly not in the same league as Rotosound's RS77LDs; at 214lbs.? Those things really are bridge cables - and they feel like it, too. Sure do sound good, though...
-La Bella DTFFs. At 136lbs. of actual tension (6 lbs. less than TI Jazz Flats), these are pretty much the low tension champs of flats. But, unlike the flexibility king TIJFs, the DTFFs feel like a lot of other, lighter gauge flats. Which is partly due to their gauge (42-100), and partly due to their round core wire (most flats have a hex core). Both of which make the DTFF's sound noticeably less "thumpy" than other La Bella flats. Not a lot less, but.. noticeable. I had a set of them on my '73 Rick 4001 for a while; I quite liked them on that bass. But I took them off recently, since I'm (very reluctantly) going to sell that bass in the near future.
So... bottom line? If you want flats that aren't particularly high tension, and are at least reasonably flexible? Yeah, you could try the La Bella DTFFs. Or, pretty much any other flat in the 42-100 range. I usually recommend the Fender 9050Ls, unless you want to spend more than those cost. If you feel like splurging? Optima's 4440L RBs, or their 4099RL "Chromes" - both 45-100 gauge - might make you happy. They certainly do me. Same for Dogal's 42-100 R44s. Of course, you could really splurge, and get yourself a set of 43-100 TI JF344 Jazz Flats. I have them on my Alembic Epic; other that being to flexible for me to play with a pick (without large changes to my technique), I love them to death on that bass...






no

 

[iiipopes]

I echo all the positive comments above about the La Bella Deep Talkin' Flats 760FL 43-104. I have a set on my Jaguar bass funk machine, and they do all the classic goodness with moderate tension and feel as advertised.

 

[cdwillis]

I love that Jag bass, iiipopes.

I ordered the 43-104 Deep Talkin Flats earlier today. Should be here by Saturday. I'm excited to try them out.

 

[JRT64]

I have the DTF 43-104 flats on both of my P-Basses, and they work and sound great. They make my P-Basses sound like I think they should. As for stiffness, they have never felt what I would call stiff at all. YMMV

 

[Yahboy]

I have the DTF 43-104 flats on both of my P-Basses, and they work and sound great. They make my P-Basses sound like I think they should. As for stiffness, they have never felt what I would call stiff at all. YMMV

On my personal opinion about decrease the stiffness on labella DTF flatwound is trim all the nut slot as low as 0.07mm (measure the clearance between string and first fret while pressed on 3rd fret ), neck relief .008' (check point on 7th fret) and low action 1.5mm E string to 1.2mm G string.

The important thing is all fret wire must have great leveling and no ski jump on P neck.

 

[cdwillis]

The strings got delayed a couple days. They finally showed up today. All I can say is, "WOW!"

I love these strings. They're not any stiffer than the roto rounds that were on it before and they are so smooth. It is an absolute delight to slide around into different positions on the fretboard. They have a nice warm sound without being dull with the tone all the way up. Rolling it down sounds good to around halfway. It is a little too dark turned all the way down vs the rounds though. Right now it has the stock ceramic MIM standard p bass pickup in it. I'm waiting on a replacement pickup so I'm interested to see how they fare with a more traditional alnico 5 magnet pickup.