La Bella White vs Copper-White vs Gold-White?

[Karl Kaminski]

HI Ive been playing/enjoying the Gold-White on my ABG. I was surprised how much their 'feel' grew on me. (im not a tape wound guy)

I've had both LaB Black and Gold-Whit on this bass. Does anyone have experience with all three of the "white flavors" to give relative comparisons? (@iiipopes ?)

Is there any difference in 'feel'/stiffness or tension?
How about tone?
Difference in Fundamental/Harmonic content?​

I imagine it gets brighter: Gold->Copper->White?

Thanks!

 

[bholder]

I haven't tried the other two so I can't compare but I just wanted to add that I love the white gold tapes from LaBella. If the others are brighter I'd love to try them.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

yeah I was surprised. I've historically thought "they're not for me"—till I played them on @rawdge's ABGs—then I was hooked.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

Does anyone have experience with all three of the "white flavors" to give relative comparisons?

Is there any difference in 'feel'/stiffness or tension?
How about tone?
Difference in Fundamental/Harmonic content?​

I imagine it gets brighter: Gold->Copper->White?

Thanks!

 

[winegamd]

I have tried all three on the same bass. 760 sets for all three.

Copper->Gold->White is correct in brightness.

The original Whites pretty much just sound like a stainless string if you softened the top end and got rid of all string/fret noise. Not as bright as a regular stainless round, but as bright as a lot of nickel strings. These are the most flexible, almost like a 40-95 set.

Gold's have the most low mids and fundamental by quite a bit. They also have a really nice presence in the upper mid and are plenty bright for most styles of music. They are HiFi clear, too. I would say they are about as bright as a just broken in nickel XL. They are the best recording string if you want a solid traditional bass tone to cover a lot styles (except maybe bright slap tones or prog metal (maybe with enough high mid boost and distortion)). They can be burby and growly if you want, but get fat and round when plucked soft near the neck. These also have the highest tension of the three and are not as flexible.

Coppers are more mid focussed and have a bit of natural distortion to their high mids that makes them sound really warm. Their lows are round, but not as full as the Golds. Their highs are also there, nice and extended, just not enough to poke out in a mix. The have a little looser tension than the Gold's.

I used them with series and parallel pickups, p-type grindy neck tones to Matthew Garrison emulating bridge tones. Anything from traditional R&B, country, jazz, soul, folk, rock, and contemporary Christian.

For fretless, you could put the Coppers on and probably never want to try another type of string.

For fretted, I liked the Gold more. The extra highs and clarity just add a little something more. The bit of distortion from the Coppers can also make the grind/growl of the frets not as clear. The Whites are just a little plain. Like McCormick Mayonnaise plain, adds a little flavor to a sandwich but nothing special.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

Thanks for the great comparisons! I thought the Gold-Wht were great on my ABG and hoped the Copper-wht might get me closer to 'it'. But from your description sounds like I may already be where I need to be.

 

[winegamd]

With piezos, the Coppers will have more presence in the mix due to the increased mids, but I think the Gold's have a little more upright like response. They definitely have more low end. The distortion in the Coppers may or may not be to your liking with the piezos. It depends on your tonal goal for the ABG. Are you leaning more towards an upright tone, or an acoustic bass guitar? The Coppers can sound almost like a bass version of a classical nylon acoustic guitar; like a Contra Bass Cordoba.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

wow now im on the fence again—think Im gonna grab set just 'to know'

(Im not going for upright tone, and the 'nylon string comparison' is exactly where my heads at with this bass.)

 

[DaveAceofBass]

I’ve used the coppers, they don’t have as much magnetic pull and on my bass with mags and piezos the coppers were significantly louder on the piezos so I ditched them. My student recently got the golds, and he had been using my old coppers. He said the golds have more output. I liked them when I tried his bass and would like to try them on my Linc Luthier bass. However, I’m torn on which gauge to get. I like the lower tension of the light gauge, but I have that bass tuned E-C now, with a Hipshot detuner on the lowest string, so I was thinking of going with a medium gauge six string set and holding on to the B string in case I want to switch tunings. My hunch is the light gauge E string would be too flabby if I used my detuner. However if I do go to B—G tuning then my nut slots would probably need to be widened, and I don’t think I will like the medium tension as much overall. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[DCCat]

In my experience with the light gauge coppers and golds, I thought they had roughly the same low output. It's possible the gold output was a little higher, but if so, I didn't notice. The plain whites (stainless under the wrap rather than less-magnetic alloys) definitely have more output than either and would probably work OK with your hybrid mag/piezo bass if you're still looking for a solution there.

The 750s are super flexible and it would be hard for me to imagine playing them effectively when detuned, but maybe that will work for you. The 760s are still pretty flexible, like fairly light gauge rounds, but yeah, the nylon wrap will probably require bigger nut slots. I'd recommend the 760s if you're going to detune. The nut slots, if widened properly, will still work with smaller strings if you decide to switch back.

 

[pipeman]

i recently tried the gold white bigger gauge labella tapewound on a precision bass and then on a bass with active Bartolini pickups and was very surprised at how low the output is. i compared next to 760fl and GHS tapewounds which i normally use and for me these clearly are not meant to be used with typical magnetic pickups. they look great and feel great but must be intended for piezo electric pickups.
maybe will try the regular white and see if the output is more due to the stainless core..

 

[FullumMusic]

I haven’t tried the copper white or regular white. I’ve tried the blacks and the gold whites. They're both extremely low tension. The gold whites are a minutia tenser. I can feel the slightest difference. But I’d still put their tensions WAY lower than metal strings.

 

[iiipopes]

Have you looked for the tapewound club thread? Here's what I posted there, having tried them all:
Whites: the brightest in the tapewound context, since they are stainless steel rounds under the tape;
Golds: like well-seated NPS strings with the tone rolled off a number or two;
Coppers: a different midrange emphasis, great for jazz, fusion, etc.
Black: the darkest tone.
Remember that if you get the regular gauge, 60-115, which are roughly equivalent to a set of conventional rounds 45-100 under tape, you may have to adjust your nut so the strings don't bind and cause tuning issues.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

Thanks iiipopes. I've scrubbed the forums for Labella references, but theres not much direct comparisons of the tape 'whites' to each other, mostly comparing white-gold or copper to the black and other brands.

How would you compare the 'stiffness' between the three? (I imagine same core so there may not be any difference)

I play the 'light' sets (750) but keep several nuts on hand for different gauges or switching between B-G or E-C.

 

[winegamd]

Plain whites are the most flexible, Coppers are maybe slightly stiffer, but the Gold Whites are quite a bit stiffer than the other "white" options. LaBella says, given they are the same gauge, they are all the same tension when tuned to pitch.

 

[winegamd]

The 760G-CB 45-135 set is about as flexible as the SIT Foundation custom light 6-string .030-.120 set, which are supposed to have a "state-of-the-art" core material making them more flexible than normal. The 760C-CB would be like having a .035-.095 for the G-E strings.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

Hah winegamd the more you describe the white and copper sets the more I get curious.

I like the wht-gold but the E and B are alittle muddy/dark for me. Both copper and wht sets are in my future.

 

[Karl Kaminski]

Those Sit strings sound interesting (Im thinking of my Dogal hellborg sets)

 

[bobsax]

The Coppers can sound almost like a bass version of a classical nylon acoustic guitar; like a Contra Bass Cordoba.

That's the sound I'm looking for . I've got a 5string with EADGC .
What brand do you recommend ? Size ? Do you just get a 6 string set or a 4 and get the C separately ? Any links would be greatly appreciated

 

[Karl Kaminski]

Me too. I play the light 750 sets, I buy 6string sets to have option of low B or high C. It’s easy that way.

I think fretnation or stringsbymail may be able to do singles (4+C). Also check labella directly.