Labella deep talking flats questions

[JRT64]

Another vote for the 760FL. Fantastic sounding strings without too much tension.

Agreed. The 760FL's should work fine on any decent P-Bass with little to no issues.

 

[GIBrat51]

[QUOTE="GIBrat51, post: I bought the LTFs to put on my '73 Rick 4001, which is beginning to suffer a condition where the neck itself doesn't bend, but instead folds upwards at a thin spot where the neck becomes the body - like a rising drawbridge. However, I found some other flats which are supposed to have much less tension than the LTFs. I find that kinda hard to believe, but... we'll see how they work. Not sure if I like their tone, anyway...

I don't mean to hijack this thread but the neck folding like you are describing is something I have seen many times since I started servicing fretted instruments in 1978. Stew Mac has a video on shims and the effect they can have on creating this "bend". I am working on a Frankenstein bass with this problem that has to have a shim at the very end of the neck in order to adjust for a lower action. After seeing this video I removed the shim and the neck straightened out considerably. Stew Mac has tapered shims which prevent this from happening. Does your bass possibly have a shim which could possibly be causing this? Just an inquiring mind.









o

[/QUOTE]

No worries. This is a problem that's peculiar to older Rick 4001s, with the neck pickup right at the heel of the fretboard. It has to do with the the fact that 4001's are neck thru basses, and that RIC made a mistake in their construction. The pickup is in the spot where the "heel" of the neck starts to become the center part of the body. Routing a hole there makes it weak in that area; RIC compounded the problem by routing a hole that's roughly twice as large as necessary - and cutting out most of the transition area in the process. The neck is only attached to the rest of the bass by a piece of wood that's about 3/8" thick and maybe 2" wide. Result? Sometimes that piece of wood begins to fail. It becomes a hinge; the neck itself stays straight, but the string tension pulls it up - like raising a drawbridge. Sometimes it can pull the center of the body away from the body wings, too. Rick owners call it "negative neck angle". It can be fixed, but it's very expensive; very time consuming; and very few people will do it. RIC finally fixed the problem - in '78, IIRC - by moving the neck pickup to where it is today - and by putting it in a much smaller hole. The problem hardly ever occurs since the pickup was moved; but, if you want an older 4001? This, IMO, is probably the main thing you have to be aware of...

 

[DanDBassist]

Thank you @GIBrat51 for the very informative description of the "draw bridge" problem that certain RICs have.

Upon reflection, I never had any RIC models in my hands at any time so it didn't occur to me that they are neck through. It pays to have an inquiring mind, but I should have looked up the bass before suggesting anything.

 

[Circuitt]

Just put on La Bella FS (black silk)
On my precision. No problems at all. A bit better sounding than my fender flats I had on there.

 

[TomB]

The only labella set I would be careful about is the Original (fka Jamersons). That's a pretty heavy set for standard tuning. All the rest of the set are in a normal range of tension. As long as you got a turn or two left in your truss rod, none but the heaviest flatwound sets should cause you any trouble.

I agree, but the FS definitely puts more tension on the neck than FL’s. I usually find FL’s similar to typical round wounds in this regard.

 

[OldSchoolFlats]

Any big difference between the 760FL and 760FS when playing with a pick, palm-muted? I seldom play finger style, but it has been many years, and I can’t remember what gauge I bought before (bass long since sold).

Also wondering if there is much difference for stops/chords.