Moving away from Rotosound Tru Bass 88 nylons, recommendations?

Since you said you like higher tension strings whynot try the Roto Jazz 77 flats. Go for the rs77ld set (45-105) i think. La bella's are great strings too. The 760 FL (43-104) has desent tension not flopy. There is also the 760FS(45-105) and 760 FM (49-109). The labella's have a more traditional flatwound tone. The Rotos are very bright when new but mellow nicely but I have found there output somewhat low on my passive P.

 

Go with the Labella 760FL you won't be sorry!

 

Aren't the 760FL really high tension?

 

Ahh ok... I can't remember if those are the LaBellas that have enormous tension though...

It might be a good idea to give the truss rod a quarter of a turn to the right before you put the LaBella strings on...

I'd like to know what you think of them when you string them up.

And yes, one thing I've found with the TruBass 88 strings is that you can basically take them off and put them aside, when you want to put them back on they will re-string fine...

 

I guess it depends on the neck... i find that they're very low tension myself...

But I think it's pretty easy to tweak the Ibanez truss right? Or do you have to take the neck off?

 

So am I right to assume you've "lived" with the Labellas for a few days now?
If so what do you think of them?

 

Welcome to the wonderful (and sometimes defective) world of Labella...

Give it a few more days and see if the other strings even out....

 

Sometimes one string in a set of LaBella flats will be dead or defective. But also check your nut slots to see that the strings are all seated properly in the nut. Make sure you have enough break angle as the string heads from the nut to the winding post. And make sure the string is wound properly around the post.

If the string is bad, contact LaBella directly and they will take care of you. They will replace a bad string and they don't freak out when someone gets a bad string because their strings are more of a labor intensive handmade item than the strings made by some other companies on totally computer controlled machines. So LaBella expects some deviation now and then.

Good news is when you get all the strings in the set behaving properly, they'll sound great and hold up well for years.

The LaBellas are not as high tension as Roto flats. But they're closer to Rotos than to TI flats.

The set with the 104 E string is nice. I was amazed to find how much difference there is between the 104 and 105 E strings. The 104's sing with depth and clarity; the 105's are more thuddy and less responsive. Especially above the 10th fret. Just one tiny incremental increase in string diameter can make a noticeable difference.

 

Whoops, also just remembered - very important - how you mount a LaBella flat is critical. You have to make a 90 degree bend in the headstock end of the string before you cut the string to length.

By making that bend, you lock in the integrity of the winding layers. If you don't make that bend, you could kill the string or separate the winding layers as you mount the string and bring it up to pitch. I've done that before.

Ask Bob or Richard at LaBella - they'll give you the full sermon on this. I don't know if LaBellas are the only strings that need this kind of pre-installation attention, but once I found out about it and thought about it a bit, it made sense to me, so now I make a 90 degree bend with any new string before cutting it to length and winding it around the tuner post as a matter of habit.

 

Since you guys have some experience with the Tru Bass strings, I figured I could ask this here instead of making a new thread. I just did some modding to an 80's J bass special. changed the pickups, pickguard, and upgraded all hardware. I used a black pickguard and all Gold hardware (Gotoh Bridge, Shaller Tuners, brass tugbar and nut)

I almost always play flatwounds on this bass and would like to put the black nylon wound Tru Bass strings on it. I can't find any reviews. Did you guys like 'em? Hate 'em.

I know it's kind of silly to pick a string by it's color, but I do want a string that sounds good too.