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'New' La Bella Low Tension Flats - Colored ball ends?

sanroman

sanroman

Oct 20, 2017
40
17
#1
Hello! I apologize in advance if this topic has been covered, but I really searched for it and couldn't find anything about it..

A couple of months back I bought a set of La Bella LTF (GOLD ball ends) and was using them on my 64' P-bass and the were perfect! For whatever reason, I needed to put them on my 76' Rickenbacker and they are perfect as well!
So I bought another set to put on the Precision and to my surprise, they came with COLORED ball ends (gold, blue, white and red) and felt completely different from the first set, somewhat synthetic feeling and bright sounding.. it seemed like a completely different brand altogether. Has anyone had this experience??
 
#2
sanroman said:
So I bought another set to put on the Precision and to my surprise, they came with COLORED ball ends (gold, blue, white and red) and felt completely different from the first set, somewhat synthetic feeling and bright sounding.. it seemed like a completely different brand altogether. Has anyone had this experience??
Click to expand...

This is the first I've heard about colored ball ends on La Bella flats. Do they still have the same burgundy silk?

Can you provide pics?
 
#3
michael_t said:
This is the first I've heard about colored ball ends on La Bella flats. Do they still have the same burgundy silk?

Can you provide pics?
Click to expand...

They do..

IMG_0358.JPG IMG_0360.JPG
 
#11
I can easily see with all the supply chain issues out there, La Bella in a pinch getting the little colored ball ends from another supplier (maybe Roto or D'addario?).

And the tuner ends look like La Bella.

But you say that this new set sounds very different. That's weird.
 
#12
Rotosound flats and LaBella flats are worlds apart in my opinion. I'm a big LaBella fan and Rotos can't even get close to the thump that Labella's have. Those ball ends really do look like Rotosound ones.

I have noticed that some sets just seem to need longer to break in than others. Perhaps the set you have just needs some time to break in and feel better.

Or maybe you got sent a set of Rotosounds by mistake?
 
#13
Last edited:
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#14
Check the string winding pattern after nut . Even silk colour look same, I suspect it is not LTF4A. Meanwhile you also can try pluck both E and D string, both has equal stiffness.

Here is mine.

IMG_20220610_082341.jpg
IMG_20220610_082413.jpg
IMG_20220610_082400.jpg
 
#15
jasper383 said:
I can easily see with all the supply chain issues out there, La Bella in a pinch getting the little colored ball ends from another supplier (maybe Roto or D'addario?).

And the tuner ends look like La Bella.

But you say that this new set sounds very different. That's weird.
Click to expand...


It does. For me, the main indicators that these strings are very different are:

1) with the previous set, I could play around with the tone knob from 0-80% and get beautiful tones all around. With this one I can't get past the 40-50% mark without sounding too trebly and horrible.

2) They feel more "polished", for the lack of a better word.. it feels good, but a little too synthetic for my taste.

3) I had to re-set the action on the bass.

If someone had given them to me without any packaging, I would swear they were from a different brand, but I took them out of the pack myself!!!
 
#20
OnTheDownLow said:
I have noticed that some sets just seem to need longer to break in than others. Perhaps the set you have just needs some time to break in and feel better.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it does.. but the ball ends are indeed mysterious. And it wasn't random, even came with a little card inside of the pack showing what color corresponded to which string. :wideyed:
 

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