So a pretty exciting day of taking a setup class with one of our fine local luthiers willing to generously spend his time teaching his trade had a mildly frustrating misstep and I would love some feedback from the Bass Borg.
I have somewhat recently begun a deeper dive into Lutherie work to better understand and take care of my stringed/fretted instruments. A local luthier I met recently held a class to learn proper setup and discuss the various approaches to doing them. It was a great opportunity and a super informative day (I suggest it to anyone that owns and plays fretted instruments!)
As part of the day’s tutorial my instructor was taking me through the step-by-step procedure on how he restrings & sets up a bass. I was super exited to try the new IMA Labella polished round/flat wound string set they recently collaborated on. I’ve held onto them for months waiting for just the right time & bass to try them out…
As we began setting the internation on the base, my instructor noticed that the D string harmonics were pretty much nonexistent in the upper register around the 12th fret or so. When we inspected the string, we noticed a very obvious inconsistency in the winds which he determined was likely the cause of the weak harmonics. I’ve included some video of the string here and would love any feedback. Has anyone else experiences? And nearly 40 years of buying strings. I’ve never seen winds this inconsistent or noticeable.
I try to keep an open mind and I’m not a person that gets easily upset by something small like this. It is likely something I can get used to for this run of strings, but I am doubtful. I would buy these strings again just based on the poor quality control. I Noam not a rich man so even the $45 for a mid-range priced set of bass strings is not something I can do that often. Surprising coming from such a reputable company but I know things can be overlooked even at the highest level of production.
I haven’t had much time to try them out or settle them in so I don’t really have much feedback thus far other than they felt pretty similar to round wounds and seemed like they would have a bit more of the round wound bite when I briefly got to play them through an amp. Even though I’m trying not to ge frustrated, it’s just a single string for f’s sake, but I am a bit soured on the situation and may just put the old strings back on or try something different. I don’t think I will have any ability to return these so I may just be eating the 45 bucks...
I have not yet contacted Labella and I’m not sure how quick a response I will get, or if I will get one at all, as I’ve noticed with larger companies in the Music space they don’t seem to respond very quickly if at all. (I’ve sent several emails over the years to several unnamed big time companies with questions that never get responses).
If anyone has had similar experiences or experiences contacting La Bella about an issue like this, I would love to hear your input. Thanks!!
Bass is the place!
JG
I have somewhat recently begun a deeper dive into Lutherie work to better understand and take care of my stringed/fretted instruments. A local luthier I met recently held a class to learn proper setup and discuss the various approaches to doing them. It was a great opportunity and a super informative day (I suggest it to anyone that owns and plays fretted instruments!)
As part of the day’s tutorial my instructor was taking me through the step-by-step procedure on how he restrings & sets up a bass. I was super exited to try the new IMA Labella polished round/flat wound string set they recently collaborated on. I’ve held onto them for months waiting for just the right time & bass to try them out…
As we began setting the internation on the base, my instructor noticed that the D string harmonics were pretty much nonexistent in the upper register around the 12th fret or so. When we inspected the string, we noticed a very obvious inconsistency in the winds which he determined was likely the cause of the weak harmonics. I’ve included some video of the string here and would love any feedback. Has anyone else experiences? And nearly 40 years of buying strings. I’ve never seen winds this inconsistent or noticeable.
I try to keep an open mind and I’m not a person that gets easily upset by something small like this. It is likely something I can get used to for this run of strings, but I am doubtful. I would buy these strings again just based on the poor quality control. I Noam not a rich man so even the $45 for a mid-range priced set of bass strings is not something I can do that often. Surprising coming from such a reputable company but I know things can be overlooked even at the highest level of production.
I haven’t had much time to try them out or settle them in so I don’t really have much feedback thus far other than they felt pretty similar to round wounds and seemed like they would have a bit more of the round wound bite when I briefly got to play them through an amp. Even though I’m trying not to ge frustrated, it’s just a single string for f’s sake, but I am a bit soured on the situation and may just put the old strings back on or try something different. I don’t think I will have any ability to return these so I may just be eating the 45 bucks...
I have not yet contacted Labella and I’m not sure how quick a response I will get, or if I will get one at all, as I’ve noticed with larger companies in the Music space they don’t seem to respond very quickly if at all. (I’ve sent several emails over the years to several unnamed big time companies with questions that never get responses).
If anyone has had similar experiences or experiences contacting La Bella about an issue like this, I would love to hear your input. Thanks!!
Bass is the place!
JG
