SRH505F Nylons?

[Chistopher]

Good afternoon all,

I have the Ibanez SRH505F, a 5 string, fretless, piezoelectric semi-hollow bass and one of its obvious shortcomings is it's supposed to be a pseudo-upright, but comes with flatwounds.

My first thought is to throw nylons or tapewounds on there, but I don't know how the 34" would play with that. Might be too low tension for such a short scale.

I'm not expecting it to sound exactly like an upright bass, if I needed to sound exactly like an upright bass I would simply grab one. But hopefully new strings will take it out of that awkward middle ground between acoustic and electric bass.

 

[michael_t]

If you want a set of tapewounds specifically designed to mimic the upright sound, you can try the Rotosound Tru Bass 88.

Tru Bass 88 Nylon Tapewound Standard | 65-115

Black Nylon Standard Gauge Flatwound Bass Strings (65 75 100 115)

www.rotosound.com

The only thing, though, is you will probably have to widen the nut slots to accommodate the larger gauges.

 

[michael_t]

Or, if you'd rather stick with "normal" gauges to avoid making any modification to the bass, you can try the GHS Tapewound. They're unique in the sense they're actually flatwound under the nylon cover, making them stiffer than most other tapewounds of 50-105 gauges.

Products - TAPEWOUND - GHS Strings

Since 1964, GHS Strings has been expertly winding high-quality electric guitar strings in the heart of southwestern Michigan. As a leading manufacturer, we blend tradition with innovation to produce a wide variety of strings for electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitars, classical guitars...

www.ghsstrings.com

 

[iiipopes]

@michael_t and I rarely disagree on strings. My take on the Rotosound set is that I like the D,A,E strings, but the G string is too tight for me. I agree with his assessment of the set, but I change the G string out for a La Bella black tapewound to even out the feel. Otherwise, I prefer the La Bella white nylon tapes in the regular 60-115 gauge, which under the winding is essentially a set of stainless rounds in 45-100 gauge, for better feel and a little more "mwah" to the tone.

 

[Prodigus Filius]

@michael_t and I rarely disagree on strings. My take on the Rotosound set is that I like the D,A,E strings, but the G string is too tight for me. I agree with his assessment of the set, but I change the G string out for a La Bella black tapewound to even out the feel. Otherwise, I prefer the La Bella white nylon tapes in the regular 60-115 gauge, which under the winding is essentially a set of stainless rounds in 45-100 gauge, for better feel and a little more "mwah" to the tone.

The G string is more taut for sure. I’m assuming it’s a Swing bass 66 .050 under the nylon. Sound right? An underlying 40 gauge would be better imho

 

[iiipopes]

The G string is more taut for sure. I’m assuming it’s a Swing bass 66 .050 under the nylon. Sound right? An underlying 40 gauge would be better imho

Yes. Moreover, I don't know why the A string is 100 (85 under the wrap) on the regular long scale, and only 90 (75 under the wrap) on the medium and short scale strings. The G string should be a 60 (45 under the wrap) and the the A string 95 (80 under the wrap) to make the feel string-to-string more consistent. In the end I gave up on them and went to La Bella. Oh - BTW - on the Labella, it may say 70 (55 under the wrap) for the D string, but having killed several sets over the years, and remeasuring, the string is actually @ 74 (@ 60 under the wrap). They have much more consistent feel compared to the Rotos. And going the other way, the various manufacturers who make 50 - 105 sets, that is like a set of 35-90 under the wrap, much to floppy for me.

 

[HaphAsSard]

one of its obvious shortcomings is it's supposed to be a pseudo-upright, but comes with flatwounds.

Uprights come with flatwounds. Sure, they have one or three characteristics that set them apart from bass-guitar flats, but still. You may be more satisfied with different flats than the ones that come with your Ibanez.

Nylon tapewounds were invented (by the company behind today's Rotosound) to make an electric bass guitar (Burns Black Bison), with magnetic pickups, sound more like an upright. Whether they do or do not through a piezo pickup is a matter of opinion. And sure, they also come for upright bass, but 1) that's a relatively recent development, and 2) again, they're not the exact same: at least part of currently-available nylon tapewound products for double bass (Pyramid, Presto/Eurosonic, La Bella, Galli) have rope cores and silk inlays (in the case of Innovation tapes, they also have synthetic cores).

Back to bass guitars and piezos, I've heard (on YouTube videos) D'Addario tapes sound very good on the right instrument. But so I have DR Legend flatwounds, for the record. I've also read about Pyramid 648 black nylon tapewounds being the absolute best in upright bass emulation. The platform, however, tends to be mag-pickup hollowbodies rather than piezo.

So I would experiment a little bit if I were you. Heck, for not that much coin, 1/8 double-bass strings might also work just fine, and give you the right amount of warmth and note decay.