Taking the plunge: white gold tapes

[bassically_eli]

I've used the regular white nylon, which were fantastic on my fretted bass, and I've used the copper white nylon, which are just too mellow for me. I'm curious about the golds but confused about where they stand in relation to the other two sets. Are they some where in between? Or are they the brightest of them all? I've read comments that imply both things. Are they just their own thing?

 

[beate_r]

I'm curious about the golds but confused about where they stand in relation to the other two sets.

No, they are not the brightest. They are brighter than the copper whites, but mostly due to more warmth in the mids and slighly less bass.

Imagine strings on an acoustic guitar (or bass): unterneath the tape whites are steel roundwounds, copper are bronce wounds and gold are brass or golden bronce wounds. And these differences in sound will of course prevail under the nylon wrap except that the treble will be damped.

 

[HaphAsSard]

I've used the regular white nylon, which were fantastic on my fretted bass, and I've used the copper white nylon, which are just too mellow for me. I'm curious about the golds but confused about where they stand in relation to the other two sets. Are they some where in between? Or are they the brightest of them all? I've read comments that imply both things. Are they just their own thing?

No, they are not the brightest. They are brighter than the copper whites, but mostly due to more warmth in the mids and slighly less bass.

Imagine strings on an acoustic guitar (or bass): unterneath the tape whites are steel roundwounds, copper are bronce wounds and gold are brass or golden bronce wounds. And these differences in sound will of course prevail under the nylon wrap except that the treble will be damped.

It's not just that. Copper and "golden alloy" (80/20 brass), like phosphor bronze, are not magnetically active (for all intents and purposes) so, through mag pickups, only contribute to tone indirectly, by modifying how the string vibrates, while not being directly picked up. On an electric bass, the regular White Nylon La Bellas, which have steel outer windings right up to the outermost wrap directly under the clear nylon tape, should be noticeably brighter than the (predictably duller and lower-output) other two types.
[Unlike with acoustic guitar strings, the Copper White and Gold White Nylon Tapewounds, in order to work decently on electric instruments, are likely to only have the *final* metal wrap made of copper or Golden Alloy: the intermediate windings, between the outer one and the core, are probably steel, and magnetic all-right.]

A piezo-equipped instrument is of course a whole other matter.

 

[beate_r]

Copper and "golden alloy" (80/20 brass), like phosphor bronze, are not magnetically active (for all intents and purposes) so

All AGB or guitar strings i have seen so far had magnetic active cores - You can easily check at the ball end. Bronce should be far too brittle, at least for high tension strings. Actually "i have seen" is something different as "are" - but i would expect most of the acoustic strings to be magnetically active. Of course slightly reduced due to the unmagnetic winding. And this is why You usually can use them with a magnetic soundhole pickup.

 

[HaphAsSard]

All AGB or guitar strings i have seen so far had magnetic active cores - You can easily check at the ball end. Bronce should be far too brittle, at least for high tension strings. Actually "i have seen" is something different as "are" - but i would expect most of the acoustic strings to be magnetically active. Of course slightly reduced due to the unmagnetic winding. And this is why You usually can use them with a magnetic soundhole pickup.

I could have specified "Unlike with acoustic guitar strings, whose core is the only magnetically-active part of the string", La Bella White Nylons (as well as their Gold Flats, the GHS Pressurewound Bronze and the Warwick Bronze Tapewounds) also have magnetically-active underwindings; that I was aware of the core being steel is implied in my comment about bronze et similia only contributing to tone indirectly: if I believed the whole string be made of bronze, there would be nothing to be sensed by the magnetic pickup!
You can indeed use bronze guitar strings with magnetic pickups, but their tone is not very exciting. On the other hand, electric guitar strings (stainless steel, nickel-plated steel, pure nickel) don't sound very good acoustically on acoustic guitars, so few players use them even with soundhole pickups. String manufacturers attempted to find solutions* to this conundrum but they're not very successful either.

* [DR Zebras, with alternate bronze and nps windings; GHS White Bronzes which are actually Alloy 52; John Pearse Acoustilectrics (pure nickel); Martin Retro Acoustic, made of Monel, which was the original acoustic/electric alternative to copper or silver in the 1930s.]

 

[Bushmaster]

Bronce should be far too brittle, at least for high tension strings.

In practise, it turns out, it is not. Bronze is a material softer than steel or nickel, it yields a highly pleasant "natural" sound, but it is prone to both corrosion and mechanical damage.

As you are living in Germany... Using Ernie Ball Earthwood Strings with solidbody instruments (Gibson Thunderbird, Ovation Magnum II) had been popularized by Horst Stachelhaus around 1978-81.

(Unfortunately, the set feels very imbalanced. But maybe this is part of how on ABGs the sound can be got to work -?)

 

[beate_r]

(Unfortunately, the set feels very imbalanced. But maybe this is part of how on ABGs the sound can be got to work -?)

On my AGB i use Pyramid Black Nylons. Not very loud, but the "woody" sound these strings have even on solid body basses matches pretty well with the characteristics of that instrument.

It might indeed be a good idea to try the original bronce strings on one of my electrics... undfortunately, they are round and rough - and if they were available for shortscale i would have tried GHS Pressurewound Bronze.

BTW: did ayone compare the Warwick Bronze Tapewounds to the LaBella Gold or Copper White tapes? The concepts appear pretty similar to me, but of course, the details will matter - here thickness of the nylon layer which damps the treble response..)

BTW: dependent on the pickup even the Daddario Black Tapes will produce enough overtones to allow for flageolet or even occasional slapping experiments (i cannot slap, but do a lot with flageolets). Something like a trebly (low DCR) J-pickup or other narrow single coils (one coil of a MM-humbucker...) should be sufficient.

 

[ElectricBass72]

I replaced Dunlop Rounds with Labella Gold White Tapewounds on my ESP Fretless. It took me 2 hours to string the bass and get the intonation set, adjusting saddles, etc. I was afraid I'd have to file the nut slots since the low B string was a huge jump from .125 on rounds to .135 on tapes... plus the G string went from .045 to .050. Lucky for me, the ESP nut was able to fit the larger strings... the E, A & D strings on the new Tapes were the same size as the previous Rounds I had on it. I love the sound of gold tapes... they have a mid-range growl that regular black tapewounds don't have. Tapes are much slicker than rounds, so I had to adjust my technique. I can't wait to hear this through my Fender Rumble and Ampeg Portaflex... so far I've only played it through a practice amp with 8" speaker, but it sounded damn good through the small amp.

 

[ElectricBass72]

White Golds sound great on my ESP LTD fretless through Ampeg Portaflex 500 through Ampeg PF1x15 cab with horn. The ESP has active bart-like pickups and blending 60% neck with 40% bridge pickup gives my favorite tones. The white golds are humbling... my fretless playing and technique on tapewounds need some major practice and work. Tapewound strings are a cool departure from my stainless and nickel rounds.

 

[iiipopes]

To my ears, having tried all the domestically produced tapewound strings, La Bella gold tapes are like well-seated nickel roundwounds, without the articulation edge.