TapeWound Club~Anyone?

[Baird6869]

Anyone tried La Bella white tapewounds on a Rob Allen MB-2?

My white tapes are on a USPS truck currently on their way to me in Toronto.

I actually ordered whites, but switched them to white coppers as I got tired of waiting for my order (whites were out of stock). They will be going in my MB-2 5er.

I can post my impressions next week once I get to check them out.

 

[FretNoMore]

Thanks, please do.

 

[GBassNorth]

Anyone tried La Bella white tapewounds on a Rob Allen MB-2?

Nope, but I just got a set of La Bella White tapes for my short scale Bronco bass project. The Bronco will get the full Frankenstein treatment from my leftover parts bin. GFS Lipstick Humbucker, Stingray 2 band preamp, lollipop tuners and threaded saddle bridge. Should look and sound very different when done.

 

[PWRL]

I like D'Addario tapes. Trying them on my American Special Precision at the moment.

 

[Baird6869]

Thanks, please do.

Will do.

My black tapes are 6 years old (original strings from RA) and really need to be changed.

 

[FretNoMore]

My strings are those that came with the bass too ... 13 years.

I've played the bass very little though, but now I'm liking it again after shimming the neck. It was just a bit hard to play with the stock string height.

 

[Baird6869]

My strings are those that came with the bass too ... 13 years.

I've played the bass very little though, but now I'm liking it again after shimming the neck. It was just a bit hard to play with the stock string height.

Mine was the exact same. High action as it was owned by an upright trained bassist going to school for bass. I shimmed it and it really helped.

He played the bass for many hours every day for a few years and the black tapes are starting to be hard to intonate/keep in tune.

Also, I want to gig with it more in my classic rock band and the old black tapes are actually TOO upright sounding for me. I think the white coppers will make the tone more usable in this band.

I also ordered copper tapes for my Fodera to try out and a set of the whites for my 1974 Precision. The P is in dire need of a refret and as I don't really play it that much, the tapes will allow me to avoid the $300-400 refret cost until I end up with a band that requires a P with rounds.

 

[beate_r]

BTW: how short lived will tapes become if You play them with a pick (occasionally, but hard). I noticed that the pyramid tapes wear pretty fast - but playing those with a pick is inconsequent anyway. What about Daddarios?

 

[west al]

Short scale, D'Addario ETB92S on a Gibson SG Std.

 

[4andnomore]

I have heavy black Roto's on my '57 AVRI P bass and it just kills - Everything from Graham Maybe to Sly Stone. I often play very hard-hitting pick style and so far the Roto's have held up quite well.

For fretless I would definitely go with LaBella.

 

[bassist4dalord]

I have heavy black Roto's on my '57 AVRI P bass and it just kills - Everything from Graham Maybe to Sly Stone. I often play very hard-hitting pick style and so far the Roto's have held up quite well.

For fretless I would definitely go with LaBella.

Fun fact- I posted a picture of my gear on Facebook and my aunt commented "Have you ever listened to the Joe Jackson Band? The bassist and I are friends". So my aunt knows Graham Maby, which is pretty cool!

 

[B Major]

So I've never played tapes. I used to play flats on my Ibanez when I was playing mostly reggae. I play a lot of different styles now (reggae/funk/jazz/blues/etc) and I also picked up a Warwick Vette and have since went away from the flats and converted to nickels. That said, will tapes take away too much of the growl/punch of the lows/mids from my Wick???? I'd love to give them a try as I'm still working on my tone. Never wanted flats on the Warwick cuz I was always worried about it taking away from all the natural sounds they're known to produce....

 

[iiipopes]

I used La Bella regular black tapes on my Ibby SRA305 in the band I play in that plays everything from '50's to today with horns. They growl plenty. I concede they are not the best for slapping, but I don't slap. La Bella white tapes are brighter in tone and smoother to the touch than black tapes.

 

[bassist4dalord]

I just put the D'Addario Tapes on my Schecter. Loving them so far! I'll post a pic later and give you a description of the tones and such

 

[bassist4dalord]

Here's my Schecter Raiden Special-4 with D'Addario Tapes. I really love the sound so far. With the single coil/humbucker option the bass has, the Tapes really shine. And of course, they're magnificent to play! Also threw in another pic of my Ibanez AEB5E, also with D'Addario Tapes.

 

[KOLAD]

I've had a the same set of Rotosound RS88M Tru Bass strings on my Viola bass since 2005. In expensive bass, and w/ the tapewound hard as heck to intonate, but w/ these strings it's ironically still my best sounding bass low end and uniqueness wise.

 

[west al]

I just picked up this Am. Std. Jazz today. The D'Addario ETB92 Nylons sound super. Mellow, and low sounds. Smooth too.

 

[FerruleCat]

I just put D'Addario tapes on a short-scale SX Jazz type. Awesome feel and whump. I'll need to shape up my technique to manage the clack, though.

 

[PointBlank]

I was playing with Fender and D'addario flatwounds for about 2 years. Then I finally tried the D'addario black nylon tapewound. I love them, had them on my Lakland Skyline Jazz 5 with Fralins in it for about a month now. Really like the feel of them too. BTW they are just long enough to fit thru the top load bridge of the Lakland's 35" scale length, not the string thru the body option.

I use this Bass for a church gig and was always "trying" to sound close to an Upright Bass. With the flatwounds I would always use a foam mute. But with these awesome tapewounds I just use a small piece of foam under the B-string only. Just to get as much fundamental as possible on that elusive string. I think it balances out better with the other strings that way. Well I guess on a couple of songs I'll slide in some foam to get THAT sound on all strings.

Really like the clear useable thump these strings have!!!

Oh yeah. The B string is the non-tapered type. So the thick part sits in the saddle. Thump thump.... Nice!

 

[FerruleCat]

Here's a sound test of the D'Addario ETB92S black nylon tapes (short scale) on an SX Ursa 2 Jr. (Jazz type,) with the neck pickup replaced by a Dragonfire Duo Rails (a Strat-coil sized guitar pickup that I think works well with bass). There's a bit of cloth under the strings for mild muting, but as you can hear from the final note, there's still some sustain going on. This is recorded direct via the Aguilar ToneHammer preamp/DI. I rolled the top off the drum loop, so the overall track EQ is reasonably accurate.

With the big, fat sound of the rails pickup (which is just barely wide enough for my already-narrow string spacing), the bridge pickup volume control acts more like a presence knob for the whole setup. I like this pretty well, except that the bridge coil hums through my amp. It's quiet direct, though. Eventually, it might be nice to replace the bridge coil with a Duncan Basslines hot stack, and add a push-pull to the neck rails for series/parallel options.

Excuse the sloppy pocket; I've been a pick player up until now and am adjusting to finger style.

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