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TapeWound Club~Anyone?
- Thread starter .BumeStik.
- Start date
Finally getting a pic up of this lovely Ibanez Grand Concert Acoustic Electric with new D'adarrio nylon tapewounds on it.
Sounds great unplugged and amped up!
Cheers!
Sounds great unplugged and amped up!
Cheers!
I installed the tuners he it's referring to. I love them.
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Thanx Tech,Technotitclan said:
Pretty much exactly what I'm after. They look great! Any issues with the install?
None at all. Just requires an Allen wrench to change the orientation on two of then because the set comes inline. There are all reversible. All you need to do is remove a single screw, with a small Allen key, and the tuner key comes out and you can switch it to the other side.
Edit: I did have two small issues, the holes in the back of the head stock was a hair to big for the new screw. Old one fit fine but I used a but of tooth pick to fill it.
The other issue was one of the holes for the tuner post was just a hair small for the new post. Literally rubbed sand paper in it for 5 seconds and the problem was solved. Others have told me they have not had this issue and it was only one hole, so I would consider it a unique situation.
Edit: I did have two small issues, the holes in the back of the head stock was a hair to big for the new screw. Old one fit fine but I used a but of tooth pick to fill it.
The other issue was one of the holes for the tuner post was just a hair small for the new post. Literally rubbed sand paper in it for 5 seconds and the problem was solved. Others have told me they have not had this issue and it was only one hole, so I would consider it a unique situation.
My favorite tunes as well. I have the "elephant ear" version on my custom P/J for aesthetics, but I have never used a better tuner for weight, smoothness, and most importantly, tuning stability.
A page back, I was asking about the LaBella tape B string. Upon closer examination, I find that it is a taper-wound, and the nylon does go all the way to the ball end.
It will barely work with my through body G&L. For future reference, what brands are not tapered on the B? I am not a fan of taper wound strings. Thanks to all.
It will barely work with my through body G&L. For future reference, what brands are not tapered on the B? I am not a fan of taper wound strings. Thanks to all.
I have a D'Addario .135 black tapewound string in front of me as I type this, and it is NOT tapered.
Those seem like reasonable issues that I could deal with.
Also found out that the same tuners will work on my Warwick Streamer
Now I need to find the best place to get them and shipped to Canada...I have seen prices for one tuner ranging from $28-94...any leads appreciated
And as to not totally hijack the thread...I am now thinking of trying these D'addario tapes on that Streamer too
Got mine from Amazon as a set. I think it was $80? Maybe 90. I recommend buying them as a set. You can also try direct from the manufacturer. Hipshot is located in N.Y.. not far from the border.
When I had my fretless conversion done I decided to opt for the rotosound 88's. I received the bass in September. I was on the fence with these strings through the initial period, but they do become a noticeably more manageable after giving them a chance to break in. These guys seem to require a bit of patience but I'm really glad I've stuck with them, especially in the last month they seem to be coming into their own. It would be hard to estimate time, but I'd ballpark approximately 225+ hours on them as a conservative figure.
Has anybody here migrated from La Bella black tapes to D'Addario black tapes or vise versa? If so, how would you compare the two on sound and playability?
The reason I'm asking is I've been a La Bella black tape fan for quite a while and have a number of my basses strung with them, but with all this gushing about the D'Addario tapes I'm wondering if I'm missing something and if I should give them a try. I did jump out there a while back and put Roto tapes on one of my basses. I wasn't that fond of the tone or how stiff they felt compared to La Bella tapes. As Jonithen noted they do get better over time but its been a very long time, in my case years.
The reason I'm asking is I've been a La Bella black tape fan for quite a while and have a number of my basses strung with them, but with all this gushing about the D'Addario tapes I'm wondering if I'm missing something and if I should give them a try. I did jump out there a while back and put Roto tapes on one of my basses. I wasn't that fond of the tone or how stiff they felt compared to La Bella tapes. As Jonithen noted they do get better over time but its been a very long time, in my case years.
I think the D'Addario tapes are a better out-of-the-box experience. I tried La Bella black tapes earlier, but I didn't really have the discipline to stick with them at the time, knowing what I know now I would be willing to retry and would probably appreciate them more and I don't doubt they'd compare favorably to the Tru-Bass. I recall them being very similar to the Rotos but not quite as stiff. The white tapes are right out, some people love them but the two gauges I tried were both too floppy for me to stay with.
The D'Addario are decent, and decidedly less stout than either La Bella or Rotosound. Not looking up numbers at the moment but they were distinctly not as "beefy".
For me, comparing the D'Addario Tapes to La Bella Lights, the playability is about the same. La Bella regulars have a little more heft to them, of course; their tension feels more like a conventional set of 40's or 45's. The D'Addarios seem to have a slightly "scooped" tone to me, where the La Bellas' tone seems more neutral or balanced. YMMV. I have both: I keep the DA's on my 4002 and the LB's on my gig bass.
While we're at it, the Fender Tapes on my custom half-fanned P/J also have a similar feel to a 40's rounds set, and has a little more growl than the LB's. The GHS' have a different flavor, almost a Rock-a-billy type upper mid twang, and the Rotos do as they are designed and described: the thump of a double bass. The playability of all of them is very similar to LB regulars, although I believe GHS needs to revisit the string-to-string balance and construction, since they are essentially covered ground wounds, and so to me they don't have a signature tone to separate them from the rest of the offerings, like the other manufacturers do. All the other manufacturers' offerings have their own signature tone compared to the rest of their respective product lines, not just damped down versions of the underlying string.
After Jason posted his tech article about tapes on bassstringsonline.com , I had to go about checking all of them out. If I ever get a fretless or short scale bass, I'll get another set of Rotos. These are all my impressions. YMMV.
iiipopes - very helpful, thanks! I'm considering putting a set of tapes on my Gibson SG or possibly a soon to be delivered Thunderbird. I just love the feel, playability and sound of La Bella tapes. It sounds like the D'Addario set is similar in feel with a bit less mids, that might be a good match for the SG since it can be mid heavy at times.
Thanks for the insight! I agree the Rotos were much stiffer than my La Bella Blacks which are also much stiffer than my LB whites. The Rotos did have a very upright tone which has mellowed a bit over the last couple of years of use. But I just can't seem to get used to that stiff feeling string tension of the Rotos. I think I'll give the D'Addarios a try on my short scale SG bass. I'll post my thoughts on them here along with how they compare to LB Blacks and Whites and the Rotos.
One question: how long does the tape last? I want to put them on a fretted bass, and being used to flats, I don't want to spend 40 euros on a set of strings that I'm not going to leave there forever.
Do they last against the frets? I don't use the pick much, but when I do, I'm "soft" with it.
Do they last against the frets? I don't use the pick much, but when I do, I'm "soft" with it.
I don't use a pic and I don't slap but I do play aggressive and hard. My La Bella black tapes are going on 10 years of regular use with no signs of wear or degradation of tone. In fact these strings are on my Jazz 5 with through body stringing and even with that incredibly sharp break angle they remain completely intact. I suspect I can get at least another 10 years out of them.
