Does anyone have a preference when it comes to black tapes for short scales? Will the light (105 E) be too light? Thanks.
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TapeWound Club~Anyone?
- Thread starter .BumeStik.
- Start date
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,167
- 256,997
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- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
I used black D'Addario tapes with a .105 on a short scale and was happy. Past tense because the bass wears flats now.
Personally, I'd not recommend LaBella tapes on a short scale. I have a set on a 34" bass and their floppiness drives me crazy. They sound great but I have a lot of problems with them spurting out from under my finger if I don't land on them just right or worse, just pushing the E right off the board. They also played hell with my setup requiring higher action and neck adjustment than others. I know these issues may suggest my fingering technique could use some improvement but it's a problem for me nonetheless. On a short scale they'd be even looser. Other makes may not pose such a problem. I use Fender tapes on a fretless (also 34") and love those. Those have the lowest action of any of my other basses with no issues.
Tim
I use the light LaBella tapes on my 34-inch. I absolutely love their floppiness, but that's exactly what I'm worried about with the 30.75-inch scale — that they'd be too floppy. The other thing is, it's a six-string bass... so I think I have to go with LaBella or custom Pyramids. I believe I've seen a C D'Addario tape?
For me it’s worth getting the nut filed for bigger gauge. They feel better and sound great. I’ve only tried La Bella white and black.
edit: I actually didn’t have to widen my sire v3 nut fwiw
edit: I actually didn’t have to widen my sire v3 nut fwiw
I've sort of had an obsession with trying different strings every 3 months or so for the past, I don't know, 3 years? Anyway, for the first time in a long time my bass has been strung with the same strings for 5 straight months. Light LaBella White Tapes. I tried changing them yesterday and ... back on they were after literally less than 5 minutes. Love tapes!
Those are my favorite tapes! But they’re too floppy in any kind of alternate tuning unfortunately.
Wasn't feeling particularly inspired by rounds on this bass, the daddario black nylon tapewounds showed up for medium scale and were readily available... very nice!
Joining the club here, LaBella Black Tapewounds (60-135) on a fretless bass equipped with Bartolini Originals. I've been so used to a more aggressive but clean roundwound tone (G&L L-2500 with MFD pickups) it took getting used to. Also adjusting to the feel, I wasn't crazy about the slippery feel but at the same time loved how fast they play. After a week I was itching to swap them out for rounds but then played it live. It sounded fantastic in my IEMs, getting compliments for the tone.
I generally like brighter but not hyped highs so I am going to experiment with White Gold Nylons and see which set I like better!
I generally like brighter but not hyped highs so I am going to experiment with White Gold Nylons and see which set I like better!
I'm a flatwound and tapewound guy. Recently, I wanted to try colored tapewounds instead of black but I can only seem to find roundwound tapes in colors. Do they make flatwound tapes in colors??
Henry Ford-style, no solid colours (I've seen reports of coloured nylon tapewounds from the Seventies, though) but black.
However, La Bella sometimes makes limited editions of their White ( = clear/transparent) Nylon Tapes with coloured streaks
- the latest were Bubby Lewis Signature sets -
La Bella Bubby Goku
Bubby Lewis La Bella colored tapewound strings
Bubby Lewis strings are in!!
available on their Roadie Club, but not at the moment, it seems:
La Bella Roadie Club
Hi there, Tapewound Club! Glad I found this thread. About to try my first tapewounds (just ordered for a 34" acoustic bass)
Does any of you know tapewounds that would fit my 35" bass (my old Yamaha TRB, 5-string, fretless modified)
Needs a length ball-taper of 37,25" at the very least, better more..
Thanks a lot for your help, and greetings from Cologne/Germany
Does any of you know tapewounds that would fit my 35" bass (my old Yamaha TRB, 5-string, fretless modified)
Needs a length ball-taper of 37,25" at the very least, better more..
Thanks a lot for your help, and greetings from Cologne/Germany
La Bella has an extra long scale set: 760N-B-XL Black Nylon Tape, 5-String, Extra Long Scale
Otherwise, you can contact Pyramid (in Germany!) and they can make you a custom set.
Ah, fantastic! That’s what I needed. I‘ll go for the La Bella set. I learned from this Thread that the Pyramids would sound a bit too „thumpy“ for my personal preference.
Curious if the .060 set will feel too tight (tension wise) on the extra-long scale. I‘ll find out.
Thanks a lot!
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Waiting on some Rotosound Trubass 88 strings 65-135. Be using the 75 100 115 135 for BEA(D). D in brackets because I do muck about with just BEA. Be my first try of tapewounds. Hope I like em. I love flats. Don't use rounds.
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I'm looking forward to hearing about these strings. I've been tempted many times to try them but never have.
I've been back into bass after a fairly long guitar focused hiatus. A got a Mikro in April last year to ease back into playing and I joined TB to research it before hand. Anyhow, I never put tapewounds on it, or any of the basses I have had in the last 12 months. Definetly give my impression of them. I'm down to one bass now, or should I say bass body, an el cheapo jazz. I just put different necks on it from time to time and switch up the wiring to get that 'new bass' experience, rather than buying a different bass every 5 minutes. Currently have a cheap pbass neck on the body and the jazz pickups wired in serial, although I am waiting on a wiring harness that will have a push/pull for switching between parrallel and serial.
Well, since this post? I liked the Fury Anthem so much, that "Lined Fretless" became a Herd Category. So, naturally, I had to have a Long scale and a Short scale lined fretless, too. The Birdsong Fusion, of course, will be the Short scale; so, what to do for a Long scale? Turns out, Schecter makes a left handed Stiletto Studio Lined Fretless.Still have this bass, and it still has Roto TruBass 88's on it. And, yes it still sounds awesome. Last week, I put a set of these things on a new-to-me '93, medium scale Fury Anthem fretless bass. Are they awesome? Yes; yes they are...
I recently commissioned a short scale Birdsong fretless Fusion Bass. It will be shipped with La Bella 750N tapes on it, and I'm eagerly waiting to see how those tapes sound...
So, I tried to get one from Sweetwater - which is about an hour's drive away, in Fort Wayne... Of course, they had to order one from Schecter, but... that's Life for a lefty. I've thought for a while, that it might be nice to try a set of La Bella 750G Gold/White Tapes on something, and the Schecter seemed like a good candidate. But, of course those strings were back-ordered too, so - more waiting...In the meantime, an opportunity popped up to buy a new lefty G&L Kiloton Lined Fretless; like, buy it right now. So I did. Very nice bass, but the D'Addario rounds on it had to go away muy pronto. But, the La Bella Tapes still weren't here, so... what to use? Fortunately, the La Bella LTF-4A LTFF's that I'd ordered for my Rick 4001 were still around (I put strings with even lower tension on the 4001 instead); so I used those. And, TBH? They ain't comin' off, any time soon...
Turned out that the Schecter arrived sooner than Sweetwater thought; I brought it home before the Gold/White Tapes were shipped. And, the Schecter had shipped with a set of EB Group IV Flats on it - and OMG, do they sound good on that very active bass. Every time I think that maybe they should come off? I pick it up; plug it in; and think "NO WAY in this lifetime are these strings coming off this bass". So...
Here I sit with new La Bella Tapes - and, really, no bass to put them on. The Birdsong Fusion, I confirmed recently, is intended to use long scale strings, so it could wear them. My only hope is that the 750-N's it'll ship with, are not what I want.
And, in case you're wondering why I have 2 long scale fretless basses to fill one spot in the herd? The G&L Kiloton got here first; and fills it quite nicely. I simply replaced the G&L ASAT Bass that was filling the "Active Bass" spot with the Schecter. Active is the only criteria for that spot; otherwise, it can be any scale/type of bass. The Schecter is a Very active bass. The G&L ASAT was barely "active", actually; it plays and sounds just fine with no battery in it, anyway. It's now in the "Extra Basses" category of the herd. I guess this is what happens when you own so many basses...
