TapeWound Club~Anyone?

[FeltTipPen]

With strings it's always a tradeoff, or any gear for that matter!

Yesterday I swapped out the Black Tapewounds for the LaBella Gold White Tapes (standard gauge). I really like them and they're more of what I am looking for overall. I liked the brightness (compared to the black tapes) and the low B had the clarity I was looking for. There's an interesting tonal quality to the D & G strings that I can't describe yet, I'm going to spend more time with the bass this weekend to get more of an idea of it.

I do like the Black tapewounds and there is versatility to them. But for my bass with Bartolini originals it was too dark for my tastes (and the low B not defined to my liking). If I assigned this bass for certain applications I would have kept them on. But I want to use the bass for a variety of genres where I wanted more brightness so the Golds are staying...until I try the Coppers

 

[trseal]

With strings it's always a tradeoff, or any gear for that matter!

Yesterday I swapped out the Black Tapewounds for the LaBella Gold White Tapes (standard gauge). I really like them and they're more of what I am looking for overall. I liked the brightness (compared to the black tapes) and the low B had the clarity I was looking for. There's an interesting tonal quality to the D & G strings that I can't describe yet, I'm going to spend more time with the bass this weekend to get more of an idea of it.

I do like the Black tapewounds and there is versatility to them. But for my bass with Bartolini originals it was too dark for my tastes (and the low B not defined to my liking). If I assigned this bass for certain applications I would have kept them on. But I want to use the bass for a variety of genres where I wanted more brightness so the Golds are staying...until I try the Coppers

My understanding by LaBella's description is that the copper whites are less bright than the gold. I have the coppers on an Aerodyne Sp. P and like their spunkiness quite a bit. I'm a "flats" guy generally but this modern iteration of the P seemed to need something spunky but without being harsh. Most rounds to me are just too bright for my liking but the coppers have some really cool tonal capabilities (within MY character tolerance...), from warm to snappy with playing style a bit of tweaking of the tone knob.

Tim

 

[finn_the_human]

Anyone tried the LaBella white nylon tapewounds on a stringthrough Mustang (eg Squier CV 60s)?

Mustang Wiki page here suggests the Beatle Bass white nylon tapes. Labella rep says they’ll be fine, but not “officially recommended” because they’re off-label use when not on a Hofner Bass.

Wondering if these would be a good first tape wound for me to try. I’m looking for bright tapes. I like the tone of rounds, but want a smoother feel.

 

[trseal]

Anyone tried the LaBella white nylon tapewounds on a stringthrough Mustang (eg Squier CV 60s)?

Mustang Wiki page here suggests the Beatle Bass white nylon tapes. Labella rep says they’ll be fine, but not “officially recommended” because they’re off-label use when not on a Hofner Bass.

Wondering if these would be a good first tape wound for me to try. I’m looking for bright tapes. I like the tone of rounds, but want a smoother feel.

I'm a bit unsure from your post what exactly you're looking for, tonally. The McCartney/Hofner sound is anything but bright. If you look carefully at their last (Rooftop) concert, you can identify his strings as Roto 88's. Black nylon wound, gold-yellow silks. His Hofner tone is very "thuddy."

The LaBella white nylons are both advertised as "bright" to varying degrees. The gold-whites being the brightest. I have a set of the Roto 88's on a Vox Teardrop and they are, indeed, quite thuddy. I have copper whites on a P and they can be quite spanky but I would not consider them bright by any stretch. The gold whites may be as close as you can get to round wound tone out of tapes but I'm skeptical about how "bright" they are. But that's just me.

Tim

 

[trseal]

I'm a bit unsure from your post what exactly you're looking for, tonally. The McCartney/Hofner sound is anything but bright. If you look carefully at their last (Rooftop) concert, you can identify his strings as Roto 88's. Black nylon wound, gold-yellow silks. His Hofner tone is very "thuddy."

The LaBella white nylons are both advertised as "bright" to varying degrees. The gold-whites being the brightest. I have a set of the Roto 88's on a Vox Teardrop and they are, indeed, quite thuddy. I have copper whites on a P and they can be quite spanky but I would not consider them bright by any stretch. The gold whites may be as close as you can get to round wound tone out of tapes but I'm skeptical about how "bright" they are. But that's just me.

Tim

Correction to my blathering:
I had completely brain-dumped that LaBella has just plain "white nylons"--beyond the gold-white and copper-white. My apologies. Nothing I said previously applies to the plain whites other than coincidentally becuz I'm not at all familiar with them. Sorry. I'll show myself out...

Tim

 

[HaphAsSard]

Anyone tried the LaBella white nylon tapewounds on a stringthrough Mustang (eg Squier CV 60s)?

Mustang Wiki page here suggests the Beatle Bass white nylon tapes. Labella rep says they’ll be fine, but not “officially recommended” because they’re off-label use when not on a Hofner Bass.

Wondering if these would be a good first tape wound for me to try. I’m looking for bright tapes. I like the tone of rounds, but want a smoother feel.

In terms of installation, I doubt you'll have any problems putting the 760THBB White Nylon set on your Mustang.
However, the A and E will be very, very loose. My guess is they work fine on a Beatle Bass platform, which is perhaps conducive to a more deliberate, lighter touch (what with the narrow neck and floating bridge / height of strings from the body at the plucking area).

Ideally, the 760T-M (standard-gauge, medium-scale) would be perfect, but they were discontinued.

Alternatively, you could get the long-scale set (760T) and risk installing it (with ca 1-3/4 inches' worth of full-gauge low E being would directly on the post).
This is actively recommended against by La Bella for all of their bass-guitar products, mind you, and the risk of breakage is very real when it comes to their DTB flatwounds.
Then again,
- nylon tapewounds are roundwound under the tape, thus a lot less stiff and less incompatible with sharp turns
- JMJ Signature Mustangs come with long-scale Fender flats installed.
The above having been said, it's ultimately your call - I decline any and all responsibilities.

 

[ajkula66]

I’m looking for bright tapes. I like the tone of rounds, but want a smoother feel.

White Nylons are the brightest tapes around, IMO/IME, but I have zero experience with them on a Mustang, installation-wise.

Good luck.

 

[FeltTipPen]

My understanding by LaBella's description is that the copper whites are less bright than the gold. I have the coppers on an Aerodyne Sp. P and like their spunkiness quite a bit. I'm a "flats" guy generally but this modern iteration of the P seemed to need something spunky but without being harsh. Most rounds to me are just too bright for my liking but the coppers have some really cool tonal capabilities (within MY character tolerance...), from warm to snappy with playing style a bit of tweaking of the tone knob.

Tim

I keep forgetting about the coppers being less bright than the golds and focusing on the copper tapes' unique mid quality. I'm more of a rounds player (preferred on my fretless G&L) so the golds got me closer to that brightness.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the coppers. I'm still swayed towards trying them even though they're less bright.

 

[mrperkolator]

Anyone tried the LaBella white nylon tapewounds on a stringthrough Mustang (eg Squier CV 60s)?

Mustang Wiki page here suggests the Beatle Bass white nylon tapes. Labella rep says they’ll be fine, but not “officially recommended” because they’re off-label use when not on a Hofner Bass.

Wondering if these would be a good first tape wound for me to try. I’m looking for bright tapes. I like the tone of rounds, but want a smoother feel.

Be sure to measure, then personally I’d email labella. I did so when figuring out a AFB200. It has a weird wound length and would need their full scale tapes. At the time labella said (on mine) that a little nylon on tuner would be ok, unlike the flats.

In the end I bought a set of flats from pyramid that were designed for my bass since I have LaBella tapes on a different bass. That being said, apparently pyramid is super cool about custom lengths from what I have read.

If you end up installing a full length set of la Bella tapes on the mustang, keep us posted on how well it works.

 

[bassnyc1]

I'm back in the Tapewound club. I put a set of Rotosound 88's on my P Bass. This is my fourth brand of tapes I've tried and my favorite so far.

 

[FeltTipPen]

I decided to go back to the LaBella black tapewounds. The white gold strings are great, but I decided to embrace the different tone of the black tapewounds from my other roundwound strung fretless. The white gold would be too similar to the roundwounds for me.

I also agree with others regarding the white gold, they are lower output.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

My favorite tapewounds are GHS, I have them on 2 fretless jazz.

I have Roto Tru 88s on my Rivoli and they’re perfect on that bass.

I like the sound but the feel is rougher on the Fender tapes on my ESP fretless pj.

 

[bassnyc1]

Do the Fender tapes have a kind of "rope" feel to them?

 

[trseal]

Do the Fender tapes have a kind of "rope" feel to them?

I don't know if I'd characterize them as "rope feel," but they are round wound then wrapped in nylon tape.

Tim

 

[bassnyc1]

Maybe my description was poor. (it was!)
Most of the Black tapewounds I've tried were very slick feeling. Almost like flats, but smoother. Someone I know has an old mustang bass with black tapes but there's a texture to them. She doesn't know what brand they are. I've been trying to track them down but so far, not. I thought I might have found them with the rotos that I posted about a few posts ago but now that you've mentioned the Fenders, I am intrigued again. My wallet is crying!

 

[trseal]

If you're still trying to ID the strings, Fender tapes have black silk ends.

 

[mrperkolator]

Has anyone used both labella black tapes and pyramid tapes? I’m curious about pyramid, and my frame of reference is La Bella.

 

[bassboysam]

Has anyone used both labella black tapes and pyramid tapes? I’m curious about pyramid, and my frame of reference is La Bella.

I've used both on my starfire 2. the pyramid's are warmer and thicker sounding, they don't have that plastic-like feel. they're smooth but they have a cloth-like feel. they are hand polished so the smoothness can vary a bit but the sound is consistent.

The pyramids have a more woody, upright tone as many have stated.

 

[DCCat]

I've used both on my starfire 2. the pyramid's are warmer and thicker sounding, they don't have that plastic-like feel. they're smooth but they have a cloth-like feel. they are hand polished so the smoothness can vary a bit but the sound is consistent.

The pyramids have a more woody, upright tone as many have stated.

I've used both on a fretless jazz.

The LaBella is basically unremarkable, and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. They don't really do anything wrong, unless you need new-string zing (they start out like broken-in rounds and stay that way for quite a while). Neither do they excel in any particular area. Good, solid strings. A bit on the dark side relative to some tapewounds, especially the LaBella white varieties, but that's OK for me. They're currently on the fretless, but maybe not for long as I've been searching for the right strings for that bass for quite some time and haven't quite found them yet, I think.

The Pyramids are more interesting:
- The wrap is the best I've experienced. There's some real texture there, but not grabby or rough in any way. Soft and sumptuous.
- For me, the string-to-string balance wasn't great. The E is on the loud and boomy side, and no pickup height adjustment would fix it. On the other hand, the G is very thin. I used a lot of EQ with these strings, and an HPF more or less tamed the E, but I found no solution for the G other than to try strings from other sets. A LaBella black might work (didn't have one at the time), but I found the most success with a TIJF G. Overall, the string-to-string balance was a battle until I got it to sort of work. Note, though, that I haven't seen anyone else complain about this, so It's possible the issue was that they just weren't a good match for this bass, and I didn't try them on any others.
- Yes, they (especially the E and A) have a definite upright vibe, more so than any others I've tried (I haven't tried the Roto 88's, though). Very pleasant if that's something you're looking for.

 

[mrperkolator]

I've used both on a fretless jazz.

The LaBella is basically unremarkable, and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. They don't really do anything wrong, unless you need new-string zing (they start out like broken-in rounds and stay that way for quite a while). Neither do they excel in any particular area. Good, solid strings. A bit on the dark side relative to some tapewounds, especially the LaBella white varieties, but that's OK for me. They're currently on the fretless, but maybe not for long as I've been searching for the right strings for that bass for quite some time and haven't quite found them yet, I think.

The Pyramids are more interesting:
- The wrap is the best I've experienced. There's some real texture there, but not grabby or rough in any way. Soft and sumptuous.
- For me, the string-to-string balance wasn't great. The E is on the loud and boomy side, and no pickup height adjustment would fix it. On the other hand, the G is very thin. I used a lot of EQ with these strings, and an HPF more or less tamed the E, but I found no solution for the G other than to try strings from other sets. A LaBella black might work (didn't have one at the time), but I found the most success with a TIJF G. Overall, the string-to-string balance was a battle until I got it to sort of work. Note, though, that I haven't seen anyone else complain about this, so It's possible the issue was that they just weren't a good match for this bass, and I didn't try them on any others.
- Yes, they (especially the E and A) have a definite upright vibe, more so than any others I've tried (I haven't tried the Roto 88's, though). Very pleasant if that's something you're looking for.

I’ve only used labellas, other than some mystery tapes that was on a factory Ibanez fretless. I say mystery because they didn’t impress me enough to figure out what they were. Satin feeling and thin sounding. I don’t think it was the bass.

My issue is I’ve got a short scale hollow that wants damn near full scale strings due to bridge design. Issue with full scale is too much around the peg, and then A and D strings rub on E and G (2x2 headstock). I bought pyramid flats that were designed with it in mind and they sound great solo - but hide in a mix. I figured pyramid could make a tape set of similar length. I’ve considered short scale TIJR as well, but can’t seem to get input elsewhere. I’m not a fan of bright rounds or string noise but need more clarity than those flats give.

I do like labella blacks on my jazz. Though it’s currently wearing labella super polished (also nice).

I’m one of those that tries other stuff and ends up back at tapes…