Tapewound Strings Info

[ajkula66]

Anyway I think my point may have been lost? noise isn't inherent from using tapewounds (they don't create noise themselves), they just make existing environmental noise potentially a bigger issue by eliminating the body-grounding that the vast majority of electric guitars have used for years to decrease noise.

No, your point is quite clear.

My own empirical experience leaves me with a massive question mark on why some basses (logically) start humming along once they receive tapewounds and the others don't. That's all.

BTW, the Bartolini on the aforementioned EB is a humbucker and the bass is properly shielded. Yet it's an outlier in the otherwise silent crowd...

 

[trothwell]

I have 7 basses that I consider my main players - all short scales and 4 of them wear Daddario black nylon tapes.

Wow! Nicely done!

 

[mellowgerman]

Wow! Nicely done!

Thanks I guess I should clarify the 7 main players thing - I don't bring 7 basses to a gig (usually only 1), they're just the main rotation, that get picked up and played regularly. Obviously I like to tinker with electronics and tone, so I end up with a number of basses that are unique but play and sound great (to my ears anyway), so they all get used. There are a few others that are just kept around because they're nostalgic or useful on rare occasions and not valuable enough to justify selling off.
Anyway, I could ramble on but the point is, tapewounds are great strings and I do think the buzz issue may get a little overstated online sometimes because I've never run into it, so I would hate for that to prevent somebody from trying out tapewounds. I also live in an older house with not-the-greatest wiring and have played at a lot of hole in the wall bars, so it's not as if I'm in pristine electric environments all of the time. I'm typically kind of sensitive to noise and hum too, getting irritated when I can't fix it by trouble-shooting internal wiring, so I can't imagine that I'm just living unaware with it. My modified Starfire bass has single coil bisonics and high octane active filter electronics and the semi-hollow construction makes it almost impossible to get the shielding 100% perfect, but it still wears tapes without any noticeable issues caused by the tapes. UNLESS, the buzz that is talked about sits at some kind of high frequency that gigging without earplugs has somehow knocked out of eardrums... in which case I'm super sorry to my bandmates for years of unaddressed buzz that I was just oblivious of! I just think everyone should give tapes a try if they're curious. It could unlock a whole new world of fun.