Tapewounds for non standard tuning ?

[Shlafenflarst]

Hi everyone !

I'd like to put tapewound strings on my electroacoustic bass. It's a Harley Benton B35, 5 strings, long scale (864mm/34"), currently with 45-130 bronze strings, tuned in A D G C F.

Because low tunings don't really sound well on an acoustic bass, I don't want to tune it like i usually tune my 5 strings basses (standard A, like this one currently is, I even tried standard G once), I'd rather go for something higher, I think that should be interesting. Not E A D G C, I've never been comfortable with standard E tuning, more like D G C F A# or C F A# D# G#.

I thought about going for the obvious La Bella Black Nylons, either the 50-135 set that I would tune higher that intended, or the 6 strings 43-135 set, removing the 135 string and tuning it lower than intended. Not sure which would be the best, in the first situation I'd be worried the higher strings wouldn't take the extra tension, in the second one the lower strings might be too floppy. I contacted La Bella about this, they answered that their strings are for standard tuning. That's it, no other explanation. Not very nice...

So I'm wondering, has any of you ever used tapewounds for a non standard tuning ? If so, which ones ?

Thanks in advance !

 

[Aidil]

I think you can use proxies from the gauges of the (roundwound) strings inside the nylon wraps to get the idea of what to expect from those nylon tapewounds. La Bella 760N-B are 50-65-85-105-135. The strings inside are probably 40-55-75-95-125. And in case of the 43 high-C, inside is probably a 32.

Tuning them all higher a half step or one and a half steps would actually make them less wobbly or no longer feel too loose, which most have complained about.

 

[Aidil]

Oops, I incorrectly wrote 760N-B instead of 750N-B.

 

[winegamd]

In my experience, the gold white nylons tend to be stiffer than the other varieties. They are brighter than the black nylons, but you can tame them very easily with a treble cut.