Has anyone successfully used tapewounds on a bass with a Hipshot system? If so, what brand and model. Thanks.
Audie in Arkansas
Audie in Arkansas
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Tapewounds on a headless bass?
- Thread starter Arkansas Audie
- Start date
I have tried LaBellas and Magmas without success. I suspect they all unravel when cut and clamped at the saddle.
Thank you! I read a post on another site that said T-Is won't work either. I did read one part of an ad for a new bass that suggests hex-core strings will work so I may gamble on a set of D'addario Tapewounds. Thanks again.
To my knowledge TI doesn't make tapewound strings for bass. Just to avoid confusion: Do you mean tapewound or flatwound?
I love the T-I JF 324s, but I don't know of a tapewound they make either, but what I plan to try is the D'addario Tapewounds. I read at thread on this site from 2010 that someone has used them on a headless bass. The specific string is the D'addario ETB92S.
Will do. Just placed the order. Should be here Monday. If all else fails I know the GHS Brite Flats (actually a ground round wound) work.
Holy tomole, what a beautiful bass, and the black strings look great! And, I love the gold hardware. I'm planning to have Tom Clement build me another one with a redwood body and would love to have gold hardware if it would look good. In the meantime, I'll have mine strung up with the D'addarios Monday night if the strings arrive as scheduled.
I have Chromes on this one I built. Labella Golds unraveled and didn’t work.
The question was about flats… my custom headless headpiece uses grub screws.
These worked for me
These didn’t work for me
It really was about tapes (with a passing mention of Thomastik flats), as the above exchange finally revealed. Thanks for clarifying.
Did the La Bellas immediately break, or did it happen after a while?
Also, did it happen to all of them or just a subset, and if so which?
[I'm simply curious, but also believe it would give a series of data points for future posters interested in trying the same.]
You’re right, my badIt really was about tapes (with a passing mention of Thomastik flats), as the above exchange finally revealed. Thanks for clarifying.
Did the La Bellas immediately break, or did it happen after a while?
Also, did it happen to all of them or just a subset, and if so which?
[I'm simply curious, but also believe it would give a series of data points for future posters interested in trying the same.]
Yes the golds broke immediately, unfortunately
I’ve also tried the black tapes a long time ago and, if I recall properly, they unwrapped.
EDIT yes it happened to all, the B, E and G were the most immediate, and even trying to lightly tighten was not good because I couldn’t grip down onto the core so they flubbed out on me.
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I said I would report back on my experience with D'addario Tapewounds. I never got them on. The ETB92S strings were too short for my Clement Slim 30" scale headless bass with the Hipshot system. The fabric would have been on the first fret, at least. So, I returned them. Brite flats, it is, at least for now.
I had TI flats on my S Martyn 30" for a little while, and they seemed to be ok until I removed them. Only removed them because it was strung E-C, and I don't need that. May try another set with Low B soon. The S Martyn uses the Nova headless system though if that's helpful.
Thanks. I can't find good photos of the Nova headpiece, but based on who uses it (SMartyn) it must be good. Apparently it will take something very unorthodox to work with flatwounds.
I bought a Headstock Mount from Peter Weiss Design and a new set of Ernie Ball Slinky flats came unwound. I'm not a luthier, so I may have done something wrong. My plan is to buy a cheap bass later and experiment with that. Right now Tom Clement is building me another super light 30" scale bass with his 2 + 2 headstock.
It’s not an issue with the head piece, all grub screw head pieces are going to function effectively the same, they just clamp the string. It’s an issue with the type of string an how they are wound. Some are more solid than others. I’ll post some pictures of the Golds that I had an issue with to illustrate the issue with those strings. Again Chromes worked fine.
