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The Comprehensive List of Black Nylon Tapewound Strings!!!

Lokire

Lokire

Aug 21, 2003
4,980
53
39
Seattle, Washington
#1
I thought it might be nice to have a comprehensive listing of all the tapewound strings out there, along with all their gauges. So here's what I have so far:

4-string only sets:


Fender 9120 Nylon Tapewounds (.058 .072 .092 .110)
Fender 7120 Nylon Filament (.070 .080 .090 .100)
Pyramid Nylon Tapewounds (.050 .070 .080 .095)
Wyres H-Series Tapewounds (.063 .085 .100 .118)
Picato "Pro Bass" Tapewounds (.060 .072 .098 .115)

Rickenbacker 4445 Tapewounds (.063 .075 .100 .111)
(From the 70s, not made anymore)

Hofner Beatle Bass Tapewounds (made by Selmer and/or Pyramid? Not much info...probably not made anymore)
__________________________________________________________

Extended Range Tapewounds (5 and 6-string sets - 4-strings in bold):


GHS 3060 Tapewounds (.050 .070 .090 .105 .125)
(singles available @ juststrings.com)

Galli G77 Tapewounds (.055 .075 .100 .115 .130)
(From Italy, now available from bassguitarstrings.us)

Status-Graphite Tapewounds (.045 .065 .085 .105 .130)
(also available in double-ball config for headless basses - 4 and 5-string, same gauges. Sold direct from their website. Black silk wraps.)

LaBella 760N Tapewounds (.029 .060 .070 .094 .115 .128)
(All sets in regular and extra long scales - Only tapered B-string available? Sold direct from Carvin at the cheapest prices. Singles available @ juststrings.com - Purple silk wraps. Custom sets avalabe from Rob Allen (regular and short scale 30") - both with a .097 A string)

RotoSound RS88 Tapes (.050 .065 .075 .100 .115 .135)
(4-strings come in short, medium, regular, and extra-long scales. Short and medium scales have a .090 A-string. 5-string sets only come in regular and extra long scales. 6-string only in regular scale. Singles available @ juststrings.com - Yellow silk wraps.)

____________________________________________________________


That's all that I've found so far. If you know of any others, let me know and I'll add them to this list. If you're looking to put together a further extended range set, let me know. There are a bunch of tapewound guitar strings out there that might work.

I've only tried 3, the Status-Graphite 5-string set, the RotoSound 30" short scale set, and the LaBella 5-string set. Didn't like the Rotosounds at all. Higher gauge and tension than I like and they sounded very plasticy to me. I had them on an acoustic bass though, so maybe it just wasn't a good match for that bass. The LaBella's are great. They have the only tapered B-string that I've seen, though tapewound Bs never sound great to me anyways. The Status-Graphites are my faves so far. They seem to have a much more 'standard' gauge, so they have a very low tension (lower than the LaBellas) and should easily fit any bass without any mods to the bridge or nut. I did have to carefully unwind the end of the B-string a bit to get it to fit into the tuning peg, but it wasn't a big deal.

I know there's lots of discussion out there on various tapewounds, but if you have anything you want to add here, feel free :)
 
#10
Tapewounds have a more upright sound, which is there best and worst feature. The downside is less sustain and less highs. The upside is less sustain and more thump. Really it depends on what you are looking for.

Also, you can get more hum from tapewounds since you do not get the grounding effect from touching the strings. I jam in a house with no proper ground, and hum is a big problem.
 
#11
Also, the tone of tapewounds doesn't really change over time, because the tape wrapping keeps dirt from getting into the actual windings of the roundwound string underneath. So to me they kinda sound like a more thumpy version of a fresh roundwound string, but with a cool flat, smooth feel. They last forever, and the black never wears off, like with a coated string.

They're great for a certain tone, but I think you can often get a better 'upright' kind of sound from older flatwounds.
 
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#12
Lokire said:
Added to the list:

Rickenbacker 4445 Tapewounds (.063 .075 .100 .111)
(From the 70s, not made anymore)
Click to expand...

I recently found a set of those in the bargain bin of a music store and put them on my home practice bass. The gauges were not printed anywhere on the packaging, btw.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]


And I distinctly recall having had a set of red nylon Ernie Ball strings on one of my basses in the late 70's...
 
#13
I've got a shortscale Kinal Kompact bass that came with black tapewound strings. Seller said they were LaBellas but I want to make sure as I really like them. They have golden silk wrap at the ends. Any help?
 
#14
Those should be the RotoSound short scale tapewounds. They have a yellow silk wrap at both ends. I talked to Mike Kinal about those strings a while ago and he seems to like them a lot, whereas I didn't like them at all :p .The LaBella tapewounds have purple wraps, and the only short scale set that they make are the Rob Allen customized sets, for their Mouse basses, which also have the purple wraps.

Here are the RotoSound tapes on a Kinal Kompact ;)

Link Removed


I think that when the average person sees tapewound strings they automatically think LaBella, since they're by far the most popular and well known tapewounds.
 
#17
So LaBella and Rotosound are the only ones making a high C tapewound?

The jump from a .29 (C) to a .60 (G) on the LaBellas seems a little radical, considering the rest of the gauges in the set. Has anyone tried the LaBella high C and experienced any kind of imbalance with the small gauge?
 
#18
B3bopbass said:
So LaBella and Rotosound are the only ones making a high C tapewound?

The jump from a .29 (C) to a .60 (G) on the LaBellas seems a little radical, considering the rest of the gauges in the set. Has anyone tried the LaBella high C and experienced any kind of imbalance with the small gauge?
Click to expand...
I love the LaBella 6 string nylon tapes on my Brice fretless 6. Very balanced! I even bought them for a Peavey Axcelerator 6 I got used, but I can't get myself to remove the delightful rounds that came on that bass from the previous owner (and probably from Peavey).
 
#19
Lokire said:
Those should be the RotoSound short scale tapewounds. They have a yellow silk wrap at both ends. I talked to Mike Kinal about those strings a while ago and he seems to like them a lot, whereas I didn't like them at all :p .
Click to expand...

You're not alone. I bought a set as my first set of flatwounds but they really turned me off big time. I didn't like them when they were new or after they'd been on a few months. I thought they sounded too clacky, and while I liked the look of the black on my dark Warwick the yellow cloth was ugly as sin (why make black strings with yellow cloth?). I went back to roundwounds (DR coated this time) and it was am improvement to me. I've been reading up on flats tho and may try a different set at some point to save my fingerboard. Currently my outlook is "Why save the fingerboard if you aren't happy with the sound?" I need to find people who use flatwounds and are willing to let me test drive :P
 
#20
now here is a question im confused about.

i know nylon tapewounds are pretty much a lighter guage string wrapped in black tape, so how do you know if the varying guages (like status graphites 105-45 vs. labella 115-60) are due to more tape being used or more string being used?
 

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