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TI Jazz flats

RocketMusic

Gold Supporting Member
Commercial User
Oct 31, 2007
10,754
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Blacksburg, VA
www.rocketmusic.net
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Owner, Rocket Music
I'm looking to juice up our string sales, so I'm doing a fair amount of purchasing right now to add a wider variety of strings in the store.

My next target is TI. Looking at stats on Reverb, it appears that the JF344 set is the popular set. Long scale, medium guage, 4-string.

My question for TB is this: are there any other TI sets that you buy? 5-string? 6-String? Short Scale? Super Long Scale? And while I'm assuming flats are the big TI favorite, they do also make rounds...

So please let me know if you have a favorite set other than the JF344. I'll probably be putting an order in for TI strings tomorrow, and I'd be happy to include your favorite set.
 
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Hey Greg I love the JF344 as well as the 5 and 6 string sets of jazz flats. I have always used the long scale, medium gauge sets in 4,5 and 6 string sets. To me these are what TI’s are all about. They are perfectly balanced for my playing. I’ve tried the jazz rounds and they are an excellent string as well. Long life and great tone but they are actually even lighter feeling than the flats and would require a set up on most basses and a good deal of awareness of how heavy handed you play. They require a considerable light touch but are wildly popular among folks who use them. I’m unfortunately not familiar with the types of TI strings…. At least not the ones made for bass guitars.
 
Hey Greg I love the JF344 as well as the 5 and 6 string sets of jazz flats. I have always used the long scale, medium gauge sets in 4,5 and 6 string sets. To me these are what TI’s are all about. They are perfectly balanced for my playing. I’ve tried the jazz rounds and they are an excellent string as well. Long life and great tone but they are actually even lighter feeling than the flats and would require a set up on most basses and a good deal of awareness of how heavy handed you play. They require a considerable light touch but are wildly popular among folks who use them. I’m unfortunately not familiar with the types of TI strings…. At least not the ones made for bass guitars.

Thanks for the input, Scott! That's very helpful.
 
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TI has a Minimum Advertised Price in effect, so I imagine you see these sets listed for the same price everywhere.

A cool new feature of our new website is the Rewards program. We essentially give you a 5% store credit after every purchase, so the JF344 set will cost you $93.95 the first time. Every dollar spent through our website generates 5 points, and 100 points gets you $1 off your next purchase through our site. So with 93*5 = 465 points, you'll have a coupon to take $4 off whenever you buy your second set. Fine print - the points expire after 12 months.

Our free shipping has always kicked in when your order total hits $100... I think I'll lower it to $90 just so folks can grab a set of these TI's without having to pay shipping. Unless I can figure out some way to make these items ship for free regardless of the order total... I'm having so much fun with software!
 
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I just installed some TI Jazz rounds (JR364) and I haven’t played them for too long, but so far, my impressions are very favorable! Although they definitely sound like rounds vs. flats, they appear to be well-balanced and are pretty smooth feeling and have nice sustain and brightness to them. I’ve got 3 basses in a rack right now and smooth to rougher feel goes TI Jazz flats —> TI Jazz rounds —> DR Pure Blues rounds. It seems to go in the same order as far as string tension is concerned, as well…least felt tension to most. For those that feel the JF344s are too “floppy”, the JR364s feel more taught, but still supple rather than stiff to me. The JR364s are super long scale (36”), so would work well for string-through applications.

All of that to say, I’d likely place an order for both JF344s and JR364s at the same time if you had them…they don’t seem to always be easy to locate at a good price!
 
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I just installed some TI Jazz rounds (JR364) and I haven’t played them for too long, but so far, my impressions are very favorable! Although they definitely sound like rounds vs. flats, they appear to be well-balanced and are pretty smooth feeling and have nice sustain and brightness to them. I’ve got 3 basses in a rack right now and smooth to rougher feel goes TI Jazz flats —> TI Jazz rounds —> DR Pure Blues rounds. It seems to go in the same order as far as string tension is concerned, as well…least felt tension to most. For those that feel the JF344s are too “floppy”, the JR364s feel more taught, but still supple rather than stiff to me. The JR364s are super long scale (36”), so would work well for string-through applications.

All of that to say, I’d likely place an order for both JF344s and JR364s at the same time if you had them…they don’t seem to always be easy to locate at a good price!

Awesome, thanks for the input! And thanks for the useful review, that's great info to have.

I've added all of the TI Jazz Roundwound sets to my purchasing system, and I set re-order points for the JR344 and JR364 sets. That'll tell me to order those sets on my next order, which I hope to place before the end of this year.
 
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I’ve got TI flats on two basses and I like them! Only thing I’ll note is that I don’t think you need to change them very often, if ever - the set on my ‘78 P bass have been on over 10 years and still sound great (though I’ll admit that bass doesn’t get a lot of playing time, as it weighed like 12 pounds). One of these days I’ll order a set of the rounds and try them on a Jazz bass.
 
I’ve got TI flats on two basses and I like them! Only thing I’ll note is that I don’t think you need to change them very often, if ever - the set on my ‘78 P bass have been on over 10 years and still sound great (though I’ll admit that bass doesn’t get a lot of playing time, as it weighed like 12 pounds). One of these days I’ll order a set of the rounds and try them on a Jazz bass.

Yeah, I suspect that's true of most flats. I've had a set of La Bella 760FS flats on my main player for going on 4 years, and they still sound great. Lots of sweaty gig time on them, too.
 
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So please let me know if you have a favorite set other than the JF344.
Definitely love the 5 string sets. My daughter's bass has them, she "made me" put them on another bass of mine that went better with her outfit last Christmas time for a show. Unfortunately, I suppose from a retail perspective, the darn things last forever.

That said, late to the party or not, I just saw you 5 string sets in your store and snagged one. Looking at a new bass for me that I want to put them on. Thank you for having them at the price you do!
 
I tried the TI Jazz rounds once and they didn’t do much for me (might have just been a bad match between those strings and that particular bass, I don’t know). Regardless, I kill strings quickly and there’s no way I could afford to keep even one bass strung with TI rounds. This isn’t an issue with the TI flats (which I really like): I’ve had the same set for around ten years.
 
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Definitely love the 5 string sets. My daughter's bass has them, she "made me" put them on another bass of mine that went better with her outfit last Christmas time for a show. Unfortunately, I suppose from a retail perspective, the darn things last forever.

That said, late to the party or not, I just saw you 5 string sets in your store and snagged one. Looking at a new bass for me that I want to put them on. Thank you for having them at the price you do!

Thank you! I'm heading to the post office now to drop off 3 different TI orders (including yours!) that came in last night or this morning. This is getting even more exciting than I thought it would!

I just ordered some more sets from TI including the two 4-string roundwound sets mentioned earlier in this thread (JR344 & JR364). I'll get those listed on my site now, though the strings probably won't get here until Tuesday or Wednesday.
 
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I am loving the TI flats on my Roscoe Classic P. It has become my main player. I would have never thought the Koa Century Plus 5 would get replaced. I also bought a friends Fender Pro American 5 string P. I put some rounds on that (for variety and because I had like 4 sets of D'Addario Nickel Rounds around as I use them on my Roscoe) but I have kicked around trying some TI flats on the 5 as well.

The band and FOH guy can't wipe the smile off their faces when I pull out the Roscoe P. It is just a killer bass with the TI's on it. Who needs a Fender Pino Signature for 4 times as much.
 
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No diss on the Roscoe P (I’d love to try one!), or argument that the Fender Pino P is “worth” more…but it sounds and plays amazing…with TI flats, of course. :thumbsup:

I had it professionally shielded by my favorite local shop, and asked specifically that they keep the TI flats after the shielding and setup. Apparently, there was a communication breakdown, and I noticed the blue silks of Chromes when I arrived to pick it up. Happily, they rectified that by ordering a new set of TIs, and all was right again with the world…I think they suit the bass perfectly. :smug:

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I'm sure it does. I am happy that I have something similar for a little less. I lusted after a Pino for a while. They just got SO expensive, even used. Not exact but close and has it's own cool things, like a side input jack that I REALLY like. The Honey Badger pickup is pretty sweet, too. Really good output for a passive bass.
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