Which bass for tapewounds?

[40Hz]

Do note that tapes will probably be noisy with passive instruments, so you might want to look into an active bass. Something about your fingers not touching the metal of the string but the nylon and grounding.

I’d say might be noisy rather than probably be noisy based on my own experiences.

The only time I’ve run into an issue with noise involving tapewounds is on a bass equipped only with a piezo pickup. On my Godin there was some slight clicking noises when I fretted certain notes. Apparently the piezo was picking up the sound of the tape wrapping lightly hitting the fingerboard. It was an acoustic noise source rather than electronic.

I’ve got tapewounds on a PB with zero noise issues and an active Spector 5-string. They sound good on both basses. I also briefly tried tapes on my JB. But the only reason I decided to remove them was because I didn’t like the way they sounded with the pickups it had, not because it got noisy.

 

[Kael]

The best bass for tapewounds is the one you already have that needs new strings.

 

[GIBrat51]

Inspired by Janek's recent video (https://youtube.com/shorts/yadefQQVAzQ?si=iMJCYZuMu13wzNGP), I'm interested in exploring tapewound strings. What's a good bass for that?

Janek is using an American Standard P bass (maple neck) with Aguilar pickups. Makes me think that something like an AVRI P bass would offer similar possibilities. Maybe a cheapo P bass or P bass clone with Aggie pickups. Or maybe any P bass.

Is there an iconic tapewound sound?

Well, I imagine that different people have different opinions on the subject, but... for me? It's gotta be Sir Paul's Hofner 500/1, with Rotosound TruBass 88 Tapewounds. Deep, woody, organic; similar to an upright bass. Which these strings were intended to copy - as close as possible. And, which is why my old, '90's left handed MIK Rogue VB-100 Violin Bass wears them, too. Well, that, and the fact that they just happen to set up and intonate perfectly on that bass. Which, on a bass with a trapeze tailpiece and a "primitive" floating bridge, is sometimes a small miracle...
However, I suppose you could put tapes on just about any bass you want to. The Roto's are considered the deepest, thumpiest tapes there are - for a 4-string set; but there are others - like the La Bella White and Gold Tapes, that are considerably brighter. Check out the TapeWound Club here; lots of discussion about the relative merits of the various flavors of tapes, and what works "best" on what... Also, whether you'll need to open up some nut slots or not; and which basses can have grounding issues. I've never had that problem myself, but... some people do...

 

[T-boneParish]

Tapes sound amazing on acoustic bass guitars.

totally agree

 

[ThudThudThud]

totally agree

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I got the suggestion on TB....may have been you! Not sure.
However, it was life changing for me.

 

[MasterMonkeyMan]

totally agree

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That's nice. What is it?

 

[EriktheRed]

Graham Mabey (Joe Jackson band) got his sound with a pick, a jazz bass, full tone pot, and LaBella tapes. That's the sound of pop/rock/ska in my book.

Did he play on "Is She Really Going Out With Him"?

 

[Aussie Player]

I found basses are very individual when it comes to strings, especially tapes.

Hated them on my P basses, like them on one Jass but not on the other. They can and do sound different even though both are Jazz basses.

Love them on an EB3 but not on an EB2 which has the same pick ups.

 

[Just Wrong]

I’d say might be noisy rather than probably be noisy based on my own experiences.

The only time I’ve run into an issue with noise involving tapewounds is on a bass equipped only with a piezo pickup. On my Godin there was some slight clicking noises when I fretted certain notes. Apparently the piezo was picking up the sound of the tape wrapping lightly hitting the fingerboard. It was an acoustic noise source rather than electronic.

I’ve got tapewounds on a PB with zero noise issues and an active Spector 5-string. They sound good on both basses. I also briefly tried tapes on my JB. But the only reason I decided to remove them was because I didn’t like the way they sounded with the pickups it had, not because it got noisy.

I was under the impression you'd get noise no matter the passive instrument since there was no ground since you weren't touching the metal part of the strings. It was certainly my experience with my passive Jazz and Precision. I have a set of white nylons waiting for an active bass that should arrive tomorrow

 

[jdaunt]

I was under the impression you'd get noise no matter the passive instrument since there was no ground since you weren't touching the metal part of the strings. It was certainly my experience with my passive Jazz and Precision. I have a set of white nylons waiting for an active bass that should arrive tomorrow

Technically, yes, but how audible the noise is depends on a lot of factors. When I had a passive bass with tapes, sometimes there would be noise and sometimes there wouldn’t be, similar to my experience with soloing single coil Jazz Bass pickups.

 

[BOOG]

I have tapes on a couple of bass’s. One is an Aerodyne with EMG Geezer PJ with LaBella black and the other is an ESP-LTD AP-5 that has stock EMG’s with LaBella bronze. Tapes to me are the easiest and most flexible but I have to adjust my touch a little.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Inspired by Janek's recent video (https://youtube.com/shorts/yadefQQVAzQ?si=iMJCYZuMu13wzNGP), I'm interested in exploring tapewound strings. What's a good bass for that?

Janek is using an American Standard P bass (maple neck) with Aguilar pickups. Makes me think that something like an AVRI P bass would offer similar possibilities. Maybe a cheapo P bass or P bass clone with Aggie pickups. Or maybe any P bass.

Is there an iconic tapewound sound?

I have LaBella Deep Talking Bass White Tape Wound strings that I bought here on the TB shop. I put them on my 1982 maple-neck Jazz with 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center) about 5-years ago. They are by far and away the best strings I've ever used on a Jazz Bass. Before these strings, I had Dean Markley Blue Steel round wounds and DR Black Beauty roundwound on my bass for a total of about 33-years.

My first exposure to tape wounds were the Fender Nylon Tape wound strings that I bought in 1971 when I was touring with a nightclub group with my 1965 Jazz. They had a darker sound than Fender's standard flat wounds at the time. The LaBella tape wounds come in 4 different versions. The White is the brightest sounding, the black is the darkest sounding, and the white over a copper core and white over a gold core are in between the two.

I really like the standard White tapes, which are white over a silver core (nickel or steel, not sure which) because they still have the higher harmonics that are always missing from flats and they are so evenly balanced from string to string. If I need to play an octave E, I can play it either on the 7th fret of the A-string or on the 2nd fret of the D string and they sound virtually the same. With all previous strings, the E on the D-string always sounded thinner and weaker. Now it doesn't matter where I play it, so I play it where it is most convenient to fret it without shifting my entire hand. Same thing is true with playing the A on the D-string or on the G-string. Whichever is closer is the one I fret.

I should warn you that if you've been playing round wounds for years, these LaBella Tape Wound strings are pretty slippery at first. I had to pay attention more to my hand shifts when I first started using them because my fingers would tend to slide up a bit more and missing by a half-step is usually more than a little a bit on the dissonant side.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Inspired by Janek's recent video (https://youtube.com/shorts/yadefQQVAzQ?si=iMJCYZuMu13wzNGP), I'm interested in exploring tapewound strings. What's a good bass for that?

Janek is using an American Standard P bass (maple neck) with Aguilar pickups. Makes me think that something like an AVRI P bass would offer similar possibilities. Maybe a cheapo P bass or P bass clone with Aggie pickups. Or maybe any P bass.

Is there an iconic tapewound sound?

There's a good video of Bobby Vega (a quick youtube search came up empty- probably have to sift through the results) where he's talking about black nylon tapes on his custom painted 1971 Fender Jazz. Something about the wider pickup spacing working well with them. I tried them on my old black Geddy Lee bass. Was definitely cool.

 

[SDC1-ClickClack]

You have to eliminate the head and neck, or else it may re-form!

Oops, sorry. I thought you were asking about tapeworms.

 

[40Hz]

I was under the impression you'd get noise no matter the passive instrument since there was no ground since you weren't touching the metal part of the strings. It was certainly my experience with my passive Jazz and Precision. I have a set of white nylons waiting for an active bass that should arrive tomorrow

I use LaBella Copper White Nylons. And my current JB (played my first one back in 1970) is extremely quiet. As were most of the others. I did install my own copper shielding on most of them. And I never play with just one pickup. I’ll run the neck around 80-85% and the bridge between 40-75% with the tone set somewhere around 50% depending on the JB. I let my amp handle the rest of the tone shaping if I’m playing a JB. because it’s onboard controls are basically a set & forget thing for me. So maybe that minimized the potential for noise. Or maybe I’ve just been lucky and haven’t played very many places that had electrical noise issues.

Like everything bass related: YMMV.

 

[chriscarcinogen]

I second Fender's 9120s. I've been putting these on my precision for years.

They used cost $20, now they cost $40, go figure.

I originally tried them because I used to play very "busy" and they stopped the clackiness that was driving bonkers.

 

[MegaSwing]

My Peavey G-Bass is an excellent platform for tapewounds. They produce an enormous, clean sound on it.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

I have D’Adderio tapes on my acoustic bass that I bought new when I traded for the bass about 10 months ago. The D’Add tapes are different than they were in the recent past, but I don’t know when they changed. The new strings are smooth like steel flats, but are kinda’ bright / round wound sounding. The old version of D’Add tapes were like nylon filament wound, but may have been ground or rolled. They still felt a little like rounds to the fingertips, but the sounded more like flats than the smooth version.

 

[T-boneParish]

That's nice. What is it?

It's an Overhead Bass by Journey Instruments. It has a carbon fiber body, a removable neck, and it fits into a backpack small enough to fit in airplane overhead. 27" scale, but surprisingly deep and resonant. I haven't seen that anyone else is playing one with tape wound strings, but to my ears they are perfect for this instrument. It's got a vibe!

 

[woodyng2]

Very nice. I've not seen that particular hue

I still have a couple of unfortunately not greatly detailed pics.
I bought it on MF Stupid deal, and almost returned it because the strings were really high off the fretboard.
Fortunately, a setup fixed that. But in less than 4 months, the other deal happened…..