Zep strings

[buldog5151bass]

Started doing some Zepplin in a band I am in (The Ocean, stuff like that). What kind of strings was JPJ using to get that tone?

 

[Root 5]

If I had to hazard a guess: Rotosound 77 flats and/or Rotosound 66 round wounds.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Which for The Ocean? That's quite a spread.

 

[JTE]

Around '76 an interview in Guitar Player Magazine reported he said he used flats (no brand specified to my recollection) until he got the Alembic. He felt the flats didn't bring out the character of that bass so he started using rounds.

Forty years later he said he always used rounds. Given that the '76 interview was so much closer to the events, I'm giving credence to that, not the much more recent report.

John

 

[Arvin]

I'm in a band that plays about 30 Zep tunes, and I always feel I come closest to the JPJ sound with a Jazz strung with flats (GHS Precision Flats).

 

[southpaw723]

I just recently put rotosound 77s on my jazz bass. Great tone, the g is a lot more dead than the other three strings though. If you play by the neck more you can get a ramble on tone but if you dig into them a bit you get a nice growl.