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Identifying my flat wound bass strings!


Ratso

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I just broke my A string on my '64 P Bass and am trying to determine what brand of flats are on the bass. I love their feel and tone and want to get another set but I don't know who makes them. Damn! Can you help identify them? They are flatwounds, have been on the bass for years and have a gold/beige colored silk. Please help. Thank you.

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AFAIK, Ernie Ball uses blue silk and GHS uses purple so you can probably eliminate both those brands. But if the strings are old enough that might not be true. Your best bet is to simply buy a set from a known good brand. See if you can borrow a micrometer and measure the existing strings to see what gauge you need. A good shop can probably help if you bring the bass in. Fender strings are fairly reasonably priced but there are other alternatives. d'Addario makes "half rounds" strings that combine the tone of roundwounds with the feel of flats.

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I think Fender uses green braid on their strings. I have used strings that have the gold braid but cant remember for the life of me who makes them.

 

Whats important for feel is the gauge. if you have a micrometer and can measure the thickness that would be more important then the brand.

 

I can say, that out of the flats I've tried, I get my best mileage out of the Labella's. they are one of the oldest manufacturers still making their own strings and they were making flats dating way back. They know just how to make them right too. Not too muddy sounding and the tension between strings is perfect. I cant say that about any of the others I've tried and there has been a bunch of them. They aren't the cheapest out there of course but it sounds like you get way past the normal mileage and would need a better quality string. http://www.juststrings.com/labellaelectricbassguitardeeptalkinflatwoundstandardlong.html

 

Other then those, I do like the D'Addario half wounds. They have the smooth feel and bright round wound tone. I don't waste my money on DR's. I been burned on them too many times now. They boast hand winding which is bunch of baloney. You cant wind strings by hand and get a good wrap on them. If anything you work a machine by hand that wraps the strings, or maybe you wrap the ball end. In any case, most of their strings are flab city. They use thin cores and the strings flab out all over the place. They loose their tone really fast too.

 

RotoSound are another brand I wont buy any more. They used to make the best strings out there and one of the first to make round wound. The quality of their steel has gone down the tubes big time. I suspect they switched to inferior steel to save money. Strings loose their tone in a week and become unplayable within a month. They actually rust too. Most manufacturers use a rust inhibitive coating or allow.

 

Fender strings are OK for a couple of months. I wont buy their guitar strings. The quality went down a little on the Japan strings. The Mexican strings cant be intonated properly. The bass strings are still pretty good but nothing to write home about. They have about a 2 month full tone lifespan and develop tuning issues after that.

 

GHS, Good strings. They are my runner up to the Labellas. Both the Guitar and Bass Boomers are made well, use good metals, and have proper core tensioning. When the instrument is set up right you don't get any flabby notes. Tone is very workable and the tensions are very balanced. The flats they make are decent too. The Precision Flats have a brighter tone then most of your other flats which means they will go longer before producing mud tone common with flats. I can get up to 6 months out of them and still keep some decent tuning.

 

Ernie Ball aren't bad. I prefer their guitar strings over bass but they are less expensive then many. I can get maybe 4 months out of them before I start having sour notes due to wear. out of them.

 

Thomastik-Infeld are praised by Jazz and Acoustic bass players as being the strings to use. I've only tried their guitar strings once and got burned badly with strings I couldn't intonate. The tensions were radically different between the strings and they sucked really bad for tone and even output.

I suspect they may sound good on acoustic jazz guitars and basses give their praise on certain site, but they were one of my worst choices ever for solid-bodies to date which equates to 50 years worth of trying out strings on just about every instrument imaginable.

 

The other brands are mostly rebranded strings. There's only a couple of actual wire manufacturers that actually melt the steel and pull the wire through dies. String manufacturers simply buy that wire and wrap the strings and put the ball ends on. Branded strings don't do any of that. They buy the strings in bulk, stick them in packets and slip their name on them. If they sell enough they don't even do that. They buy a lower grade string from a company like Labella that has the facilities to wind the wire for them and stick their labels on the packages.

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He says gold/beige colored silk so I suspect he means the tuning peg end. Some do wrap the ball end an inch or so too, like these.

Rotosound uses different silk winds based on string gauge. This one is the tape wound. Labella Tape wound also have yellow silk winds like this.

 

rotosound-rotosound-tbl065-tru-bass-black-nylon-flatwound-bass-guitar-single-string-065-long-scale-p6163-5861_medium.jpg

 

 

 

Nearly all bass strings have brass ball ends except for D'Addarios which paint their ball ends for gauge identifications.

 

These might be the strings the OP had on his bass. They are called MTD strings which are used on Michael Tobias Basses.

 

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He says gold/beige colored silk so I suspect he means the tuning peg end. Some do wrap the ball end an inch or so too, like these.

Rotosound uses different silk winds based on string gauge. This one is the tape wound. Labella Tape wound also have yellow silk winds like this. . . .

Yeah, the ball ends of my Ernie Ball strings are wrapped. I think you're probably on the right track with the LaBella tape wounds. The OP just said flat wound and I figured they were probably steel or nickel wound. The strings in your second pic don't have silk at all that I can see. GHS Bassics are like that and they're not the strings the OP is describing.

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Compare the first two tuning pegs to the 3rd and 4th. They have gold silk wrapping. on the page I got that from it shows another angle of the guy changing strings and you could see the gold/yellow silk on the last two strings. The first two may have been trimmed off because they were too long or they didn't need the silk because they didn't taper like the fatter strings.

 

The silk helps hold the wraps together and they also help prevent the core from fracturing at that sharp angle that's more then 90 degrees when they are wound.

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Here/s another MTD Bass. Has the same kind of stock strings. I never heard of the strings before but they seem to get good reviews. I suspect they are branded strings made by someone else. Tobias apparently had a startup company that was sold to Gibson, then after the non competition clause expired he started making basses again.

 

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I looked closely and I couldn't see the silk. I still can't. Sorry. I went to the web site you linked and the only other pics are of a Jazz Bass and the silk on its strings is blue, not gold. If you have access to another pic, please post it. BTW, I know what the silk is for, thanks.

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Here/s another MTD Bass. Has the same kind of stock strings. I never heard of the strings before but they seem to get good reviews. I suspect they are branded strings made by someone else. . . .

You may be right but we're talking about a '64 P-Bass with strings that are Lord-only-knows how old. True, MTD strings have been around since '94 but the only flatwound strings MTD makes are the Bubby Lewis Tapewounds: http://www.bassstringsonline.com/Bubby-Lewis-Signature-Tapewound-Electric-Bass-Strings--4-String-Set_p_2972.html.

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He didn't say if it was an actual 64 or a reissue. He doesn't mention how long he's had the bass either so we can only guess. Reissues came out around 2013 so the strings may be 3 years old. If its an original 64 I'm sure the strings have been changed many times in 50 years.

 

I did find Pyramid Golds have the yellow Felt as well. Given the fact they are much more popular brand that could have been bought just about anyplace, and because they been in business for 100 years and sell worldwide, I think they would be more likely to wind up on that bass.

 

MTD strings may be branded Pyramid strings.

 

Without more details we can only guess however. There is no standard for string color. Each manufacturer uses whatever they want. I do think several manufacturers use the colors for identifying gauges or at least string types but that's only my common sense working there.

 

If he had put them on the bass, you'd think he's know what brand of strings they were. Sounds like he bought the bass with them already on there already and hasn't much of a clue as to how old they are.

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Thank you all for your responses. It is a original '64 that sounds and plays superbly, so I want to be sure I don't screw it up with strings I don't like and paid way too much for!

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Cool. Be sure figure out the gauge of your current set. A heavier or lighter set will require compensation in the setup. If you use the same gauges you can just put them on and not have to worry about touching anything.

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