Fender Bass Strings: 9120M Nylon Tapewound (.058, .072, .092, .110)

[KiOgon]

Fender Bass Strings: 9120M Nylon Tapewound (.058, .072, .092, .110)

I thought I would offer a short review of these strings as they are new to me.

These were supplied to me FOC by Fender after I had moaned about a few things, including - why don't they offer alternative strings on their basses!

First impressions: The packaging didn't cost a lot, which is fine by me, flimsy card wrapper & all strings together in one 'Vapour Corrosion Inhibitor' technology bag, on the back is a guide to the string end ball colours. Opening the bag - the strings feel smooth & sort of soft to touch. The silks both ends are all black & nicely wound, all finishing about equal lengths. I always take care un-coiling & handling covered strings to make sure the sharp ends don't scratch the finish.

No problem fitting these, on a conventional bridge the silks stop behind the saddles & at the top - 34" scale they are all 1&1/2" past the nut. The G didn't need cutting, left it full length, the others I chopped off approx. 4&1/2", 3", 1&1/2" respectively to give about 3 full turns on each peg.

The bass was previously fitted with Fender standard roundwounds & to fit these tapewounds the nut didn't need any filing from standard even though these are larger gauge strings, actual sizes are .058, .072, .092 & .110. Personally I like the bigger gauges, especially the large G string & in this set they feel like a well balanced progression of size without feeling too big.

They remind me of the Rotosound Nexus Strings which I tried about a year ago, but these feel flatter, smoother & with a outer wrap not like a coat of paint, hopefully they will last a bit longer too!

Brought up to tune, stretched a bit & retuned a couple of times - the action required little adjustment from the old settings & the intonation was still OK. I left them overnight to settle before I checked the need for any truss rod adjustment. Next day, everything had settled & the action remained pretty much as it was, I managed to lower the E & the A slightly but the tension on the neck seems to be similar to the original strings, a .012" business card just slipped between the 8th fret & my 2' steel rule laid along the neck.

They feel halfway between round & flatwound, smooth to play & with almost no finger noise but still that slight uneven surface, so not like a groundwound, like a round with a covering on, in fact to me they feel a bit 'plasticky'. After a couple of days use they are definitely rougher on the right hand 'plucking fingers' than normal flats but seem fine on the left hand 'fretting fingers'. They're fine for bending with none of the fret grinding that you get even with flats when they're new sometimes.

Sound wise - again halfway between round & flatwound, most of the brightness of the rounds but missing some of the deep down thud & boom of true flats. I use my fingers for plucking mostly in the neck/pup area so I'm always getting that old school tone, these don't disappoint in the lower notes while having a brightness in the higher notes, maybe getting close to the sound of some old well run-in rounds. The output from the pup on mine seemed very comparable to the rounds I replaced & the balance across the poles is good, maybe a bit more from the G as it's quite big by comparison, considerably more mass than your average 40 or 45.

Looks; very cool, shiny/glossy black - a bit different - with well wound black silks too, almost sexy!

I probably won't buy these again for personal choice but I can see some players benefiting from them if they want the smoothness of flats while retaining most of the zing from rounds. Also it seems the ease of fitting/ lack of change/adjustment, due to the similar tension etc. has advantages. I can't see them ever wearing the frets down, there's a certain 'non-stick' feel to them & I would think play very nicely on a fretless board.

On the Fender site I was amazed to see the MSRP of these at $49.99, a quick search shows them at several shops here in Blighty for as little as £16.95, so I'd say they're certainly worth a try at that price if you are at all inquisitive.

Other strings I have compared these with currently on Precisions are, La Bella 0760M, 1954 Original Oldie Deep Talkin' Bass Flatwound Strings (52,73,95,110), Fender 9050ML S/S Flatwound (50,65,85,100), Fender 9050L S/S (45,60,80,95), my long time favourites GHS 3060 Bass Black Nylon Tapewound (50,70,92,105)
& not forgetting the Fender Super Bass 7250ML NPS Round Wound (45,65,80,100) which were factory fitted on my '57 AV Precision.

Edited October 29, 2010 by KiOgon

[Cat Burrito]

Primarily these are designed for fretless as you suggest but do indeed work well on a fretted bass. The equivilant are Rotosounds Trubass which aside being made famous by Paul McCartney come in at double the price. Nice review.

[KiOgon]

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1005416' date='Oct 29 2010, 04:35 PM']Primarily these are designed for fretless as you suggest but do indeed work well on a fretted bass. The equivilant are Rotosounds Trubass which aside being made famous by Paul McCartney come in at double the price. Nice review.[/quote]
Cheerz buddy, but I beg to differ on the equivalent to TruBass comparison Although I haven't used them for a good few years, IIRC they have a 'smooth' flatwound surface, unlike these which actually feel like a roundwound under cover
IMHO the Rotosounds feel a lot bigger & heavier, indeed they are quite huge at 65-115, which does really notice. From memory also the TruBass put quite a pull on the neck, requiring far more trussrod turning & setting up than some people are comfortable with, + probably a new nut or a fair bit of filing to even get them in.

The GHS 3060s are more comparable to the Rotosounds, but very very much nicer in many ways my favourites

[Cat Burrito]

Happy to stand corrected here. I'd not tried the Fender strings so will bow to your experience here. I didn't find the Trubass required much of an adjustment on the truss rod as they are low tension (hence the 115 gauge) but I did need to file the nut for that monster E string