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Jaco's strings - What'd he use?


4 Strings
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[quote name='4 Strings' post='1192934' date='Apr 8 2011, 03:02 PM']I'm presuming flats of some kind, but they seem very lively (or is that his playing?)

Would love to get that resonance for harmonics with flats.[/quote]

He used Rotosound rounds I think.

Edited by simon1964
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I found this:
[url="http://www.jacop.net/faq.html"]http://www.jacop.net/faq.html[/url]

Swing Bass it was. Wow, he plays clean! No grindy noises or buzzes. Explains a lot though, especially the ringing harmonics and being a fretless would reduce the noise.

Interesting about the epoxy on the fret board as Swing Bass strings would make a bit of a mess of a fretless.

No excuses then, already got Swing Bass on the Jazz, just need to practice more!

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[quote name='4 Strings' post='1192965' date='Apr 8 2011, 03:31 PM']I found this:
[url="http://www.jacop.net/faq.html"]http://www.jacop.net/faq.html[/url]

Swing Bass it was. Wow, he plays clean! No grindy noises or buzzes. Explains a lot though, especially the ringing harmonics and being a fretless would reduce the noise ...[/quote]
I'm guessing here but I doubt he was putting new strings on very regularly. What he's playing are 'used' rounds not 'new' rounds. I'd be happy to be corrected on this.

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Definitely Rotosound swing bass

[url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/616-rotosound_4_string_swing_bass_stainless_steel_bass_guitar_strings"]http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/61..._guitar_strings[/url]

I had a fretless Fender jazz for a time last year, it really came to life when I put a set of these on it.

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[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1192963' date='Apr 8 2011, 03:29 PM']I don't think he was too bothered about rounds eating into the fretboard, as he put so many coats of lacquer on it.[/quote]

Actually, I remember reading a quote from him that suggested he was worried about it. I can't remember exactly what it said, but I think the gist was that he used flats for practising, because the rounds chewed up the fingerboard so he only used rounds for recording and for gigs. Unfortunately I can't remember where I read it, so can't find the exact quote. Anybody else read it?

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[quote name='mart' post='1193236' date='Apr 8 2011, 08:01 PM']Actually, I remember reading a quote from him that suggested he was worried about it. I can't remember exactly what it said, but I think the gist was that he used flats for practising, because the rounds chewed up the fingerboard so he only used rounds for recording and for gigs. Unfortunately I can't remember where I read it, so can't find the exact quote. Anybody else read it?[/quote]

On the 'Modern Electric Bass' video he says hat he never practised on a fretless because the strings would eat the neck up.

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[quote name='EssentialTension' post='1193262' date='Apr 8 2011, 08:26 PM']IIRC, he also said that on that video that he practised on a fretted Precision rather than a Jazz.[/quote]

On that video he used a Jazz with fretted Precision neck. I'm not sure about him using a Precision for
practising though.

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Jaco used rotosound swing bass (stainless steel roundwound).

I was told that the gauge of rotosound strings have changed during the time passed. The 45-65-80-105 is now the closest you can buy from rotosound; but not the same as jaco used.

The dean makley CL2630 (super rounds) are closed to the rotosound in sound and feel and may be the exact gauge pastorius used in that years : rotosound in 46-63-80-102.

The rotosound have a special sound, the dean makley are more "conventionel" but really closed and I like the gauge.

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[quote name='Doddy' post='1193258' date='Apr 8 2011, 08:23 PM']On the 'Modern Electric Bass' video he says hat he never practised on a fretless because the strings would eat the neck up.[/quote]

Thanks; yes that was what I was trying (but failing) to quote, at least indirectly - I'd just been reading the Haynes Fender Bass manual which has two relevant quotes:

[quote name='Haynes Fender Bass manual']However, as he stated in his instructional video, he never practised with the fretless because the strings `chew the neck up'.[/quote]
and it has the following quote from Jaco talking about the epoxy used on his fretless:
[quote name='Haynes Fender Bass manual']I used Petite's Poly Poxy, it's boat epoxy ... You apply it with a brush ... I used about six coats ... It's essential, it saves the instrument from getting eaten up by the roundwound strings ... I use Rotosound "Swing Bass".[/quote]

Edited by mart
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[quote name='epoxyjazzbass' post='1193530' date='Apr 9 2011, 08:37 AM']I was told that the gauge of rotosound strings have changed during the time passed. The 45-65-80-105 is now the closest you can buy from rotosound; but not the same as jaco used.[/quote]

That's exactly what he used. The only difference was he had different coloured silk windings on each string.
This is what Martin Howe said in The Bass Handbook.....

"Jaco wanted a different colour silk wrap on the end of each string because he felt each string represented a different 'colour'. We did that for him and later adopted the same idea on our Spacer string set as a tribute to Jaco. The colours he went for were blue, red, yellow, and green, and he used our regular 66L sets:.045",.065",.080", and a .105" on the bottom E".

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  • 3 weeks later...

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='1192973' date='Apr 8 2011, 03:37 PM']I'm guessing here but I doubt he was putting new strings on very regularly. What he's playing are 'used' rounds not 'new' rounds. I'd be happy to be corrected on this.[/quote]

I remember reading somewhere (probably in his autobiography), that Jaco changed his strings [i]very[/i] regularly indeed, and always before a gig; apparently it was integral to the ringing harmonics.

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[quote name='EddieG' post='1220503' date='May 5 2011, 01:28 AM']I remember reading somewhere (probably in his autobiography), that Jaco changed his strings [i]very[/i] regularly indeed, and always before a gig; apparently it was integral to the ringing harmonics.[/quote]

He also apparently liked to eat fried chicken before a gig and wouldn't clean his hands so the strings got
covered in chicken grease.

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  • 2 years later...

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