Thomastik Infeld Flats

[fun size nick]

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416217397' post='2607914']
Dust and other detritus can settle on the strings and dull their tone. More-so with round wounds, where it's hard to effectively clean the tiny spaces between the winds.
[/quote]

Plenty of 'detritus' in the air around here!

[Lozz196]

Well just put a set on my Precision and, certainly for home practice sounds, I love them. I like the sound of Roto rounds that are a good few months old and these TIs are very near that, maybe a little brighter, which is no bad thing as I do have a treble control on my amp.

Putting them on I had to adjust the truss-rod a quarter of a turn to loosen, and adjust the intonation slightly but so far I reckon these are going to be "my" strings from now on. OK, the test is with the band, but so far my impressions are they`re incredibly easy to play under the fingers, sound great, and very importantly, have red silks. After years of playing Rotosounds any silks other than red just look wrong to me.

I`ll update after I`ve used them with my band.

[ezbass]

Does anyone have any experience of Tis versus LaBella flats? I have a set of normal LaBella flats on my fretless SUB 'Ray and a set of black nylon ones on my Rob Allen. I like both fine but I'm looking to put flats on my GWB35 and, having never tried TIs, don't want to immediately just go with what I know. I would just try some, but these puppies are not the cheapest things out there.

Edited November 22, 2014 by ezbass

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1416665434' post='2612461']
Does anyone have any experience of Tis versus LaBella flats? I have a set of normal LaBella flats on my fretless SUB 'Ray and a set of black nylon ones on my Rob Allen. I like both fine but I'm looking to put flats on my GWB35 and, having never tried TIs, don't want to immediately just go with what I know. I would just try some, but these puppies are not the cheapest things out there.
[/quote]
La Bellas are relatively higher tension to TIs relatively much lower tension.

La Bellas are thumpier, TIs are more middy.

Having said that you can get a wide range of tones from both.

[Legion]

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1416665434' post='2612461']
Does anyone have any experience of Tis versus LaBella flats?
[/quote]
In an unexpected way yes - it turned out the Pino originally had a Labella E & A and thomastik D &G. Seeing as they were all red silks I didn't notice. I thought someone had gone the extra mile and scraped the red silk off the ends of the E/A so that they didn't run over the saddles. It was only one day under close inspection I noticed that the flat wound ribbon winding was going in the opposite direction. Seeing as I loved the tone I thought I'd try a full set of the Labellas, but to be honest I wasn't so keen so I went back to all TI's. It seems a really worn in set of Labellas are nice and thumpy, but a worn in set of TI's are like musical treacle to my ears
Once you adjust to the tension and break them in I think there's nothing better (IMO)

[ezbass]

Cheers guys; food for thought.

[ezbass]

Just found this

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R2LOXMqyg8[/media]

Edited November 22, 2014 by ezbass

[ezbass]

As the Ibby GWB35 has quite a strident midrange, I decided to stick with the LaBellas and saved nigh on £30 into the bargain (I'm used to the tension, so no worries there).

[StringPing.com]

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1416667706' post='2612494']
Just found this

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R2LOXMqyg8[/media]
[/quote]

It's a good video, but unfortunately, audio quality on YouTube isn't great, especially for trying to pick out subtle differences with regard to string tone. We can hear a difference, of course, but there's probably a lot more difference that we would hear "in person" with the strings. It also sounds like all his strings are brand new, which is not how they'll sound after a couple of weeks playing.

But it is very hard to find a genuine comparison video like this, so I guess beggars can't be choosers

[StringPing.com]

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1415400205' post='2600091']
Find a cheap P bass and slap a set of these on, give them a week to loose that "new string" sound and feel and then you'll wonder why you haven't used them before! I had a practice today with a Uni band and we play swing, jazz, bosa, blues, and soul style music and EVERYONE was telling me how much they love the tone I'm getting! There's so much warmth and thud from these strings but there is no loss to clarity up the register! Which is great for chucking in the odd harmonic or chord a la Mr Pino Palladino!
[/quote]

I've strung violins with TI strings before. It's hard to tell with such small strings how it relates to bass strings, but I always did get the impression that they were kind of floppy for flat wound strings. As for the tone - there's probably no chance of a comparison between a violin and a bass, but they do sound good on the violin.

I'll order a set for myself. They aren't cheap, though. It might be after christmas before I can get a chance to try them. I'll have to rebuild my Jazz bass

[Beer of the Bass]

On the TI/Labella comparison, Sadowsky flatwounds could be worth a look too. They're made by LaBella and are intended to be a little softer feeling, less thumpy and more articulate than the standard LaBellas. I haven't had a set of the standard LaBellas to compare, but they're very satisfying strings to play and certainly less stiff feeling than something like D'Addario Chromes.

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416830992' post='2613933']
I've strung violins with TI strings before. It's hard to tell with such small strings how it relates to bass strings, but I always did get the impression that they were kind of floppy for flat wound strings. As for the tone - there's probably no chance of a comparison between a violin and a bass, but they do sound good on the violin.
[/quote]

I'm not sure that the Jazz Flatwounds use the same construction as the violin family strings. The TI double bass, cello and violin strings use cores made from several fine strands of wire braided or twisted together (except the budget Precision set), making them more flexible than a solid-core string. I don't know of any bass guitar strings made this way. It could be interesting, but I suspect they'd cost even more.

[StringPing.com]

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1416832368' post='2613958']
It could be interesting, but I suspect they'd cost even more.
[/quote]

Probably, and there's probably also no demand for it, since they already offer bendy strings I'm tempted by some of their guitar strings, though. Still expensive at around £15 RRP for their acoustic sets. Their Plectrum range makes some fairly large claims about extending the life of fine, old guitars. Quite an odd set of strings, the Plectrums, it seems - Roundwound bass E, flat wound A, D, and G, and plain steel B and treble E. All brass plated. I'm intrigued!

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416834567' post='2613998']
Probably, and there's probably also no demand for it, since they already offer bendy strings I'm tempted by some of their guitar strings, though. Still expensive at around £15 RRP for their acoustic sets. Their Plectrum range makes some fairly large claims about extending the life of fine, old guitars. Quite an odd set of strings, the Plectrums, it seems - Roundwound bass E, flat wound A, D, and G, and plain steel B and treble E. All brass plated. I'm intrigued!
[/quote]

True, strings built with a single steel core work very well on bass guitar, while all double bass strings made this way have major issues with sound and feel. Because they're so stiff, the pitch rises during the attack of hard played notes then droops as the note decays. That's why double bassists always take off the cheap factory strings on new basses.
I've been eyeing up some of the Thomastik acoustic guitar strings too, after this post on Joe Gore's blog; [url="http://tonefiend.com/guitar/quiet-guitar/"]http://tonefiend.com/guitar/quiet-guitar/[/url] They make some sets which are supposed to play like a steel/nylon hybrid and I think they may suit a small, lightly built parlour guitar which I have.

[StringPing.com]

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1416835792' post='2614023']
They make some sets which are supposed to play like a steel/nylon hybrid and I think they may suit a small, lightly built parlour guitar which I have.
[/quote]

I'm guessing you mean the John Pearse set? E, A, D, all round wound on a nylon core. G, B, E, all flat wound nylon on a rope core. Supposedly they sound brighter than standard nylon strings. RRP £18.95 per set. Still pretty expensive, but nylon strings last a good while.

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416836277' post='2614030']
I'm guessing you mean the John Pearse set? E, A, D, all round wound on a nylon core. G, B, E, all flat wound nylon on a rope core. Supposedly they sound brighter than standard nylon strings. RRP £18.95 per set. Still pretty expensive, but nylon strings last a good while.
[/quote]

There's the KR116 set too; same G,B and E but the E,A, and D are low tension flatwounds.

[JamesBass]

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416830992' post='2613933']
I've strung violins with TI strings before. It's hard to tell with such small strings how it relates to bass strings, but I always did get the impression that they were kind of floppy for flat wound strings. As for the tone - there's probably no chance of a comparison between a violin and a bass, but they do sound good on the violin.

I'll order a set for myself. They aren't cheap, though. It might be after christmas before I can get a chance to try them. I'll have to rebuild my Jazz bass
[/quote]
I know it's almost blasphemous to say, but Thomann are without doubt the cheapest for buying TI's, I got my set for £32. Which is an absolute BARGAIN! Obviously I'd much rather buy from a shop or a UK based company, but when you live in an area where flat wounds aren't considered important enough to stock then needs must! I know for a fact that I'd buy my strings from a UK company if they were competitive in pricing. (Hint Hint)

[StringPing.com]

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1416840455' post='2614110']
I know it's almost blasphemous to say, but Thomann are without doubt the cheapest for buying TI's, I got my set for £32. Which is an absolute BARGAIN! Obviously I'd much rather buy from a shop or a UK based company, but when you live in an area where flat wounds aren't considered important enough to stock then needs must! I know for a fact that I'd buy my strings from a UK company if they were competitive in pricing. (Hint Hint)
[/quote]

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that there's probably not a retailer anywhere in the UK that can compete with Thomann prices on these strings. The thing to remember about Thomann is that they're in Germany, and getting the strings from there to the UK isn't cheap. €10/£7.90 for delivery from Germany. Suddenly, a £32 set of strings is actually closer to £40.

I couldn't say what price we'd have them at, as I haven't worked any of this out yet for StringPing.com, but one thing is for certain - they would have free 1st class delivery for BC members, and free 2nd class delivery for everyone.

As for your local not stocking flat wounds - they aren't alone. Lots of regular music shops don't stock them because they take forever to sell.

[EssentialTension]

http://youtu.be/CHyfLDrD_q4

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416834567' post='2613998']
... I'm tempted by some of their guitar strings, though. ...
[/quote]
My son uses flatwound strings on his Epiphone Casino and because of the expense he usually uses the much cheaper but Rotosound Top Tapes. However, he has used TI Jazz Swing Flats but prefers the (also expensive) Pyramid Gold Flats.

[Billy Apple]

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1416851058' post='2614286']
My son uses flatwound strings on his Epiphone Casino and because of the expense he usually uses the much cheaper but Rotosound Top Tapes. However, he has used TI Jazz Swing Flats but prefers the (also expensive) Pyramid Gold Flats.
[/quote]

How do Pyramids stack up against TI's and Bella's?

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1416851869' post='2614300']
How do Pyramids stack up against TI's and Bella's?
[/quote]
Pyramid Gold Bass Flats are some where between TIs and La Bellas both in tone and tension and with a rather fetching lilac silk at both ends.

http://youtu.be/RcDHtBPB85o

[EssentialTension]

... and Pyramid Gold flats on a guitar ...

http://youtu.be/sEa01UgJ6mo

[JamesBass]

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416846817' post='2614220']
I'm going to stick my neck out and say that there's probably not a retailer anywhere in the UK that can compete with Thomann prices on these strings. The thing to remember about Thomann is that they're in Germany, and getting the strings from there to the UK isn't cheap. €10/£7.90 for delivery from Germany. Suddenly, a £32 set of strings is actually closer to £40.

I couldn't say what price we'd have them at, as I haven't worked any of this out yet for StringPing.com, but one thing is for certain - they would have free 1st class delivery for BC members, and free 2nd class delivery for everyone.

As for your local not stocking flat wounds - they aren't alone. Lots of regular music shops don't stock them because they take forever to sell.
[/quote]
You are correct, every UK stockist was upwards of £45, and while I paid the €10 postage on the strings, it was still cheaper than either travelling or getting some posted from a UK supplier, I'd happily part with £40ish for a UK supplier, especially if I then got the postage free!

[ezbass]

Just fitted the LaBellas and gave them a clean before I fitted them, as suggested in another thread, man alive the black muck that came off of them! Just playing them in a bit and, even with the clean, they're still a bit sticky. More cleaning required methinks - they sound nice though

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1416661967' post='2612414']
Well just put a set on my Precision and, certainly for home practice sounds, I love them. I like the sound of Roto rounds that are a good few months old and these TIs are very near that, maybe a little brighter, which is no bad thing as I do have a treble control on my amp.

Putting them on I had to adjust the truss-rod a quarter of a turn to loosen, and adjust the intonation slightly but so far I reckon these are going to be "my" strings from now on. OK, the test is with the band, but so far my impressions are they`re incredibly easy to play under the fingers, sound great, and very importantly, have red silks. After years of playing Rotosounds any silks other than red just look wrong to me.

I`ll update after I`ve used them with my band.
[/quote]

Well the update is, they worked, just as well as I`d hoped.