TI Jazz Flatwounds vs Labella 760fx tension

[markdavid]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Am curious about ti's and just wondered if anybody here had tried the TI Jazz Flatwounds and the Labella 760fx and if so how do they compare in terms of tension , would like to try them and currently have Labella 760fx on my bass, [/font][/color][color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Thanks[/font][/color]

Edited November 18, 2015 by markdavid

[acidbass]

FWIW I found the TI Jazz Flats to be too loose in tension, so I moved to the LaBella 760FL which were a bit more tense (akin to rounds. Not sure if the FX are of a lighter gauge than the FL?

[LayDownThaFunk]

Yeah, FX are a gauge down from FL. The tension should be pretty close between the two - FXs will be a little more than TI. Though like regular gauge flats, the FX set will be harder to bend than TIs.

[Byo]

I believe that TI's will have slightly less tension that the FX's but very close compared to regular La Bella's which tend to be harder to bend (at least for me).

[EssentialTension]

I have never used 760FX but my guess would be that they will feel looser than the 760FL but not as loose as the TIJFs.

The TIs are highly compliant or elastic under the fingers in part because of their construction and not merely because of their gauge.

[Happy Jack]

I just did a straight swop of my bass strung with LaBella FLs for his bass strung with TI flats - interesting.

I've not played the TI strings before and I immediately liked them, very comfortable under the fingers, pleasant tone.

But my fingers are attuned to playing FLs and I do like to dig in ... my own mother would never describe my technique as "subtle". The result is that I play the TIs too hard.

That's hardly the fault of the strings, so I need to work on remembering to back off a little when playing that bass. Swopping out the strings is not on the To Do list.

Edited December 24, 2015 by Happy Jack

[EssentialTension]

Jack, with the TIs you can try (1) playing very near the bridge where there is less elasticity to dig into or (2) playing right over the end of the fingerboard where less is less space to dig into. I do (2) with TIs.

[Old Horse Murphy]

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1450956043' post='2937320']
Jack, with the TIs you can try (1) playing very near the bridge where there is less elasticity to dig into or (2) playing right over the end of the fingerboard where less is less space to dig into. I do (2) with TIs.
[/quote]

It probably doesn't help that the fool he got the bass from likes a ridiculously low action

[Happy Jack]

How are you getting on with P5 Nick?

[Old Horse Murphy]

Loving it thanks Jack. I managed to tweak the action somewhat and it's a lot more playable for me. I will get it looked at some stage but there's no rush.

Hope the PT4 is still as good as you first thought

[Happy Jack]

Loving it to bits. Planning to debut it on NYE.

[discreet]

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1450956043' post='2937320']
Jack, with the TIs you can try (1) playing very near the bridge where there is less elasticity to dig into or (2) playing right over the end of the fingerboard where less is less space to dig into. I do (2) with TIs.
[/quote]

Only recently did I remove a set of La Bella 760FS and fit a set of TIs to my P and pretty quickly found exactly the same. You can't hammer these strings with a pick. Well you can, but they don't sound great, imho. However they do sound great if you have a very light touch, you use one of the methods above noted by ET, or you raise the action somewhat to compensate for your Neanderthal technique.

Very interesting strings. Completely not as expected, having read a lot about them on here and elsewhere. They are obviously constructed in a completely different way to any other electric bass string. Hard to explain, but you can 'feel' them more under your fingers, somehow. You can feel the frets. It's as if you've been wearing gloves and have taken them off.

Edit: And if you're worried about the bone-crushing force exerted by some well-known strings on your valuable vintage instrument and would like to minimise the strain on your pride and joy, I'd say TIs would be ideal.

Edited December 25, 2015 by discreet

[AntLockyer]

Ti flats are more tonally versatile but ultimately the la bellas have something a bit more appealing to my ears. My favourite are the 760FS although I've only had them on my modern p not the old one.

[pfretrock]

Some TI bargains on this post. JF344 @ £31

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/275563-sales-bargains-thread/page__view__findpost__p__2937845"]http://basschat.co.u...ost__p__2937845[/url]

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1450973977' post='2937563']
Loving it to bits. Planning to debut it on NYE.
[/quote]

Have a great gig .... and report please on the Thomastiks.

[Happy Jack]

OK, so here's the Mike Lull PT4 (34" scale) with the Thomastiks, and me trying VERY hard not to dig in too much:

http://youtu.be/x2nCtaVZbiY

And by way of comparison, here's the Mike Lull T5 (35" scale) with my usual LaBellas on EADG and a Lakland Jo Osborne B-string:

http://youtu.be/sTUdPwiU4zY

That Thunderbird has been my first-choice gigging bass since I bought it last Easter. Note that both basses have exactly the same Mike Lull Thunderbird pickups, which are quite simply the best I've ever played through.

[discreet]

Jack, I appreciate you're playing two different basses, but was that with the same amp/cab volume settings? I've found that though you need to have a light touch with the TIs, they are in fact LOUD and have quite a lot of harmonic overtones and the like - for flats. I'm going to try the TI Jazz roundwounds too, when I've sold the house.

Edited January 1, 2016 by discreet

[EssentialTension]

Very nice ... made me smile ... if I had to pick a winner it was the TIs ... but see discreet's question.

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1451668260' post='2942271']
... I'm going to try the TI Jazz roundwounds too, when I've sold the house.
[/quote]

I used to have a bass tuned BEAD with TI Jazz Rounds ... it was fat.

[Happy Jack]

The rig was an Aguilar TH350 into a Midget + Compact pairing. Apart from that, I was going through an Earthquaker Warden compressor pedal.

It's quite possible that I had turned down the volume slightly for the PT4 because it's such a high output bass. I must confess that I assumed this was down to the pickups rather than the strings ... I've never really thought in terms of "loud" strings before!

I absolutely adore that Thunderbird, and it remains #1 bass, but the tone of that PT4 is just to die for.

That said, Silvie (Ms. Warwick middy-tone) doesn't like it so much.