La Bella flatwounds

James · Post by **James** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 8:41 pm

A few people showed some interest in the strings on my bass so here are some details. They're La Bella Deep Talkin' flats. The ones I have are the James Jamerson set (product number 760M and .052-.110 guage, quite a few sets have 110 E but the G is thicker and I like it a lot more than others I've played). They do lots of others too including a shortscale set.

The rrp on the Jamerson set is something ridiculous like Â£50 but I got mine from here (scroll down just past the steinberger for the deep talkin sets). The only other flatwound type strings I've tried were Fender tapewounds that came with the bass but I'd definitely recommened La Bella and proper flatwounds (tapewounds are sort of bumpy although they aren't rough like roundwounds).

Here's a pic comparing the La Bella to the Fender that shows the difference in smoothness.

If you're thinking about getting a set but think the price is a bit high, from what I gather you pretty much never need to change them. Jamerson and Donald Duck Dunn both used heavy La Bella flats and kept the same set on for their careers (changing individual strings if any broke I think).

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 8:57 pm

They were gorgeous to play. Dew they make strings for guitarists as well?

James · Post by **James** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:01 pm

I know they're quite big in the classical guitar market. And there's a picture of Tony Iommi on their site so I'm guessing they make electric too.

Whenever I've tried different brands on guitars I've never been able to tell a difference in sound. Occasionally a difference in playability but the difference with these was crazy so I think I'll try an electric set next time I buy strings if they make some.

George · Post by **George** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:02 pm

How do they and flats in general sound and feel? I've never played flats before but I often hear buzz words like "boomy" and "percussive" used in the same sentence but nothing in depth. Would be nice to hear an opinion from you guys.

James · Post by **James** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:06 pm

Under your fingers it's quite strange at first. Because there's much less friction your hand moves around a lot easier. There's quite a lot more low end but it takes quite a heavy hit of the string to bring it out. If you do that it is a very rounded low end sound. Quite 'woody' or some word like that. If you hit thenm a bit or snap at the string a little you can get quite a lot of treble out of them.

They make electric strings. It's the EL series. If they sell a wound G set I'll get some for sure.

George · Post by **George** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:12 pm

The only bass I've got is a rather uninspiring Ibanez hand-me-down from my ex bandmate - the tone and timbre is exceptionally crap and boring. These strings could give it the second wind I've been after and stop me yearning for a P-Bass. Cheers!

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:18 pm

The story I heard about Duck Dunn is that he tried changing his strings once, but absolutely hated how the new ones sounded. Supposedly he dug the old strings out of the garbage and put them back on.

Flatwounds do last basically indefinitely. I've had the same set on my 335 for almost 2 years and they still sound great. I just change the top 2 when they start to corrode: got some 11 and 14 plains for $2 a dozen.

The ideal flatwound bass sound, to me, is all of Paul's stuff on the early Beatles records. Duck Dunn, too. You don't hear the bass so much as feel it.

George · Post by **George** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:27 pm

Ha that's the sound I'm trying to nail actually. Beatles era Macca gets some of my favourite bass tones.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:22 pm

JAMERSONâ€™S BASS RIG:

When he graduated from high school, Jamerson bought a German upright acoustic bass, which he played for the rest of his life. He bought a refinished black '57 P-Bass (Fender Precision BassÂ®) from a friend in 1960, replacing it, when it was stolen, with an early Sixties sunburst model. When that bass was likewise stolen he purchased a '62 sunburst P-Bass, nicknamed the â€œFunk Machine,â€� that he owned up until it too was taken just before he died. Over the years, he experimented with a 5-string Fender and an 8-string Hagstrom, as well as a fretless model. His string choice consisted of LaBella, heavy gauge flatwound strings. An Ampeg B-15 and a blue Naugahyde Kustom were his two regular gigging amps. With few exceptions, Jamerson always recorded directly into the board at Motown.

To most other musicians, that bass was unplayable. Jamerson kept his action very high, and his neck was bowed due to lack of truss rod maintenance. He rarely cleaned his guitar, and he never cleaned the fretboard. To Jamerson, the sweat and dirt on the bass was the secret of his sound, the essence of the funk.

euan · Post by **euan** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:16 pm

those strings were gorgeous. A very enjoyable sensation. So much so that I wanted to take up bass.

Will · Post by **Will** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:49 am

I love the old funk and soul players for how unpretentious they are. No fancy "rig", just an old dirty P-bass straight to the board.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:19 am

DuoSonicBoy wrote:I love the old funk and soul players for how unpretentious they are. No fancy "rig", just an old dirty P-bass straight to the board.

My favorites tones are mostly 50's and 60's tones. Now some people will see this as they had mojo instruments or whatever but I think it has more to do with the recording equipment and the way they played and the fact nobody who wasn't tight ever got anywhere near a recording studio and because of the limitations of recording technology they often had to play together.

Now we have boiled down every single thing that supposedly gives you "tone": this cap, that transformer, matching tubes, hot bias, handwound pickups, this aged speaker cone, old growth woods, nitro paint, stamped steel this, blah blah blah and people don't sound even 25% as good. It's complete horseshit in a lot of ways, it's almost always the player.

If I could go back in a time machine and give Hubert Sumlin a Chinese guitar from today he'd still fuck shit up.

I personally need to practice more and worry less about gear.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:56 am

Thanks James, they're going on my bass for Pancakes for sure.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:16 pm

yup, i'm going to get a shortscale set for my musicmaster. they were amazing.

Will · Post by **Will** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:41 pm

jcyphe wrote:
DuoSonicBoy wrote:I love the old funk and soul players for how unpretentious they are. No fancy "rig", just an old dirty P-bass straight to the board.
My favorites tones are mostly 50's and 60's tones. Now some people will see this as they had mojo instruments or whatever but I think it has more to do with the recording equipment and the way they played and the fact nobody who wasn't tight ever got anywhere near a recording studio and because of the limitations of recording technology they often had to play together.

Now we have boiled down every single thing that supposedly gives you "tone": this cap, that transformer, matching tubes, hot bias, handwound pickups, this aged speaker cone, old growth woods, nitro paint, stamped steel this, blah blah blah and people don't sound even 25% as good. It's complete horseshit in a lot of ways, it's almost always the player.

If I could go back in a time machine and give Hubert Sumlin a Chinese guitar from today he'd still fuck shit up.

I personally need to practice more and worry less about gear.

Most of the tones also kinda suck in isolation. On the Stax records: Cropper's guitar is really thin and spiky, Dunn's bass thuds (sometimes out of tune), and Jackson's snare is just a dead blow. Together, it all sounds fantastic. I think another factor was these guys only having 1 instrument. They got to know it really well and get comfortable on it, so they were aware of all the different timbres it could get.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:57 pm

DuoSonicBoy wrote: Most of the tones also kinda suck in isolation.

lol, I don't know about that. There are plenty of Cropper tones that make my hair stand up.