New Strings Day!

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fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23955
Ooo exciting! I don't hear you cry.

But I'm going to do an experiment. 

I have 2 almost identical Fender US Precision Special basses. 1 is sunburst, the other is Olympic white. They are from the same run. Alder body, rosewood board etc.

At the moment they both have Tomastik TI Flats. I like them a lot. The basses sound so close I can't really tell them apart.1 is a bit heavier than the other, but that is about it.

So my experiment is simple and compare the TI flats with probably the "other" most famous set of flats - the La Bella Deep Talkin' set.

The La Bella's were THE string of choice for all the Motown / Big Band / Stax guys. The original gauges were beyond massive when P basses had baseball bats for necks.

I'm not putting a monster heavy set on. I'm more interested in the sound and feel difference.

So I've gone for the 760FL set 43-60-82-104.

The will be heavier than the TI Flats and due to the old fashioned construction they will be stiffer too. But they should sound closer to the old recordings of James Jamerson, Duck Dunn, Carol Kaye etc.

Then I'm going to use them both at my big band gig to see if the La Bellas are still the better choice for Big Band (think Blues Brothers - loads of horns & reeds, piano, drums), or whether the TI Flats have really moved the game onwards.


I love the TI Flats, and I have used the La Bella's in the past on an old Status Fretless I no longer own, but I've never had them att he same time or had the chance to try them on 2 pretty much identical instruments.

I'm quite looking forward to this!

I'll get the La Bella's loaded this evening and then play them exclusively for a couple of weeks to let them bed in and lose any new string zing. Then I'll compare them properly.
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