ossyrocks

I've bottled it. I'm taking a Jazz with LaBella flats on it. One of the guys who comes to the jam likes to do a bit of Jaco, and I can't get that tone out of a P. The P with rounds is now hung in the lounge, so it's going to get played every day until I feel it's right......or not.

I'm off out being the house bass player at a funk jam tonight. I had toyed with the idea of taking a P bass with recently installed rounds (which I don't normally use), but have settled on a Jazz with LaBella flats, just because I don't get to play the jazz live so much, and it just sounds great with these strings on it. I agree with @Misdee too, amps have much more influence/affect over tone than they used to. Tonight I will be using a GK Legacy 800 into a Barefaced cab, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

There's a socket tester in that link for £5.00. Is that the kind of thing you mean, if so, I'll get one?

Pete bought a gig bag off me this week. Paid promptly, good comms, a pleasure sir! Deal with confidence. Cheers, Rob

Well, they're on the bass now ('73 Precision). They are going to take some getting used to after playing flats for a long time! Also had to have the neck off and tweak the truss rod, as well as action and intonation. I've stuck a bit of foam under the strings by the bridge to lessen the difference until I get used to them. I got a message last night asking if I was free to be house bass at a funk jam tonight, so I'm thinking of taking this bass. Nothing like being dropped in at the deep end! This is potentially 2 hours of playing, so that should give me some idea. Rob

I have LaBella Low Tension Flats on my jazz basses. They sound great.

I was talking to Jon about having my '73 Jazz refretted, I just need to get it to him, and I haven't passed that way in some time!. Someone else on here (maybe it was you) had an early 70's Jazz bass refretted by him and the work looked spectacular. Rob

I've not heard of anyone doing this before! One of the reasons I like the Labellas is for how smooth they feel. I've had a few sets of Thomastiks too, which have a wider gap and feel less smooth, but I don't like the sound of them as much. The LaBellas are just DEEP. I'm going to fit the rounds to the mellowest of my P basses, it really is a very mellow sounding bass, so I'm hoping they will still work for me. We'll see very soon! Rob

Hmm. Did G4M buy out all the PMT stock? I bought a used RM-500 Evo (first gen) from PMT, which arrived similarly poorly packaged and not working. I returned it for a refund. I wonder if this is the exact same one they are attempting to sell again? Rob

That's just it, I love the sound of LaBella flats, and most of the time I love playing them. It's just occasionally they get sticky the experience gets difficult. Rounds just may not work for me tonally, I'll just have to see.

I'm using D'Addario XLR8 for lube....ooo err, but sometimes it's just not enough. I have three early 70's P basses, so I figured it's no big deal to string one of them up with rounds. Given that you seem to prefer flats, how do you deal with the rounds?

I've been a die hard flats kind of chap, and currently my Fender Precision basses are strung with LaBella Low Tension Flats. 80% of the time I love them, but on sweaty summer festival stages, and hot pub/club gigs, they can really get sticky and grabby, and feel the opposite of smooth and glidey. Also, on some of those gigs, the amps provided are a bit hit and miss, and at our latest gig this weekend, I was far from impressed by an Ampeg SVT-3, which in the hurried set up I just couldn't dial in to my satisfaction despite starting from a flat EQ. The resulting tone was "wooly" at best, and bear in mind, I do like an old school tone!. Think Sean Hurley and Pino with John Mayer and that's my target. So, I've decided to carry a bass strung with rounds. I may even use that bass over the others at first to give them a fair go, and see what I think. For the more nerdy among us, the strings I've ordered are LaBella RX-N4D 45-65-85-105 I would like to know if you play both, and in what situations you choose one over the other. Anyway, thanks for listening. Rob,

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That's a shame. Mike has been ok to deal with for me. I've met him a couple of times, and when I bought my first vintage Precision from him, he knocked a good chunk off the price without much haggling at all. I still have that bass, and still really like it. Rob

https://www.markbass.it/artist/keira-kenworthy/