I was looking for something between a flat and a round to use on my Squier VM Short Scale Jag, and I was curious about La Bella Quarter Rounds after seeing some favorable reviews and hearing that Meshell Ndegeocello used them. I couldn't really find any sound clips, so I just went in blind. Here are my thoughts:
Feel: The feel is about what I expected, pretty flat-like with just a bit of roughness to them. I see what people mean about half rounds being "grabby". The strings are a bit grabby at first, though not the typical "sticky" feeling you tend to get with new flats. It seems to be more from the slight presence of the outer windings than residue from the manufacturing process, though it seems to diminish as you play them. I've had them on for a couple of weeks and I don't notice it anymore.
Tone: The tone is also very flat-like, with a pleasant amount of high end with the tone turned up. The high frequencies IMO are similar to a broken in round wound string - not zingy, but clear. Tons of fundamental, and the mids really come through strong. They seem to be pretty versatile, though if you're looking to go from thump to major zing it'd be best to stick with normal rounds and adjust your tone knob. Slap tone is okay, but once again, not all that bright.
Tension: The tension on this set (.104-.042) is medium-high I would say. I tune my shorty to D standard/C# Standard and the tension is comfortable, not overly loose. I imagine it would be fairly taught in standard tuning.
Bottom line: These strings are excellent sounding, and they do what they do really well. If you want a middle-of-the-road tone, from mellow to semi-bright, I'd recommend these. Personally, I prefer to have a regular flat for a mellow tone, and a regular round for a bright tone.
A couple recent covers I've recorded with these strings below:
Feel: The feel is about what I expected, pretty flat-like with just a bit of roughness to them. I see what people mean about half rounds being "grabby". The strings are a bit grabby at first, though not the typical "sticky" feeling you tend to get with new flats. It seems to be more from the slight presence of the outer windings than residue from the manufacturing process, though it seems to diminish as you play them. I've had them on for a couple of weeks and I don't notice it anymore.
Tone: The tone is also very flat-like, with a pleasant amount of high end with the tone turned up. The high frequencies IMO are similar to a broken in round wound string - not zingy, but clear. Tons of fundamental, and the mids really come through strong. They seem to be pretty versatile, though if you're looking to go from thump to major zing it'd be best to stick with normal rounds and adjust your tone knob. Slap tone is okay, but once again, not all that bright.
Tension: The tension on this set (.104-.042) is medium-high I would say. I tune my shorty to D standard/C# Standard and the tension is comfortable, not overly loose. I imagine it would be fairly taught in standard tuning.
Bottom line: These strings are excellent sounding, and they do what they do really well. If you want a middle-of-the-road tone, from mellow to semi-bright, I'd recommend these. Personally, I prefer to have a regular flat for a mellow tone, and a regular round for a bright tone.
A couple recent covers I've recorded with these strings below:
