String through body hurts?

#4
I was given a set of La Bella 760FS as a gift. I did a bit of research and read some conflicting info. Doesn't seem to be any tried and true answer. Maybe a poll would gin up some good stats. any opinions on that? Would it be worth it?
 
#7
The general consensus of opinion is that it's not the best idea to string flats this way. @saddleslab does it, and has gotten away with it; God loves him, I guess... Lots of other people, though, have not been so lucky. Personally, I think successful thru-body stringing with flats probably has a lot to do with how far the ferrules are from the bridge, and how sharp the resulting break angle is. La Bella does say it's a no-no; they also make flats (with a TB suffix, and "Through Body" on the front of the package) that are intended to be used this way. The only way to know for sure is to try it for yourself and see. If you do, and you get away with it? Great. If it's a failure, just make sure you have another set of strings handy...:whistle:
 
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#8
michael_t said:
La Bella Deep Talkin' Flats are the only ones that come with explicit instructions against thru-body installation.

That said, I personally have always shied away from putting any flats thru-body based on the idea that tightly-wound flat ribbon wires are not nearly as pliable and bendable as round wrap wires.
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Thanks for that ! It would have been helpful for La Bella to have something like that on the packaging.
 
#9
GIBrat51 said:
The general consensus of opinion is that it's not the best idea to string flats this way. @saddleslab does it, and has gotten away with it; God loves him, I guess... Lots of other people, though, have not been so lucky. Personally, I think successful thru-body stringing with flats probably has a lot to do with how far the ferrules are from the bridge, and how sharp the resulting break angle is. La Bella does say it's a no-no; they also make flats (with a TB suffix, and "Through Body" on the front of the package) that are intended to be used this way. The only way to know for sure is to try it for yourself and see. If you do, and you get away with it? Great. If it's a failure, just make sure you have another set of strings handy...:whistle:
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Looks like I'm off to the store for a set of rounds. Got any recommendations for an American Standard P-Bass?
 
#11
If your bass can be either thru-body or top loaded, and you're simply determined to use the thru-body feature? Until I could get some TB La Bellas, I might be tempted to try a set of DR Lo-Riders, or some Roto 66's. Or, what I usually use, on the rare occasion I do use rounds; EB Regular Slinkys. Personally, I would just top load the LaBellas, and enjoy them - for a long, long time. To my knowledge, my '78 P-Bass has never had rounds on it. And, AFAIC, it never will, either...:)
 
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#13
Strings are as subjective as basses are.

What I think is a great string might sound like garbage to you and visa versa.

Nothing wrong with running a string top mounted, bassists have been doing it for years. About the only thing I see beneficial to running through the body is it alignes the silks at the headstock better than top mounting does. So yea, not that big of a deal sonically.

I'm the type that really wants to like the sound of flatwounds on my p basses, but I just can't find the right sound so I always go back to rounds. I try a different set each time so maybe someday I will find the right combination.

Good luck looking for strings, just try different ones out until you find the right ones.
 
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#15
michael_t said:
What's wrong with the idea of trying out the La Bella flats by top-loading them on your P bass? They're great flats, especially on a P bass.
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I just wanted to use the string through coupled with the fact that it's the only set I have on hand. There are rounds on it now that are so dead that there are tombstones on the saddles! That does it I'm top loading the flat and the P-bass will be deep talk in in a couple hours.
 
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#16
wold said:
Looks like I'm off to the store for a set of rounds. Got any recommendations for an American Standard P-Bass?
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GHS Pressurewounds. Good all around utility infielder that strikes a happy medium (IMO) between rounds and flats. Really like the way they sound on most basses.

FWIW I used to be a firm believer in string-through on any bass you could do it with. But after doing comparisons with a few different basses I own I'm now convinced it doesn't make any difference as far as tone or sustain goes. So I don't worry about it these days. About the only reason I tend to keep stringing through on the two basses I always do it with is because I'm worried about the ferrules coming loose on them. (They're both pretty old and a few of the ferrules start working loose every so often.) I suppose I could add a tiny dab of glue to hold them a little more securely. But you know how good intentions and actually doing something goes.

I've successfully strung through light gauge GHS Precision Flats with no issues. I suppose you could also do it with TIs which I also use. Those are very flexible. But they're also on the expensive side to experiment with so I've never tried it.
 
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