D’Addario ETB92 Nylon Tapewound Bass Strings

Como estas?

I’ve never been a fan of tapewound strings. It seemed like every bass that I have played with them sounded dull, and the strings never felt quite right because the gauges were different than normal roundwounds. But a friend of mine tried these D’Addario tapewounds, and really liked them, so I had to give them a shot.

The set that I tried is the D'Addario ETB92 Nylon Tapewound Bass Strings, which fit long-scale basses. I put these on a 1982 Fender JV Precision Bass that already played and sounded very good (with D’Addario roundwounds, BTW).

Upon stringing the bass up, I found out that D’Addario took care of one of my complaints. This flatwound set has normal string gauges: 0.050, 0.065, 0.085 and 0.105. For starters, this means that they fit well in my normal-sized nut (heh), and also that the tension and feel is closer to that of “normal” strings.

The outer layer is flattened black nylon, so they feel slicker than cat snot, and they look tough too. Playing the bass unplugged bass was a little surprising, as it was louder and more resonant than I was expecting. But I got a bigger surprise when I plugged it in. The strings are more dynamic than any other tapewounds I have played, and have a very round tone.

They are a winner and I am going to keep them on this bass. I am curious to see how they sound in a mix as well as how they age over time.

The list price for a set of D’Addario ETB92 Nylon Tapewound Bass Strings is $62.99, but you would be stupid to pay that much. Heck, D’Addario sells them on their own web site for $41.00. Your best bet would be to head over to Musician’s Friend or Guitar Center and pick up a set for $29.99.

Mahalo!