20 Best Tapewound Bass Strings (2022 Updated)

Sound: Bright, well-balanced, and long-lasting. Other brands sound muddy and worn-out by comparison. Features: EXTREMELY durable! They last forever, and keep their tone for months past where other brands get corroded and crappy.

Ease of Use: The best, period. Don’t take my word for it – just look up a list of players who’ve relied on D’Addario for decades. Value: These strings are worth the price and then some – they sound better and last longer than “deluxe” strings costing 3 times as much.

Manufacturer Support: I’ve only ever had to reach out once, when I bought a set that was missing a string, and they responded THE SAME DAY. They sent out two single strings to replace the missing one, but due to a typo, they were the wrong gauge – so D’Addario sent me a whole new set to replace them.

Total class act. The Wow Factor: I won’t even bother with any other brand, and I would NEVER hit the rehearsal room (let alone a gig or recording session) without D’Addario strings on all my guitars.

Overall: I’ve played D’Addario XL electric strings since I heard that Megadeth were using them back when I was a teenager (so about 28 years now), and I’ve never, ever been disappointed. Twice I decided to give “The Other Brands” a run, and ordered a huge range of all the other major brands (along with a few not-so-common brands too) – once in about 1997 when I’d been playing for a few years, and then again in 2010 just to remind myself why I always buy the same brand – and came to the same conclusion both times.

The others just don’t hold a candle to the XL strings! Ernie Ball, Dean Markley (standard and Blue Steel both), DR (Tite-Fit, Dimbag signature, and DTT), Dunlop – nothing comes close to the brightness, strength, and lifespan that D’Addario offers.

No wonder they get to claim the title of “The World’s Most Popular Guitar Strings”.

After not having a “Ball” with another popular brand that came pre-rusted in the packs I tried these. I had used them years ago and for some reason stopped, not sure why? These strings compared to the other brand are REALLY SLINKY! I mean really, I had to tighten my floating Floyd up for the same gauge strings.

And they LAST and LAST and LAST. One axe that is my daily player has 8 months on one set!! Insane I know! I did a recording test before I changed them and with distorted tone the 8 month old ones sounded so similar to new, my days of obsessing over fresh sets every time I go work on recording were over.

I can now go back in and overdub into a session and not worry. I get consistent good tone no matter how old. Maybe on a clean tone you’d notice? Not paid to say this, all I can recommend is you give these a try if you think your current brand are awesome, you might be surprised like I was, these are the great strings for me!!.

These medium-scale D’Addario Tapewounds are the ones that fit a through-strung American Performer Fender Mustang. I put them on to replace some excellent Thomastik-Infeld Jazz flats. They are brighter than the flats while still being smooth and comfortable to play.

With the Thomastik’s I was able to lower the action but I’ve had to raise it back to where it would be for rounds. An excellent choice if you want near-round brightness with the smoothness and comfort of flats.

I recently bought a new bass, and loved almost everything about it, but there was one thing that kept me from really enjoying it. The strings were creating too bright of a sound, and they made noise when I did slides – and I like to do a lot of slides.

In fairness, the Elixir strings that came with the bass were advertised to have a bright sound, and a lot of reviewers liked them because of that. However, I’m an old-school kind of guy and like a rounder, more full tone.

So I decided to look for alternatives. After researching some forums for suggestions for strings for my bass, I saw a few suggestions for tape-wound strings. I had always been curious about them, and decided to give them a try.

Wow – what a difference! The tone was nice and round, and gave me the sound I was looking for. Best of all, I could do long slides with no string noise at all. I’m completely sold on these, and don’t expect that I’ll ever go back to round-wounds.

Bought these for my Peavey Cirrus Fretless 4-string. Very smooth, almost silky. Bass had excellent action to begin with but feels effortless to finger with these. That said, the classic fretless wahh sound is extremely pronounced – too much for my taste.

They might sound good for some types of music. I might try to raise the action a bit, but I really don’t want to do that as I have it set near perfect. I will likely go back to regular flat wounds. Note that I am primarily a guitarist so take this review with that in mind.

I gave them 3 stars as I don’t like the sound. They seem to be very high quality and as I stated very nice and smooth. Can’t yet vouch for longevity but I am sure they fine as are all of the D’Addario strings I have purchased over the years.

I didn’t expect balanced tension to make such a difference on bass strings, but wow! I slapped these on a new Fender Jaguar Bass with ebony fingerboard (fretted not fretless) and it was completely transformed into my favorite bass for playability and balance.

I may use these on my MIA Geddy Lee Jazz Bass instead of the regular set, the next time I change strings. I hope they start offering Balanced Tension across their entire bass string line, including flats! Everyone commented on the sound at rehearsal; a more even cut-through in the mix.

And even after a few weeks, this remains the case. So the strings exceeded my expectations in every way.

These strings are not for everyone. If you are looking for a modern bass tone get some round wound strings. But if you are looking for a vintage, almost upright kind of sound these will fit the bill.

Think of that fat bass tone on the Beatles Come Together. McCartneys bass, the way they mastered and mixed it sounds so dark and thick. It’s a very 60s sound, particulairly on that song. I have them on a few of my basses now and they are fantastic! (66Gibson EB2, Carvin AC50, Godin A5 fretless, Fender fretless Jazz.

) Those basses sound absolutely amazing! Oh yeah, I left out my P bass. They can be slapped on that bass, and they sound good, but not exactly modern. Surprising, however. These strings have a wonderful stong fundemental sound.

(Fundemental is the frequency that the note is named for, but with subdued harmonics. ( Every note is more than just the one frequency of the fundemental. ).

Try these strings on your P bass if you have one. I also have a set on my Godin A5 fretless semi-hollow, Carvin AC50 semi-hollow, and my 66 Gibson EB2 hollow body bass. They make all these basses sound the best I have heard on them! They are NOT going to give you a modern twangy bass tone like Marcus Miller for example.

But I don’t need that from these basses. The best way I can describe them is the strings bring out the fundamental frequency way above the harmonics. The harmonics are present but subdued. The way the strings feel is fantastic.

I won’t be putting them on all of my basses, and I’ll miss the smooth feel. But there is a place for modern and vintage tones. If you have a P bass I recommend trying them on it, as long as you have other basses that will give you a different kind of a more modern sound.

I am completely hooked on my P bass with them on it.

This is my first time messing around with tape-wound strings, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect given the wide range of opinions about them. I just got these strings a few hours ago, and I have to say I’m already impressed.

I put them on my Ibanez 5-string fretless in place of the flat-wounds that were on it. The flat-wounds sounded great. These tape-wounds sound even better and are even easier on the fingers. I know some people had to make some adjustments on their instruments, but mine went right on with no problems at all.

They tuned up and stayed in key much more quickly than I expected. They can sound a bit more like a stand-up bass but can get bright and edgy when I adjust the tone and blend on my bass. The funny thing is, my bass is all black, including the neck, and these black strings almost disappear.

Now my fretless looks almost string-less as well. I’m going to have some fun with some people! I’ve no doubt I’ll be sticking with these string for this bass.

I think these are great, but you should be clear on what they are. I thought they were flat nylon tapewound, like the nylon LaBellas. What they are instead is roundwound strings, with a thin nylon coating.

So they actually sound more like roundwounds than flatwounds. A little less trebley, but on a scale of brightness, with flatwounds being 1 and roundwounds being 10, these are like a 7. The big difference with these strings is that they cut out most of the fret buzz and fretting hand noise, much more than they cut treble.

So if fret noise bothers you, but you want to keep most of the roundwound tone, these could be ideal. They are also much easier on the fingers, and a little smoother for picking. Personally, I ended up not using them on my regular basses, because I either want the full roundwound sound, or I want the full flatwound sound.

But they found a good use on my fretless. The fingerboard on my fretless scrapes easily. These strings let me keep a pretty much roundwound sound on the fretless, without chewing up the fingerboard. (I think these strings are even easier on the fingerboard than traditional flatwounds.

).

They string up well thru the posts; stay tight. Very nice tone, a bit more mellow than other strings. They do not wear from frets; just fine on fretted basses. I have used these for years on my Jazz (active and passive), P-Bass, and my Daisy Rock “Rock Candy” bass (active).

They give a bit of a string bass sound, which can be dialed out with tone controls. The tone and volume is consistent. I bought this set to use on my Michael Kelly A/E acoustic bass , I am sure they will work well, so far, so good, unplugged or acoustic.

I play Chicago (3-chord) pre-SRV/Hendrix blues, Pre-Beatles Rock ‘n’ Roll and Honky-Tonk Country. I also play the P-Bass with these strings for an Elvis impersonator several times a year.

These are my first tapewounds. I wanted a more round, woody tone like Paul McCartney and other 60’s 70’s bass players. I had also been developing my technique and felt that the rounds weren’t working for me anymore.

I haven’t compared them to other brands, but I am very happy with these strings. They are so comfortable and enable me to get the sounds from the bass I was looking for. I think they are good for anything really.

They are more versatile than roundwounds. Negatives: In my opinion they are not good for picking, so if you are a heavy picker you might not like these. I’m talking about heavy rock or something like metal where yo uare really working the strings with the pick to get that aggressive sound.

These aren’t made for that. Buzz. This was an unexpected issue, but I have it figured out now. Basically when you touch regular strings you are grounding your electronics and eliminating buzz. With these you are touching nylon and will get whatever buzz your amp makes when you are not touching the strings.

It’s a minor issue, but I fixed it by wearing a grounding wrist strap for working on computers. I clip it to the bridge and no hum or buzz.

These string sound great–more sweeter mids than the La Bella Black tapewounds, which was exactly what I wanted. They also feel great. The only issue is that they put out much less volume when on my Fender CS ’60 Jazz than any other strings I have tried, including the LA Bella Black Tapes, which I have on another similar Jazz.

Not sure if the cause of the low output has anything to do with the copper pprtion being less useful with magnetic pickups, but I expect that is the case. I could get things close to loud enough by raising the p’ups and cranking the volume on my amp, though that solution is less than ideal for my use.

No doubt the these strings would work great with the right setup. Just not with mine. I have switched back to the DR Sunbeams I had removed. The increase in output compared to the Copper-Whites is startling.

I bought this set on the strength of their reputation as the classic James Jamerson bass strings, to compare against the Ernie Ball Group I (EBGI) flatwounds of similar heavy gauge I’ve been using on all my basses for decades.

I found them finicky to install on my Rickenbacker 4001V63, requiring cutting to length, whereas the EBGI fitted perfectly without cutting on my Rickenbackers and my Jazzes. Beyond this, I found them slightly higher in output than the EGBI, causing double-tones on the E string, requiring me to lower the pick-ups.

I could only lower the pick-ups a little, as the “wings” of the bridge pick-up were getting close to contacting the strings. I also didn’t enjoy the feel of playing the set as much as the feel of the EBGI.

The upshot is that I will be re-installing the EBGI on my Rickenbacker 4001V63. I suspect this set might work better with Fenders, but I’ll be sticking with EBGI on my Jazzes as well.

These are a really nice set of tape wound strings that give clarity in tone, and don’t sound like they are made of plastic. Some tapewounds are a bit clanky, but these are a great blend of all the things I like.

The low strings play nice and clean, with a bit of growl and are not muddy like some flats. The upper strings have a nice little zing without all the bite you get on roundwounds. They feel great on the fingers, and look amazing on a black bass.

Definitely worth experimenting with.

Fender are not usually known for their strings, but don’t think twice about getting these! A very competitive price for long scale wound strings! They give a nice warm tone due to being tapewound and feel smooth under the fingers.

The black finish of the strings looks sleek and almost invisible on my fretboard. All strings are packaged together and properly sealed from air and moisture, I wouldn’t normally mention this, but some companies have very bad practices with “new” strings! I can’t say how long they last, but with any strings a quick wipe down after playing and they should be good! These are my new go to fretless bass strings 10/10 will buy again!.

I bought these strings for my fretless P-style bass. The rounds I had on it were eating away at the fingerboard, and I wanted a softer string with a little more “spank” and attitude than steel flats.

The are deep, warm sounding strings. There is a subtle high-mid thing going on that is great for the fretless tone. The feel of the nylon wrap is slick and soft. If you’re used to rounds, these take a little adjustment.

So far, I’m really looking these strings. Because the string gauge is so thick on these strings, the D string catches at the nut. This is not a reflection on the strings, in and of themselves. Rather, it is to say you may need to get your bass set up by a qualified tech when you get these strings in order to for the nut slots to the correct gauges.

Or if you have the tools and the knowledge, go for it. Mind your string gauges before buying. You have been warned!.

Excellent strings for a fretless. I have tried this heavier 60-115 set and also the 50-105 set. I have tried both gauges in copper (760C,750C)and plain white nylon (760T ,750T , which are silver). Despite the fact I favor light sets (35-90, for example) when playing fretted bass with steel/nickel roundwounds, I find the heavier set (60-115) to be preferable when using these nylon tapewound strings.

Also, when using a fretless bass, stainless steel flatwounds just lack character compared with these Nylon wound strings. To me they sound rather dead in comparison. Another thing to note would be that the copper (760C) set has a quieter output than the white nylon steel (760T) set (less magnetic?) They are both great and have different sonic characteristics.

They are my go to strings now.

Now have them on two basses, a fret less jazz with Dimarzio ultra jazz pups and Ibanez hollow body with piezo pups. They sound and feel great with lower tension and surprisingly bright but mellow sound, depending on your EQ.

Chuck Rainey played them, a great endorsement! Me too!.

I’ve been using LaBellas since my old favorite strings were discontinued ten years ago, and I love the feel, the tone and the insane durability. They’re also superb for staying in tune once they’ve stretched a bit.

By far my favorite thing about these is the way the tone expresses depending on the bass I’m using. On my Schecter they produce solid mids and bright highs, and on my Jack Casady hollowbody, they produce a sweet, rumbling low end that is positively delicious.

I am absolutely a LaBella fangirl, and these lovely black versions fit my goth aesthetic very well indeed =).

This is my first time to try these “White” strings after using the “Black” strings for years. Although, at this point, I can’t honestly say that I prefer them over the “Black” strings, I can say that I like them just as well.

I have several bass guitars and I put these “White” strings on an Epiphone Allen Woody Rumblekat. Comfortable to play, these strings give me tones I prefer for the music I play. I highly recommend them for anyone who likes a mellow, deep, upright bass type of sound.

Craig Jones.

Ive been playing on the original 1954 set of LaBellas for 40 years. Nothing like em. Worth the dough. Join the big boys, strap up! Ol school tone here. Its the first step in goin old school. Still doin it, -Cadillac Johnson.

I recently blind purchased a new Ibanez SHR505F Fretless 5 string semi-hollow bass that only sports a piezo pickup in the bridge for a more “acoustic” quality. It comes stock with a set of D’Addario Chromes, and while those are very nice, playable strings they are not at all suited for an acoustic tone.

I messed with the bass for about a month and was on the verge of selling it because I just couldn’t get the tone out of it I was after, which is a bummer because I really like the bass but in a last ditch effort I decided to try the D’Addario tapewounds, and lo and behold as I suspected it was the stock strings all along! They definitely give the bass a more natural, acoustic tone but have good clarity and definition, and play wonderfully! Super smooth and just the right tension so they are flexible but not sloppy! They literally changed the whole sound and feel of the bass in the best way possible!.

After almost 30 years of playing stringed and fretted instruments, I finally gave these Black Nylon’s a try on an Active Jazz V Bass. I’ve always liked Pyramid Flatwounds and the D’addario Chromes but these strings are what I have been looking for the whole time.

I dislike that clangy, rattley, treble heavy bass tone that most roundwound strings seem to produce, especially a Low B. These string’s have the warmth and body of a flatwound but an even smoother quality that gets me as close to an Upright Bass as an Electric Bass can get.

Plus, the Low B doesn’t sound like a buzz saw rattling against your frets allowing for more articulate pitch. D’addario makes great strings so the other reviewers complaining about scale length probably don’t understand how it works.

The Long Scale worked perfectly on my 34″ Jazz once trimmed to the appropriate length. They are a little pricey but I see these strings lasting at least a year as they are very easy to clean/wipe down when you are done playing.

Good strings for the price. I like the string gauges in this set and I get a good snarling sound from my 51 P Bass without it being too bright. I replaced a similar gauge set of Rotosound flats with this set and the transition wasnt too extreme.

It seems that there is a similar cheaper set in the Rotosound range, which does not have the blue silk winding. As this set only has the silk winding at one end, whereas the flats have it at both ends, I would suggest you buy the cheaper set.

If you like really bright sounding strings, I would look elsewhere.

These are installed on a Gretsch short scale. They have a great smooth feel, tension with balanced volume and warm sound. They don’t rattle with loose tension like most shortscale strings. I’m just sorry I didn’t try the Rotosound Trubass decades ago.

I finally ordered them from Strings and Beyond and l will be ordering more for my other basses. As far as Rotosounds claim to emulate an upright l will say they give you a rich warm sound usable in a lot of musical styles.

When installing these strings you may have to widen the nut slots so the strings will not bind and allow them to sit correctly. Very, very comfortable strings to play. Thanks again to Strings and Beyond.

to make use of my electric in an acoustic band. I see reviews of “not very bright”, “no sustain”, etc. Facts are – they are not roundwound cobalt bright (on purpose), and they are made to emulate upright tone(flatwound/wrapped).

They are for a specific sound – just what I was looking for.

According to a Fender rep, these are what came on the Fender PJ bass I ordered from Musician’s Friend. They produce the classic Fender tone I wanted. I eventually replaced them with a set of Fender 7250L (.

040,. 060,. 080,. 100) to make it easier to play on the guitar’s 9. 5″ fingerboard radius. I stayed with Fender because of the tone that the 7250M strings produce. The Light’s have slightly less oomph on the low end, yet all the tone while the lighter gauge makes for nice melodic work on the high end of things.

If you have a Fender bass and want Fender tone.

Fender’s 9050 flats are now my favorite flatwounds of all time. They have a really good tension to them but they are far from being too stiff to play. Currently using the 55-105 set with the action set low, and they just feel and sound great.

Really good lows and mids, and a nice spanking treble tone even when worn in. The green silk looks really cool too.

The search is over. I’ve tried Ernie Ball, Chromes, and Thomastik and each and every one of these had aspects that I did not like. Either there was too much brightness, little balance, too much mids, bad feel of the strings, or overall tone that did not hit the sweet spot.

Mind you those are also quality strings, but they do not shine like these Fender 55’s. The search is simply over. The balance is just there. You don’t have overwhelming frequency peaks with these strings because they sound even across the spectrum.

Ernie Ball is sticky feeling and too bright for my style (which is amazing for some people, Im very impressed with Ernie Ball as well it just doesnt suite my style, these are almost tied with Fender), Chromes are peaky in the mids, and Thomastiks are too flabby and ‘tubby’ sounding.

This is my top recommendation for strings and I think roundwound players should give them a shot.

These are fun strings to play with a nice, warm, fat tone thats got enough pop for slapping & a very cool yellow ribbon wrap @ the tuner end. Now the down side, the actual gauges (measured with a digital micrometer) are 72-81-103-118-144.

The B string is a little more textured than the others & surprisingly with its massive girth does not drop tune particularly well even on a 35 scale. For a few extra bucks I would go with the La Bellas which are super smooth, very consistent & the gauges are spot on.

In my opinion, there are no better sound or brand of nylon wound strings. I have tried many others throughout my lifetime. Been using RS for many years on my 5 string, Fender Victor Bailey.

Change strings annually with normal maintenance of the guitar; Always use the Roto-Sound Nylon Bass Strings. I have tried others, but always come back to this superior quality set of strings. Would not consider anything other than Roto-Sound.

I use RS on all my string instruments.

Strings are not one-size-fits-all, and there are so many brands that it can be a bit confounding. That said, if you have at least decided to be in the flatwound camp, LaBella will probably have an offering that is to your liking.

They have standard long, extra long, as well as short scale. They have nylon wrap and stuff like that, too. They offer four or five gauge selections in the standard steel flat long scale from light to very heavy.

They even have a surprising variety of special Hofner Beatle Bass sets. I had the heavy Jamerson long scale (760FH I think its called) set on my Fender AVRI Jazz Bass, and stepped down to the standard gauge (760FS) to give the neck a break on tension.

I wish now Id gone even one step lower to the 760FM as the tension didnt change as much as I might like. I was worried about losing that beautiful 1960s thunk. But the thunk is still there with the 760FS, almost identical to what the heavies had! The G is still a bit twangy, but I know that will tame.

LaBella has two lighter sets that I can try of this same flatwound string. That is, to me, very accommodating, and proves how dedicated Labella is to being The Peoples Flats. Ive tried others – DR Legends are nice – but LaBella is hard to beat as a company if you want to try out some strong, punchy, silky smooth basic flats.

They are a fantastic American company, too. They have custom wrapped special gauges of bronze baritone acoustic strings for me, and they are the coolest string company out there for that level of service.

I love LaBella !! Try some!!.

They’re expensive, but actually most good flatwounds aren’t much cheaper, looking around. Shouldn’t have to buy another set for a very long time indeed, possibly never. Good gauge for me, but that’s a personal thing obviously.

Kind of medium. Currently mounted on a Squier 90s Precision and sound great.

Following a tip-off from Youtuber; ‘Scott’s Bass Lessons’ I decided to give these a go. Apart from the seller’s speedy delivery my biggest satisfaction comes from the sheer expansiveness of the sound available from these strings on my bass.

They opened up all the ‘head tones’ I had been striving for along with the playing technique I had been attempting with regular flat wound strings. The internal metalwork combined with the warm muted effect and silky feel of the wound tape has brought a level of performance and enjoyment I previously only dreamed of.

Now, with minimal effort (and little discomfort) I am able to bend notes and achieve a ‘slap/picked’ sound which adds greater depth and colour to the lines I have been wanting to master. Far from the dull ‘thump’ I had been expecting they spoke with ‘zingy’ twang like a Rick on full tone and with a crisp and deep bloom with tone full down.

At a price point which is easily affordable to any player I’d say these strings would open up a new adventure for any bass player. Five stars well earned.

I put these on my Rogue VB100 viola bass. They gave it THE ’60s sound I was looking for for both rock and soul music. They play smoothly. They just barely fit on this model because the ball on the E string is too large to fit within the tailpiece receptacle.

The wound portion barely clears the nut.

This string is made for the Hofner Violin Bass guitar, which is a MEDIUM scale guitar. Most people buy long strings and cut them down or short strings only to find the taper is before the nut on the played side.

Both are problemmatic. This string, being the correct string, is a super easy install and gives the correct harmonics and intonation. The flatwound string also allows better setup and playability, which can be an issue with round wounds.

I will never use any other string on a Hofner violin bass. It surprises me that Hofner sells these with round wound strings. First thing I do is replace them with these La Bella Flats.