La Bella Black Jazz Tapes on my Trenier

[Woodstove]

Thought I'd share the excellent results of my being able to change the strings! I've played the 14 gauge set on a Gibson L4C and loved them but I assumed they wouldn't fit the Trenier so I tried the 12 gauge set. With thinning of the silk by the ball on the low strings they went in fine. However the tension is so low that they go sharp too readily when fretting. So I gulped and tried the 14s...and it was no problem other than the same need to remove the ball end wrap. These strings are magnificent on this guitar, and I suspect yours as well. The low tension gives them a perceived playing feel of about 11's, maybe 10 &3/4, , very playable and bendable. The tone is extremely rich and broad and I think reveals the breadth of the Trenier tones extremely well. Highly recommended. I did leave the 12/15 gauge E/B strings on and this will be my set going forward. The low E/A/D strings needed to have the ball end wrap removed or thinned out. The G did not. However the A string had a bit of thickness at one point on the head end of the wrap that had to be dealt with to thread it. I'm going to try needle nose compression in the future if this occurs. Depending on all this and how often I need/want to change strings I'll look into opening up the holes. Bottom line, consider trying them. And, again, thanks for all the support on my stuck string thread. It motivated me to do all this before an upcoming show and I'm really glad I did. best....Peter

[DMgolf66]

Would love to hear the results!

[nyc chaz]

I recently tried these on my ar910 and loved them.Acoustically they give a nice round jazz tone and plugged in it tamed some of the brightness of the guitar.I have the 14's and wanted to try the 12's but was worried about what you described of them being too loose.Galli makes nylon tape strings in 12's and supposedly they are stiifer feeling,so i am going to give them a try next time.

[Woodstove]

Would love to hear the results!

coming

[Woodstove]

I recently tried these on my ar910 and loved them.Acoustically they give a nice round jazz tone and plugged in it tamed some of the brightness of the guitar.I have the 14's and wanted to try the 12's but was worried about what you described of them being too loose.Galli makes nylon tape strings in 12's and supposedly they are stiifer feeling,so i am going to give them a try next time.

Haven't heard of these. But I am so in love with the La Bella 14 sound and feel, and they have been extremely gracious allowing me to exchange 12s for 14s....twice... and they are upstate NY near a place I used to hang out, so thy've got me!
I agree the acoustic sound is excellent and projects better than I thought they would. That acoustic timbre stays with them plugged in as well.

[Simon1234]

Hi Woodstove, thanks for posting. Those La Bella tapes certainly sound attractive. Previous posts here suggest to me people either love em or hate em.

Considering the slightly wider diameter of the black tapes, did you have to widen the nut, or have you noticed any problems with sticking or binding at the nut?

I'm keen to try them on my Comins, but not if it means doing any, ahem, nut surgery.

Thanks, Si

[nyc chaz]

Haven't heard of these. But I am so in love with the La Bella 14 sound and feel, and they have been extremely gracious allowing me to exchange 12s for 14s....twice... and they are upstate NY near a place I used to hang out, so thy've got me!
I agree the acoustic sound is excellent and projects better than I thought they would. That acoustic timbre stays with them plugged in as well.

That was great that Labella did that for you.For me with my aging hands,i just think the 12's would be easier some days.How Bucky Pizzarelli was playing Labella 14's when he was 90 amazes me.

[Woodstove]

Here's a quick pass on a new composition of mine with no processing other than reverb. Played through a tube amp (amplified nation) recorded direct via an Ox Box which simulated playing though a 1x12 open back cab using a U67 and 121 ribbon. (The amp sound is "real" in the ox box). Chaz- my 71 yo hands really like the 14s, it's nothing like normal flat 14's, much lower tension, again more like 11s at most. Simon- no prob with the nut.

Dropbox - And That Is Why Tapes.wav - Simplify your life

[pingu]

Do they work ok plugged in ?

how do the wound strings activate the magnetic pickup properly
if they are largely made of nylon ?

I obviouslyd don't understand something fundamental here !

[nyc chaz]

Do they work ok plugged in ?

how do the wound strings activate the magnetic pickup properly
if they are largely made of nylon ?

I obviouslyd don't understand something fundamental here !

The top 2 strings are metal.The bottom 4 are metal wrapped with nylon and there is zero problem with the pickups .

[Mark M.]

I use the LaBella 14’s on my Eastman El Rey 7 string to great results. I have been tempted to try a set on my Trenier. This may be the nudge I needed.

[Woodstove]

I use the LaBella 14’s on my Eastman El Rey 7 string to great results. I have been tempted to try a set on my Trenier. This may be the nudge I needed.

I hope it nudges you somewhere nice Mark.

[RJVB]

I've posted before about the Pyramid equivalent I've used for a while on my Loar archtop. There may be an early interpretation of a William Bay piece in that thread, recorded purely acoustically.

Pyramid's normal version uses a pure nickel-wounds that get a nylon tape overwrap; I had them make me a couple of sets with a brass underwrap.

I liked them a lot, esp. the G and D sounded a lot like you'd expect nylon (aka classical) strings to sound at that tension and on that guitar. I did also have the problem with notes going sharp, making more elaborate chords even more elaborate to get right, I had some problems with compensation, and in the end they were just too taut for my left hand. I still don't really understand how that can be; Pyramid sent me the tension data the designer of the strings had calculated (in the 60s!) and those are indeed much higher than you'd expect.

I'm still playing with the idea of trying the LaBella equivalent, or even the ones Galli make (expensive, but they do come with nylon-wrapped trebles plus a set of spare, plain ones). I'm just quite happy with the silk-and-steel strings I'm using at the moment...