Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I recently purchased a '70s fretless Precision and it came with an old set of what I would call black tape-wound strings. I once tried a set of the Rotosound Tru Bass, but these are different - more pop to these (volume and brightness) and the wrap is a bit rounder than the Tru Bass which were very smooth and flat. The Tru Bass almost felt like smooth gut upright strings.

Any thoughts on what they might be? They have a standard brass-looking "ring" end with black silk wrap at the headstock end.

The guy I bought the bass from never really learned to play it and these are the same strings from ~13 years ago - they still sound quite good. They also feel fantastic.

I believe Fender makes a tape-wound set (so a good guess might be these, obviously); anyone have any thoughts on these? Any other similar sets worth recommending?

Thanks all...

I had a set of tape-wound Fenders on my first Pedulla Buzz for a while. They did have typical brass ends, a slightly rounder-feeling wrap than most and black tops, though I can't tell from the old pix whether it was silk or just the tape and can't remember. Medium tension, pretty good sound and they had a very slick feel, almost like they had been greased. These days, I'm using either LaBella or Roto tapes on my fretless Hofner, switch between DR Black Beauties (coated rounds) and a set of GHS tape-wounds on the Pedulla and an ancient set of Guild tape wounds on the Gibson, which are very similar to the GHS with a really smooth wrap. I suppose that it might be due to the nylon wrap protecting the core from corrosion, but tape wound strings seem to be able to go for decades without the sound changing much at all. The strings on my Gibson are 35 years old and I have recordings that show that their sound hasn't changed over the years.

Here is the best photo I could find of the Fenders. Unlike most tape-wound strings, you can actually see bumps in the wraps on Fender taped strings.

Hey thanks Todd. From your description and the picture, I'll bet I've got the Fender set. They look like rounds, but play like flats.

Black Diamond also had a set of black tape wound flats in the 70s, at least the earlier 70s.

It turns out that, in addition to Fender's nylon tapewound set, they also make a nylon filament roundwound set. Based on the string diameters on mine, I would guess the nylon filament set.