La Bella 760FHM Deep Talkin' Flats (.052–.110): the Jamerson set
Reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
La Bella 760FHM Deep Talkin' Flats (.052–.110) is the heavy-gauge flatwound set that defines the Jamerson / Motown bass sound. Thumpy, warm, dark, and low-top-end, the opposite of a Rotosound. James Jamerson famously kept the same set of La Bellas on his '62 Precision for years; this is the modern equivalent of that set. Pick it for Motown, soul, R&B, reggae, and any gig where you want the bass to sit deep instead of cut through.
Anatomy
Construction
Tone
Flatwound is a different instrument from roundwound. The Deep Talkin' Flats have almost no high-end sizzle, no finger squeak, no pick attack, no slap snap. What you get instead is enormous low-mid fundamental and the thump that Motown, Stax, and jazz records rode for four decades. The .110 E string is a cannon.
Compared to other common bass sets:
Best for
- Motown and soul: the Jamerson pocket. No other set sits the way flats do.
- Vintage R&B: Stax, Muscle Shoals, early Philly.
- Reggae and dub: with the tone knob rolled back, flats deliver the dub "boom."
- Jazz fingerstyle: dark upright-adjacent tone on a fretless or fretted P-bass.
- Studio session work where the producer wants "old" bass.
Worst for
- Slap funk: no top-end snap. Use rounds.
- Modern rock and metal: too warm, not enough definition under distortion.
- Pick-attack-forward rock: the attack gets buried.
- Beginners: the heavy .110 E string is physically harder to play than a .100 or .105 round. Start on rounds and graduate to flats.
Who plays them
- James Jamerson: the defining Motown bass tone. Jamerson famously left the same set of La Bellas on his '62 Precision for years and refused to change them.
- Paul McCartney: used flats on the Höfner for most of the Beatles catalog (Pyramid flats, a close cousin), though the Rickenbacker often took rounds.
- Carol Kaye: LA session bass sound, many Wrecking Crew records are flatwound.
- Willie Weeks, Chuck Rainey: session staples.
Install and break-in
- Loosen all strings evenly before removing. Flats hold tension harder than rounds; don't shock the neck.
- Wipe the fretboard clean, flats trap less grime than rounds, so start clean.
- Install E first (heaviest), then A, D, G. Three wraps per post.
- Stretching: flats need less stretching than rounds. Tune, stretch once at the 12th, retune, done.
- Break-in: 1–3 gigs of playing before the top end rolls off fully into the mature Deep Talkin' tone.
Verdict
If you want the Motown sound, there is one answer: La Bella Deep Talkin' Flats, ideally the .052–.110 heavy-gauge set. No substitute does the pocket the same way. It's not a beginner set, the tension is high and the tone is an acquired taste, but for vintage R&B, soul, and deep-pocket fingerstyle, nothing else competes.
Next steps
- Playing rock or prog instead? See the Rotosound Swing Bass 66 review.
- Bassist spotlights that use this set: James Jamerson.