La Bella 760FM-CB Deep Talkin' Bass Flats, 6-String Medium (.029–.128): Thundercat's live set

La Bella 760FM-CB is the 6-string, Medium Tension version of the company's Deep Talkin' Bass Flats, a stainless steel flatwound line La Bella has built since the 1950s and 1960s. The gauge runs .029, .049, .069, .089, .109, .128: thin enough on the high C to stay playable for fast chordal work, thick enough on the low B to hold pitch under tension.

It is also a documented live set, not just a catalog listing. Thundercat (Stephen Bruner) runs this exact gauge on his custom Ibanez 6-string, tuned BEADGC, according to Mixdown Magazine's gear rundown on him. La Bella's own artist roster lists him directly as a sponsored player of the Deep Talkin' Bass line.

Thundercat has talked about this set directly, not just been photographed with it. Asked by Bass Magazine in 2020 whether he was still using flatwounds after years on the road, he confirmed the gauge and the reasoning behind it.

Later in the same interview, asked whether flats felt stiffer than rounds, he tied his low action to "a good gauge": his own words didn't include the numbers, but the magazine's editorial bracket pins it at .029 to .128, the same endpoints Mixdown Magazine later reported in full, six numbers deep, for his live rig.

La Bella sells the 6-string Deep Talkin' Flats across at least two tension tiers with very similar labeling: FM (Medium Tension) and FS (Standard Tension). Both show up in retailer listings under the shorthand "29-128," which describes only the thinnest and thickest strings, not the four gauges in between. That shorthand is exactly why Thundercat's SKU took real digging to confirm.

Bass Magazine's 2020 interview cited his set in an editorial bracket as "the 760FS-CB." But Thundercat's own words in that same interview said only "medium-gauge," and La Bella's current catalog lists the Medium Tension 760FM-CB with a full breakdown, .029, .049, .069, .089, .109, .128, that lines up exactly with what Mixdown Magazine independently reported for his live rig in 2026. Either La Bella's SKU naming shifted in the six years between those two sources, or the magazine's bracket was an approximation at the time. The gauge match points to 760FM-CB as today's answer, which is the set this page covers.

For studio sessions, he swaps to a brighter roundwound instead. See Dean Markley SR2000 Medium Custom, gauged .027 to .127, for that side of his rig.

• Fans of Thundercat's exact live tone. Chordal, dark, low finger noise, built for a player who moves constantly between low-register walking lines and lead-register runs.
• Funk and jazz-fusion players who want a smoother attack than a bright stainless roundwound gives up.
• Players managing hand strain. Thundercat's own stated reason for leaning on flats: a gentler, rounder stroke under fast fingerstyle passages than the claw-like grip rounds can demand, even on a string that still feels taut under his low action.
• 6-string owners who already know they want flats and want the exact documented gauge rather than guessing at a tension tier.

• Slap and pop-heavy styles. Flatwounds have almost no top-end snap; see our flatwound vs roundwound bass strings comparison if slap is the priority.
• Bright modern rock or metal tone. A flatwound's rolled-off highs work against a cutting, aggressive attack.
• Through-body bridges. This SKU is not built for it; La Bella sells a separate Thru-Body flatwound line instead.
• 4-string and 5-string players. This is the 6-string-specific gauge. La Bella's Deep Talkin' Flats line ships separate SKUs for 4- and 5-string basses at different gauge spreads.

1. Scale first. The base 760FM-CB is Standard/Long scale, 37.25 inches ball-end to silk. Short-scale and extra-long-scale 6-strings need the 760FM-CB-S or 760FM-CB-XL variants; La Bella does not sell those direct on its own site, only through retailers.
2. Check your bridge. Top-load and string-through-headstock basses work. Through-body bridges need La Bella's separate Thru-Body flatwound sets instead.
3. Install E and B first, the two thickest strings, then work outward. Flatwounds hold tension hard; loosen evenly before removing an old set rather than cutting it under load.
4. Stretch less than you would with rounds. Flats settle faster. One stretch-and-retune cycle at the 12th fret is usually enough.
5. Expect a short break-in. A fresh set has slightly more top-end for the first gig or two before settling into the darker, mature Deep Talkin' tone Thundercat and other flatwound players describe.

If the goal is Thundercat's actual live tone rather than an approximation of it, this is the set: a documented gauge match, confirmed in his own words and against La Bella's current catalog, not a guess pieced together from a photo of his pedalboard. It is not a beginner set and it is not built for slap, but for 6-string funk and fusion players chasing a smooth, dark, chordal-friendly low end, it is the real rig, not a lookalike.