Best Strings for Reggae bass

[matt76]

What are the best strings to use for playing reggae. I have heard flatwounds. If that is the case, which brand etc etc?

[WillBuckingham]

Any flatwounds will work fine, heavy gauge is better, though they will put a lot more tension on your neck. I use roundwounds for reggae and they sound fine. I just dial out almost all the treble, boost the bass, play near the fingerboard.

Edit: I think Sly and Robbie were on the cover of last months BassPlayer. If you can pick that up I'm sure they have all the information on their gear in there.

[Nyarlathotep]

Flatwounds kick ultimate reggae @$$!!!!!! Been looking recently into getting a reggae/dub tone. After multiple threads/gear settings, switching to flats made the biggest difference.

Oh, and as far as gear settings, cut the hell out of the treble/high mids (around 750Hz IME), and boost the bass a little (~8-10 dB, again IME). Oh and if you have a passive bass, close the tone knob.

[BurningSkies]

Flats or rounds will work.

I prefer rounds to flats, and the 'famous' reggae bass players have used either/or.

Follow your ears.

[horak]

it actually was the cover of BASSGUITAR (june '06) that sly&robbie were on. the article just mentions that robbie uses flats, although no brand is specified. furthermore the article says on his sound (quote): "to produce a full tone, pick the strings close to the neck. shakespeare uses a two-finger approach for busier parts; try to play w/ a fairly light touch to avoid clanking the strings against the frets, while at the same time achieving a solid snap off the string to articulate a note. sometimes shakespeare picks w/ his thumb, resting his palm against the strings by the bridge to mute them slightly."
i personally use ti flats on my fender bass... also, i exchanged the capacitor (0.10 instead of .047) on the tone pot, which lowers the cutoff frequency. makes for a real bassy tone when treble is rolled off...