Blackeyed blonde and general flatwound questions

[Flizzy21]

If you listen to blackeyed blonde by rhcp, the bass line is so smooth and clean that i almost deny the fact that its played using slap. I use round wound strings right now and they are WAY to bright to play that deep and smooth but I hear that flats are just plain terrible for slapping. Im not sure if its my EQ or my strings, anyone know what kind of strings flea uses to get that sound, or whats specifically getting that kind of tone? would larger gauge round wounds do the trick?

[FoHBass]

I'm sure Flea wasn't using flats back then. A lot of it is probably EQ and also how the bass was treated during the mixing process. If you wanna hear Flea using flats, the newest RHCP album is just that pretty much exclusively. The choruses in "Tell Me Baby" are Flea slapping on flats.

[SuperSnake2012]

Slapping on flats isn't terrible, I do some slap on my P bass with flats occassionally.

[Yankeesfan1115]

GHS Boomers
I hate them, tried them because flea uses them but they were bad
sounds pretty good with Slinkys imo

[Delberthot]

not sure about the original but Flea certainly slaps the verses live

[SGT. Pepper]

Originally Posted by Yankeesfan1115

GHS Boomers
I hate them, tried them because flea uses them but they were bad
sounds pretty good with Slinkys imo

+1 on the Boomers. For his aggressive slap style they suit him fine. Boomers are stiff for rounds and kind of hard to play on if your a finger guy. However, if you like the way they sound, drop down a gauge from your normal set-up. If you use 45,65,85,105's ,for Boomers use 45,65,80,100's or even 40,60,75,95's.