Do my Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats have a problem?

[kerryg]

Hey folks - I'd never been a flatwound guy except when, say, specifically trying to get retro tones on a P-bass. But because of what I'd heard here I've just taken a pretty big leap and put TI Jazz Flats on my Roscoe SKB 6'er, which had been getting less and less play over the years.

As promised, the TI Flats on this hypermodern 6'er were a revelation and in the first 24 hours I'm completely falling in love with them. However, I might be having an issue with string consistency:

- the G string seems to be a bit "woodier" sounding than the others, ie has less "ping" than the other strings. Mostly noticeable when slapped.

- the B string on the other hand seems a tad indistinct, inarticulate and "wuffly".

Just to rule out some possibilities:
1) I've been playing this Roscoe for fifteen years as my main gigging and recording axe and I've had more sets of roundwound strings on it than I could count. I know this bass very, very well, and it has the most amazing B of any I've ever heard - it's not the bass.
2) I took great care not to twist the cores, letting the ball end "spin out" before applying tension.
3) the strings were seated on the saddles with an appropriate amount of downward pressure

Since I'm new to TI flats in this role, my questions to the TI JF gurus are -

- is this normal? Just what TI's sound like? I'd heard advance rumours that the G string could be a particular issue.

- a natural part of the strings "settling in", and I can expect a more consistent tone in a few weeks?

- or does it sound like I just got a couple of bad ones and should contact the dealer or TI for replacements?

Thanks in advance for all input -

- Kerry

[BLDavis]

I can only comment on 4-string bass but from my experience, TI's do need a bit of time to "even out". But when they do there's nothing better to me. If your after old school tone on a P-bass though, they wont ever mellow out that much.
B.

[markjazzbassist]

first things first, setup your bass.

the TI flats string gauges are WAY different than standard strings. You need a proper setup to realign them. After adjusting the truss, bridge saddle heights and then lastly the pickup height, try again and see if the "wierd" sounds are still there.

i had to do a drastic setup when i switched, i love them though, great strings for recording and live.

[cassius987]

Yeah, do a setup first. However I have had nothing but trouble with TIs and so has one of my pals, so we've pretty much sworn them off for issues like you are describing--each string has a mind of its own and setting up a bass to play well with these seems unusually challenging to me every time. In the case of the four string set, the E and A strings always require much higher action that I like to keep them from fretting out with a straight neck, while the G and D strings are fairly well-behaved... which makes truss rod adjustment a tricky thing, and compensating at the bridge only goes so far.