flats with enough clarity to play melodies and chords?

[chilliwilli]

The bass is a mahogany peavey patriot.

I also plan on tuning the bass D-G-C-F so do you think i would need thicker guage strings as well?

[bthiemann80]

Chords on flats sound awesome, better than with rounds IMO. If you want to keep a good amount of tension when using that sort of tuning, I say go for either fender flats or rotosound flats. Both have higher tensions and sound great.