Flats on frets?

[Chipsonfire]

So I know rounds will eat a fretless fretboard, but will frets eat away at flats? I have a fretted 4 but I love big fat sound and am thinking of getting some flats for it, but don't want to kill them with the frets. Also, what are some good decent flats for a fretless acoustic? I'm going to defret my Dean Playmate and want to put some flats on it. Thanks

[GeneralElectric]

I'd say that for the playmate get TI Jazz flats as everything else will torque the body and ruin the bass.

As for frets eating away at the flats... Its just normal wear and tear. I have a 7 year old set of LaBella Jamerson signatures on a P-bass with minor wear on it.

On the other hand I had another P-Bass with jumbo fretwire eat away at the string in a few months. Then again, I did a ton of bends on this bass.

Both sets sounded fine, its just how flats break in.

[JTE]

Depends on your attack, your fretting hand technique, etc. Joe Osborn's infamous Jazz bass had the same set of LaBella Flats on it from around 1960 through at least 1975 when I first read an interview with him.

jte

[jayarroz]

no they won't have any issues with frets.... TI, Labella's, and Chromes = looser tension older thump. Lately I have been using Fender flats 25 bucks and they are tighter than the rest, you I can play on them faster. They respond a little quicker. The others are looser, but still good. Just like the tighter tension, probably because i mainly play upright.

[Chipsonfire]

Where can you buy these strings? The usual places I look to buy music stuff (like MF and zzounds.com) don't seem to have them.

[CamMcIntyre]

Try juststrings.com . I've got Sadowsky Regular gauge flats on a P-bass and i love it. They feel pretty high tension to me though...that's why i got em. IIRC, Sadowsky strings are made by La Bella.