Flats here... Rounds there...
 

Sooo, I'm new to the flat wound world. I'm an owner of a Stingray 5, Ray 35, Standard P, and a '51 RI. My first set of flats were chromes I put on my standard P. loved em! Shortly after I bought a set for my '51. Loved em! Figured, what the heck, and ordered a 5 string set for my stingray... Not so much love. I run cobalts on my stingray 5 and ray35 and love the way they sound and figured I'd dig flats as well. But every time I switch them back out, I end up with my cobalts back on in about 30 minutes.

Anyone else absolutely love flats on a certain bass and hate them on another?

Oh, absolutely. I think every bass has a preference of what string work best.

Yeah, yeah, that's crazy talk and all, but it's true. Certain basses sound best with certain strings, even different basses of the same model.

Go with it.

I just had to make sure I wasn't the only guy who thought that. I know some dudes who like rounds only, and some who like flats only. But I can't do either! Gotta have both! Haha

I get the impression that flats work for some basses and not others. The archetypal flats bass seems to be the P and derivatives of the P. I reckon flats would be awesome on any semi-solid bass too.

I firmly put Jazz Basses and MM basses (all of them) into the zingy-twangy school, that lends itself to rounds.

My problem is that I love flats way more than I ever loved rounds. I have them on my P bass (my only bass) and would like to get a jazz, but can't imagine them working at all.

Remember not all flats are created equal-just sayin'. I had some Fenders on my Jazz which sounded great, put them on my P bass and not near as nice. Then put some RS88 on the jazz and there ...OK?

Hmm I'd like to get a jazz too. Dunno which way I'd go string wise on it thought. I think you're probably right that jazzes need the zingy-twangy round

That's very true. I figured since chromes are bright in nature they'd be a good string for a MM. But not so much. Maybe I should try another brand?

Here's a different take--I love certain flats on certain basses and hate them on others. LaBella flats on a P-bass and D'Addario Chromes on a J-bass make me happy--but not the other way around.

I use D'Adarrio half rounds on my Precision and my Jazz. Heavy gauge on the Precision and Med gauge on the Jazz. They give me the tone I like for now. I used to play just flats on my Precision I like the halfs a lot better. A little more punch.

Yep love flats on my PBass, keeps rounds on my Jazz, bated the flats on my Stingray. It killed everything I love about the biting sound of the ray

flats sound amazing on any decent jazz bass.

I've heard flats sound killer on musicmans also

I use both. I have chromes flats on my Peavey cirrus, and cobalts on my jazz. Mostly rounds on all my others, but I've been thinking of using flats on my Peavey fury also.

Flats on my Lakland, rounds on my Jazz. Between those two I can get a very useful range of tones.

Do you know what brand?

Good news for me.

I dig heavy gauge Rotosounds because they're clear and punchy but then I record with Labella flats and it's better than ever. Live, the sound men will tell me the flats are not cutting through. So I think, o.k. switch to half rounds and that seems to be the worst of both worlds. This cycle tends to repeat over and over..

I had flats on my EMG PJ bass and they sounded awesome. Put some DR sunbeams on them and sound even better. I still prefer flats and have my other two basses strung with them.

5-string flats are hit or miss. Sadowsky offers the all-around best set I've tried. They're apparently made by Labella, but they are made a bit differently and I prefer them over Deep Talkin's.