Flats with a similar tension to 110 nickle Erines

[SwamiRob]

On my acoustic bass I currently have some very dead 110 nickel Ernies, and while they play great, and for the most part sound great, they have a little bit of clickyness to them. I'm wanting to move to flats for a slightly more DB like sound, I know it's not gonna achieve the sound of a DB but it'll be closer, but I want something that plays very similarly because the setup I have now is perfect for what I'm doing. I'm looking for something that isn't too mellow sounding too with a bit of life to it still, but I know next to nothing about flats so I wouldn't know where to start.

[CamiloDíaz]

some very not mellow and very bright flats are the La Bellas. Stainless steel, after all...

[SwamiRob]

Ah, cool, I'm not after too much brightness really, don't want that thumping Steve Harris style clank really, I just want some with some clear mids so they don't sound too muddy. To be honest my only first hand experience of flats was on a horrible bass, nothing but boom which I put down to the strings at the time but that's obviously not the case.

[jasper383]

Ernie Ball doesn't publish tension, but D'Addario does. Here's what I did:

I looked up the tension for D'Addario nickel rounds in the 55-110 gauge (my guess is the EB rounds are very close tension-wise) . It's about 21-29 pounds per string. The closest D;Addario Chromes set tension-wise to that is the 50-105 set. Buy that set, or a set from another brand with similar gauges, and you'll be ready to go.

Now, tension is not the whole story. You'll find the 50-105 Chromes to be much STIFFER than the 55-110 Slinkies you now have. It is stiffness that tends to make people think that flats are higher in tension than rounds.

I might recommend the 45-100 set of Chromes (ECB81) to start, and go from there. Clear sounding and bright for flats, but still very flat-like.

[SwamiRob]

Ah cool, do Chromes tend to be a little brighter then other flats or is that the standard kinda flats wrapping metal? might take a bit of time to get used to string that thin, not rocked 100s since I was 16 or 17 or something.