FYI - an impulse buy...D'Addario Chromes for 5 string

[DaveB]

I have a Roscoe Beck 5 string which, so far,has has the very excellent D'Addario Slowound roundwounds on it.A few days ago I was in a local store and just for the hell of it picked up a set of Chromes flats..I was very pleasantly surprised. I have used Thomastik Jazz Flats on my 4 string P and J basses for some time but this was my first experience with Chromes.

The first thing I noticed was the terrific tension. My only complaint about Thoms is the low tension and somewhat "flimsy" feel especially on the E string. I would imagine that the B would be even flimsier.The Chromes are much tighter and allow me to dig in quite a bit more.The Chromes B string feels even tighter than the Slowounds.The B is .132 but doesn't seem to play like a string that large.

Tonally teh Chromes are quite different than the Thoms. While there is still lots of "upright thud" the thud is not as strong as the Thoms.The Chromes seem to have a lot of that LaBella type top and bottom and do not have the Thom strong midrange.That's a good thing or bad thing depending on your midrange tastes.

The Chromes are super smooth on the fingers but don't seem to get "sticky" like the Thoms do.However, more use may prove the Chromes equally sticky in a few weeks.

On balance it was a worthy impuse buy.I want to get about a half dozen gigs (about six weeks) in with the Chromes for the real test.But so far they seem like a pretty good flatwound...certainly worthy of any flatwound players' consideration.

[Tsal]

I believe Chromes are smoothened afterwards, they feel like they would be single thick piece of wire instead of 3 layers.

Have you tried slapping with those btw?

[DaveB]

Tony- Yes I have (just out of curiosity). They slap about as poorly as most flats as compared to rounds. But I'm an old school Jamerson, Dunn, Prestia kind of player so slapping isn't too important to me.