Ive always used roundwounds on my Musicman Sterling, but never been able to get the kind of midrange growl that ive been looking for. Mostly i end up with brilliant highs, and boomy lows that i can only fix with a compressor.
So i decided to make the switch to flat(er) wounds in search of more mids and a thicker low end. I settled on a set of Half Wounds for my bass after getting a deal on them ($15).
I strung them up in a normal fashion and headed out to an eclectic open mic night. i usualy can play 4 or 5 different types of of music. Tonight i was in luck. I did not bring my own equipment, so this is not a full review. I will have some time to use them with 2 different amps i play with soon, and will report back when i do. Tonights amp was a Peavey TNT 115 Combo. 80 watts, 1 crappy 15. The only thing it had going for it was no floor coupling so the inherant boomy mud was not as pronounced. I zero'd the eq, took off the bright switch, and set +1 at 40 and +3 at 100, -4 at 250, flat to 1k, then slight smile boost from 2k towards the 8k slider. Gain 12 oclock, master a 11 o'clock.
Typicaly i run a compressor, chorus, auto-wah, and a tube-like distortion pedal in front of me, but tonight i ran no such equipment.
First set was 80's rock. We started out with Wild Cherry - Play the funky music. I put my pup in position 1, boosted the lows a little and the highs alot. This gave me a sort of B-15 sort of sound that i really started to dig. In fact, after settling on a setting of trebble and bass, all i needed to move my sound infront of the mix or behind a little, was my mids knob. My sound would SNARL with the mids cranked, but sound more like a P-bass with the mids pulled back. Unbelieveable, i had the punch of the Musicman, but the tone of the pbass. This worked beautiuly, as we finished up the set with Journey - Lights.
After that set, i played a little blues/R&B set with another musician. This musician has a loud G&L tele, and a louder Vox combo. Since he had no volume control, i had to use a ton more midrange and boost my lows a lot. This worked, because we played Bob Marley - No Woman No cry. I blasted out all the dubby low end and plucked from just below the neck. this gave me the sound that the song had in it, but his guitar was just too loud to make it sound good at any volume. My bigger 350w 15" would have worked just fine but this peavey couldnt keep up.
After that we played a few standard 1/4/5 blues songs, in which i decided on position 3 for the pup, lows boosted 3 o'clock, mids full, highs full. What i found was a tone i had always been looking for again, loud enough to cut but it fit in the spectrum of sound that bass should, and it just sounded beautiful.
After that set, i got up with a local singer/songwriter i play with alot, and we played some cover tunes in an alt-rock sort of feel. First song, (dont laugh) R. Kelly - Ignition. The tone i found worked quite well for this, but it had me wishing i was playing through a 210 instead of a 115. either way, after a stint with that song and a few laugh from the crowd, we went into Nine Inch Nails - Closer. The way we do this song, i play a groove on bass in A, and he plays very little guitar over top of it, so the tone i need has to be full spectrum with a nice midrange grown. Going back to position 1, with mids cranked, lows 1/2 way up, and highs cranked, i found it in an instant. After that we played Green Day - Brain Stew. This song made me wish i had my distortion pedal to crank up more resonant highs with a bit of over the top distortion. Either way i pulled it off by hitting the bright switch and using a pick near the bridge. Not the Defacto tone for that song, but i was still impressed with the strings. Last song was Oasis - Wonderwall. Perfect tone, round lows, pbass mids and highs. Nailed it.
Next band was metal/grunge. We started off with Pearl Jam- Black. Jeff Amment uses a fretless i believe with flats, so it was not hard to find a tone close to his. Blend the bass knob to where it sounds right, mids flat, highs up a little. Perfect. Next Song, Alice in Chains - Man in the Box. Grabbed a pick, Cranked the mids, Lows close to where they were, highs up all the way. Found a decent tone, still wanted my distortion pedal, but it worked. Ater that we played tool - sober. Dropped to D, these strings still have a good amount of debth to them that is usable but they were not bright enough without my pedal board. i played the song, but the tone made me think something was missing.
Next set was Country and blues. Needless to say i came away from that set thinking i had it made with half wounds. Im not really a country player, but i nailed a good tone with a crank of the bass and mids knobs. Worked for me.
I Am MORE than impressed with these strings. So far they are giving me the tone i have always looked for and really bringing out the tone of my instrument better than ever. Cant see myself going back to round wounds, but after i get a chance to play with my own equipment, play direct at church, record them, and mess around a little more at another blues jam, i can make a better determination.
But im a flatwound player now. and i LOVE it.
