My opinion of flatwounds

[paf77]

I've always loved that bite and grind that you get with roundwounds, but I've been playing around with flatwounds more and more and I've been really enjoying them. It almost seems worth giving up that roundwound sound just to have your strings last forever and to have that amazing silky smooth feel of flatwounds. My roundwounds always seem to die after a couple weeks and that gets annoying. I haven't tried out flatwounds in a band setting yet, so maybe I'll try them out next practice and see how it goes.

[Datsgor]

Sure, give it a shot. Music is all about experimentation. There is no right or wrong. The worst that can happen is you don't like 'em.
I put flats on one of my precisions and got comments of how well it sounded. Comments of how it just sat right in the mix perfectly. Questions of "what the hell did you do?" that bass sounds great. So I decided to keep 'em and I have been happy ever since.
It just has that nice woody thump to it, something i have grown to love quite a bit.
Peace, John

[Arvin]

Flats are amazing. I've gotten the same feedback you have, over and over again.

But then, I love the roundwound sound, too...

... so, I strung one P-bass clone with flats, and another with rounds.

[thudfromafar]

Originally Posted by paf77

I haven't tried out flatwounds in a band setting yet

This is the greatest advantage of flatwounds too, good luck.

[Surly]

Originally Posted by pseudocat

... so, I strung one P-bass clone with flats, and another with rounds.

The best solution IMO. When playing with one guitarist and a drummer; rounds and a pick, when playing with lots of other folks and you just want to thump, flats.

[Edward G.]

I use flats again after MANY years of never even thinking about them. It's a big, bouncy, fluffy, fatass presence, perfect for the backup bass.

[Diogenes]

I can understand the allure of both rounds and flats but their use depends so much on the band and situation. If I'm playing mellow jazzy funk spacey groove stuff with a drummer, keys, clean guitar etc., I like rounds... even active basses sound good (I'm a passive guy for the most part). But when I'm playing with my current main band, I'm up against a lead shredder playing a Strat through an overdriven Marshall and an aggressive rhythm guitarist who dials in a broad tonal spectrum with his Heartfield with Bareknuckle P-90s through an Engle and a $hit-load of pedals... I need to be able to cut through down low and a P bass with D-Chromes seems to do the trick.

[ljazz]

Originally Posted by Surly

The best solution IMO. When playing with one guitarist and a drummer; rounds and a pick, when playing with lots of other folks and you just want to thump, flats.

I find the flats to be even better in a three piece situation..... They just seem to fill up so much more sonic space, while allowing the guitar even more room to work..... and if you have a tasteful picker, then the spaces when he doesn't play become even more important than the spaces he does play. However, I do take a bass with flats, and a bass with rounds. The rounds get used on slap stuff, and anything else where a bit of zing is required. Oddly enough, I've become a bit partial to my nickel rounds being somewhat worn..... again, because I think filling up the lower frequencies even more important in the three piece setting.

[T. Alan Smith]

After playing rounds for an extended period, I find flats refreshing.

[ggunn]

Something I see pretty often in threads about flats is talk about how much more low end they have. How is this possible? I mean, sure, they produce less high harmonic content, so relatively speaking they are more "bassy" sounding, but I can't see why they would have more fundamental and lower harmonics than round wound strings.

[Fred W]

If you are comparing 2 notes at the same decibel level then of course the one with more highs has less lows, and vis-versa.

[lowendfriend]

Less distraction by high harmonics and the endless zoot-zoot-zoot of your fingers getting their calluses filed off by roundwounds.

[Surly]

I play P-basses. My one time jamming with flats, one guitarist, and a drummer was a different experience. Instead of being heard with tone, the room was more filled up with bass. I was using a heavy pick and digging in hard. So to me this is the difference, you lost the ability to "cut through" and you don't get the usual pick tone, but you can hit them in the gut. It almost can seem muddy at times, but there is power there.

[fretlessguy]

I understand. I have gone through stages of playing just rounds, just flats, and even the groundwound thingies.
I have decided I like them all. I have basses with flats, rounds and halfrounds. Some are set up with a string that fits certains styles and types of music I play. Others wear strings that bring out the tone of that particular bass that I like.
However, more and more I pick up a bass and use it due to the mood that I am in.

[superhand]

Originally Posted by ggunn

Something I see pretty often in threads about flats is talk about how much more low end they have. How is this possible? I mean, sure, they produce less high harmonic content, so relatively speaking they are more "bassy" sounding, but I can't see why they would have more fundamental and lower harmonics than round wound strings.

First of all I like flats. I don't think they give you more low end or more fundamental, it just sounds that way because you hear less of the higher harmonics, so it sounds generally bassier by comparison.

You can compensate for this with your EQ settings somewhat, so to me it has a lot to do with feel also. I personally like the higher tension and the "thumpiness" that I get with flats.

Similar gauge rounds feel floppy to me.

[RDT]

After nearly 25 years of playing, I JUST tried my 1st set of flats. I read, I think, every post on TB about flats and decided to give them a try. I ordered a set of La Bella Deep Talkin' Flats for my 5 string and, so far, I really like them. I've played on them about 6 hours, so far, all in my studio. I'll try them out on my band tomorrow night, at practice.
I really was amazed at how smooth they are, almost like playing a double with nylons. They just feel different. They also seemed to stay in tune better.

We'll see...

[mcapote]

Im running flats on my Ibanez H H, good for alot of musical types, though I plan on using sunbeams on my spector for the metal songs we do.

[ironrat]

rounds? what are rounds?????





I love flats that's all!

[Edward G.]

FWIW, I think flats are plenty punchy (See Jaco Pastorius), just not metallic-sounding.

[debassr]

I'm also having a long-term love affair with flats. More specifically, chromes on a J and Labella 760 FL's on a P.

What I love most is how they sound with a pick in a live setting, especially when favoring the bridge.

Yum.