Pressurewound/Groundwound/Flatwound for Variax Bass?

[bingobingo]

I just got my $499 sunburst Variax 700 bass from AMS yesterday. The box had a big hole in it, but no damage. Appeared to be in new condition. The box had been opened and resealed, but I think that was to put in the invoice and catalog.

Anyway, I was having a great time playing it, but I've got TI flats on my other basses and these roundwounds cause huge amounts of finger noise (yes, I could work on my technique, but I'm a hobbyist and much more a guitar and keyboard player than a bass player). My worry about a switch to non-roundwound strings that the models, especially the flatwound models, will sound very strange and I'll lose a lot of the brightness of the brighter rock/active models.

Has anyone used pressurewound, groundwound, or flatwound strings on their Variax bass? What were the results? I'd spend $25 to test drive some SIT Silencers, but my wife is still steaming over the purchase of the bass. No more toys until summer, she says. So if I get more strings, they'll need to be keepers.

I could just swap out the flats from another 4 string, but I'm scared to run the twisted end of the string through the bridge for fear of messing up the saddle pickup. When one of my pickups on a Variax electric went out, the guitar was in the shop for six weeks.

I remember reading in several threads where folks were contemplating using flats and other non-roundwound strings on their Variaxes, and I was just wondering if anyone actually did it.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.