Which strings with which bass?

[Brian Middleton]

I'd love to hear some opinions on this....Let's say you have two basses:

1988 Fender Power Jazz Special
1983 Ibanez Roadstar II P-clone

and two sets of strings:

flats: La Bella 760FL .43-.104
rounds: Rotosound Swing Bass .45-.105

Assume that you want to be able to cover the widest possible range of styles with these two instruments--anything from swing to punk.

Which strings would you put on which bass?

[madmatt]

Flats on the P.

[maturanesa]

I think you cant cover a wide range of styles with flats... Even most of jazz and fretless players, styles that are supposed to be played with flats, use rounds. For me, flats only works when your gig demands to imitate a vintage or upright bass tone

[Brian Middleton]

maturanesa--I wasn't really asking flats vs. rounds in general, I was asking which kind would fit which bass better.

Flats on the P-clone, rounds on the PJ was what I was thinking when I bought the strings, but then I had second thoughts & thought I'd see what others think.

Unfortunately a complication has set in--I went to put the LaBellas on the P-clone, but because the headstock is 2 x 2 rather than the usual Fender style, the tuning post for the G string is much closer to the nut than it would be on a Fender and the silk doesn't extend quite far enough--a little bit of wound metal wraps around the post, maybe a half-turn's worth. The LaBella instructions say "If you wind the metal wound portion of string into the machine head post, the string will almost certainly break." By "into" do they mean into the slot in the middle where you begin the winding (which would involve a hard bend around the corner of the slot, obviously a problem)? Or do they really mean "onto," i.e., none of the metal wound portion should be wrapped around the post at all?

If the latter, does anybody out there know if some brands of flatwounds are made with silk that runs a little further up the string?

Thanks.....

[Muzoid]

I use RotoSound Swing 66 on all my basses

Always have...always will.

Not sure what I would do in your case...probably the La Bella's on the Roadstar

[Krucial]

Most likely, you will be fine by stringing the metal part of the G-string a part of the winding around the tuning post. Only one way to find out...
Or look at it the other way: The Labella's will sound perfect on the J.
(labella FL's do have a relative soft attack for flats)

See also the treat:
'GHS M305 Stainless Steel Precision Flatwounds too long for my Precision?'

Chromes fit exactly on a 34" scale.

[JohnDeereJack]

Yeah, I think I'd go with the 66's on the Jazz & flats on the P. Along with Muzoid, I've always used 66's on all my basses including my two fretless.

I must say though, after reading countless posts on this forum I'm kinda coming round to the idea of flats on precision basses.

Having never used them, I might just bite the proverbial bullet and restring my P with some flats.

I'll let you all know how I get on

[fretlessguy]

Rotos on the Jazz.
LaBellas on the P.

[Musiclogic]

Rotos, much more versatile for either bass when covering many genre's

[conqr]

To me, a P ain't a P without flats

[Brian Middleton]

Originally Posted by fretlessguy

Rotos on the Jazz.
LaBellas on the P.

Thanks everybody. This was my first instinct, and it turns out to have been right.

I've been using the PJ exclusively for a long time, while the Roadstar languished in a corner of the studio waiting for electronics repairs. I finally replaced the pickup and pots, and with the flats, it sounds pretty damn good and P-like. It's a fairly bright but resonant instrument (maple fingerboard) and the flats just seem to smooth it out. I'd been using flats on the PJ for a while, but on that bass they're a little *too* smooth--it needs that overtone buzz from the rounds. So now I'm in best-of-both-worlds land.