Too-Bright to Too-Dead in Two Hours?

[Lobster11]

So I stumbled across a good deal on a set of Fender flats, and decided to use the opportunity to see what they'd be like on my P-Bass. I'd never tried them before -- mostly because I had heard that they were very high-tension, and that isn't usually my preference -- but I couldn't pass up the chance to experiment.

So I strung up the ol' P and, after two (!) truss-rod adjustments to compensate for the ridiculously high tension, set about the process of breaking them in. I was eager to get through the stage of that unpleasantly harsh, trebly sound common with new strings, so practiced (mostly alone) with them for, I dunno, maybe a half-dozen hours over the course of a week, backing off the tone and tweaking the amp to tame the new-string nastiness. Then I took the bass to band practice for the first time. I started the evening with my treble controls down, down, down, as expected. Over the first hour or so I noticed that the highs were slowly diminishing, and I found myself tweaking the tone controls back toward flat. Great, I thought: It didn't take as long to break these suckers in as I'd expected. But by the end of the night, the trend had continued right past "broken in" and all the way to "dead." After two hours I had the tone control on the bass wide open, and the highs and high-mids nearly maxed out on the amp. I also had to push the gain on the amp way up to compensate for a noticeable loss of volume. They are so dead-sounding now that I feel like I need to replace them already.

This completely blew my mind. Can a set of strings actually go from pre-prime to past-prime in two hours, with about 15 minutes of prime in between? Anybody else ever had this happen? Is this typical of Fender flats? If nothing else, would somebody please be so kind as to tell me that I'm not crazy?

[PastorofMuppets]

yeah thats flats for ya
normal imo

[Bassic83]

Happens to me with rounds. Especially stainless, which I use now because I'm developing a nickel allergy...the worst offenders for me have been Roto's. A little too zingy at first, so I back off the treble, then flat on the second set, by the end of the second set, they sound like mud.

[PastorofMuppets]

if you like flats then you can use them forever
the deadness thump is supposed to be the desirable thing

[invader3k]

I've never cared for Fender strings for that reason...they seem to loose their "shine" very quickly. Same thing with those ghs Boomers that you see in every music store as, IME.

[JustOpenYourMind]

Flatwound strings are meant to sound dead, this is their purpose. flats are for thump. Maybe these strings are not for you...

[visa]

too dead is relative! =)

[seanm]

That doesn't sound right, but I guess it depends on your definition of "dead". It generally takes at least two weeks of at least an hour a day for Fender flats to break in. However, I have never found them overly bright, even new.

I have only ever used the 9050M. Which gauge did you get?

[markdavid]

Originally Posted by Lobster11

So I stumbled across a good deal on a set of Fender flats, and decided to use the opportunity to see what they'd be like on my P-Bass. I'd never tried them before -- mostly because I had heard that they were very high-tension, and that isn't usually my preference -- but I couldn't pass up the chance to experiment.

So I strung up the ol' P and, after two (!) truss-rod adjustments to compensate for the ridiculously high tension, set about the process of breaking them in. I was eager to get through the stage of that unpleasantly harsh, trebly sound common with new strings, so practiced (mostly alone) with them for, I dunno, maybe a half-dozen hours over the course of a week, backing off the tone and tweaking the amp to tame the new-string nastiness. Then I took the bass to band practice for the first time. I started the evening with my treble controls down, down, down, as expected. Over the first hour or so I noticed that the highs were slowly diminishing, and I found myself tweaking the tone controls back toward flat. Great, I thought: It didn't take as long to break these suckers in as I'd expected. But by the end of the night, the trend had continued right past "broken in" and all the way to "dead." After two hours I had the tone control on the bass wide open, and the highs and high-mids nearly maxed out on the amp. I also had to push the gain on the amp way up to compensate for a noticeable loss of volume. They are so dead-sounding now that I feel like I need to replace them already.

This completely blew my mind. Can a set of strings actually go from pre-prime to past-prime in two hours, with about 15 minutes of prime in between? Anybody else ever had this happen? Is this typical of Fender flats? If nothing else, would somebody please be so kind as to tell me that I'm not crazy?

Never tried Fender flats , always been put off by the tension. However I love that dead thumpy sound so after reading this I think I may have to give the Fenders a try.

[Frankjohnson]

D'Addario Chromes

[Lobster11]

These are the medium-gauge 9050Ms.

I went into this fully understanding that a relatively dull, thumpy tone is a feature, not a bug. My previous experience with flats has been mainly with TIs and Chromes, which are both atypical for flats, so I tried the Fenders as an experiment to see what they were like. Now I know.

The thing that surprised me so much -- and the point of my o.p. -- was how quickly they got to this point, after only about a week, and then how they transformed so dramatically over the course of just a couple of hours on one evening. I was expecting a much more gradual change over time, so I was shocked when it sounded like I was playing a completely different bass in the second set than the first. From the other posts it appears that this isn't as unusual as I'd thought, so thanks to all for the feedback.

Anyway, I agree that "dead" is a relative term, and these seem a little "too dead" to me. Between this and the incredibly high tension -- we're talkin' suspension-bridge cables here -- maybe they are just not for me. But that's fine: It was the point of the experiment.

Anyone want a set of just-broken-in 9050Ms cut for a P-bass?

[Rickett Customs]

Nickel is good for a 1 nighter, once the finger oils set in, mixed with the sweat, they're as good a dead.(5 or 6 hours of a gig.)

Flats are exactly what they are titled as, Flat.They might start bright (Not exactly my opinion of bright). However, they always come out the same in the end.

Thats why I just stick with the stainless steel rounds.If you want bright, you know what you're getting with stainless rounds.

[markdavid]

Originally Posted by Alembicplyr

Nickel is good for a 1 nighter, once the finger oils set in, mixed with the sweat, they're as good a dead.(5 or 6 hours of a gig.)

Flats are exactly what they are titled as, Flat.They might start bright (Not exactly my opinion of bright). However, they always come out the same in the end.

Thats why I just stick with the stainless steel rounds.If you want bright, you know what you're getting with stainless rounds.

I would disagree with this, I have used roundwounds and flatwounds and found that roundwounds (even the stainless steel ones)start off brighter but go dead much quicker than flats