Two Flatwound questions

[ropepuller]

1. Want to put them on my Marcus Miller jazz. What are your favorites and where's the best place to get them?

2. Anyone used flats on an acoustic bass guitar, like the Fender Kingman for example? How do they work?

[SLaPiNFuNK]

1. Lots of great places to get strings... What kind of sound are you going for? There are flatwounds that sound dark and thumpy to bright a rich...

2. Yes you can use them, they sound good, not as loud as phosphor bronze strings and not as bright.. if you want a really really woody sound, go for some black nylon tapewounds...

also, you don't want too high of tension flatwounds on an ABG since it may bow the neck easier...

[lowendfriend]

I use webstrings.com's Detroit steel flatwounds on my Dean ABG. They actually sound pretty good acoustically. With a pick you can bring the volume up significantly.

Electric Bass Strings - Stainless Steel - Webstrings

I will echo the cautionary note about too much tension....not so much for the neck as for the spruce top. I had rotosound 77's on mine and big bubble formed in the spruce top adjacent to and below the bridge. That raises the action unacceptably. I strung the ABG with BEAD strings and thus lower tension and the bubble subsided.

[Mojo-Man]

Juststrings.com.

TIJF344's on my ABG.

[Chris K]

TI Jazz Flats will do great on the Marcus Miller. Their tension is known to be very low, yet they sound very well and just keep going. They certainly are not dull sounding. I tried Chromes an Roto77, both of them have much more tension compared to TI's.

[gary m]

GHS Precision Flats sold through Carvin.

[TomB]

For the jazz bass, everybody has their favorite flavor. I'm big on LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats and the best price I know of for them is from Imperial Guitars, though there are others priced closely.

As for tension and acoustic basses, I agree that TI's are very low tension. Some players like that, some don't. Whether you like the tension or not, they do sound wonderful and they cost a lot.

Somebody mentioned tension problems w/Roto-sound 77's. I found those to be the highest tension flats I'd ever tried in the modern era, even on a solid-body bass. Most other choices are more "average" tension, IME.

If others decide to join in, I'm sure you'll get lots of passionate recommendations, I'm sure. Good luck with it. I've found myself using flats about 3/4's of the time now.

[4-string]

TI flats are the only flats I get along with thus far, but I like low tension.

basstringsonline.com is the place to buy, where else do you get VIP membership and special discounts for being a TB member?

[DogBone]

1. Bassstringsonline.com

2. D'Addario Chromes on my ABG. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em, not going back to phos-bronzes.

Here's a clip, plugged in and then not plugged in:

http://soundcloud.com/dogboneblues/hondochromesdemo1

[fretlessguy]

MMJazz: GHS precision flats, .45-.95 or TI Jazz Flats

Fender Kingman: TI Jazz Flats, GHS Tapewounds, Fender Tapes or Fender phosphor bronze.