What sound´s benefits give the flats?

[maturanesa]

In my short experience with flats i think you could get the flat tone with rounds and eq... (with more sustain).
Ok, they are long lasting and dont mess your fretboard in a fretless, but what else?

[thrashingbass]

Frankly, not true."Similar" tone, perhaps. The tone is beefier, the attack sounds much different, the bass feels more "bass", for lack of a better term. The feel is also excellent, and relatively noiseless. You will probably also need to EQ your bass to make it have more zing with flatwounds. They might not be your thing, that's all.

Good roundwounds are also fine, but they sound quite different from flats. I have rounds on my bright bass at the moment, and flats on my darkish but clear sounding bass. The flats sound super full, even them being the rather bright D'Addario Chromes. I don't think I'll be taking off the flats, because I want to have that tonal option. IMHO, they are just two different takes on bass tone, and none can satisfyingly emulate each other.

[sdoow]

To me it's the feel. My fingers seem to glide more easily from string to string, fret to fret with flats. Roundwounds feel more metallic and tend to make my hands sweat.

Brief rundown of my experience:

3-4 sets of roundwounds - They all seemed capable of a certain growl or aggressiveness that I can't find with flats. I keep a cheap "P" bass loaded with a set for a more rock and roll sound.

Fender stainless flats - Very woody sounding, stiff (which allowed for a very low action) inexpensive and a little bit rough to the touch. Really nice on a Precision bass.

TI Jazz Flats - Low tension, very high quality feeling, smooth and flexible. Bright too, they are on my active Jazz with Duncan 1/4 pounders, they pop and slap just fine.

Rotosound TruBass RS88 - Low tension, super smooth to the touch, very old school sound, big beefy and round. Yet I can easily get harmonics at every fret, something I haven't experienced before. Not as flexible as the TIs, but still very easy on your fretting hand.

As far as sustain goes, I just plucked an open E with my Rotosounds and the note held for over 10 seconds loudly and continued another 10 until becoming barely audible.

On the longevity front, sure flats last for years, but so can rounds, if your not always chasing that new bright sound. I think old rounds sound better than new anyways.

I think rounds can more easily imitate flats in the sound department, especially with a mute and eq. It's easier to take away that "zingy" sound than trying to amplify frequencies or tones that are not there to begin with. Yet I still don't think that one can fully imitate that deep, full, round tone of good flats.

Ultimately it comes down to what feels and sound best to you for your situation.

[N.F.A.]

I like the sound of the note without all the harmonic overtones you find in rounds. Rounds sound more guitarish to me ,I have basses with both, but tend to like flats better in a band mix for the kind of music I currently play. We already have two guitarists so I like the thud and solid ,beefy sound it gives the low end.

[sdoow]

addendum to my previous post

Just broke out my Jazz bass with TI flats, they growl quite nicely too.

Cheers,
Greg

[M0ses]

Why would you EQ, which is always an inferior, inorganic solution, when you can get the real thing? Not to mention longevity.

[thrashingbass]

To me, the litmus test of any set of strings and/or pickups (or basses in general) is the non equalized tone. I love to play my basses as flat and "natural" as possible, as I feel closer to their "true tone". That's why I also tend to prefer passive electronics. Crazy idea, but then again I am not known for my sanity.:P

I do eq, just when necessary, but not to emulate either a roundwound or flatwound tone. I occasionally like the mid bump. But no equing will give you true flatwound tone on roundwounds, IMHO.

[thrashingbass]

Originally Posted by maturanesa

In my short experience with flats i think you could get the flat tone with rounds and eq... (with more sustain).
Ok, they are long lasting and dont mess your fretboard in a fretless, but what else?

Had to add that Chromes do have some crazy sustain not common in flats.

[SMILEYSIXX]

Originally Posted by thrashingbass

To me, the litmus test of any set of strings and/or pickups (or basses in general) is the non equalized tone. I love to play my basses as flat and "natural" as possible, as I feel closer to their "true tone". That's why I also tend to prefer passive electronics. Crazy idea, but then again I am not known for my sanity.:P

If that's a crazy idea, call me crazy too. This the same reason I hate to use effects. But I digress.

I would like to point out that no amount of EQing will make rounds sound like flats. Flats create a completely different tone than rounds. You can't say one is better than another in any way, because it's a matter of opinion. Personally, I think flats sound better. They make your bass more of a bass. It creates a truer sound. Rounds just don't seem to cut through the sound of other players. They're too bright. Guitarists already have "bright tone" covered. A bass should cover the low end, which flats help you do. It is really dependant on the sound you want... if you want to do stuff where bass is a central instrument, let's say for example Geddy Lee, then by all means, use rounds. You want a bright sound that puts you in the center of the mix. But if you want your bass to support the low end, go with flats. They'll make you play with more attack that really brings out the low end to balance the sound out.

That's just my experience and opinion with strings.

[Bochafish]

Flats just feel better to me. I play chromes, and I love the higher tension. Plus they are bright out of the box, but mellow into the perfect strings for me after a month or two. Still, there was something magical about EB Slinkys on my Stingray, growl and punch for days.

[dmusic148]

+1 to everything already said. I would add that individual notes are easier to distinguish with flats, for some reason. Especially if you sometimes play high on the neck- the notes just jump out very clearly, where they tend to be blurry with rounds, by comparison.