What's the Deal with Flats?

[WallyN]

OK I guess you would say I am fairly new to bass. This weekend I am getting my new Classic 50's P in Honey Blonde (Cant wait!) and lately all I keep reading is how flats really bring out the tone yada yada.

I have only used rounds, sometimes coated (DR Neons on my ESP TA-200 which I really like the feel of)

Since I am picking up the new bass I figured I would get some new strings and want to know what exactly the flats provide?

[Bassist4Eris]

They basically sound more old-school. Not a lot of treble, more about bottom end thump. Think classic motown, blues, etc. They're not better than rounds, just different.

[Floyd Eye]

Silky smooth texture. Extremely long life. Very little sustain or high end. Perfect for Motown, some classic rock and Jazz. Not so good for metal or modern rock. IMO.

[Mushroo]

The classic 50's P Bass sound is of course flatwounds (since roundwounds weren't invented until the 60s). If you search on Youtube, you'll find clips of people comparing roundwound vs. flatwound strings (including on a P bass).

ps if you want to hear flatwounds used for metal, check out Steve Harris of Iron Maiden.

[Stone Soup]

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

Very little sustain

My LaBella's sustain as long as any round I've ever used.

[rodl2005]

Consider the lily.... I mean Tapewounds. U can still get a good twang, workable for slap even, but have a great old school thump too.
Labella, Fender,GHS,D'addario...

[michael_t]

I want my bass to sound like a bass, not like a low-tuned guitar. Flats have stronger fundamentals with less of the upper harmonics, meaning I can occupy my own sonic space without clashing with guitars.

[bassbully]

All I can say is try them and see what you think.

[Pimmsley]

Man... I can say is I just discovered flats after 20 years of playing roundwounds and it's been fantastic, the inspiration was my new Squier CV 50's P... the rounds were great on it but I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and I'm blown away (started a thread about it). They just work on this bass in a way the rounds didn't. It was mainly the thump and huge bottom I was after.
That was about six weeks ago now, and I just put a second set on another bass and a third set is on way in the mail for a third bass. The strings I have tried are GHS precision flats and Fender flats, with a set of 'Chromes' on the way... I think the GHS P's is the best place to start your journey as general concensus on TB (from my reading) is the GHS Precision flats are the most old school sound for the price...
I really really like them a lot. As I have a few basses I had the luxury to try out these strings and still have rounds on basses for gigs etc while I checked them out, but I have been using the CV 50's P bass exclusively as my go to for gigs and rehearsals... so the flats are really working out for me, give a set a go.

[blipndub]

Originally Posted by Stone Soup

My LaBella's sustain as long as any round I've ever used.

I agree, sustain is not something that's lost with my Chromes or DR flats.

[DrSpunkwater]

Me, I don't get what all the flat love is about. Flats are lovely and all, but there's a reason roundwounds were invented: They're infinitely more versatile. You can get just about any sound you want out of a round. But a flat? Good luck. The brightest flat in the world doesn't stand a chance against a Rotosound 66.

That said, I use tapewounds on my SG bass. They give it quite a deep sound. For my Fender P, I'll stick with Rotosound 66s.

[BJMtz]

Is there anyone in modern rock that does use flats?

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

I started out in the 80's playing bass, I bought the wrong set of Rotosounds at a local music store around 1987 & they were flats. I quickly realized after installing them when trying to play what I was used to there was something different going on, the sustain was short & mostly they didnt ring out the notes like I was used to. I quickly changed them back to rounds & didnt try flats again until about 2 years ago the flats discussion here on TB got the better of me. I feel rounds work for my style better as I developed my way of playing the instrument with rounds. Being that you are new to the bass, in the next couple of months buy a set or two of roundwound strings and Flats, play to songs, jam with people & you will find out which works better for you. Not to say you cant play both, you will favor one over the other.

[Mushroo]

Originally Posted by DrSpunkwater

there's a reason roundwounds were invented: They're infinitely more versatile. You can get just about any sound you want out of a round.

This is a good point, and I don't disagree.

However, not all gigs require infinite versatility of sound. I'm primarily a "one sound" player, and you'll never see me tweaking knobs between songs.

I have no doubt that if I strung my main bass with roundwounds, a good engineer could help me achieve my desired tone with a little bit of compression, a ton of EQ, a noise gate to cut down the finger noise, etc.

Or, I can show up with flats, send a flat signal to the DI, and achieve "my" sound with minimal tweakage. It's a huge timesaver, really, and countless engineers have thanked me for making their job easy.

But of course that's when I'm going for that specific rock/blues/funk/motown sound I go for 95% of the time. I also have a couple of basses strung with rounds for when I desire different sounds. (And I play acoustic bass guitar, upright, 5 string, fretless, piano, etc.) I have no emotional attachment to strings, just whatever's practical to easily achieve my musical goals.

[gr8bassplayer]

Or you could compromise.... I love my half wounds, they have the low end smoothness of the flats, but also the edge of the rounds.

[Catalina_Eddy]

Back in the 70's I used Roto 66's on everything. But I switched to flats. Thomastik-Infield Jazz on my 'Jazz' & Pyramids on my 'P'. Plenty of tonality, growl & bite on both. Finger noise minimized as is fret wear. fingerstyle or pick, I find flats actually more versatile.

[Ric5]

Originally Posted by WallyN

OK I guess you would say I am fairly new to bass. This weekend I am getting my new Classic 50's P in Honey Blonde (Cant wait!) and lately all I keep reading is how flats really bring out the tone yada yada.

I have only used rounds, sometimes coated (DR Neons on my ESP TA-200 which I really like the feel of)

Since I am picking up the new bass I figured I would get some new strings and want to know what exactly the flats provide?

I find flats a waste of time and money.

[awamori]

I use both and not partial to either of them.

I use flats because I need a mellower and smoother tone in 3/5 band I play in because they're Jazz/Jazz Fusion type bands.

On the other hand are my 5 strings which I hate the boominess that flats give to the Low B.

[Frenchy-Lefty]

A few good points but missing the most important one: In 1951 Leo Fender released the first Precision bass, it was supposed to emulate the sound of an upright and guess what kind of strings it got on it? Yes, you guess it...The first roundwound bass strings were made much later by Rotosound at the end of the 60's.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by BJMtz

Is there anyone in modern rock that does use flats?

Juan Alderete, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Andy Hess, Sean Hurley, Ben Kenney...