Woah, string feeling!
 

So I just had my first bass class ever (woo for no longer being a lame bassist that learns by himself) and at the end of the class my teacher let me try his bass. It was a fretless with flatwound strings. I play a bass with fret and use roundwound strings. The difference in the feeling was like.... WOAH! Like yeah XD Felt like sharing that.

And now for us to have some random discussion:

When did you first notice the difference between roundwound and flatwound.

(Please don't kill me.) :hiding:

I love the feeling of flatwounds. The first time I realized I was playing flatwounds was on a vintage Vox hollowbody.

Flatwounds don't quite fit my application, but I've found GHS pressure-wounds to be an excellent compromise.

When I was in high school (late 80's) I joined the jazz ensemble. I used my own bass, which had roundwounds. The school had a horrible bass, with a bowed neck and an ancient set of what I took to be flats. But they felt nothing like any flats I've played since. Looking back on it through the fog of memory, I believe they may actually have been tapewounds. I have no idea what tapewounds feel like, as I've never played them since. Whatever they were, they were HORRIBLE. I mean, your finger stuck to them worse than Rotosound 66's coated in molasses. The exact opposite of what you think when you think "flats". And I spent the next 15 years or so assuming that's what flats felt like.

Then I had a band with two bass players. One of the reasons it worked is because I was all about bright and modern, and the other dude was all about old-school thump. Naturally, he had flats and a foam mute (on an Ibanez Soundgear :D). Of course, if you're in a band with another bass player, ya gotta try his bass, right? And so... oh... THAT'S what flats feel like.

Nowadays, I have 7 basses. I have flats on three of them. They feel wonderful, just silky smooth, and give that old-school tone. But my main "originals" bass, a Carvin LB76W, has nickel rounds (DR Sunbeams). They're a nice balance between warmth and slapability (yes, I'm one of THOSE guys. :bassist:)

My Fender Precision has LaBella's, and I use it for blues, r'n'b, reggae, and classic rock.

My Carvin LB76 has Carvin flats, which give it a really "woody" tone, and I use it mainly for jazz.

And my Aria Pro II fretless has D'addario Chromes. I use fretless bass mainly for destroying my own self-esteem. ;)

By that I assume that you do not mean that all self-taught bassists are lame, right... :p

The first time I played flats was when I put some LaBellas on a $99 Beatle Bass clone. Ever since then, I have to try and make it a point to leave at least one bass set up with rounds, otherwise they'd all get flats.

And flats on a fretless, don't even get me started on how great that combination feels...

No, I just felt lame myself XD Because by learning by myself, I got a ton of vices that I knew were wrong but I didn't know how to do the right way and fix them. I mean I started playing and my teacher automatically told me the correct way to put the fingers and stuff.

I'm just messin' with ya....

I never felt as stupid as the day I took my first lesson after many years of winging it.

You should order Teach Me Bass Guitar instead :)

http://www.teachmebassguitar.com/