70s fender precision basses with factory flats

[wolfkeller]

Recently I've read in several different places that Fender precision bases came with flat wound strings from the factory until about 1983 or so. That makes me wonder about all those seventies bass players that I really love especially punk bands. I've always gravitated towards that sound that came from '70s Precision basses and now I'm wondering how many of those were actually recorded with the factory flat wound strings? I know that round wound strings were available but I also know that a lot of guys especially Punk musicians didn't have money to run out and just throw strings on a brand new bass that already has brand new strings. Anyone out there have any insight about this?

 

[Boot Soul]

Dee Dee Ramone played flats.

 

[BGroovy]

Flats with a pick on a P Bass sounds very classic punk to me

 

[Boneless]

Roundwounds didn't really become popular until the '80s. The '70s were still mostly (not exclusively) flats.

 

[wolfkeller]

Roundwounds didn't really become popular until the '80s. The '70s were still mostly (not exclusively) flats.

It's so strange to think that it was like that being that all I know is rounds. Its like only knowing streaming music and never having owned a record or cassette or cd

 

[murphy]

I have just found out some of my favorite Punk records were recorded on Rickenbacker basses
The Clash...The Jam , first few albums and singles

Now I realize that was sound I loved so much as a kid....Flatwounds too?

Lemmy/ Motorhead of course came along too

 

[Iristone]

I think Rotosound 77 was also a popular string in the 70's. So was the Rotosound 88, which was nylon tapewound. Flatwounds are still probably in vogue, so I can imagine someone playing punk rock on the stock flatwounds - especially Fender and Rickenbacker, which were very good strings (if GHS and Optima really replicate them correctly).

 

[jefframm]

I started playing in 72 as a 13 year old and still have my original 72 P. Since Yes was really big in the early 70's and Fragile came out in 71, most of my bass playing buddies and I put Rotosound round wounds on our basses and pulled the foam that was inside the ashtray cover over the bridge off. I can't speak to the punk thing - but I LOVED those rotosounds. They ate my frets up for sure - but man, did they sound great on a P.

 

[wolfkeller]

I have just found out some of my favorite Punk records were recorded on Rickenbacker basses
The Clash...The Jam , first few albums and singles

Now I realize that was sound I loved so much as a kid....Flatwounds too?

Lemmy/ Motorhead of course came along too

Right it's something I never even considered. I always looked at flat wounds as more of a jazz or a 60s Jameson type of thing never really rock or Punk except for Iron Maiden cuz Steve Harris is Steve Harris LOL

 

[Iristone]

I started playing in 72 as a 13 year old and still have my original 72 P. Since Yes was really big in the early 70's and Fragile came out in 71, most of my bass playing buddies and I put Rotosound round wounds on our basses and pulled the foam that was inside the ashtray cover over the bridge off. I can't speak to the punk thing - but I LOVED those rotosounds. They ate my frets up for sure - but man, did they sound great on a P.

They're great strings for sure, even to this day. I use them as my main roundwounds, and they don't really chew up frets anymore (at least their newer, plastic bag models).

 

[wolfkeller]

They're great strings for sure, even to this day. I use them as my main roundwounds, and they don't really chew up frets anymore (at least their newer, plastic bag models).

Yup, rs 66 is my string! Sometimes blue steel as a second.

 

[jj4001]

Only tangentially related to OP’s question because I’m too young to have been there, but in my experience flats work great when playing with distorted punk rock guitars. Less overtones and more focus on the fundamental helps flats contrast the guitars and carve out their own place in the mix.

For me, rounds on a Rickenbacker 4001 through an underpowered tube amp with every knob dimed worked great playing punk rock with a single guitar player playing an ice-picky Tele into a Fender Twin. The overtones of the rounds nicely filled up the space left open by the relatively thin (almost Gang Of Four-like) guitar tone. Once that guitar player left and was replaced with others leaning into the thicker Gibson/Marshall sound, I found myself needing to roll off tone knobs to sit right in the band mix. Then I discovered flatwounds getting into playing other styles of music and immediately realized how great they worked when occasionally going back to playing with punk bands.

Having listened to so much 70s American and British punk in my teens and early 20s, lots of those bass tones sound like flats to me.

 

[wolfkeller]

The more I think about alof of the tone I thought was flat or dead makes good sense now. All of this because I got a used P bass that happened to have flats on it.

 

[Boneless]

It's so strange to think that it was like that being that all I know is rounds. Its like only knowing streaming music and never having owned a record or cassette or cd

I think that if you have more than one bass you should mount at least one type of each (not as in: if you don't you're an idiot, more like: it's useful). I have rounds on my Dano and a P copy, and flats on my other basses. I would mount rounds on more basses if I didn't play in bands with vintage-y sound. There are many more modern styles where you really want roundwounds.

 

[wolfkeller]

I think that if you have more than one bass you should mount at least one type of each (not as in: if you don't you're an idiot, more like: it's useful). I have rounds on my Dano and a P copy, and flats on my other basses. I would mount rounds on more basses if I didn't play in bands with vintage-y sound. There are many more modern styles where you really want roundwounds.

Agreed. For no reason other that I just didn't, never used anything other than MY strings.

 

[Michedelic]

Roundwounds didn't really become popular until the '80s. The '70s were still mostly (not exclusively) flats.

Beg to differ…I got my first set of Rotosounds in 1972, inspired by Entwistle and the trend was going towards brighter tones anyway. Lots of twangy Prog about that time, then by ‘77, you had JJ Burnel and Bruce Foxton setting the example. All the other bass players I knew had rounds. Flats were considered old-fashioned.

 

[Pings Bass]

Punk musicians didn't have money to run out and just throw strings on a brand new bass that already has brand new strings.

All the punkers I knew in the 80s played stainless roto sounds, and none of them bought new fenders off the rack. They all played beaters through garbage amps.

 

[Michedelic]

Recently I've read in several different places that Fender precision bases came with flat wound strings from the factory until about 1983 or so. That makes me wonder about all those seventies bass players that I really love especially punk bands. I've always gravitated towards that sound that came from '70s Precision basses and now I'm wondering how many of those were actually recorded with the factory flat wound strings? I know that round wound strings were available but I also know that a lot of guys especially Punk musicians didn't have money to run out and just throw strings on a brand new bass that already has brand new strings. Anyone out there have any insight about this?

“Punks” weren’t buying brand new basses. If someone jumped into playing strictly from being inspired by the movement, they were playing whatever they could aquire, in whatever condition it was in, and there was always the possibility that the previous owner had rounds on it. And it wasn’t always a Fender.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Of course punk bassists didnt go out and spend money on roto rounds…. they stole em!

 

[Swerve]

I used to play in a punk/post-punk band with two loud guitarists and was never happy with my sound in the mix. Tried a bunch of different rounds to no avail. For other reasons I decided to leave the band and joined another. In my new band since it was more traditional music I switched to flats. The old band suddenly got offered an opening slot with a bigger group and begged to me play one last show with them since they hadn't found a new bassist yet.

Well I wasn't about to put rounds back on my bass so said F it and played that last show with flats and, there it was! I cut through the mix and sounded better than ever. Should have been using flats the whole time but I had assumed they would sound muddy and wouldn't work in that kind of music.