Simple poll. Trying to solve the mystery that flats are used by the older crowd more than the younger ones. 
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A poll for those using flats: Whats your age?
- Thread starter joelb79
- Start date
34.. but then again I only use Flat's on my Dean Fretless. My other basses are strung with GHS Flee Signiture Strings (45-105). They offer a nice tight winding that don't kill your hands
I have flats on my Precision & Jazz 5, but I think I'll go rounds next time on the J. I have several basses w/rounds, & half-rounds on my fretless 6. And I'm 44.
- Apr 30, 2007
- 269
- 0
- Disclosures
- Affiliated with Genelec, Avalon Design.
I'm not sure if thats true round here. The older guys I know switched to Rotos when they came out and have been roundwound users ever since, and I see a lot of the young guys gigging now with flats in metal, and rock, presumably because of people like Ben Kenney, and I've seen many a kid with flats, a pick and a P, going for the uber-vintage punk tone.
mikeyswood
Inactive
Flats have a sound that you can only get with flats.
I would expect that the "older" crowd will win this. And by "older" I mean those of us that have the luxury of having a bass that is dedicated to having flats.
I would expect that the "older" crowd will win this. And by "older" I mean those of us that have the luxury of having a bass that is dedicated to having flats.
I'm 29 and I use flats on my P, Jazz and hollowbody. half round on the fretless and round wound on the stingray.
21, been using flats for a year, on some of my basses, eg. my fretless, my acoustic and my main player/fave bass.
I also have flats on my guitar.
I also have flats on my guitar.
There you go!
Flats, like a good deal of the music associated with them (Motown, Beatles, etc.) are timeless. IMO, of course...
I honestly think that the reason flat usage was on a downturn for a few years there (80's, early 90's) was due to the lack of availability. You could find rounds pretty much everywhere you turned. Flats? Not so much. This is before online shopping blew up, too...
It's cool to see they're prominent again. I'm a "young"
36, but I've been playing flats (not exclusively, but still) since I was about 19 or so.I'm 19 and I just bought my first pair of flatwounds and love them. They're still not quite worked in yet so they feel a little tougher than my rounds but the tone is so much nicer (IMO).
I use several basses. Steel flatwounds are on the '62 P-bass and La Bella tapewounds are on a fretless bass and a new Fender Jaguar Bass.
I use roundwounds on a Fender Jazz.
I agree that older players will have the luxury of having multiple instruments.
I use roundwounds on a Fender Jazz.
I agree that older players will have the luxury of having multiple instruments.
I used to keep my 73 jazz with a set of Labella flats on it,but recently put some Rotosound flats on one of my MM Sterlings. Awesome!!
X
X Wolf
Guest
I'm 62 and mostly use flats now but I started using flats when I was in my teen's and since then I have used flats, rounds and ground wounds but I seem to always come back to flats. My main fretted and fretless wear 760fl's but I'm thinking of keeping a set of nickel roundwounds around for one of my fretted basses just in case I need them for that particular sound for a project.
George
George
Alvaro Martín Gómez A.
TalkBass' resident Bongo + cowbell player
I play flatwounds, but only on my fretless bass. Never thought of using them on a fretted instrument.
with all due respect, I'm not sure your poll is going to answer the question you posed in your post- "Trying to solve the mystery that flats are used by the older crowd more than the younger ones."
I think you simply might get a demographic breakout of the people who read TB and respond to your post. I don;t have data to back it up, but I think that most bass players use or have used flats at some time, and therefore, there is a likelyhood that anyone who reads your poll will answer it and consistute a data point. So I think the data you get will possibly be very close to an age demographic of whoever posts.
It might be more telling to ask the question in 2 parts- Part one, "How old are you?", and part 2, "What percentage of your bassplaying do you use flats? 0-25%, 26-50%, 51-75%, 76-100%"
Then you could do the math and determine (1) what percentage of "older" players use flats more than rounds and, (2) what percentage of "younger" players use flats more than rounds. And you could put that data in graphical form which would be kind of interesting.
I think you simply might get a demographic breakout of the people who read TB and respond to your post. I don;t have data to back it up, but I think that most bass players use or have used flats at some time, and therefore, there is a likelyhood that anyone who reads your poll will answer it and consistute a data point. So I think the data you get will possibly be very close to an age demographic of whoever posts.
It might be more telling to ask the question in 2 parts- Part one, "How old are you?", and part 2, "What percentage of your bassplaying do you use flats? 0-25%, 26-50%, 51-75%, 76-100%"
Then you could do the math and determine (1) what percentage of "older" players use flats more than rounds and, (2) what percentage of "younger" players use flats more than rounds. And you could put that data in graphical form which would be kind of interesting.
