Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[HotelX]

Tiny metal washers are your friend.

Great idea thanks!

 

[JES]

Also the iPad has many amazing soft synths. You can do a lot with it as a standalone instrument.

my favourites: iDensity, Spacecraft, Spectrum, Volt, Zeeon, and Patterning.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Haven't had a 6er in my possession innover 18 years.
One of my good buds is a 6 string and 5 string guy. Borrowed one.
I blame all of you. Here's to getting outbof the confort zone.

 

[emjazz]

what did you wind up using for a high C? In my “flatwound high C” googling I found the thread where the saga began but not the end of the story.

I have a high C from LaBella. I believe that you can get them. I got them directly from LaBella. It sounds great. I've gotten used to it for sure. When I originally got the set I felt the high C was too thin and unbalanced. As they've aged the high C has mellowed and works just fine.

 

[JES]

Thanks. I might try that with a set of low tension flats. Will see. The TIs are great but sometimes I want something a little more...bassy?

On another note for you six string players, I tend to favour the front pickup. In my experience, the low B starts to give off wolf tones somewhere between the 8th and 12th fret depending on the string -- except for Kaliums, but I never loved the sound of those. But I don't have a lot of experience with Flatwounds low Bs--how high up the neck to you play on the B?

 

[steubig]

This has been great to read, thanks everyone. I definitely am wondering about flat wound Cs that work with shorter scales than 34" The Lull's C sounds "twangy" to my ears at 35". Going to try some tape wounds. Bass VI set options in not round wound are also quite limited ATM.

Or, perhaps this is another reason to investigate a headless option -- @steubig: with headless can you cut the string at the winding as long as it's past the place where you clamp it down on the headpiece?

TIA.

on mine, which uses the hipshot system, pretty sure that’s the case.

 

[emjazz]

Thanks. I might try that with a set of low tension flats. Will see. The TIs are great but sometimes I want something a little more...bassy?

On another note for you six string players, I tend to favour the front pickup. In my experience, the low B starts to give off wolf tones somewhere between the 8th and 12th fret depending on the string -- except for Kaliums, but I never loved the sound of those. But I don't have a lot of experience with Flatwounds low Bs--how high up the neck to you play on the B?

In my experience the Low Tension Flats have the most low end of any string that I've played. I just compared them on the same bass with some D'addario Xl's, and there was no contest with low end. The flats were huge down low. I'm sure there's something out there with more lows that I haven't tried.

 

[emjazz]

Thanks. I might try that with a set of low tension flats. Will see. The TIs are great but sometimes I want something a little more...bassy?

On another note for you six string players, I tend to favour the front pickup. In my experience, the low B starts to give off wolf tones somewhere between the 8th and 12th fret depending on the string -- except for Kaliums, but I never loved the sound of those. But I don't have a lot of experience with Flatwounds low Bs--how high up the neck to you play on the B?

Also...I always favor the neck pickup. My semi hollow has a single pickup in the P position. I absolutely love it. I can use the B string (33" scale) anywhere, but I also am realistic about what I will use it for up high. Depends on your needs.

 

[HotelX]

I used to be all about flats, especially when I was playing a lot of reggae. I switched to rounds for my current band to get a little more presence in the mix. I was just buried on certain songs.

A few days ago I put some TI jazz rounds on a jazz bass. I like the tone but they are insanely skinny. Also the same day I put some labella flats on my old reggae jazz bass for a new reggae project. Interesting to switch from noodles to cables.

 

[emjazz]

I used to be all about flats, especially when I was playing a lot of reggae. I switched to rounds for my current band to get a little more presence in the mix. I was just buried on certain songs.

A few days ago I put some TI jazz rounds on a jazz bass. I like the tone but they are insanely skinny. Also the same day I put some labella flats on my old reggae jazz bass for a new reggae project. Interesting to switch from noodles to cables.

I love noodles.

 

[emjazz]

I used to be all about flats, especially when I was playing a lot of reggae. I switched to rounds for my current band to get a little more presence in the mix. I was just buried on certain songs.

A few days ago I put some TI jazz rounds on a jazz bass. I like the tone but they are insanely skinny. Also the same day I put some labella flats on my old reggae jazz bass for a new reggae project. Interesting to switch from noodles to cables.

The Low Tension Flats are a great middle point between the two.

 

[HotelX]

The Low Tension Flats are a great middle point between the two.

Ive tried them and they are good strings. I recently traded the bass that has them. I should get some more. I had the high tension flats already.

 

[HotelX]

I love noodles.

Have you tried the TI jazz rounds? Never tried strings like those before.

 

[emjazz]

Have you tried the TI jazz rounds? Never tried strings like those before.

I haven't because they are $100 roundwounds that have a short lifespan simply because they're rounds.

 

[cosmicevan]

Hooray for good customer service!!!!
Gives evil eye towards Red Panda.....

I guess we won't see one of those new bitmaps in your near future? I'm still so surprised by your experience since I had the total opposite experience where they were very responsive and even fixed my reported bug in their next firmware update. I am however annoyed that my Tensor can't be upgraded to enjoy the massive loop time improvement. I'm going to upgrade and get one of the newer versions of the Tensor at some point after I fix my ES-8 and then that will be the looper on my board.

 

[Feral Feline]

HotelX, have you tried the Cobalt Flats?

They seem like my ideal slab-string, but I've yet to try them due to brick&mortar obstacles.

 

[HotelX]

I haven't because they are $100 roundwounds that have a short lifespan simply because they're rounds.

$65 at strings and beyond and they supposedly have a long life. I guess I’ll find out.

 

[HotelX]

HotelX, have you tried the Cobalt Flats?

They seem like my ideal slab-string, but I've yet to try them due to brick&mortar obstacles.

No. I had a jazz with TI flats on it for years and also uses labella DTF a lot. Those are my main experience with flats. I did try the labella low tension flats on a bongo and would definitely try them again.

 

[Feral Feline]

...
Wait, what was the question?

I don't know the question, but I liked the answer!


I like that it is okay to like, have, utilise all manner of string numbers, courses, fretboards, fretless-boards etc; I like the freedom of not pigeon-holing oneself into this/that type of player — I need to stop relegating myself to preconceived notions of mine own and others'.



If ever I should learn to play well enough to warrant it, I'd like a 7-string bass tuned BEADGBE, and a hipshot lever on the low-B to extend it down to A should opportunity present.



Oh, and in keeping... this is a reply to a post 3 pages ago.

 

[Feral Feline]

Thanks HotelX, I may try the Low Tension Flats, too.