Any advice / experience with Gibson flatwound strings?

[Nerve]

Quite a bit. They’re a little dark sounding with a kinda refined sonic quality to them. Smooth almost glassy feel under the fingers too. Very “old school’ strings for lack of a better description. I also thought the $40 admission price was reasonable considering what some flatwounds are going for these days.

Very interesting. What little I've been able to find about the Gibson flatwounds is that they're quite similar to Chromes but slightly brighter.

 

[PBassAcidJazz]

Quite a bit. They’re a little dark sounding with a kinda refined sonic quality to them. Smooth almost glassy feel under the fingers too. Very “old school’ strings for lack of a better description. I also thought the $40 admission price was reasonable considering what some flatwounds are going for these days.

Nice one. I have a 45-100 set on one of my P basses. I do like them. They are warm and yes, old school / have character. I do find the texture more grippy than glassy. I prefer them to Fender 9050s I had on previously (which were brighter with more growl, but offer less warmth and depth of tone). I'm also considering putting The Gibsons on another P bass I have. It's currently strung with La Bella DTFs, which I like, but do find the E string dull and the G string bright compared to the rest of the strings. Dunno if others find this? The Gibsons are more balanced in this regard.

 

[40Hz]

Very interesting. What little I've been able to find about the Gibson flatwounds is that they're quite similar to Chromes but slightly brighter.

Very interesting indeed. I’ve used Chromes in the past on the same PB and thought the Chromes sounded brighter. Maybe we each hear things way we hear them. Or maybe the pickup on the bass, the amp, and/or our individual playing technique colors it?

 

[HaphAsSard]

Very interesting indeed. I’ve used Chromes in the past on the same PB and thought the Chromes sounded brighter. Maybe we each hear things way we hear them. Or maybe the pickup on the bass, the amp, and/or our individual playing technique colors it?

Other possibility is they changed the specs at some point.

 

[40Hz]

Other possibility is they changed the specs at some point.

Definitely a possibility. I used Gibson flats back in the 70s. And I seem to remember they felt softer and more polished than this new set which I recently installed. But I don’t put much faith in a memory that old, even if it is my own, lol!

 

[Iristone]

think that was a Danelectro Longhorn.

That's "My Generation", and 3 Longhorns. "Substitute" was an EB-3 with Gibson strings.

 

[HaphAsSard]

That's "My Generation", and 3 Longhorns. "Substitute" was an EB-3 with Gibson strings.

You are absolutely right! Here it is, straight from the Ox's mouth:

“Substitute” was an attempt to play the introduction from “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops. He played me the demo of it and I thought it sounded great. We didn’t want it to sound too Motown so I played a Gibson SG medium scale bass with wire-wound strings.
[...]
On Substitute I played a two pickup medium scale Gibson bass and I managed to find a decent set of Gibson wirewound strings that vibrated properly.

John Entwistle Gear: 1964-1966 | John Entwistle Bass Gear | Whotabs

www.thewho.net

 

[Nerve]

Very interesting indeed. I’ve used Chromes in the past on the same PB and thought the Chromes sounded brighter. Maybe we each hear things way we hear them. Or maybe the pickup on the bass, the amp, and/or our individual playing technique colors it?

I vote for all of the above. There's no substitute for hands-on experience with strings.

 

[StevieJukeJoint]

Hi bass people, I couldn't find much info about Gibson strings. A store in my area has a discount on the light gauge (40-95) long scale flatwounds. How about the tone and feeling ?
A long scale should fit a 34 inch with fender style headstock, right? (I mean the G shouldn't be too short)
thanks

On Gibson Shorty's (EB3-SG, Les Paul Jr. Tribute DC basses), I've strung 4 of the 6 with Gibson branded flatwounds 45 | 100. One I have with Labella, and one with D'Addario Chromes.
2 weeks ago I scored a good deal on an '05 SG Reissue ($750 CAD > $550 USD), and anyways I strung it with Gibson Flatwounds. (You can see on this video I only had the flats on the E and A strings at that point after coming home with the bass)... All that to say I do like Gibson flatwounds on my Gibson short scale basses. On my Fender Precisons, I use Fender 9050L & Fender 9050M flatwounds

 

[TwototheValley]

Last time I used Gibson strings was in 1964 on an EBO. No idea if Gibson made them, but they were on that bass from purchase until years later. I remember nothing about them.

Were they the early flats?

This is a set of their flats from the 50s….the package indicates they were made in Germany, which leads me to wonder whether they may have been produced by Pyramid….

 

[pcake]

i was looking for a lighter set of short scale flats, so i ordered a set of lights for my fretless SX as the gibsons are slightly lighter gauge than most lights. they're smooth, flexible and feel more like extra lights to my fingers. seem well-made. so far, i couldn't be happier.

 

[poochiecheeks]

Yes, they are chromes for all intents and purposes. Just with red silk and alternating gold and chrome ball ends

 

[pcake]

Yes, they are chromes for all intents and purposes. Just with red silk and alternating gold and chrome ball ends

are they? when i tried chromes before, they seemed a lot stiffer. i found they hurt to play. the gibsons are almost as flexible / low tension as d'addario super light rounds. maybe my fingers are stronger than they were or something...

 

[poochiecheeks]

are they? when i tried chromes before, they seemed a lot stiffer. i found they hurt to play. the gibsons are almost as flexible / low tension as d'addario super light rounds. maybe my fingers are stronger than they were or something...

I'll have to put that set back on and compare it to a bass I have w chromes on it. The outer windings looked and felt remarkably similar but you may be right about the tension being different.

 

[pcake]

I'll have to put that set back on and compare it to a bass I have w chromes on it. The outer windings looked and felt remarkably similar but you may be right about the tension being different.

if you do put them back on, please let us know how they compare!

 

[PBassAcidJazz]

if you do put them back on, please let us know how they compare!

I have 2 Precision basses - one with the Gibson flats and one with a new set of Chromes - the tension and feel is almost identical. Both sets are the same gauge.

 

[poochiecheeks]

if you do put them back on, please let us know how they compare!

I have 2 Precision basses - one with the Gibson flats and one with a new set of Chromes - the tension and feel is almost identical. Both sets are the same gauge.

Just to follow up, I compared these to some 105-50 chromes also tuned D standard and they are slightly different. The chromes feel more metallic where these are sticker almost like Rotosound 77s, and the 100-45 set of these felt just as stiff as the 105-45 chromes in the same tuning. The two basses are very different tonally but taking that into account the Gibson strings were still more present in the p bass low midrange compared to the other bass, which was absolutely not present at all in the mix no matter what I did or how I adjusted eq/volume.

Overall though @pcake the Gibson strings are definitely stiffer as you mentioned, if I was to buy a set for E standard I would go a gauge lower than the 100-45 whereas the 100-45 chromes seem just about right in E standard on a PJ bass- though I'm taking both sets off as I see no real value in using them for what I need. Last gig with the chromes set the drummer even told me "you sound good, but not as good as you usually do" which was enough to go back to the rotosound 66s I usually use.

 

[pcake]

Just to follow up, I compared these to some 105-50 chromes also tuned D standard and they are slightly different. The chromes feel more metallic where these are sticker almost like Rotosound 77s, and the 100-45 set of these felt just as stiff as the 105-45 chromes in the same tuning. The two basses are very different tonally but taking that into account the Gibson strings were still more present in the p bass low midrange compared to the other bass, which was absolutely not present at all in the mix no matter what I did or how I adjusted eq/volume.

Overall though @pcake the Gibson strings are definitely stiffer as you mentioned, if I was to buy a set for E standard I would go a gauge lower than the 100-45 whereas the 100-45 chromes seem just about right in E standard on a PJ bass- though I'm taking both sets off as I see no real value in using them for what I need. Last gig with the chromes set the drummer even told me "you sound good, but not as good as you usually do" which was enough to go back to the rotosound 66s I usually use.

actually i found the gibsons to be the most flexible flats i've ever used.