Anybody mix flats and rounds?

I think that would give you some pretty screwy tension on your neck. I would imagine that it could lead to neck damage in the long run.

 

I started a similar thread awhile back. Let me see if I can find it with the Search function...

edit:

Here you go:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=373386

 

Never on purpose! But that's how I discovered roundwound strings in the first place: 30+ years ago I had only ever used flatwounds. Had a gig coming up, my bass was broken or unavailable for some reason, our singer said her boyfriend had a bass I could use...it showed up with 3 flats & a roundwound G string. My first impression was "this sucks!"

Two hours later I was like "holy crap, I've gotta get a bass strung up with all roundwounds, these things are awesome!"

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I read an old GP interview with Fernando Saunders where he said he strings up his fretless Modulus 5-string with all rounds except for a flat low B...or maybe it was the other way around, all flats except for a round low B? Said he did it because he liked how the tension & guage of that particular B string matched the rest of his set.

 

There's a guy on here, Andyroo, who did that.
He used an MTD Z6, and had TI Jazz flats, but in a few songs it required him to be thumping on the E string. So everything (If I remember correctly) was Ti jazz, except the E.

 

Yeah, I broke my Flat G-string and had only a round to replace it. It's still there. It's my back up bass.

 

I doubt that the neck "sees" different tensions string to string, but rather the overall tension of all the strings.

I think sound is the biggest issue here. If you like the sound, why not?

 

Why is that? What's the difference in tension between flats and rounds?

 

i use half round d'addario on g,d,a and a round wound on the e. it feels great when i'm doing a run and then hit the low string and there's that wound bite there to meet me. mind you i play slightly distorted & with a pick. there's usually keyboards going on so there's already a full spectrum happening. and since i palm mute the E to a certain degree its always in check. sort of like having it go to 11... know what i mean?

 

When I was a little kid, I bought my first bass used from some other kid (A big red Cort). It had all rounds except the high G was a flat. I was like.. what is this weirdo string???? I was a guitar player, so all I knew was roundwounds.

Who woulda thought, that 20 years later I'd actually switch over to those "weirdo" strings for good!?

 

On my Jazz, I have E and A flat with D and G round

 

Not yet, but I'm working on a semi-acoustic bass right now where I defretted the E and A string half of the neck and left the D and G half fretted; I'm gonna string the bottom half with flats and the top with rounds, but they'll both just be the E and A strings.

 

Yeah I have all 4 strings flatwound up to the 12th fret, then they are roundwounds the rest of the way.

 

Ha! I'd try that if they made them.

 

I use Ernie Ball's flat(wound) top, round(wound) bottom strings.

 

I once used a flat for my G when the round G was worn out. It just didn't go well as far as sound goes. I think you'd have better luck putting on one round and 3 flats. You could use the round for slapping or popping and the rest of the strings would still be that good old flat sound. I would try to find some strings that give the same tension either way.