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Bandmates complain about flatwound sound

#41
darkstorm said:
Your bandmates are correct. Flats are flat and dull sounding compared to rounds. Not an appropirate bass sound except for stuff that really calls for that type of old style sound. flats lack difinition, and sare more about thud thud, woomp sound rather then articulate exciting defined bass.
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I kind of disagree. All strings sound different, including all the various flatwounds available. I've used flats that are bright and punchy, flats that have overtones and short sustain, flats that are deep and warm with very long sustain. It depends on the string, so the title of this post is kind of misleading. I can understand that chromes have this effect, but I know that some other flats do not.
 
#43
Maybe the sound of flatwounds actually don't work for your band?

Put yourself in their shoes... say your guitarist was using a mellow bluesy midrangey Les Paul and defined your band's sound using that guitar, and all of a sudden showed up with a twangy Telecaster and tried playing the same thing?

I hope you at least personally enjoy flats and aren't just eating up the TB hype. That cost me $25 and a set of strings I'll never use again (flats, that is)
 
#44
Toastfuzz said:
Maybe the sound of flatwounds actually don't work for your band?

Put yourself in their shoes... say your guitarist was using a mellow bluesy midrangey Les Paul and defined your band's sound using that guitar, and all of a sudden showed up with a twangy Telecaster and tried playing the same thing?

I hope you at least personally enjoy flats and aren't just eating up the TB hype. That cost me $25 and a set of strings I'll never use again (flats, that is)
Click to expand...

Sell them on. Enough 'hype' here to get some cash back.
 
#46
makz said:
As a experiment I put D'addario chrome flatwounds on my HB-4 bass, but on the last rehearsal my bandmates complain that "we can't hear the bass notes clearly, we just hear a big ball of bass and the clack clack of your fingers on the fretboard".

Previously I used GHS pressurewounds, my guess is that they just are not used to the more "mellow" sound of these strings as opposed to the more bright pressurewounds, but maybe this is also an EQ issue, I'm boosting the mid range, as always.
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Everyone keeps saying "mess with the EQ" and you may need to, but since you're getting a lot of "clack clack of your fingers on the fretboard" you might try raising the action a bit. Even when switching to different Flats it may be necessary to change the bridge height. When I took a set of chromes off my Jaguar and put on a set of TI's I got a lot of clack and realized the TI's are lower tension than the chromes. Raising the bridge cured it and a mm or two higher isn't noticed when playing.
 
#52
Had the exact opposite problem myself.
Had brought a bass to practice that i usually never use as its strung with rounds but i just wanted to see.
3 songs in and the drummer asks why do you sound so off?
Guitarist agreed. Quietly got the other bass that had the fender flats on and plugged in and problem solved.
As a flatwound convert i agree with everyone who says not all flats are the same.
 
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#53
Not all flats are created equal.

I use TI's with none of the issues noted above.

I have been looking for a cheaper alternative without much luck.

The latest were Black Diamond's and they had no definition on the E especially.

I have a set of Sadowsky's to try next but I have pretty much given up on finding a flat that does what my TI's do.
 
#58
Flats are popular here on TB this much is true. Seems like someone discovered how great James Jamerson was!!! The last time I played flats was on my very first Strad-O-Lin Semi-Hollow Electric Bass and that was over 41 yeras ago. I now use D'Addario Pro Steels. Your band is right, you just sound like thud, boom, bam....Sound men, and engineers like em cause they don't have to do anything to the sound. Some bass players like em I guess because they like the sound of boom boom. Me for one, I prefer that piano string sound and that's what your band seems to be missing.
 
#59
I’m the original poster. Nine years have passed, and things have changed.

I’ve been experimenting with distortion on bass and I’ve had some success, but I couldn’t get my Squier Vintage Modified Short Scale to sound how I wanted it to sound.

I tried different things and on this particular bass, string sets, EQ, effects…I couldn’t get rid of some kind of metallic, ugly noise when using heavy distortion or high gain. It wasn’t the clack clack of the frets, it came from the contact of the strings with the pick, even on open strings. Tried as well adjusting my technique, different pick types… nothing it was still there.

I noticed I could reduce it somewhat by scooping the mids and treble all the way down. So it came to me, what if…

Today I got a set of chromes. I strung my bass with them, re-recorded, a few adjustments and… boom! It was there, the sound I was looking for. Punchy, well defined, nice (for me) distorted tone, without that ugly metallic bell-like sound.

So what I’ve found is that it depends on the bass. My 6 string Ibanez gsr is very dark sounding by nature. I use steel super brights on it and it sounds awesome. By contrast this bass is more bright and it sounds great with flats.

Nine years ago when I posted this, the bass I was using had a very dark tone, that’s why flats didn’t work for it. I should have used super brights or something like that.

Lesson learned. Hope it helps someone in the future.
 
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