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Best flats for rock/heavy metal?

rob_thebassman

rob_thebassman

Jul 26, 2010
1,645
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Normanton, UK
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playing bass since 2005
#1
I'm looking for a good pack of flats for my passive P bass. atm I have roto flats on. I play in a rock/heavy metal/hard rock band with 2 other guitarists. I heard clips of the La Bella flats and Chromes which both sounded excellent to my ears!

So from any TBer's experience of been in the same boat. What do you reckon?
 
#3
Steve Harris uses Rotosound flats on his P-bass. Chromes might work well as well.

Out of curiousity, why flats? They're far from common in heavy rock, and not without reason.
 
#4
As Hamlet said, Steve Harris has a signature set of Rotosound flats in a bridge cable like .55-.110. Although I haven't played them personally, my understanding is that they're particularly bright for a flat. I personally use the Fender Nylon Tapewound 9120's. They're basically a roundwound string wrapped in a black nylon tape. They have the feel of a flat but still retain some of the brightness of a roundwound. You would think the tension is is rather high with the .58-.110 guage but the tension is very low. You can bend them like guitar strings. A consequence of this very low tension is that you'll have to use a light touch if you insist on your action being set extremely low which I do. If you like to dig in a bit when you attack the strings you'll want to raise your action a bit with the Fender Tapewounds. I hope this helps.
 
#6
David J Haskins of Bauhaus used flats on a fretless P and played it with a pick...not exactly what most people spit out as the ideal rig for goth rock but he rocked it HARDCORE. Give it a shot! I've got flats on my Squier VM J bass and I play in a grunge rock band.
 
#8
rob_thebassman said:
I've been leaning more towards la bella's, as I'm wanting a clean sound
Click to expand...

You can get a clean sound with rounds as well. Rounds are just more commonly used with distortion because they sound better.

LaBellas are going to get you a very thumpy sound. And by thumpy I mean super-duper James Jamerson thumpy. Might not be the best unless the guitar has very little bass (which isn't that common in metal).
 
#9
Hamlet7768 said:
You can get a clean sound with rounds as well. Rounds are just more commonly used with distortion because they sound better.

LaBellas are going to get you a very thumpy sound. And by thumpy I mean super-duper James Jamerson thumpy. Might not be the best unless the guitar has very little bass (which isn't that common in metal).
Click to expand...

just prefer a deeper sound :)
 
#15
rob_thebassman said:
just think it sits well in a band
Click to expand...

I agree. Rounds are the overwhelming choice for most rock, metal and it's sub genres and I certainly wouldn't use anything other than rounds on my Geddy Lee jazz but it's really not hard to sit well in a mix, live or recorded, with flats. As far as tone has come with respect to technology concerning strings, effects, preamps ect. I think their is much to be gained in certain musical situations by just using a nice classic, thumpy bass sound. A lot of boom with just a bit of note definition. It may not always sound bright, lively or forward in the mix and you probably won't get a tone close to what comes out of your favorite rock bassist's amp, but it will probably work well. So yeah, I think flats can work for any kind of music, even rock and metal.
 
#16
queevil said:
I agree. Rounds are the overwhelming choice for most rock, metal and it's sub genres and I certainly wouldn't use anything other than rounds on my Geddy Lee jazz but it's really not hard to sit well in a mix, live or recorded, with flats. As far as tone has come with respect to technology concerning strings, effects, preamps ect. I think their is much to be gained in certain musical situations by just using a nice classic, thumpy bass sound. A lot of boom with just a bit of note definition. It may not always sound bright, lively or forward in the mix and you probably won't get a tone close to what comes out of your favorite rock bassist's amp, but it will probably work well. So yeah, I think flats can work for any kind of music, even rock and metal.
Click to expand...

couldn't agree with you more, really wish I have started using flatwounds when I started bass tbh. Scoop out the middle, bump the bass, low mid, and highs up and you've got a sound that sits in perfectly
 
#17
Here are my 2 cents worth. I too have a Fender P-Bass. I have used flats on it for many years. I started with the Ernie Ball Group 2 flats (50-105). Then I put some Rotosound Jazz Bass 77 (45-105) on it. Both strings sound great. The Rotosound strings have more tension than the Ernie Ball strings. The one thing that I noticed with both is that the strings never break. I would end up leaving them on too long. Then, I would see video of myself playing when I had a fresh set of strings and think "Wow, those sound great". Then, I would see a video of me playing with an older set of strings and think that they sounded dull. The dullness sneaks up on you with these strings because they just don't break. I have tried cleaning the strings, but it only works minimally. In the last 6 months I have been using Rotosound Swing Bass (Nickel) roundwounds. I have to say that I really like these strings. After playing flats for so long, I forgot how good roundwounds sound on a P-Bass. However, I still use flats on my Fender Jazz Bass. It takes some of the thin tinny sound off of the jazz bass. Flatwounds do sound good when they are new though.
 

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