Hey i was just wondering if its all right to boil flat wound strings, i can't afford a new set, i've just made a new fretless out of my old bass and its hard to hear what it could sound like with old string. Cheers.
sure, why not...boil away... for a good job, put a tiny bit of dishwashing liquid in there, too...and let them dry completely before restringing.
play, wipe down, close case. repeat (about a year per set should be sufficient). if they sound a little thuddier than when you bought them, it's because they should. that's the flatwound mojo. you don't want to brighten them up too much now.
i have rotosound flats on my ibanez and i boiled them and it worked fine. i hear that ur actually supposed to put them in some denatured alcohol and leave them in that for a day or so, cause theres no water in it to rust the srtings...i havent tried it yet. just some "food for thought"
Hey guys, the fretless came out great and surprisingly the tone is killer, it took me a while to get the intonation right. I gave the strings a boil and it did make a little difference, had a a few jams with the band and its brought a totally different approach to the songs and my playing. Catchya laters.
Yep. Fretless is a whole 'nother planet. Lined fretless is very cool if you're a fretless beginner (like moi). I'm comitted to frets for the vast majority of the material that I work with but there are a few tunes where the fretless really provides an interestsing dimension. We started doing an old free jazz vamp named Tunji ('trane ?) a month ago and in my trio setting I'm doing a lot of chording in it. The fretless just works for that beautifully and the lines do help. Training wheels I know bit for the moment I need 'em.
I'm about to try this with the E string of my cobalt flats. Until now I thought it wasn't possible to wear out a flatwound...
Any reason why not? I understand the difference in design and the end is goal is to get crud out of the wraps. Flatwound strings have outer wraps...
