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Can I still play aggressively on flats?
- Thread starter lilbassboi
- Start date
The harmonics that make a string sound warm are the low and low midrange harmonics. That’s mostly what flats are known for, even the bright ones. Playing more aggressively makes whatever harmonics a given string tends to produce louder, more “hearable”.
It’s possible your dad finds that level of lower frequency harmonics messy or muddy sounding, but as always, it depends on the model of string, the player’s technique, tone knob, amp EQ, speaker/cabinet, room, and listener’s ear anatomy.
It’s possible your dad finds that level of lower frequency harmonics messy or muddy sounding, but as always, it depends on the model of string, the player’s technique, tone knob, amp EQ, speaker/cabinet, room, and listener’s ear anatomy.
Playing aggressively in church, naw. Standing out from the others is self serving. There is no "your own sound" in this scenario. Be the foundation.
If you have the luxury of two basses, have one strung with flats and the other rounds.
If not, the major tonal difference to me is if you play with a pick/fingernails. I generally prefer roundwounds when I pick due to the higher transients (you lose some with flats) and the actual pick “grinding” along the string, especially on “rocking” tunes. Pick with flats is fine on “softer”, mellower songs.
If you use overdrive/distortion, though, using flats becomes way less of an issue, since you can restore some higher end sparkle. In some cases, I like the flats overdriven tone more than rounds.
If not, the major tonal difference to me is if you play with a pick/fingernails. I generally prefer roundwounds when I pick due to the higher transients (you lose some with flats) and the actual pick “grinding” along the string, especially on “rocking” tunes. Pick with flats is fine on “softer”, mellower songs.
If you use overdrive/distortion, though, using flats becomes way less of an issue, since you can restore some higher end sparkle. In some cases, I like the flats overdriven tone more than rounds.
You can absolutely play aggressively in church without losing the foundation or being self serving - I do it all the time. A lot of modern worship songs have a wide range of dynamics, and there are parts when it's completely appropriate to be digging in.
I experimented for 15 years before settling on Chromes.
For at least 5 years I had a P/J5 with LaBella deep talkin flats on B, E,A and XL's on D and G. This worked to a degree, I slap and pop about 15% of the time.
With the Chromes I no longer need to mix sets. Chromes are born to do it all.
For at least 5 years I had a P/J5 with LaBella deep talkin flats on B, E,A and XL's on D and G. This worked to a degree, I slap and pop about 15% of the time.
With the Chromes I no longer need to mix sets. Chromes are born to do it all.
Nope.. if you play more than quarter notes with flats the universe will implode
In all my years of playing bass, I found that the sound you play with doesn't matter much, it's how much conviction you put in your playing. The great players have their sound, but do they get famous because of their sound or because of what they can do with it? I think it's the latter.
My recommendation is to buy a set of flats and try them out. The worst that will happen is that you find out they aren't for you. Flatwounds tend to have a stronger attack and sit a little bit more "forward" in a mix. Can you play them aggressively, or get a more aggressive sound out of them? Definitely. One thing to remember... it does take a little bit of time for them to break in as compared to rounds. For instance, if you decide to get a set of D'Addario Chromes, they take a couple of weeks of play before they settle down and give you more of that classic flatwound sound.
There’s this little band called Iron Maiden. Give them a listen. 
Of course you can play flats aggressively. Just tweak your EQ so you’re not constantly overloading your preamp stage.
So what about all the aggressive bass playing that was done before roundwounds came along?
Check out Steve Harris of Iron Maiden who uses flatwounds.
How do you play "aggressively" on rounds (other than pounding the living crap out of the strings)?
Interesting that you claim P&W requires aggressive bass playing, guess I should find a megachurch (not common in New England) and hear it for myself...
I dig in like a big dog, cut my teeth playing 3-piece and still prefer that. So aggressive is my thing. I switched to flats over 10 years ago, have never been happier with my sound, and have had no thought of switching back to rounds. And I’m talking about steady gigging, no garage player.
FWIW playing variations of the P bass. Have a PJ but almost never use the bridge pup.
FWIW playing variations of the P bass. Have a PJ but almost never use the bridge pup.
Using a pick would help you accomplish what you’re after. EB Cobalt Flats will yield a strong, clear, and articulate tone.
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We are in the “words to describe sound” venue here and things can get a little confusing.
You can play flats aggressively=play them hard. (adverb). You can pluck hard, dig-in, slap, pop, whatever. They will sound different from playing them moderately or softly. Will they sound like rounds being “played hard”/ “aggressively”? Not very much. They will sound like flats being played “played hard”, or “aggressively” with the word “aggressively” being used to describe how you are playing each type of string.
In the post copied above, you say your dad said you will sacrifice aggressiveness with flats.
“Aggressiveness” is being used to describe the sound that results by playing the strings “aggressively”.
So, you can play either type of string, flat or round, “aggressively” / “hard”. The resulting sound / tone you get can be described however you want, but the resulting sound / tone won’t be the “same” for each type of string.
As previously mentioned by a few, you can listen to Steve Harris of Iron Maiden to hear flats being played in a method I would describe as very aggressively to get some idea of the sound that can be achieved by playing flats hard.
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With all respect to your Dad, aggressive playing is in the hands of the player. You can crank the treble if you want to sound "aggressive", but don't expect Ric/Roto tone. That might get you thrown out of church anyway.
You certainly won't know till you try so as others have said grab some cobalt or chrome flats and a pick and have at it!
