Can someone explain Half Rounds to me?

[Dabndug]

I have GHS Brite Flats on a Musicmaster and a long scale Maton Fretless. They have a full dark tone that is great for reggae, country, and swing. A bit more open in the lower mid range with a tad more sustain than worn-in flats. IME they're smoother than D'addario half rounds, which I tried once back in the '80s. They also seem to be indestructible.

 

[jdjk7]

They are not quite what I expected! I just naively bought a pack just because the are marketed as a compromise between flat and roundwounds by d'addario. Which they are clearly not, they are something on their own. I have played many flatwounds that are much brighter than these. I dont think there are any "bad" strings or anything, but they have very weired (but interesting) properties. First of all- the feel, they have a very strong surface friction, unlike anything else I ever played, probably because of the sanded down rough surface. Then the four strings are very uneven sounding, every string behaves different. The higher strings have very less highs, sounds almost like a ukulele bass, but more "steely". The lower strings are very "flobby", completetly different to flatwounds in that gauge. Fells a little bit like playing a upright bass. Least sustain I ever heard. So very interesting, they sound fantastic "dead" up the neck, I could see them being used in jazz soloing.

Whats your experience/ your thoughts on these? Who likes to play them?

Honestly just sounds like poorly made strings. Half-rounds are a complicated type of string to "get right", so it doesn't surprise me that not every company really gets it right.

 

[JW56789]

I don't have finger noise with rounds, so I don't really have a hand in this game.

It seems like (and I tried them, they felt OK to me) that lots of guys like the GHS Pressurewounds, which if I understand it correctly, are a roundwound swaged down a few thousandths of an inch to approach the feel of a flat. GHS covers all the bets with flats, Brite Flats, and Pressurewounds, so one them ought to work.

But strings' tone and feel are utterly subjective.

 

[trothwell]

I like GHS Brite Flats. The D'Addarios sound similar, but lower energy. I guess it's the alloy 52 material.

But they don't work for me on every bass. Have to match the strings to the instrument.

The oft-mentioned sticky feeling never bothered me much, if at all.