Chromes Vs. Rotosound Flats

[Sam Farnon]

Hi there

As you've probably guessed by the title, I wish to know what you lot think more highly of, D'addario Chromes or Rotosound Flats, as I am quite new to the flatwound scene.

For context, I generally play hard rock, bordering on heavy metal, on a Precision bass fitted with a Seymour Duncan quarter pounder and CTS 550k pots. For the last two months, I've had a set of Rotosound Steve Harris signature strings, which are absolutely fantastic strings for what I need them for; However they are the first set of flatwounds I've ever used, and the other set of strings people say are great for rock are the D'addario Chromes.

What I've seen most people say in that whole debate is that the Roto's sound great but a lot of people are turned off by their high tension compared to other flats (I actually like the higher tension personally), and they apparently die off quicker than other flats and develop a somewhat unusable tone, which I'd like to know more about (how long it takes for that to happen, what the "Unusable tone" means, etc.). Personally I find they've retained their tone very well with fast fret and string cleaning cloths, so far at least.

The consensus around the D'addario flats on the other hand is that they are smoother, have a lower tension, and apparently have a longer lasting bright tone; however one complaint I've seen crop up several times is that the Chromes tend to be somewhat inconsistent in terms of quality. I also don't plan to keep a set on any longer than 3-6 months at a push, so the longevity of the bright tone isn't as much of a concern to me, the only reason I want to know is because of how quickly the Roto's apparently die off.

In conclusion, I'd like to know what you all on the TalkBass forums think about these strings, whether I'd be better off sticking with Rotosound or switching to D'addarios instead, and just thoughts about them in general. I know there's probably 100's of threads about this, but I thought I'd create this thread in any case as I've not seen much regarding the info I wanna know xD

 

[Linnin]

As long as you are happy with the tone; feel, and playability of your Steve Harris signature flats, stick with them as there is no need to change them.

 

[jamersonburton]

I have reasonable experience with both on passive precision basses and passive P/J basses.

Brand new, the rotosounds will be brighter IMO. After the 4 month mark, rotosounds will be mellower.
This works for my current flatwound bass (a passive fender p/j) because it is a fairly bright bass.

I have found that I'm not a huge fan of the "E" string of D'addario chromes after 4 or so months. The inherent tone changes too much for my taste.

With both sets I find that the E string dies off as the strings age. The low E on the rotosounds sounds a little hollow but in the mix or with a bit of light compression it's fine.
The Low E hollowness on the rotosound set is also not as much of an inherent change in tone in comparison to the E string dying on the D'addario sets that I've used.

The d'addario's are good but the rotosounds are definitely what I prefer with my current setup.

 

[GIBrat51]

I have some experience with both, as well - but not on a P-Bass. In my quest for the "original" P-Bass sound, my A-necked '78 has GHS Precision Flats on it - under the mute in the bridge cover. However... I have Rotos on 2 basses; a 65-135 BEAD set on a Carvin LB-20, and a 45-105 set on my '18 Gibson T-Bird. And, I have a set of Chromes on a newly acquired G&L ASAT bass, which I pulled off a bass I got to customize several years ago. I have allergy problems with D'Addario strings (something in their finishing process), so I hardly ever use them. But, these were old and funky, so... I'm undecided about the Chromes; the ASAT is not only new to me, but it's also active - which is also fairly new to me. So, jury's still out, but... I'm liking them so far. And, yes; for flats, Chromes are kinda bright... The Rotos? The ones on the 'Bird are still breaking in, but I'm pretty sure they'll stay. The ones on the Carvin are about 3 years old, now; they ain't going anywhere, either. But, I have a lot of basses, and while most of them wear flats, they wear all kinds of them.
IMO, you can play "Rock" with just about any kind of flats you want. You might have to tweak your amp settings to get exactly what you want, but... that's what all those knobs are for. I play mostly 50-60's Rock; Rockabilly; Blues; and Vintage C&W; most of my basses do all of that quite well - regardless of what kind of flats they wear. Some are specialized for some things (like my P-Bass). Some do some things "Better", but all of them will sound at least OK for anything I like to play.
I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I will say that - IMO - it seems counter-productive to change flatwound strings that often. For one thing, flats take some time to even out, and break in - sometimes, a long time. Seems a shame to pull them off just when they're good to go... And, once broken in, all flats will last quite a while - unless you body chemistry just kills strings dead. For flats, "dying quickly" is relative. The Rotos on my Carvin have been on there for about 3 years now, and they're just nicely broken in. The Chromes on my G&L? God only knows how old they are; I pulled them off an old Kramer Forum III about 8 years ago. They tuned up; intonated; and play just fine. But, yeah... a set of flats that lasts 6 years before they die, does die quickly - compared to, say, a set of TI Jazz flats, which some people here have been gigging on for 18-20 years... But, compared to rounds? Flats last roughly forever...

 

[Sam Farnon]

I have some experience with both, as well - but not on a P-Bass. In my quest for the "original" P-Bass sound, my A-necked '78 has GHS Precision Flats on it - under the mute in the bridge cover. However... I have Rotos on 2 basses; a 65-135 BEAD set on a Carvin LB-20, and a 45-105 set on my '18 Gibson T-Bird. And, I have a set of Chromes on a newly acquired G&L ASAT bass, which I pulled off a bass I got to customize several years ago. I have allergy problems with D'Addario strings (something in their finishing process), so I hardly ever use them. But, these were old and funky, so... I'm undecided about the Chromes; the ASAT is not only new to me, but it's also active - which is also fairly new to me. So, jury's still out, but... I'm liking them so far. And, yes; for flats, Chromes are kinda bright... The Rotos? The ones on the 'Bird are still breaking in, but I'm pretty sure they'll stay. The ones on the Carvin are about 3 years old, now; they ain't going anywhere, either. But, I have a lot of basses, and while most of them wear flats, they wear all kinds of them.
IMO, you can play "Rock" with just about any kind of flats you want. You might have to tweak your amp settings to get exactly what you want, but... that's what all those knobs are for. I play mostly 50-60's Rock; Rockabilly; Blues; and Vintage C&W; most of my basses do all of that quite well - regardless of what kind of flats they wear. Some are specialized for some things (like my P-Bass). Some do some things "Better", but all of them will sound at least OK for anything I like to play.
I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I will say that - IMO - it seems counter-productive to change flatwound strings that often. For one thing, flats take some time to even out, and break in - sometimes, a long time. Seems a shame to pull them off just when they're good to go... And, once broken in, all flats will last quite a while - unless you body chemistry just kills strings dead. For flats, "dying quickly" is relative. The Rotos on my Carvin have been on there for about 3 years now, and they're just nicely broken in. The Chromes on my G&L? God only knows how old they are; I pulled them off an old Kramer Forum III about 8 years ago. They tuned up; intonated; and play just fine. But, yeah... a set of flats that lasts 6 years before they die, does die quickly - compared to, say, a set of TI Jazz flats, which some people here have been gigging on for 18-20 years... But, compared to rounds? Flats last roughly forever...

All great points, but personally I wouldn't want to leave them on too long; I'd say a year would be the longest as I'm not the biggest fan of the vintage thump sound that you get after a while of leaving them on, I'm more looking for that clangy, chunky, grindy tone that they give when they're more on the fresh end, I.E anytime under a year.

Its not that I outright dislike the vintage thump, but for my style of music (late 70's-80's hard rock/heavy metal) the fresh flatwound sound works the best; and I know, maybe i should use roundwounds instead if I were going to change them as frequently as I am, but the rounds got in the way of the guitars a bit too much for my liking (I always had to roll of the tone a bit on the bass for it to sound good in the mix), but these flats particularly seem to occupy the perfect sonic space without too much tone tweaking. Maybe they'll still sound great after a longer amount of time, but a combination of wanting that fresher tone AND the fact that my body chemistry is a bit harsh puts paid to that, for now at least. And it seems Rotos tone wise would be the ones to stick with for now haha