Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Confessions of a Flatwound convert...
- Thread starter Sundogue
- Start date
- Status
Hey man, could you fill out your profile a little? I play in worship bands exclusively nowadays and I'm considering throwing some D'Addario Chromes on my Squier Precision for a worship team. Thanks.
I think you would love this experiment, and Chromes are the cheapest way to try flats. Get a lighter gauge, or they will be a lot stiffer than what you are used to with rounds of a similar gauge.
I love TI flats, which have a very light feel, but also have a bright, wonderful mid range that is so prefect for the finger style funker.
I also like the TI flats when played with a pick. Gets you a lot of articulation without clack or an obnoxious tone. Unless you slap alot, I think you will like flats.
Thanks all.
Yes, this is one long thread. I'm still rockin' the Chromes even though I fell off the wagon for a brief spell. There is something appealing and inviting about rounds, though flats are where it's at for me.
Thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread, both for and against.
Yes, this is one long thread. I'm still rockin' the Chromes even though I fell off the wagon for a brief spell. There is something appealing and inviting about rounds, though flats are where it's at for me.
Thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread, both for and against.
Oh yeah; I've owned four sets of D'Addario Chromes over the years, on an Ibanez GSR200, Squier Affinity Precision and Squier Affinity Jazz V, and Fender BG-31. I'm just having doubts about my next gig; worship music in a large gymnasium. Thanks for the assistance man!
I don't know if this thread has this clip, but if not, it needs it. One of the best TIJF examples I've run across. Very representative of the tone, and shows what you can do with the flexibility (if you're into that).
Pretty cool clip. I had forgotten that M'shell Ndegeocello plays mostly flats as well as this dude in the video. If that doesn't persuade you, here are some clips of xavier padilla doing some bad**s Jaco like licks on a fretless fender with epoxy fingerboard strung with TI Jazz flats. Oh, and also the entire John Mayer trio live album with Pino Palladino playing his venerable Fender P with ancient TI's.
http://www.woodwiz.com/epoxy/xavierjaco1.mp3
http://www.woodwiz.com/epoxy/tones.mp3
Audio from the HG Thor woodwiz website.
Hope you love the TI's Allan. If you don't, PM me and I'll buy them off of you.
Brian
it was late when I replied....
I have that Mayer album--time for a relisten
I was gonna put that you were he main reason I was persuaded in the post...but it
Keep in mind that Pino pretty much rolls the tone control on his P bass completely off, so there is no top end to his sound whatsoever on that album. It sounds perfect for the trio though. He does that on most of his D'Angelo work also. If you haven't listened to "Voodoo", you should definitely pick it up. Some of the greatest groove playing ever on his old Pbass with TI flats and the tone dialed way back.
It's been almost a year since I started this thread and over this past year, I've switched back to rounds a couple of times but I keep coming back to my Chromes.
It's interesting that when I first switch back to rounds how much I love that super bright zingy, growly tone only bright, new roundwounds give me. And that is just really for only a few types of songs I really dig that tone for, or just when I'm playing alone by myself. But alas, after a couple of weeks they start sounding weak and thin and lack the punch I'm after (especially in a band context).
Here is what I find really interesting...The same set of Chromes are almost a year old now and have had HEAVY playing over this past year. Twice I put on a brand new set of rounds and loved them for about two weeks (pick a brand of rounds...doesn't matter). Then they start sucking badly, so I swap them out for my old, used Chromes and these old Chromes still sound brighter (in a non-zingy roundwound way) and punchier than the two week old rounds I took off!
So just to reiterate, I've never been against the use of rounds, but I just have to say it again...Flats are where its at (for me anyway). Damned if these Chromes just don't sit in the mix in their own little sonic world and deliver the BASS goods in a way that rounds just will never do...ever, not even when new. I just can't believe the difference in hearing and feeling EVERY note on every string all up and down the neck. Not that kind of mid-hump "stand out from the mix" kind of hearing, but rather this perfectly harmonious blending of the whole band where the bass is a part of it but exists in it's own layer. Solidly blended into the mix, yet clearly defined.
If I can keep a set of flats for a whole year (without sounding like dead, dull rubber bands), but rounds only keep their "sound" for a couple of weeks, I'd be spending a small (or not so small, given bass string prices) fortune on roundwounds just to give me the tone that still doesn't even come close to what the Chromes do anyway.
Yeah, I'm a flatwound convert to be sure. And it sure as hell isn't because I haven't given rounds a fair shake because after almost 30 years of playing rounds exclusively (of just about every single brand made) I can honestly say that Flats rule.
I'm not about to get into some pissing match with any roundwound lovers who claim they can get their bass to sound the same with rounds, because they are just flat-out wrong (pun intended). If any of you roundwound lovers (of the variety that hate flats) care to debate that point, I'll just ignore you anyway because that discussion is a moot one to me. I give props to rounds for what they do best, but what they excel at isn't the sound I'm after anyway. Not to mention that what rounds excel at, they only do that for a brief period before sounding like crap and require buying a new set.
It's interesting that when I first switch back to rounds how much I love that super bright zingy, growly tone only bright, new roundwounds give me. And that is just really for only a few types of songs I really dig that tone for, or just when I'm playing alone by myself. But alas, after a couple of weeks they start sounding weak and thin and lack the punch I'm after (especially in a band context).
Here is what I find really interesting...The same set of Chromes are almost a year old now and have had HEAVY playing over this past year. Twice I put on a brand new set of rounds and loved them for about two weeks (pick a brand of rounds...doesn't matter). Then they start sucking badly, so I swap them out for my old, used Chromes and these old Chromes still sound brighter (in a non-zingy roundwound way) and punchier than the two week old rounds I took off!
So just to reiterate, I've never been against the use of rounds, but I just have to say it again...Flats are where its at (for me anyway). Damned if these Chromes just don't sit in the mix in their own little sonic world and deliver the BASS goods in a way that rounds just will never do...ever, not even when new. I just can't believe the difference in hearing and feeling EVERY note on every string all up and down the neck. Not that kind of mid-hump "stand out from the mix" kind of hearing, but rather this perfectly harmonious blending of the whole band where the bass is a part of it but exists in it's own layer. Solidly blended into the mix, yet clearly defined.
If I can keep a set of flats for a whole year (without sounding like dead, dull rubber bands), but rounds only keep their "sound" for a couple of weeks, I'd be spending a small (or not so small, given bass string prices) fortune on roundwounds just to give me the tone that still doesn't even come close to what the Chromes do anyway.
Yeah, I'm a flatwound convert to be sure. And it sure as hell isn't because I haven't given rounds a fair shake because after almost 30 years of playing rounds exclusively (of just about every single brand made) I can honestly say that Flats rule.
I'm not about to get into some pissing match with any roundwound lovers who claim they can get their bass to sound the same with rounds, because they are just flat-out wrong (pun intended). If any of you roundwound lovers (of the variety that hate flats) care to debate that point, I'll just ignore you anyway because that discussion is a moot one to me. I give props to rounds for what they do best, but what they excel at isn't the sound I'm after anyway. Not to mention that what rounds excel at, they only do that for a brief period before sounding like crap and require buying a new set.
Yup. Flats + a mute (or palm mute technique) = a bass pulse, instead of a bass drone...
And since everybody's got one, a pulse tends to be more popular.
Went to chromes a couple of weeks ago after being away from flats for 18 years. I am here to stay. Flats rule, especially for the fat mids I love and best tone up and down to my basses necks and are best for me for the hard rock and classic metal style of writing our band does. My originals are coming to life right along with my tone! YES!!!! Chromes 45-100 rule!
Yup. Flats + a mute (or palm mute technique) = a bass pulse, instead of a bass drone...
And since everybody's got one, a pulse tends to be more popular.
How do flats + mute compare to rounds + mute?
+1 Awesome! It always cracks me up how a review of something like a Modulus Q-5 strung with High beams always says something like :"the eq is so versatile I can get any sound from Flea to Jaco to jamerson" . Having gotten really into jamerson over the last few months, I can tell you this is so asinine that it hurts. Rounds can never sound like flats, no matter how dead they are. Your comments make me want to try chromes Sundogue. I am a TI flat man, didn't you start with those?
A overall heftier bass tone.
When i switched from D'Addario rounds to LaBella flats on my MIJ Fender VI, flat-picked & palm-muted notes acquired a more substantial fundamental thud overlaid with a crunch-free tic-tac attack.
The instrument used to sound like a bass GUITAR. Now it sounds like a BASS guitar.
Then there's being able to slither chords up & down the neck with zero finger noise--just the soft clack of flats contacting each fret along the way.
IMO/IME flats rule.
News: I managed to get a real nice action out of my Labellas, not high at all, not low as rounds did, of course. This strings just rule so much, even when not a bridge cable tension (I know action and tension are not the same, but you get the point). Also, I had a little rough spot in one fret (way up at 23rd, no deal in what I'm playing now) and with flas it dissapeared. Or I hear it less. All around, best string I have ever tried. I wish I had more basses to try other flat strings (specially chromes), casue this combo (Schecter+Labella) is such a win that I won't separate it for the world.
- Status
