Disco/Funk : flats or round

[katolecho]

This my be the eternal questions without any perfect answer but here i go.

I'm thinking about recording some Disco bass lines and maybe funky ones but I have no idea of what is the best strings to use... flats? rounds? rounds muted with foam?

My weapon of choice would be a P5 from Sire.

What you guys think of it?

 

[Grinderman]

It could be either flats or rounds or tapes or pressure rounds, etc.

Which strings are right for you and your P5 and what you want your funk or disco bass playing to sound like is up to you.

Maybe your approach should begin with choosing your ideal or preferred examples of recorded bass. What do you like? What do you listen to?

If you have them then you could share them here. Then everyone would have something to work with.

 

[katolecho]

I'll say like some Cheryl Lynn, Chaka Kane, The Temptations or Debbie Jacobs titles.
I think about Kano - Can't hold back too, which is a good example.

 

[pbass2]

Either would work great. I'm a flatwound guy from before they were cool again, but my fave for that kinda music these days are well-broken in nickel rounds (DR Nickel Lo Riders on a Pbass to be specific). Sometimes with a foam mute. You can still thump, but you get a little more mid grunt than with the flats. It just depends--for finger funk/disco with flats, I crank some highs to get that nice klack on the attack, but with rounds I might roll some highs off, and let the grind from the mids be the focus. Both different flavors.

 

[Killing Floor]

What strings are your favorite now? Use those.

 

[katolecho]

What strings are your favorite now? Use those.

I like both even if flats are less confortable.

Maybe playing with the thumb is a good way.

 

[Paul New]

The early tracks were predominately P Bass with flats, but by the late 70s and early 80s Jazz or Stingray with rounds had replaced that sound.

To me, the sound of the era is Larry Graham slapping and thumping his Jazz, or Bernard Edwards doing the same on his Ray, both with the brightest rounds they could find.

But, as always, a P Bass with flats can work.

 

[Roland GR 88]

To me, the sound of the era is Larry Graham slapping and thumping his Jazz, or Bernard Edwards doing the same on his Ray, both with the brightest rounds they could find.

^^^ this for me too.
In fact, for that quest I’ve always used Roto…….. you guessed it, Funk Masters.
Stupidly light but fun to play.

 

[bassdude51]

I agree with Paul New comment.

Back in the mid 70s when Disco made the scene, flats were on most basses.

 

[HaphAsSard]

I think, but your memory may better than mine, I've seen a picture or two of Larry Graham with black nylon tapewound strings on his bass, and mentions here regarding how at least a chunk of Sly & the Family Stone albums were cut with such a setup.

As for late '70s recordings, don't forget groundwounds: they were out and about, back then, and some Sting-Rays came with grounds from the factory (GHS Brite Flats, specifically, but D'Addario Half Rounds also existed).

 

[JTE]

Larry Graham on the Sly stuff sounds like flats to me, especially "Thank You (Falletine Me Be Mice Elf, Again)".

Thinking of things like "Fly, Robin, Fly", etc. I hear flats. But Brothers Johnson kinds if recordings sound like rounds. So it kind of depends on what your perception of the classic sound is.

 

[Paul New]

Larry Graham on the Sly stuff sounds like flats to me, especially "Thank You (Falletine Me Be Mice Elf, Again)".

Thinking of things like "Fly, Robin, Fly", etc. I hear flats. But Brothers Johnson kinds if recordings sound like rounds. So it kind of depends on what your perception of the classic sound is.

We didn’t think of Sly as disco back in those days. Or at least I didn’t. Disco came later.

 

[jdjk7]

This my be the eternal questions without any perfect answer but here i go.

I'm thinking about recording some Disco bass lines and maybe funky ones but I have no idea of what is the best strings to use... flats? rounds? rounds muted with foam?

My weapon of choice would be a P5 from Sire.

What you guys think of it?

I would prefer flats, I think. I like rounds just fine, and I play basses with rounds on them, but for that kind of music I think flats with the tone kept up a bit sound better than rounds with the tone turned down.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

the sound of the era is Larry Graham slapping and thumping his Jazz, or Bernard Edwards doing the same on his Ray, both with the brightest rounds they could find

I thought Bernard Edwards' Stingray still had the factory flats on it when it reached John Taylor?

 

[Paul New]

I thought Bernard Edwards' Stingray still had the factory flats on it when it reached John Taylor?

Well he sure fooled me.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

Well he sure fooled me.

I should have done my googling first, sorry:

From this thread. (Grateful wave to @michael_t, once again)

So — he never changed the strings — which have the word "flats" in their name — but which aren't flats as is usually understood from the term.

John Taylor's story about when those strings left that bass isn't consistent from one telling to the next, but one detail is: his tech cut them off and chucked them away

 

[JTE]

We didn’t think of Sly as disco back in those days. Or at least I didn’t. Disco came later.

Of course, but I would say it was definitely funk.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

If I'm in doubt, I'd use rounds

 

[JTE]

Regarding Bernard Edwards' 'Ray,

The earliest Stingrays had flats on them, but by 1978 they came with any of rounds (Boomers), flats (Precision Flats), or the modified rounds (Brite-Flats). Mine had the Brite-Flats when I got it, but some of the others on the wall at the store that day had rounds and a couple had flats. The first 'Ray I played had flats and that was at least a year before I got mine.

All were factory strings then because I asked the guy at the store what they were and he didn't know, just " whatever they put on itnat the factory."

 

[Paul New]

Of course, but I would say it was definitely funk.

You got that right!