I currently have the Ernie balls on a bass but was wondering if anyone has tried both and what the differences in tone and string tension is with the Dunlop's of the same gauge 45-105?
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Dunlop flat wound strings vs ernieball stainless steel group 2.5
- Thread starter jefflaserfist
- Start date
I have no personal experience with the Dunlop, but one thing I can tell you is they're more flexible than the Ernie Ball due to their thinner-than-average core wires.
- Oct 22, 2015
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Have used both the Dunlop flatwounds, and EB Group flats. Deposited the Dunlops in the D'Addario recycle bin at my shop after a year's trial. Kept the EB Group IV flats. They're on 31 months' play, and stay right where they are. Low pulling tension + the right stiffness = happy bassist.
Just curious... What was it about the Dunlop that didn't work for you?
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,171
- 257,162
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
The chief problem — installed medium scale Dunlops on this short scale bass —
where it is easy to see the floating bridge makes it impossible to intonate the bass correctly because the speaking length of the G needs to be much longer than normal. Certainly do-able with a fixed bridge. Not this one! And the bridge wound up even more cockeyed than in this early record. Still off. Never fixed.
Also, decided the Dunlops sound too "modern" for this bass. Put the LaBella LTFs back on, and eventually binned them for Pyramid Gold. Winner winner chicken dinner
Right pulling tension, right string stiffness (for me), right tone (for my purposes)
The EB Group flats are on my '79 StingRay. Too beautiful to swap out!
Interesting... Dunlop Flats were on my shopping list for a few years, until I started reading about the intonation issues. Meanwhile, their prices kept going up and up... I don't think I want to be spending $65 USD on a set at this point.
EB Group IV will be going back on my P bass next month.
Forget next month... Why wait to do the right thing? Just reinstalled the same set that was on this bass for 9 mths previously.
My advice to @jefflaserfist ...
Stick with the Ernie Ball... unless you're finding them uncomfortably stiff.
Stick with the Ernie Ball... unless you're finding them uncomfortably stiff.
Thanks for the replies, I've only had the EBs on for a few days and I do really like them. I was just curious about the Dunlop flats and the price is a little pricey.
I have Dunlop Flats on my passive jazz with single coils. Sounds great! Good tension (very similar to EB Cobalts 45-100 IMO) and no intonation issues. I can get modern sound and old school thump no problems.
I've used both sets extensively. The Dunlops are a tad more flexible. Both strings retain a bit more high mid character than say DTF's or Precision flats. I keep the Dunlops on mostly because they have the best-fitting short-scale 5-string set (EB has none that I know of). They also have far and away the best-sounding B-string in short scale - though the EB B-string is great in long scale. I haven't had an intonation issue though the G-string does run a bit longer than average which I bet could be a challenge with a floating tailpiece.
i found the dunlops slightly brighter with slightly less tension. the dunlop set had a bad A string and I've heard QC is not great on the dunlops. never had a qc issue with EB flats. my experience is with the short scale sets.
I've had a set of EB Group IVs on my Ibanez RKB900 for about 6 months. Overall they are some of the most likable flats I've tried (TI, LaBella DTF/LTF/Olinto, DR, Chromes, GHS, the old Sadowsky Black Labels everyone raves about). The light gauge feels great, all 4 strings sounded exactly the same right out of the package, easy to intonate, good balance of clarity, detail & warmth. Liked 'em enough to order a set of Group IIIs I'll probably put on my G&L SB-1.
I have a set of Dunlop 40-100 flats. I like their tone and feel a lot BUT I've tried them on a couple basses and was not able to get them 100% intonated on either. Never had that issue in nearly 40 years of playing, and they're not cheap so I can't recommend them.
I have a set of Dunlop 40-100 flats. I like their tone and feel a lot BUT I've tried them on a couple basses and was not able to get them 100% intonated on either. Never had that issue in nearly 40 years of playing, and they're not cheap so I can't recommend them.
This is exactly my experience with the EB Group IV. No thuddy E and no twangy G... Nice and even all across four strings both in tone and feel. Going from the GHS Pressurewound 40-54-76-96 to the Group IV (40-60-70-95), hardly any setup tweaks needed, except for very slight intonation adjustments.
Yes! And as I mentioned, the B string in that long-scale product line is very well-matched to the set for 5-stringers.
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- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,171
- 257,162
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
In the knowledge of EB Group IV's pulling tension figures posted by @michael_t , I'm unable to feel a significant difference between plucking the "tighter" D string and plucking the other three. That 10 pounds (or so) fewer pounds of pulling tension isn't enough to trogger any technique alarms.
I wish more companies would publish the pulling tension of their bass string sets. The total pulling tension of a set is important to me because of an old neck that ain't never going to be up to La Bella 1954s. Pulling tension figures don't tell me how a set feels to play. They do tell me what to expect doing set up.
Also, I play finger style with a very light touch, and am happy with strings that are neither too pliant nor stiff to pluck.
I wish more companies would publish the pulling tension of their bass string sets. The total pulling tension of a set is important to me because of an old neck that ain't never going to be up to La Bella 1954s. Pulling tension figures don't tell me how a set feels to play. They do tell me what to expect doing set up.
Also, I play finger style with a very light touch, and am happy with strings that are neither too pliant nor stiff to pluck.
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I used live and die by tension figures, going on the wrong notion that a set of strings must be balanced in tension to FEEL balanced or SOUND balanced. Then I learned through trials and errors that a set of strings didn't necessarily have to be perfectly balanced in tension (as in pulling weight) to FEEL or SOUND balanced.
The EB Group IV flats are a good example of how a set of strings that appear to be unbalanced on paper can FEEL and SOUND nicely balanced in real life applications. As a former "balanced tension enthusiast", 40-55-75-95 made better sense in my mind than 40-60-70-95. Now that I've had a chance to spend some time playing them, it really doesn't matter what the tension figures say, except to help you with the setup.
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