famous bass players on flats

[GregC]

Wow. so much speculation and so much conjecture from limited data...

Bruce Thomas used rather heavy GHS Boomers, but they were quite dead he reported in the one Bass Player Magazine interview I recall.

jte

Thanks, JTE! I always wondered what Bruce used--his P sounds lively/grindy on some EC songs, and relatively dead on others. In an interview on fender.com last year, he said he always used rounds, but didn't specify a brand. I assumed he used a fair bit of compression to get that sound, but I guess it was the dead, heavy Boomers.

 

[GregC]

Graham Maby used LaBella tapewounds with JJ. Very distinctive tone with his great picking style. I like the combination of brightness with less sustain, interesting tone.

Thanks, One Drop. Maby's one of my favorites along with Thomas. I've been meaning to try tapewounds, now I have another reason.

 

[Geddy Claypool]

Tim Commerford, Rage Against The Machine.

Seriously? With all that growl, I'm still convinced he's a rounds guy.

 

[xgator4u]

I agree...my sound with roto flats is really bright/agressive and with loads of bassy bass. I love it. Flats are NOT only 60s thump. They are coming back with a vengance! i prefere rounds when playing by myself, but in a band setting...it only flats for me.

shore nuff. that is why I play Steve Harris series flats.

 

[Lichtaffen]

I believe Bernard Edwards used flats on his Stingray on the classic Chic recordings. I remember reading somewhere that John Taylor of Duran Duran ended up with Bernard's old Stingray and it still had the old flats on it which had been on since Bernard bought the bass!. Apparently a sound engineer cut them off and restrung the bass while John was taking a break because he (engineer) thought they didn't record well. John was SO pissed off when he found out

That is the saddest story about strings I've ever heard, seriously. Everyone who knows Bernard Edwards knows he never changed the strings on that Stingray from the day he bought it. After having flats on my Stingray for months, I switched them for Marcus Miller DRs the other day. After reading this post, I'm putting the old flats back on in honor of the memory of Mr. Edwards. So damn sad. I hope John Taylor at least retrieved the old flats from the trash.

 

[jackajesusfreak]

What did McCartney use?

 

[Aussie Mark]

What did McCartney use?

Pyramid flats, I've read before.

 

[eddievanbassman]

Robert DeLeo from STP

 

[Number27]

Pyramid flats, I've read before.

then later la bella's

 

[The BurgerMeister]

It's surprising the tone you can get out of flats now, I'm using Ernie Ball flats, 45 gauge and they can be bright yet still full at the same time. I love it

+1 to the Ernie flats! some of the best i've used.

 

[Meatrus]

Seriously? With all that growl, I'm still convinced he's a rounds guy.

Yeagh, the guy who said that back then was/is wrong, I'm not sure why he would think that. Check this (in case you didnt know already) www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Tim_Commerford, Wikipedia also says Nickel EB's.

 

[BioDriver]

Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas of Mute Math strings one of his Ps with flats.

 

[mav]

What did McCartney use?

I doubt Sir Paul uses flats now days.

 

[Number27]

I doubt Sir Paul uses flats now days.

i bet he does. he still uses his old hofner, and it's actually illegal to have rounds on one of those so....

 

[jackajesusfreak]

According to research and there are some avid Beatle finds and minds in here, he uses La Bella flats and used tapewounds on the Let It Be album.

 

[mav]

I'm just going off the anthology extra footage from 1994, he's playing a 5 string Wal. He's probably got 23 basses and half are flats and half rounds. I do love his tone on all the Beatles albums but if the Beatles were around today what would he be using??

 

[jackajesusfreak]

As far as strings, he'd probably be using what is supposed to be the best and that would be Pyramids.

 

[Marley's Ghost]

Mark Wilson from Jet

 

[ForestThump]

Fred Smith - Television

 

[Aurel]

Raphael Saadiq
Robert Mercurio - Galactic