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First Gig with Flats

GrooveWarrior

GrooveWarrior

Oct 21, 2003
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Oxford, Ohio (Near Cincy)
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#1
Ok, so not really a gig, but church service for 600 people on a college campus sometimes feels like a gig.

I've been playing for 22 years, and have put flats on a bass a couple of times and almost immediately took them off. Didn't like the tension or the tone. I have a 2001 American Standard Jazz, natural ash body with maple board . . . that is screaming for zingy stainless rounds, right? I have fought that thing for years trying to get it to feel just right, and never had any luck. I decided to put flats on it, and it's like it just opened up and let me play it. Strange.

So, Sunday I decided to take it to church, and was very pleased with the tone and feel I got from it. It came through great. It just kind of "woofed" when it should have, and really had great punch and clarity. I guess I always assumed flats would be dull and dead. Not the case at all. I think I'm going to like having this bass in the rotation now.
 
#3
#6
I have a set of D'Addario Chromes on my '72 J as well. They're well over 10 years old now. I love the focused low/mid thump they give my bass, a nice contrast to my other '72 J strung with D'Addario EXL165s, and my J has no problem hanging with the Ps now. ;)

Give the Chromes some time to break in. They only get better with age.
 
#7
Just spent the past year or so dipping my toe in the flats waters and have had pleasing results from TIs on my SC P-bass, RotoSounds on my Redding Jazz, Ernie Balls on a fretless P and La Bellas on an old Danelectro.

I also found flats to be unsatisfactory in years past, but now I'm digging them. I'm not sure what made the light come on this time. Maybe I'm getting a little more open-minded as I get older? ....nah. Probably just dumb luck.
 
#14
Flats on a Jazz Bass OMG!!!! That's not right. Flats on the PBass rounds on the Jazz, LOL.

Just kidding. My experience was just the opposite. There were Precision Flats on my Jazz when I bought it you would have sworn the tone pot wasn't working. Stop to stop there was virtually no audible change. Then I put a set of Pressure Wounds on and man what a difference. I typically use rounds on the Jazz but these are a great string. Nice and punchy without the zing of rounds and less finger noise.

But the PFlats are safely stored away waiting to go on a PBass I'll buy later in the year. Ya' gotta play what sound and feels right to you. The crowd may not be aware of it but you are and that's more than enough to take all the enjoyment out of playing that bass.
 
#17
Gotta chime on on the Chromes. I've had them on my P bass for a few years now and I'll never play anything else. Punchy, mellow, round, full, great mids, no finger noise on the strings. What more could I want? Plus, I never have to change them and they do get better with age. I've moved away from playing upright bass since I got sick of hauling the thing around on the subway in NYC. The more I play my P with flats, the less I care that I'm not playing upright. Yeah, two totally different instruments. I'm not comparing the two. All I'm saying is that with the way my P sounds, I don't feel the need to play any other bass.
 
#18
Just my two cents but flats and rounds both sound really great on one of my Spectors. It is a Euro LX4 and I love them both on it! Havent tried the Chromes yet though. Thanks for the thread and the experiment! Glad you like the flats.
 
#19
billgwx said:
Going to give them a 2nd try myself. Have the feeling I have to let the D'Addario Chromes I just installed settle in, also work more on EQ, maybe even work on my muting technique, before drawing final conclusions.
Click to expand...

Played the P-bass with Chromes live for the first time at this evening's Ash Wednesday service at my church. First the pluses: it filled the church with the fattest bass sound I've ever been able to achieve, which was great in a full setting with 10-15 vocalists, Roland V-Drums, two acoustic guitarists and keyboards using a Fender Rhodes-like patch. The bass owned its own sonic space more so than it would have with my usual J-bass with rounds, and the D/G strings were much fuller-sounding than they are on the J. (However, by contrast, at services earlier in the day I used the J with keyboards as as the only other instrument, which worked well--I think the P would have been overkill there).

The P/flats bass also forced me to play more to serve the rhythm--I'm much more melodic with the J/rounds. To me that's neither good nor bad, just different in a way I liked this evening but wouldn't want to do all the time.

Biggest negatives were that I found it harder to control the dynamics when playing softly, and that when the keyboard player played with his left hand the sonic collision was almost head-splitting! Drummer gave me a *** look, but there was nothing I could do except weave in something an octave higher in spots.

That P/flats sound was enticing, but I think I'll stick with the J/rounds at church for the long haul. I may try the P with rounds to see if that's a good compromise--if I find that works then I'll just mod the J for parallel/series wiring to get the P sound when I want it, and sell the P.
 
#20
GrooveWarrior said:
I think that is what took me so long to come around to flats. So often, especially when you are young you love great "bedroom" tone. Most of the time the "bedroom" tone isn't what is needed on a stage with other instruments.
Click to expand...

I like to consider myself an exception to that "rule"- I got my first set of flats at age 16 (in 2007) :D But I understand where you're coming from- my bass-playing friends, even now, have said that flats are for old farts who like the sound of weed whacker string hitting wet cardboard.

Okay, they haven't said exactly that, but you get the idea. I think flats are starting to make a comeback, and I'm totally okay with being the "retro hipster" who used them before all the cool cats of my generation did.

People these days..
 

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