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First TI Flats ordered. 2 questions.

phorm

phorm

Apr 4, 2009
139
275
Pennsylvania
#1
Hi Everyone,
Heard the glowing reviews and bit the bullet and ordered the TI flats.

Question 1.
I usually have 45-65-85-105 strings on my basses. The TI's A and D are 70 and 56. Any issues?

Question 2.
I have 2 basses I am considering for these strings. A passive PRS SE with Seymour Duncan SB4 pickups(because the stock pickups were the suckiest, weakest, noisiest pickups I have ever heard). The other is an 83 PBass Elite ll, with active pickups. The PBass is the bass I often use to record, and currently has Fender Flats. Which would you recommend putting them on?

Thanks for any Input. Greatly appreciated!
 
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#4
I have TI flats on my P4. Love them.
I have TI flats on my J4 as well. Love them.
I have thought about putting them on my J5 but I feel like I need a bass with rounds for some of the tunes my cover band does like Sweet Child of Mine, Kick Start My Heart, things like that.

I never used to like flats. I never used to like P basses. Tastes change I guess.
 
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#7
They have a lower tension. I’d say be patient and give yourself a few days to get used to the tension.
They’re fine on any bass and are even lively enough to slap/pop if that’s your jam. I have them on several basses. Enjoy. They last forever. I never noticed the gauge, I’ve played a ton of strings and I know they are a little more narrow but it’s not significant.

You may need a small turn on the truss rod.
 
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#8
I agree with this. Regardless of what gauge you play now, the TI's are probably going to feel really low tension by comparison. SO you are going to have to adjust your touch a little bit(or a lot maybe). I used them for years and loved them, although lately I've been using EB cobalt flats for a little more tension. It's a tradeoff though, I do like the TI sound a little better.
Killing Floor said:
They have a lower tension. I’d say be patient and give yourself a few days to get used to the tension.
They’re fine on any bass and are even lively enough to slap/pop if that’s your jam. I have them on several basses. Enjoy. They last forever. I never noticed the gauge, I’ve played a ton of strings and I know they are a little more narrow but it’s not significant.

You may need a small turn on the truss rod.
Click to expand...
 
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#9
No issue specifically with the string gauges. However I think you'll find that these strings have a very loose feel in general, relative to a "typical" 45-105 set. It took me a bit of time to get used to them, but I love them now.

If you're already happy with how your P bass sounds with the Fender flats and don't want to mess with a good thing, then start with the TIs on the PRS and see if you like them.
 
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#10
phorm said:
Hi Everyone,
Heard the glowing reviews and bit the bullet and ordered the TI flats.

Question 1.
I usually have 45-65-85-105 strings on my basses. The TI's A and D are 70 and 56. Any issues?

Question 2.
I have 2 basses I am considering for these strings. A passive PRS SE with Seymour Duncan SB4 pickups(because the stock pickups were the suckiest, weakest, noisiest pickups I have ever heard). The other is an 83 PBass Elite ll, with active pickups. The PBass is the bass I often use to record, and currently has Fender Flats. Which would you recommend putting them on?

Thanks for any Input. Greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
1.- No issues. I have the TI on My P4 and P5. On my P5 I had before The La Bellas LTF. Better intonation on the B string with the TI

2.- You can't go wrong with a P with flats.
 
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#11
phorm said:
Hi Everyone,
Heard the glowing reviews and bit the bullet and ordered the TI flats.

Question 1.
I usually have 45-65-85-105 strings on my basses. The TI's A and D are 70 and 56. Any issues?

Question 2.
I have 2 basses I am considering for these strings. A passive PRS SE with Seymour Duncan SB4 pickups(because the stock pickups were the suckiest, weakest, noisiest pickups I have ever heard). The other is an 83 PBass Elite ll, with active pickups. The PBass is the bass I often use to record, and currently has Fender Flats. Which would you recommend putting them on?

Thanks for any Input. Greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Q1: The TI’s will definitely feel lighter. As mentioned, you might have to change the setup of the bass on which you choose to put them.

Q2: I’m not intimately familiar with the PRS SE. The TI’s will sound & feel like they do on pretty much any 34” scale bass; low tension and pronounced high mids. They are the only string I play for which I cut the high mids on my amp to make them sound like I want.

P-basses & flats were the bass sound for a very large percentage of hit songs for a few decades. Not knowing the nuances of either of your basses, I would choose the P-bass as the most likely to sound great with TI Jazz flats.
 
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#12
There is a difference in feel for sure. I needed to lighten up my touch a little as I usually am a digger. I actually tried a higher tension flat because of that, but went back to the TI's because they just sound better than any flat - to me. I have gotten used to playing them and can switch to a more standard tension set on my J5 without issue. I had my P4 set up and Plek'ed with the TI's so I'm good to go. They will be the only strings I use on that bass. If I want to experiment I'll have to get another P bass.
 
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#14
phorm said:
Hi Everyone,
Heard the glowing reviews and bit the bullet and ordered the TI flats.

Question 1.
I usually have 45-65-85-105 strings on my basses. The TI's A and D are 70 and 56. Any issues?

Question 2.
I have 2 basses I am considering for these strings. A passive PRS SE with Seymour Duncan SB4 pickups(because the stock pickups were the suckiest, weakest, noisiest pickups I have ever heard). The other is an 83 PBass Elite ll, with active pickups. The PBass is the bass I often use to record, and currently has Fender Flats. Which would you recommend putting them on?

Thanks for any Input. Greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
I advise doing a setup along with the string change. The low tension of TI makes a big difference. No problems, though. You’ll just need some time to get used to them, particularly if you have tend to pluck hard.
 
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#15
Have been playing those strings for several weeks now, and no issues. I didn't notice the gauge change coming from EB cobalt flats.

The TIs are not floppy by any stretch of my imagination. So I don't know where people came up with that description. Maybe they are use to steel rods as strings?

Supple is a better description, and the cobalt flats are not that far off either. I didn't do any adjustments. The change does need some slight adjustments, but I figured I'd let the strings break in for a month beforehand.

I should point out that I have a Kiesel with graphite rods in the neck. Don't know what the changes would be for a regular, flat sewn neck.

The TI B string is the best one I've encountered out of flats.
 
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#16
TI flats are excellent strings, one of my favourites.

Q1: You may have to get a new custom made nut with smaller nut slots (or make one yourself from a blank). I've changed to TI flats on a lot of basses with standard 45-105(ish) nuts. Sometimes it works fine but sometimes the strings will rattle/buzzing in the nut slots because the slots are too wide. You won't know until you try. If there's no buzzing on open strings you're fine.

Q2: TI flats have a very strong presence in the upper mids (at least compared to other flats). P-basses also have a strong mid presence. If you like to dig in hard you may perhaps find TI flats a bit too mid focused on a P-bass but this will of course depend on what kind of tone you're looking for. You may have to adapt your playing to the lower tension and you will most likely need to adjust your setup. Also, Fender basses with no string retainer on the A-string have less pressure over the nut on the A-string than most other basses. This may increase the chances of the problem with buzzing mentioned in Q1. This of course means that I will recommend using the TI flats on the PRS. I'm not saying the TIs won't sound great on a P-bass. This is just MY opinion based on MY taste and MY experiences with TI flats and P-basses.
 
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#17
I've played them on numerous Rick 4003's and Fender P-Basses and they sound better than any other strings I've ever used. A good friend of mine put them on his Fretless P-Bass after trying them on one of my basses and he was converted on the spot. He has ben using Roto 66's and they were starting to chew up the maple neck. I'm glad I got him going with the TI's. I started plunking around on his a few weeks after the string change and it can almost sound like an upright bass at times.
 
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#18
When you try a brand of strings for the first time, the initial "feel" is a pretty personal thing, one that depends on your own prior experiences, your own expectations, and just what feels "comfortable" to you, given your own physiology. I don't think other people's experiences of TI flats will necessarily tell you anything about how they will feel to you at first. I remember that they felt extremely "loose" to me at first, especially that 0.70 A string, which seemed more like a D string. But I liked that feel, went on to play them for years, and they just felt completely "normal" after a while.
 
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