Flat wounds.....extra tension?

[Craig Williams]

Oh damn I didn't consider the headstock hex. That's a tough one. If it's any consolation, I ended up with the La Bella 760FX (39-96) to make my life easier. Same tone as the other Deep Talkin' but I just have to lighten up my plucking hand a bit, but not much. They feel like 40-100 rounds as far as tension goes. The LTFs sound a bit different in the mids and didn't play nice with low action on this particular neck... bit buzzy and the E would not intonate as precisely as I needed for recording. They were great on my Lakland Glaub with the flatter radius and smaller fretwire, however. Trial and error.

And you're totally right about Fender necks behaving this way. I have no idea what it is, but my other basses take low relief like a champ (Sadowsky, Lakland, Maghini, Stingray).

I use an Ampeg Combo and it tends to really accentuate finger and fret noise from round wounds. Love everything about flats. I hope I have better luck with my low tensions lol. Don't want to write off two packs of La Bellas at $80 a pop :-(