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Flats improved my technique (?!)

SasquatchDude

SasquatchDude

Jun 30, 2012
1,027
1,022
32
the 'burbs of San Diego
#1
Something surprising happened the other day when I put on an old set of Fat Beams for shiz and giggles after playing LaBella flats for almost a year...

There was none of the clank and buzz I used to get all the time! I'd have expected flats to let my fretting technique get sloppy, being more forgiving with string noise and all. Plus my bass was set up for lower action than when I'd previously used rounds.

Anyone else experience something like that?
 
#2
yep i have only played a frettless with rounds on them for years untill a few months ago got a 5 string with fretts and flat wounds on it , i love them , they sound great for everything which i was surprised as i had a hatred for flats when i got my frettless it had them and it sounded crap , but i eat my words now, although the 5 string is active and iv never had an active before , but i will happily put flats on it again .
 
#3
My experience with flats was that, after years of playing round wounds and not enjoying it because my finger calluses were just not developing so it was always painful and uncomfortable to play bass for too long, I learned about and then switched to flats.

This allowed me to play for hours because I was not having the finger pain associated with rounds. I've recently switched to rounds on one of my basses, to get a different tone, and I've found that my fingertips no longer hurt! :) All the hours of playing with flats toughened up my fingers! yahoo!
 
#7
Wow, I had the opposite reaction . . . every bass that I own has had flats (TI's and Chromes) on it as soon as I got them home (came with rounds). I had installed a set of Chromes on a Lakland 55-60 as soon as it arrived on my doorstep, so those strings are two years old. Just recently, I took the Chromes off of that bass, and installed a set of Dunlop nickel plated steel .045 - .125 . . .

My left technique began to improve . . . better string dampening, lighter touch (especially with the Lakland's banjo-sized fretwires, improved positioning nearer the upper-end of the fret, and though I rarely do it, slap bass sounded better and was easier to execute, albeit, I say the lighter gauge strings were the cause of that.
 
#10
I don't think your technique got better, you're just experiencing the forgivingness of flats. I get that effect when my strings get old. My technique gets sloppy and I have a reality check when I buy new ones.
 
#11
jaywa said:
I found that when I went to flats I got used to playing with a lighter touch. If that has happened to you as well that could explain why your playing now seems "cleaner" on rounds.
Click to expand...

Same here, lighter touch and because I'm not nearly using all my strength I can play faster, which in the end allows me to better express nuances in the music, makes it easier for me to keep in the groove as well.

From now on I will switch to flats for all my basses.
 
#12
JimmyM said:
I experienced just the opposite when I went from 2 years of Chromes back to XL's last year. Took me about a week to get my flow back with rounds.
Click to expand...

Now is this due to the unforgiving nature of rounds? Since they're, uh, I guess more "hi fi" than flats it makes every single nuance of what goes into the mechanical motion of plucking a fretted string stick out like a sore thumb?

I don't necessarily consider that a good thing, but as always its ymmv.
 

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