Flats vs. rounds

[Rolling Thunder]

I can most definitely hear a difference which is why I only play flats.

 

[5StringBlues]

Depends on how I'm playin' them.

 

[Ostie]

I’ve told this story before but bear with me. A couple three years ago I bought a Gretsch G2220 Jr. Jet bass. It had rounds on it. When I got it home and plugged it in, I thought it sounded horrible. I was very disappointed with the sound. On a whim I threw on a set of LaBella flats that I had laying around. The difference was profound. Now it’s one of my favorite basses.

Last summer I picked up a Gretsch hollow body and it had rounds on it. I stuck a foam mute under the strings and that was an improvement. I eventually put on a set of flats and now it’s sublime.

 

[thrashingbass]

They are "totes different", but it doesn't matter, it's not a competition. The important thing is that we do not attempt to force our preferences on others, as we have no idea what their gear is, or what their unique musical needs are. We should just make sure they serve *our* musical purposes well.

Personally love both, and I could use either for my purposes. Distortion is easier with roundwounds, but with different settings, totally doable with flatwounds. I haven't played my flats P bass in a while, but I am always personally wowed by its tone every time. Two of all my basses have flatwounds, the rest roundwounds, and I also have a lone shortie bass with tapewounds.

If I had to choose, I would stick with roundwounds because I like the extra harmonic content they produce, but for most music, my particularly niche preference does not matter. And I do not have to choose either/or, regardless!

No arguments are needed, they both can sound awesome.

 

[HelpImaRock]

New flats can sound somewhat round-like. By the time rounds die enough to mimic flats, they sound and feel terrible. My favorite strings right now are groundwounds.

 

[hasbeen]

Not gonna lie. I have a hard time hearing the difference between flats & rounds.

Seems to me that you can get the same sound out of rounds by turning your tone down.

I've done session work with rounds...in fact, that's all I used really. Certainly I could and did "replicate" the tone of flats with various muting technique, but the string will still responds differently.

 

[GIBrat51]

Not gonna lie. I have a hard time hearing the difference between flats & rounds.

Seems to me that you can get the same sound out of rounds by turning your tone down.

Really?!? Too bad...
I've been able to tell the difference since I learned to play bass - in 1968, on a friend's lefty '68 Rick 4001. With it's factory Maxima 4440 Flats. And, I've rarely played basses with rounds on them, ever since. I can definitely hear the difference. I purged my Bass Herd of it's final set of rounds, about a year ago. With the exception of 3 basses that wear tape wounds? All the 27 other basses wear flats; all kinds and gauges of flats... No more guitar-like twangy-ness until the new strings break in; no more extremely annoying finger squeak; and no more replacing strings every few months. Which, with 30 basses? Feels like a full time job - especially since I do play them all...

 

[subdude67]

In my experience, the difference between rounds and flats is way more in the feel of the string, not the sound. Tone controls on the bass and amp go a long way to blur the lines between them. How they feel under your hands is where things vary greatly.

 

[Bassdirty]

...... I always thought Simonon used rounds, but apparently the London Calling smashed bass has flats on it.

Maybe that's why he smashed it?..

 

[Timothy Brosnan]

A lot of early isolated bass tracks from Led Zeppelin have been appearing on YouTube lately. While the bass sounds like it has flats on it when you listen to the album, listening to it isolated, it definitely sounds like rounds.

I’m not looking to replay the “did JPJ use rounds or flats on the first two LZ albums,” I’m just noting what I found, when listening to the tracks isolated, versus with the whole mix.

 

[GrowlerBox]

A lot of early isolated bass tracks from Led Zeppelin have been appearing on YouTube lately. While the bass sounds like it has flats on it when you listen to the album, listening to it isolated, it definitely sounds like rounds.

I’m not looking to replay the “did JPJ use rounds or flats on the first two LZ albums,” I’m just noting what I found, when listening to the tracks isolated, versus with the whole mix.

I’d be cautious about drawing any fine-grained distinctions regarding tone from AI-generated stems posted on Youtube, which will be many degrees of separation from the originally recorded tracks before their mixing, mastering and finally bouncing down to an mp3 of questionable fidelity that is then butchered and cling-wrapped for the purposes of learning the line rather than appreciating the nuances of tone, let alone string choice.