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Flats with balls?!?

Silver Hammer

Silver Hammer

Aug 17, 2006
310
0
#1
Ok so I just got a fretless Jazz from Rondo. It came with (probably cheap) flats on it. The only other time I'd played with flats was on my old bass teacher's fretless Fender Jazz like 2 weeks after I started playing bass. After a good day of playing this bass I have to say- I love the feel of flats. At first I thought they felt weird as I've spent countless hours with rounds but after playing my SUB, that has rounds on it, again I couldn't wait to go back to the flats. They just feel so much better on your fingers for long periods of play.

But... they just sound too mellow. I did a search and it seemed TI Jazz Flats were the answer to get the feeling of flats but with some oomph to the sound but when I Google'd um to find a place to purchase I could only find them for $50 and above which is pretty excessive for a 17 year old bassist. Any other options?
 
#2
GHS Precision flats. They can be had for anywhere from 19-20 dollars. The best place to get them pricewise is from Link Removed
They do not sell a 5 string set per se, but you can order the B string seperately. Just call Bob and he can get the matching B string with the set to you.
Flats do have a warmer, more mellow tone than a round, but they have plenty of "boom" to go with it. For a little more "twang" go with a set of D'Addario Chromes. A little more expensive, however.
 
#5
Balls? I say Sadowsky or Rotosound, both have aggressive mids and low mids in there, but have different overall voices, and you may prefer one over the other.

Chromes have a more pronounced high mid voice, but I find they aren't as aggressive and ballsy as either of the above can be, with suitable attack and EQ.
 
#7
If you want oophh, don't get the Ti jazz flats, they have a very nice sound that tends to be brighter than other flats brighter in the mids not in the highs, they however don't have the low mid punch that other flats like labella have. If I remember corectly rondo music does not ship their bass with very good strings, I remember that my Sx jazz had those very light gauge and very small sounding roundwounds on it when I received it, maybe your flats are from the same make?

Anyway, for a first good flatwound set, I would not go with the Ti's, they are too expensive and you don't even know yet if you like the kind of sound flats produce. Also Ti's are a kind of sound of their own, not representative of the flatwound world at all.
 
#8
If you want a compromise between flats and rounds (tone closer to rounds but with a slightly smoother feel), then maybe you should consider some groundwound or pressurewound strings. Check out Rotosound Solo Bass pressure wounds. I use these on my fretless Jazz and they're pretty close to what it sounds like you're after.
 
#10
JustOpenYourMind said:
If you want oophh, don't get the Ti jazz flats, they have a very nice sound that tends to be brighter than other flats brighter in the mids not in the highs, they however don't have the low mid punch that other flats like labella have. If I remember corectly rondo music does not ship their bass with very good strings, I remember that my Sx jazz had those very light gauge and very small sounding roundwounds on it when I received it, maybe your flats are from the same make?

Anyway, for a first good flatwound set, I would not go with the Ti's, they are too expensive and you don't even know yet if you like the kind of sound flats produce. Also Ti's are a kind of sound of their own, not representative of the flatwound world at all.
Click to expand...

+1. I like TI flats for their own sound and feel - they are really in their own category. But they aren't to be confused with traditional flatwounds which are constructed differently and with different materials. Thus TIs don't sound (or feel) the same as what you would hear on recordings that exemplify the classic flatwound sound.

I call the TI flats, "un-flats". They have their own thing goin' on.
 
#11
bassybill said:
If you want a compromise between flats and rounds (tone closer to rounds but with a slightly smoother feel), then maybe you should consider some groundwound or pressurewound strings. Check out Rotosound Solo Bass pressure wounds. I use these on my fretless Jazz and they're pretty close to what it sounds like you're after.
Click to expand...

My fave hybrid strings are the lighter-gauge GHS Pressurewounds and the virtually identical Ken Smith Compressors. Good smooth feel, last forever, have a similar pick sound to flats, yet are flexible enough to have more upper overtones available in the fingerstyle attack and the sustained voice.
 
#14
Hmm I might have to check out those DR's as I've been using Lo-Riders on my SUB forever. To clarify it's not really the brightness of rounds that I'm looking for (I guess) because I use a mid heavy eq and roll off some highs it's just more that my rounds punch way more. The flats on the SX tend to "sing" and I want them to "bark". Make any sense?
 
#15
If you want mid-focused "balls", I'd go with D'Addario Chromes, which are pretty punchy in the mids. At first they are also quite bright for flats, but after a few weeks of playing they settle down nicely and sound very well rounded.
 
#16
Silver Hammer said:
Hmm I might have to check out those DR's as I've been using Lo-Riders on my SUB forever. To clarify it's not really the brightness of rounds that I'm looking for (I guess) because I use a mid heavy eq and roll off some highs it's just more that my rounds punch way more. The flats on the SX tend to "sing" and I want them to "bark". Make any sense?
Click to expand...

Even more reason to try the Rotos or Sads, IMO. my preference is for the Sadowskys.
 

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