Flatwound B-Strings?

[Joebone]

So I'm using TI jazz flats on a 4-string, and La Bella 760FL flats on a 5-string. Both great strings, just different.

I'm not sold on the La Bella B-string (.128) as I'm getting some strange intonation, even though the tuner tells me that the 12th fret pitch is consistent for the harmonic and when fretted. The string sounds sharp in the lower frets when the tuner tells me it's correct. I downtune it by ear, using 5th/7th fret harmonics, and it sounds great until the 9th or 10th fret. Meanwhile, it also goes sharp above the 15th fret, relative to wherever the fundamental pitch is set. This is all after a set-up by an excellent technician.


Maybe I just have a bad one, or maybe all flatwound B-strings are like that?

I'd love to hear how others are doing with various flatwound B-strings.

 

[lowendfriend]

I've had a little challenge with my Sadowsky flat B but it is most likely cockpit errors, as I have just learned about intonation setup AND I got an XL length when I should've gotten regular length. Net result is wrapping almost a turn of the full thickness string around the B tuning post.

 

[pickles]

The La Bella worked quite well for me. Not as amazing as their roundwound Bs, but solid and thumpy. I didn't sweat the intonation very much, I just made sure it played in tune up to the 6th fret and moved on ...

 

[ggunn]

So I'm using TI jazz flats on a 4-string, and La Bella 760FL flats on a 5-string. Both great strings, just different.

I'm not sold on the La Bella B-string (.128) as I'm getting some strange intonation, even though the tuner tells me that the 12th fret pitch is consistent for the harmonic and when fretted. The string sounds sharp in the lower frets when the tuner tells me it's correct. I downtune it by ear, using 5th/7th fret harmonics, and it sounds great until the 9th or 10th fret. Meanwhile, it also goes sharp above the 15th fret, relative to wherever the fundamental pitch is set. This is all after a set-up by an excellent technician.


Maybe I just have a bad one, or maybe all flatwound B-strings are like that?

I'd love to hear how others are doing with various flatwound B-strings.

When I put flats on my Alembic Epic 5 (I don't remember which brand they were), the B string was significantly sharp at the 12th fret even with the saddle pulled back as far as it would go. The intonation adjustment needed on the other 4 strings was minor.

 

[engedi1]

Has anyone tried the TI Flat B string? THis is my favorite b string on the market. It is flexible enough (although HUGE!) that maybe the intonation problems won't be so prevalent. I have the TI Flat's complete set on my M5-24 and I have never noticed any intonation issues.

 

[idoru]

Joebone: what's your pickup/tone settings when tuning? It's generally recommended to go to the neck pickup and roll the tone off to increase the ratio of fundamental : harmonics.

Also, not sure if you know this, but the initial attack of a note is sharper than it's sustain/decay. This can play merry hell with intonation, and I'm still not entirely sure how to get around it

c-

 

[lowendfriend]

What I've tried to do with my B is to get the 0 fret note, the 12th fret note, the 12th fret harmonic and the 24th fret note as close as possible.

I have noticed that using a crisp attack makes it all go to hell in a handbasket, so I tend to use a soft attack when adjusting intonation on a b string.

Maybe there is an optimum place along the string to pluck with the meaty part of your thumb to get a smooth, low peak to average attack that is ideal for tweaking intonation.

Then again, I could be out to lunch!

 

[FatSamy]

There are 3 thing to do to fix the low B flatwound issue. Well maybe not 100% but almost there.
The issue is not only strange intonation but also that "chorus" effect.
In my case ( Fender Professional Precison ) the B string was in tune according to 2 tunners but starting with the 2'nd fret the notes where all over the place. That made me tune by ear to aprox -38 ct and that seemed to have solved it but still a pain having to do that evry hour and the chorusy effect didn't just go away so here is what did it for me.

1. Sand down the nut just a bit
2. Raise the bridge action.
3. Lower the pickup.

It's all from the nut.
I have LaBellas on and sanding down the nut made the tunning problem on the neck go away and gave me a better string tension of couse, better as in more tension or similar to what I am use to on 5 string basses.
Raising the action and lowering the pickup is going to solve the chorus effect. For me it's gone almost all the way, still having some after the 12'th fret.
Hope it helps.

 

[studio848]

I've been mucking around with flatwound Bs for some time - and have a fairly large bag of strings to show for it.

And then it finally occurred to me - why not try using an E string for the B string?

So I dug my fattest E flat out of the bag (at least 105), slapped it on, tuned up and -

It seems to work very well, sounds good to me. 34" scale.

Re floppy - feels ok. I do slap, but I do not slap the B string. Play finger style mostly, and it's working for me.

Give it a go, see what you think ...

PS - As Frank said - "I may be totally wrong, but I'm a fool"

 

[iiipopes]

The three flatwound B strings I have experience with all do a good, if not stellar job for what they are:
Ernie Ball Stainless Steel 130
La Bella Deep Talkin' 128
D'Addario Chrome 132.
The problem is with the mass of the string. Once you get this thick on a bass guitar string, the partials start to lose their harmonicity. By definition, their physics preclude free vibration in their partials or overtones, and they can't play in tune up the neck past, say, the 7th to 9th fret. And as stated above, unless your nut slot is perfect, or if you have single string compensation at the nut, the first few frets are going to be sharp, while the 7th through 9th frets are going to be flat, and everything higher will wobble due to the inharmonicity. Look up all the threads where Dr. Kemp of Scotland talks about his research in this regard.

 

[winston]

Of the 5 string flat wounds I’ve tried I’ve found that round cores give clearer pitch and fewer overtones - TI Jazz Flats and DR Legends are great in this regard, IME being playable well above the 12th fret with a proper setup. Chromes, though hex-core, were also fairly playable up the neck.

I was disappointed in the LaBella 760 low B (not sure of the model # but definitely not the round-core Low Tension Flats) - tons of overtones and not well matched to other strings. Same with the old Black Label Sadowsky Flats - the tapered B seems like a good idea in theory, but just sounds wayyyyy twangier than the other strings.