Flatwound Epiphany

[micguy]

25746728[/URL], member: 267679"]Once you go flatwounds, you never go back. Well, it's possible you go back lol.

I’ve tried flats twice. Couldn’t get the blasted things off fast enough. Pressurewounds - on the right bass, yes. But flats? Not for me.

 

[woodyng2]

Variety is what i like. Even like to have different brands of a particular string type to choose from.
Rounds,flats,and tapes.

 

[fishdude101101]

Everyone should want mids.....thats how your are heard playing live.

I swear to god, if one more sound guy refuses to touch his smiley face thats been in place since 1963, im gonna go postal.

I swear to god if one more sound guy makes me sound like a boxy honk machine with tone like Billy Sheehan, Steve Harris, Lemmy, I'm gonna put a big old notch in the eq I send him. If I wanted to sound like a guitar I'd play one. Why do I have to love the honkey harsh sound everyone is in love with these days?

I want some mids, but I pretty much can't stand boxy mids. Like 500hz. Or harsh upper mids, like 800hz-1.6hz. any sound guy can crank the mids and get bass to cut through.

 

[Pings Bass]

I'm trapped in the 80s in that I think rounds are for bass guitar and flats are for upright. Gotta have that zing!

HOWEVER in the last year I've switched over to flats on my fretless BGs, and.... yep, not going back to rounds on them!

And since I basically never play my fretted basses, I guess you could say I'm a convert, too.

 

[21DaHoagie12]

Sounds likes me the first day I had success with the wacky rig man what a day that was

 

[Rolling Thunder]

I feel the same way about flats. Less wear on frets, too. I'm going one level up from flats with a build I'm doing....going to give tapewounds on a fretless a try.

 

[Killing Floor]

It takes a while to find your ideal strings. Congrats.

 

[2F/2F]

I feel the same way about flats. Less wear on frets, too. I'm going one level up from flats with a build I'm doing....going to give tapewounds on a fretless a try.

FYI, that's one level back toward rounds. Aside from the feel of the surface of the strings, they actually play much more like light gauge rounds than like traditional high tension flats.

 

[J-Mags]

Everyone should want mids.....thats how your are heard playing live.

I swear to god, if one more sound guy refuses to touch his smiley face thats been in place since 1963, im gonna go postal.

Speaking of flats, there's not a smiley face around that can defeat the mids of a set of GHS Precision flats 45-105 on a P-Bass.

 

[J-Mags]

I prefer flats nearly all the time. I like both flats and rounds when I'm playing with my fingers, but when I'm playing with a pick, I just can't stand the scratchy Duff McKagan sound. I like it when Duff does it, or any number of rock and punk bassists. But for me, I want punch across the string, and I want click. That's just how I feel most comfortable with my sound.

Playing the kind of music that I do, with a lot of loud, distorted guitars, I find that a lot of the width and grind of round wounds disappears when the guitars come in. The flats sound more similar whatever the other instruments are doing. You can hear more of them because they're not getting ground up with the guitars. Obviously I'm in the minority of people playing punk and hard rock who feel that way. If I really want to be heard, I'll play my parts P with GHS Precision Flats, and the mids and attack will stick out. If I want my bass to sound more like a standard rock bass, I'll play my PJ with 9050s, and what you can hear after the guitars come in is pretty close to what you'd hear anyway.

 

[fishdude101101]

Speaking of flats, there's not a smiley face around that can defeat the mids of a set of GHS Precision flats 45-105 on a P-Bass.

Honest if I role the mids off just a little its damn near perfect.

 

[coyote1]

I like to have enough basses to have at least a few strung with each string type. First world problems, yeah.

Yep. My fretless basses have flats, my fretted basses have rounds. Nice to have the variety of tones available

 

[Doner Designs]

The tone of flat brands varies dramatically. Try Ernie Ball, Daddario or Roto for a much brighter sound. GHS are thumpers and Labella are kinda in between.

 

[Gizmot]

Now that you’ve discovered flats, the next part of the journey begins. What brand / model is best for you? After playing around with quite a few brands, I learned the one for me is Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats. For other opinions, you can read other enthusiastic reviews from other players.

 

[Chicken Wing]

For me, rounds sounded awesome at home but I missed my flats when playing with the band. It’s all about the fundamental for me with a little bit of top end.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

FYI, that's one level back toward rounds. Aside from the feel of the surface of the strings, they actually play much more like light gauge rounds than like traditional high tension flats.

I hear you, I was referring more to the potentially ensuing rabbit hole. Pressurewound is another one.

 

[REV]

For about half of my bass career I played rounds exclusively. There was a sound I was after and I even had a recorded sample of it (made by someone else) but I could never achieve it on my own. When I would play in the studio I would bring in this audio sample in and say "can you make my bass sound like this?" and the engineer would always say "yes" but it never came out that way. Then one day, I was at Norms Rare Guitars in LA and there was this '58 P bass with flats. I played it unplugged at first and a light went off in my head, " this could be the one"! When I plugged it in it was exactly the sound I was hearing in my head. This was about 15 years ago and that '58 P was $9000.00.
There was no way I could afford that kind of money but playing that bass made me think about flatwound strings.
I'd never really considered it before. I've tried may brands and the Low Tension Flat Labellas get me as close to that sound as I've ever come. I still have a few basses with rounds but when it's up to me I mostly play a bass with flat wounds.

 

[Bassamatic]

Wait until you try the T.I. Jazz Flats. There is nothing like them and they last forever, which is good because they are expensive (but well worth it!).

I play flats and rounds, and for the right bass, the T.I.s are beyond amazing. I have them on my Mustang P/J and a Peavey Fury and a Fender Jazz.
They sing well with these. I keep trying to replace them with other flats or rounds, and always go back to them on those basses.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

Yeah man, I hear ya. I’ve had flats on all my basses for some time now. I’ve tried a few rounds, and while I can appreciate the sound they do get, it’s just never what I want to hear when I play anymore.

 

[Mastermold]

I have flats (several kinds) on most of mine but still use rounds when needed.