Flatwound Epiphany

[NoSlapForYou]

Don't understand why people talk about flats as being dull. Maybe it's my amp and cab combination (Ampeg PF-50T with SVT-212AV). Or maybe it's my bass (Fender Aerodyne). Or maybe it's the particular flats I'm using (D'Addario Chromes). But I have no issue getting any area of the frequency range. I've even used it to record some heavier tracks lately where I was looking for that modern metal "barbed wire" sound.

 

[onda'bass]

I do like flats, have a 10+ year old of chromes on one bass. Its tone is meaty, fat,and not muddy. Eq plays a good role in getting the tone you want. Also I know it's flat protocol, but play them in good before you judge and don't be afraid to roll off the tone. ymmv

 

[Bassiclees]

Get yourself some TI flats and feel the magic.
Both the Daddario and LaBella tapes are great as well.

 

[Durham52]

Also a LaBella Low Tension Flats fan, have then on my bitsa Jazz bass with Bartolini split coils, and get a lovely deep and rich tone. I still get all the definition I want, not muddy at all. It's not a good for everything sound, but then nothing is. But the LaBella's on that bass make me happy at the moment.

 

[Dana R Gregory]

I tried flats (chromes) several years ago and it was love at first touch. My fingers love D'Addario light gauge chromes. I won't play anything else and don't plan on ever playing rounds again.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Recently installed a set of EB Cobalt Flats (45-130) per the recommendations of others...slightly stiffer than what I prefer. Next go-round, I'll try the 40-95 4 string set and add the 130 B single unless somebody has a better idea. I also like the LaBella LTF's.

Riis

 

[RichardW]

This reminds me of that joke: "You know what I've just realized? I've never had an epiphany!"

Flats are da bomb. I have them on all my gigging basses.

 

[mellowgerman]

Congrats!
It definitely just depends on player preference. I've put flats on pretty much every bass I've owned for the past 15 years. The only consistent exceptions where I prefer nickel rounds were the few Thunderbird basses I've owned.
Admittedly I do currently have my Newport bass strung with rounds but that's just because I put a low impedance Jack Casady pickup in it with a filter preamp in it's place. That makes it kind of Alembic-ish, so I wanted to try the hi-fi sound with rounds. Probably will go back to flats on that one, but the point is, I think it's important to keep rounds in mind. You might still come across the odd bass that just works best with them.

 

[burgerdj]

Welcome to the flat side! Give some thought to EB Cobalt flats if you’re looking to retain some brightness and snap. They respond very well to a little eq and can go from agro to smooth with the twist of a knob.

 

[retslock]

I would suggest GHS Round Core Boomers or GHS Balanced Nickels, both of which are smoother than most rounds in their upper-mids, but till clear enough not to get lost in a band mix.

I would agree on the GHS Boomers. I’m mostly a flats guy and have them on three basses; Chromes on two and La Bella on the other. The fourth has GHS and I like them a lot.

 

[G On Bass]

Yep. One onf my main PJ5s has flats (rotating brands, currently TI Jazz) the other one has stainless (old Dunlop MMs). Both active. Both amazing. Flats get 90% of the work when possible.

 

[MtManiac]

So last night I played flats for the first time with actual people at rehearsal. I'd messed around with them before at home but never really pulled the trigger on taking them outside of the woodshed.

I was blown away. Basically it's what I've been looking for all this time. One Jazz with Labella Low Tension flats, the Other with GHS Precision Flats. Two flavors of good.

I honestly don't know if I'm going to keep rounds on any basses going forward. It just seems like I didn't have to think about tone, and it just felt better under my fingers.

I don't really slap sound I don't need that snappy sound anyway.

I switched to flats full time around 2007 or 2008. I’d tried them a few times before that but almost immediately took them off, due primarily to the “sticky” feel some people complain about and their higher tension, so I preferred dead or at least broken in rounds with the tone turned down, but somewhere around 2007-8, based on Talkbass, I committed to them and it was really only with the first time playing them live and in a mix that I understood. That’s where they shine, so I kept using them. Chromes, Fenders, and Rotosound flats, on P basses, and I’ve been very happy.

Recently though, I’ve been playing with a group that does heavier 90s and later rock, and a Tbird that I bought came with dead/broken in rounds, and now that’s the tone I crave. I’ve tried my Ps with flats and it’s just not getting me where I wanna be gotten. I still hate new rounds though, I wish you could buy them new with the zing worked out.

 

[stretch80]

I'm weird. I even play Led Zeppelin on basses with flats. they just work and feel best to this guy.

Not surprising - John Paul Jones was playing a Jazz with flats for many of their records, I think!

 

[AboutSweetSue]

I love flats, and I’ve played nothing but for a good twelve years or so. Lately, though, I’ve been getting into Tool. I may need to outfit a bass with rounds.

Although flats lend a different approach to Tool; I feel like rounds would be a bit easier to coax the appropriate bass tone and playing for the music.

 

[JazznFunk]

Flats are all different, and will respond differently depending on the bass. I've ended up settling on GHS Precision Flats in a light gauge for my P-Bass, one of my Lakland 44-01s, and my StingRay.... and Sadowsky Blue Label light gauge flats on my 2 Jazz Basses. The Sadowsky flats are a little stiffer feeling even in a light gauge, and I feel like they have retained quite a bit of their girth and growl like aged rounds, but with the top nicely rolled off. They just feel solid, yet comfortable. Well worth a try if you can find them.... I bought a set or 2 before Sadowsky changed all of their production/distribution for strings over to Warwick, so I don't know if there have been any changes in sound/construction since that switch.

 

[avalant]

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.

Steve Harris plays flats, though.

 

[jnewmark]

So last night I played flats for the first time with actual people at rehearsal. I'd messed around with them before at home but never really pulled the trigger on taking them outside of the woodshed.

I was blown away. Basically it's what I've been looking for all this time. One Jazz with Labella Low Tension flats, the Other with GHS Precision Flats. Two flavors of good.

I honestly don't know if I'm going to keep rounds on any basses going forward. It just seems like I didn't have to think about tone, and it just felt better under my fingers.

I don't really slap sound I don't need that snappy sound anyway.

Just curious. I've tried both of those and fell in love with the GHS Precision Flats. They had a broken in feel right out of the package, not sticky at all, balanced sound, and after a few months, still sound the same. I even installed a bridge mute on my P bass. The LaBellas I thought were not as balanced, took forever to smooth out in tone, then the E string went dead.

 

[JazznFunk]

Just curious. I've tried both of those and fell in love with the GHS Precision Flats. They had a broken in feel right out of the package, not sticky at all, balanced sound, and after a few months, still sound the same. I even installed a bridge mute on my P bass. The LaBellas I thought were not as balanced, took forever to smooth out in tone, then the E string went dead.

That's been my experience with the GHS Precision Flats too.... and the Lakland Joe Osborn flats (which were basically the same strings with a slightly different gauge). The sets I have on my P-Bass and on one of my Laklands are at least 11 years old and still sound as good as the day I put them on.

 

[el murdoque]

So last night I played flats for the first time with actual people at rehearsal. I'd messed around with them before at home but never really pulled the trigger on taking them outside of the woodshed.

I was blown away. Basically it's what I've been looking for all this time. One Jazz with Labella Low Tension flats, the Other with GHS Precision Flats. Two flavors of good.

I honestly don't know if I'm going to keep rounds on any basses going forward. It just seems like I didn't have to think about tone, and it just felt better under my fingers.

I don't really slap sound I don't need that snappy sound anyway.

You sound like me a couple of years back.
I've had a terrible set of flats on a fretless I bought back in the nineties, and there was a shortscale SG bass in my school that was strung with flats. Those were the only contacts with those strings I ever had. My preferred strings were Elixirs. I put them on and rolled off highs until they were about 10 months old. That's when I started to like them. I could play them for a year, maybe a year and a half before the coating came off and they needed to be replaced.
I honestly can't tell you what made me buy a set of flats after more than a decade of playing elixirs exclusively because I don't remember. What I do remember is how my first set of LaBellas felt to my fingers and to my ears. I grinned. My bandmates grinned. Everybody was happy

 

[Mosstone]

Not surprising - John Paul Jones was playing a Jazz with flats for many of their records, I think!

Yep... JPJ said he always used flats on his Jazz Bass, but used rounds on the Alembic, because he felt that flats would "hold that bass back too much".