Flatwounds in Rock?

[jaco944]

actually no. Danelectro already had roundwound strings on this basses (probably heavy gauge guitar strings, considering the small tuners and bridge), and John Entwistle used to buy a new Danelectro when strings went dead, because there were no roundwound strings on the market.

he had Rotosound produce them, but at the time the Fender basses were not the "standard" anymore; the 60's were the era of short scale basses (hence the "long scale" used to point the Fender basses, and not the standard scale).



while listening, I thought about a P with rounds, not flats. however we'll probably never know!

coming back in topic, bassist from Greta Van Fleet uses a P with "very old" D'Addario flats:

You’re probably right about Head East..... I just always post that in “best....whatever” threads because I like it so much....relevant or not. Lol.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Have there been rock bands where the bassist used flatwound strings? I would love to hear some and how well/bad it sits in the mix.

There's some band like Cadmium Dirigible or something. Bassist named after some old pirate. He used flats or something. And some guy in some metal band... it was something like Brown Wednesday or something.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Hello, Paul McCartney.

I wouldn't call the Beatles rock. Rock and roll, sometimes, maybe. R&B sometimes.

 

[HaphAsSard]

it was something like Brown Wednesday or something.

- Domingo Blanco.
Nah, that's an Argentinian soccer player.

- Blue Monday?
Nope, a song not a band.

Ummm...

[In my worst English accent:]
- Teal Tuesday!

Not metal tho'. And Aimee Mann is a chick. And she used rounds...

 

[Pier_]

I wouldn't call the Beatles rock. Rock and roll, sometimes, maybe. R&B sometimes.

well... 1968

 

[Holy Diver]

More epinephrine for the zombie....

Dana Strum used flats, with felt picks, through 1820 cabs. He was the #notreble OG, at least as it relates to hair metal.

To answer OP’s question, sure. You can use flats for pretty much any genre, but YMMV as far as whether or not they work for YOU. I have a preferred sound that I cannot get with flats, but I tried them myself to determine that.

 

[Jaume2]

Anyone remember Jack Bruce?
Labella flats.

 

[maturanesa]

Iron Maiden, Oasis, Tool, Soundgarden

 

[J-Mags]

I use flats for punk. The bubububububu on the eight notes sounds real defined and drummy compared to rounds.

 

[Rayjay]

Great question from the OP. But there is a bit of bad information here.

John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin absolutely used Rotosound flats on his Jazz Bass. Early he used a foam mute (Led Zeppelin I), then without (Houses of the Holy). BUT, the link to the Immigrant song live - he used a Telecaster bass with rounds on that one.

Ben Sheppard from Soundgarden used roundwounds exclusively. But, he prefers years-old dead rounds.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

John Deacon used flats. I've seen some live concert footage where I could hear he was using rounds, but on the studio recordings of "Under Pressure", "You're my Best Friend", and "Bohemian Rhapsody", and many of their other songs, he was definitely using flats.

 

[chadhargis]

One of the best bands out today...Greta Van Fleet.

Sam Kiszka:

Sam Kiszka: Hard Rock is Alive with Greta Van Fleet
What are you using to track bass on the new album?

A good number of instruments. My one and only bass is a Seafoam Green Fender Precision Bass with Jazz Bass neck; it’s a ’50s reissue made in the ’80s. That bass sounds fantastic, and it’s the most comfortable bass I’ve ever played. I also used a ’72 Fender Telecaster Bass for a few songs, and a ’65 Precision owned by our producer, Al Sutton, as well as a ’69 Precision. There are flatwounds on all of them except the ’69. That’s just in case I need a roundwound sound, but I do prefer flats. That’s another area where Jamerson influenced me—I like the mellower tone of the flats. It makes me do things that are counterintuitive to the sound that I want, like cranking my tone all the way up.

 

[Stranger Danger]

I wouldn't call the Beatles rock. Rock and roll, sometimes, maybe. R&B sometimes.

They’re definitely rock and roll. Hell they helped define the genre.