Flatwounds on a "fancy" bass

[DaveAceofBass]

I’ve got a good response for you. My Kinal PJ5 bass has Nordstrand pickups and a John East preamp. I tried for a long time to find the right strings. I love the sound of flats with a P pickup, but there were just so many issues with getting a sound. I tried lots of strings over the years with this bass, rounds, Pressurewounds, flats galore. I tried GHS, Labella, D’Addario, Thomastiks, Sadowsky, the list goes on and on. Most of them sounded great but only gave me one sound with the P pickup and pretty much rendered my East preamp useless. Some were so stiff they made the bass more difficult to play, and I tend to use lights or medium lights. But, I finally got around to trying some strings I wanted to try for a long time—Dogal Jaco Flats. They are smooth and polished like the LaBellas that I love, but they are flexible under my fingers like the DR Sunbeams making them far easier to play. The best part is they have enough high end and clarity to allow my preamp to give me the EQ colors I want, I can even get a good slap tone, and they even give me that nice P bass with flats thing I love if I want to use that tone. Check them out...they are from Italy so I don’t know how affected they are by COVID-19, but they could use our help. US dealer is Strings By Mail, but they only carry a few gauges. You can probably order a different gauge.

 

[J. Brooks]

True, I just mean that certain techniques like tapping, chords, harmonics, etc. generally respond better on specific strings like lighter gauge rounds, while more traditional techniques are less "demanding" of the string itself.

Personally some of my "modern" basses have flats because I like the way flats sit in a band mix, but I also like active EQ for on the fly tone shaping.

Yeah makes sense. I just got an active jazz bass five string and it's phenomenal. But I've mostly used flats (depending on the gig or if it sounded good on a particular bass) in the past cuz I like their basic tonality and feel more. This bass came with rounds and it sounds good but a bit too hi fi and smooth, but like you said the on the fly eq is super useful so I use this bass the most right now.

 

[Sixgunn]

Hey, I'm wondering if there's many people who use flatwounds on fancy modern basses, like Fodera, five strings, Sadowsky, basses with active preamps etc. and what their tone goals are, or reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask cuz it seems most people use roundwounds on modern basses and just curious to hear y'alls opinions one way or the other. (I have more experience with passive vintage style instruments)

I wouldn't put flats on anything but that's just me.

 

[GrapeBass]

Whatever works for your personal

Hey, I'm wondering if there's many people who use flatwounds on fancy modern basses, like Fodera, five strings, Sadowsky, basses with active preamps etc. and what their tone goals are, or reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask cuz it seems most people use roundwounds on modern basses and just curious to hear y'alls opinions one way or the other. (I have more experience with passive vintage style instruments)

Whatever works for you, it all depends your personal preference and expectations. Period.

 

[Marty Forrer]

I have TI Jazz Flats on my US Peavey Cirrus 5 walnut. Love 'em.

 

[jd56hawk]

I'd have to imagine plenty of people use flatwounds on boutique basses...tapewounds, too.

 

[ole Jason]

Not for me. Flats go on the P-bass and Mustang. Rounds or nylon tapes on the boutique stuff.

 

[Jazzdogg]

Hey, I'm wondering if there's many people who use flatwounds on fancy modern basses, like Fodera, five strings, Sadowsky, basses with active preamps etc. and what their tone goals are, or reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask cuz it seems most people use roundwounds on modern basses and just curious to hear y'alls opinions one way or the other. (I have more experience with passive vintage style instruments)

I am someone who likes the sound of flats, probably because after all these years, I am a double bass player at heart. When I hear people playing roundwounds, with their action set to accentuate fret buzz, my first reaction is to wonder why they haven't set up their bass "correctly" because it would never occur to me to cause that sound deliberately. Needless to say, I am an old guy; if you are comparatively young, you may not be able to relate to what I have said; there's nothing wrong with that.

I would love to hear someone record a Dingwall strung with flats and played cleanly, i.e., without fret clatter or buzziness.

 

[JariPozz]

Here's mine, a 1989/90? Greco with La Bella gold flatwounds.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I can understand you being baffled as I’m going to guess you didn’t read the OP. He asked if you would put flats on an expensive bass. That was my response.

 

[Gyver]

I have TI Jazz Flats on this Stud: X2 Nordstand BIG BLADEMAN + Nordie JC-3b preamp.

View attachment 3770425

Holy crap that thing is killer.

 

[Altitude]

I am someone who likes the sound of flats, probably because after all these years, I am a double bass player at heart. When I hear people playing roundwounds, with their action set to accentuate fret buzz, my first reaction is to wonder why they haven't set up their bass "correctly" because it would never occur to me to cause that sound deliberately. Needless to say, I am an old guy; if you are comparatively young, you may not be able to relate to what I have said; there's nothing wrong with that.

I would love to hear someone record a Dingwall strung with flats and played cleanly, i.e., without fret clatter or buzziness.

I think the pendulum has swung and swung back. The guys who like roundwounds, low action, and a bit of sexy fret buzz are guys like me in their late 40s who came up listening to Mark King. The kids these days are back to high action and flats.

 

[diegom]

I have TI Jazz Flats on this Stud: X2 Nordstand BIG BLADEMAN + Nordie JC-3b preamp.

View attachment 3770425

WHAT.IS.THAT???!?? Love that bass!!!

 

[lizardking837]

Hey, I'm wondering if there's many people who use flatwounds on fancy modern basses, like Fodera, five strings, Sadowsky, basses with active preamps etc. and what their tone goals are, or reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask cuz it seems most people use roundwounds on modern basses and just curious to hear y'alls opinions one way or the other. (I have more experience with passive vintage style instruments)

I had D'Addario Chromes on my Spector at one point. It cut down on a lot clank and fret noise. Chromes are relatively bright and using the active electronics I was able to get some brightness back into the sound, but it was still very smooth. I didn't have any super specific tone goals at the time. I just figured "why the shag not?"

 

[diegom]

Put the strings you want in the bass you have!

I would NOT (personal preference) install flats AND a foam mute on a "modern", active bass (Sandberg, Sadowsky, Spector). Nothing wrong with flats and mutes, it's just simply something I would not do. I'll get a passive P or J for that...
BTW, last time I saw Carol Kaye, she was playing an active Ibanez, with flats and some fabric taped-up on the bridge. Her tone was solid, as usual, so YMMV...

Diego

 

[Ric5]

Hey, I'm wondering if there's many people who use flatwounds on fancy modern basses, like Fodera, five strings, Sadowsky, basses with active preamps etc. and what their tone goals are, or reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask cuz it seems most people use roundwounds on modern basses and just curious to hear y'alls opinions one way or the other. (I have more experience with passive vintage style instruments)

I had flats on 2 different rickenbackers … because I bought them used and they came that way … it was cool and stuff … but I am a roundwound guy

 

[Dabndug]

I have Chromes on my Warwick Streamer LX. It"s fretless, which may throw a spanner in the works.

 

[luciens]

My jaco pastorius was pretty expensive... shockingly expensive in fact.... and it has Fender flats on it. And I don't intend to ever use anything else on it.

Yeah I know it's not boutique and non-Fender, but for a jazz bass it's probably pretty close to a boutique.

I also used flats on my rick 4001 and 3's from time to time over the years and that really helped calm down the "clop clop clop", that I'm known for with my crappy technique on such a bright sounding bass.

The main drawback of flats that I've observed is just the sustain. Even on a fretless they die out kind of quick which can lead to a "washtup bass" or giant rubber band kind of sound.

I always use compression and quite a bit of it though so that helps quite a bit.

So would I run flats on a boutique? Yeah sure would, though I'm a FL only player so that would influence that decision somewhat.

L

 

[Auspuff]

Hey, I'm wondering if there's many people who use flatwounds on fancy modern basses, like Fodera, five strings, Sadowsky, basses with active preamps etc. and what their tone goals are, or reasons for doing so?

The reason I ask cuz it seems most people use roundwounds on modern basses and just curious to hear y'alls opinions one way or the other. (I have more experience with passive vintage style instruments)

Been running Flats on my custom made, 1981 Carvin LB50.

All is well.

 

[woodyng2]

I had D'Addario Chromes on my Spector at one point. It cut down on a lot clank and fret noise. Chromes are relatively bright and using the active electronics I was able to get some brightness back into the sound, but it was still very smooth. I didn't have any super specific tone goals at the time. I just figured "why the shag not?"

I have chromes on 2 of my Ricks,and also a gl lb100. They feel like flatwounds,but seem to have the clang of roundwounds,so that might be a good set for me to try on my ns2j,
(I’ve had one set of chromes on my Rick 4000 for about 3 years,and they still sound as clangy as the day i put them on, I keep waiting for that alledged day they will “calm down”.)