Let me throw my vote in there for the Fender 9050. I picked up a set on Friday for my Jazz bass because they were out of Chromes. I know they have only been on my bass a few days, but I really like these Fenders. They have a really smooth sound that can get aggressive when I dig in.
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FUNK FLATWOUND STRINGS
- Thread starter valloti
- Start date
+1 sanderic, people, your're convincing me more and more about the Fenders 9050. noe which would you recommend, the M or the ML?
Yes, the "L' set are the traditional light gauges, 45-60-80-100. The only difference between the L set and the CL (custom light) set is that the E string in the CL set is a 105. There are those of us who tend to "dig in" and prefer the slightly heavier E string.
Great, great strings.
If i buy the Fenders i'll go either for the 9050M (50-65-85-100) or 9050 ML (55-70-90-105), i need thicker fatter sound for funk and some heavy loud overdriven jazz! Comments?
I tried the 50-65-85-100 and they were excellent strings. Took about 6 weeks till they settled in for me but were fantastic sounding from string to string.
Be warned the heavy 55-70-90-105 are very stiff and high in tension but sound great too.
There very bright and zingy at first but settle in quickly.
They have very good punch and growl.
After about 3 months the growl lessened a bit but the punch never did.
My D string broke so i want another set,
I loved the punch.
I'll make this quick and to the point. I just installed the Fender 9050 Gauge:: 9050-5M: 45-125t on my Squier Active Deluxe V with bassmods preamp. Ordered the from " bassstrings.com " the whole transaction and followup was top notch. My initial impression was they where to metallic and micro-phonic sounding. After about 3 days, they settled down started to sound full audio spectrum sounding. I play slap and finger style so these are the perfect strings " for me " for all styles of music. I've only had them on for 3 weeks now. I'm sure the ebonol fretboard has an effect, but man I'm impressed. I have chromes on my Fender P Bass and my Peavy P Bass. Chromes have been on for about a year on both. With the new fender flats it's my all around goto killer tone bass. I have more, but I did say I'll keep it short. D'Adarrio Pro steels, EB Slinkys, Chromes and Dunlop Nickels have been on this bass. Fender 9050 ROCKS.!!!!!!!! Image is with Pro steels.
Another vote here for the Pyramids. I use them on my Precision bass in a motown/funk band and they are perfect. Great feeling strings too. I play upright as well, and the Pyramids remind me of Spirocores in feel.
I also play in a funk band, I'm true to Thomastik Infeld flatwounds 43-100, from a jazz bass, through Music Mans to P basses
I have Fenders on my Dinosaur -- yes Dinosaur -- P bass clone, TI Jazz Flats on my Lakland 55-94 and have used Sadwosky Black Label flats on the 55-94 as well. My main band is a '60s soul/funk aggregation with horns (Pickett, Sam & Dave, Otis, etc.) and the TIs seem to work best for that. The Dinosaur sounds great (replaced the junk PUP with a hot Fralin) but the neck is terrible and makes the bass unplayable. I have LaBellas on my Hofner Icon and GHS Precision Flats on my Rick 4001C64 for the McCartney sound. Use these basses in a '60s band that does mostly Brit invasion and American rock from '63-'70. Fro most applications, the TIS work fine but are too expensive to put on all my basses.
For me, having a G string with that much more tension than the E string can make a bass very uncomfortable to play, if you're set on a 50 or 55 G string then I recommend getting a 110 E string and heavier A & D strings to match.
Also, heavier strings don't always mean a heavier tone. I use higher tension strings because they actually sound brighter, due to the string having a smaller area of vibration. Tune your A string on your bass down to an E and you'll hear that it sounds much darker than the fully tensioned E string.
Thank you all guys, it#s been super helpful but also to much info, at the end i think it#s just a matter of trying but i guess i'll just buy a Fender 9050ML (50 to 100) AND La Bella Jamerson (52 to 110), since i need the bass to be not really versatile but old funk and some overdriven jazz like this:
https://soundcloud.com/fusak-trio/meshes-of-the-afternoon
but it's mainly for a very old school herd funk!
Anyways guys thanks a lot and please feel free to keep posting recommendations!
https://soundcloud.com/fusak-trio/meshes-of-the-afternoon
but it's mainly for a very old school herd funk!
Anyways guys thanks a lot and please feel free to keep posting recommendations!
I've not tried the new Fender flats but I cannot recommend highly enough the GHS Precision Flats. Better than Chromes, Thomastik Jazz Flats or Labellas for me. FWIW: Fender 9050's are slightly modified Chromes with more low-mid focus but still as bright up top. Not my thing. I like a nice oldschool sounding thumpy flat with punch to the attack and GHS delivers that for me. They still are crisp enough to slap as well; and honestly have been the only flatwound I liked slapped. Not too much tension either, about between Thomastik and Chromes (45-100) in the 50-105 set.
DAMN URBAN MYTH!!! FENDER FLATS ARE NOT RE-WORKED CHROMES.
Everybody forgets that Fender bought the V. C. Squier string manufacturing company in 1965, which was one of the original old-line string companies that invented modern wound strings in the 1890's. Fender makes their own strings.
Now, that said, the Fender flats have stainless steel wrap as opposed to chromium steel wrap, and have the same type of growl, albeit subdued because the wrap is flat instead of round, that steel rounds do.
As a matter of fact, even though the 9050CL 45-60-80-105 set is my favorite, I do not like the Fender B string, so I use a GHS SuperSteels .138 for a B string, and when it settles in, it blends perfectly with the Fender EADG.
I can't play them. They're much too heavy for my taste. IMO they're only for you if you like a VERY heavy , stiff-feeling string.
I'm a Labella Deep Talkin' Flats player, not Jamersons.
This is exactly the tone I'm after on my 5-stringers. I have one old set of flats that does the sound perfectly, but I'm not sure of the brand. I thought they were Labella's, but recently manufactured Labella 5 sets seem to have a mis-matched B so I'm not sure they're the same thing.
Anyway ... can anyone recommend a 5-string set, with a good B, for this sound ? One that you've tried and liked ?
Anyway ... can anyone recommend a 5-string set, with a good B, for this sound ? One that you've tried and liked ?
I've got D'addario tapes on my Alleva-Copollo EUT5 (70's jazz 5) , but I've done this before also.
I've not found a set of flats that I've really liked the B string on - TI's & Chromes have been the best - and using a well used round wound B string with my regular 4 string set of flats worked pretty well.
Doesn't sound too Woofy or dull.
