Sometimes I like my Fender American Standard Jazz Bass to slur it's speech like it's had one too many Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskies. It's also fun when the swagger in its walk becomes a slight stagger.
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There has to be enough soft cakey texture for the bass to almost choke while swallowing. Brings out just the right sound.
Did you say "punch"? I'd say PUNCH!
I had a chance to put my Brite Flats to the test last night at the full band rehearsal. My J has never sounded as PUNCHY as it did last night. The nice thing about the BF is there is still enough going on in the midrange not to get lost in the mix while maintaining meaty lows. I also like the way I can add some serious grit and grind to them by tweaking the settings on my VT Bass DI.
Did you say "punch"? I'd say PUNCH!
I had a chance to put my Brite Flats to the test last night at the full band rehearsal. My J has never sounded as PUNCHY as it did last night. The nice thing about the BF is there is still enough going on in the midrange not to get lost in the mix while maintaining meaty lows. I also like the way I can add some serious grit and grind to them by tweaking the settings on my VT Bass DI.
Awesome! It sounds like you are getting from these strings on your fretted Jazz bass what I have found in them on my fretless Jazz bass. But why do they not sound so good on my fretted Jazz? I DEMAND AN ANSWER FROM THE UNIVERSE, thanks! (Regrettably, I did not bother to record any samples of BFs on that bass, so I don't have anything to analyze. Oh well. I think I would favor roundwound on this bass even if the BFs _did_ sound good, so there's that.)
Maybe this is just an indication your ears are more discerning than mine? Different tonal tastes, I would imagine...
Maybe this is just an indication your ears are more discerning than mine? Different tonal tastes, I would imagine...
If you are able to make and share a recording, I would much enjoy hearing it!
I wouldn't be holding my breath on this if I were you as you may be waiting awhile...
Doggone you Michael_t. Now I'm thinking I need to try another string, yet again and again..... 
Doggone you Michael_t. Now I'm thinking I need to try another string, yet again and again.....
Don't be too hasty, though. I would suggest you wait for my 30-day assessment.
I'm here with my 3-week (and final) assessment on the Brite Flats...
I know I said somewhere I'd give them at least 30 days before passing any judgment like I would always do with any test run with new strings; however, I do feel I've had enough time to test them out really good and gotten to know them well enough to declare them a no-go. Let me explain...
Imagine yourself going on a blind date partly out of curiosity and partly out of obligation just because the girl you're going out with happens to be your best friend's cousin. You've heard a few good things about her but at the same time you don't want to set the expectations too high in case it doesn't work out. That's how I felt about the Brite Flats; as a huge fan of the Pressurewounds (Alloy 52 rollerwound), I had to try their cousin, Alloy 52 half-rounds, just to see how they would stack up.
Refer back to posts #23 & #55 for the preliminaries and my initial impressions on the BFs.
First two weeks of my outing with the BFs was mostly positive as I was getting to know a few of their unique tonal qualities and playing feel. Extra punchy and full-bodied lows with enough mids for some bark and bite that you wouldn't normally get in traditional flats. There was also a hint of low-mid grind that kind of reminded me of the Fender 9050 flats I once had on this same Jazz bass. Once I got through the initial stickiness I previously mentioned, they felt more and more like normal flats while retaining some of the round-ish quality in their tone.
As the newness started to wear off in the third week, however, that's when I noticed a rather drastic change in their tone. All of a sudden, the bark and bite that I really liked at the beginning turned mellow to the point of sounding almost like the Fender flats. I was quite shocked at the idea a set of strings that sounded so strong and lively one week could sound so lifeless and "without personality" the next. Maybe this sudden change is more in my own perception than the strings themselves, I don't know... Coming back to the "blind date" analogy, it's almost like the girl who appeared to be a lot of fun at the beginning all of a sudden started showing her true personality that you didn't quite know how to relate with.
So, is your glass half-full or half-empty? Are the half-rounds the best of both rounds and flats, or are they the worst of both rounds and flats? Maybe I was right in my perception all along, when I used to say "half-rounds are only half of what's good about either rounds or flats". I rest my case.
This whole thread started out as "Brite Flats vs. Pressurewounds", so here's my take on that...
For me personally, the answer is very clear and decisive; Pressurewounds for the win hands down! They give me just enough of the roundwound quality both in their overall sound and feel without a lot of the roundwound annoyances. They ARE indeed the best of both rounds and flats to meet all of my tonal needs and wants, except for the GHS Precision Flats on my Precision, which I will keep as my "specialty bass".
I know I said somewhere I'd give them at least 30 days before passing any judgment like I would always do with any test run with new strings; however, I do feel I've had enough time to test them out really good and gotten to know them well enough to declare them a no-go. Let me explain...
Imagine yourself going on a blind date partly out of curiosity and partly out of obligation just because the girl you're going out with happens to be your best friend's cousin. You've heard a few good things about her but at the same time you don't want to set the expectations too high in case it doesn't work out. That's how I felt about the Brite Flats; as a huge fan of the Pressurewounds (Alloy 52 rollerwound), I had to try their cousin, Alloy 52 half-rounds, just to see how they would stack up.
Refer back to posts #23 & #55 for the preliminaries and my initial impressions on the BFs.
First two weeks of my outing with the BFs was mostly positive as I was getting to know a few of their unique tonal qualities and playing feel. Extra punchy and full-bodied lows with enough mids for some bark and bite that you wouldn't normally get in traditional flats. There was also a hint of low-mid grind that kind of reminded me of the Fender 9050 flats I once had on this same Jazz bass. Once I got through the initial stickiness I previously mentioned, they felt more and more like normal flats while retaining some of the round-ish quality in their tone.
As the newness started to wear off in the third week, however, that's when I noticed a rather drastic change in their tone. All of a sudden, the bark and bite that I really liked at the beginning turned mellow to the point of sounding almost like the Fender flats. I was quite shocked at the idea a set of strings that sounded so strong and lively one week could sound so lifeless and "without personality" the next. Maybe this sudden change is more in my own perception than the strings themselves, I don't know... Coming back to the "blind date" analogy, it's almost like the girl who appeared to be a lot of fun at the beginning all of a sudden started showing her true personality that you didn't quite know how to relate with.
So, is your glass half-full or half-empty? Are the half-rounds the best of both rounds and flats, or are they the worst of both rounds and flats? Maybe I was right in my perception all along, when I used to say "half-rounds are only half of what's good about either rounds or flats". I rest my case.
This whole thread started out as "Brite Flats vs. Pressurewounds", so here's my take on that...
For me personally, the answer is very clear and decisive; Pressurewounds for the win hands down! They give me just enough of the roundwound quality both in their overall sound and feel without a lot of the roundwound annoyances. They ARE indeed the best of both rounds and flats to meet all of my tonal needs and wants, except for the GHS Precision Flats on my Precision, which I will keep as my "specialty bass".
Nope. No tapes for me EVER. I'm pretty well done with my "strings experiments" for now.
The expectations weren't met because the premise was flawed. If you're trying to get aspects of what you like about rounds from Brite flats, you're barking up the wrong tree. The results you got are what I would expect you to have. Brite flats do start off with a little more crunch and then mellow out to their true character of a nice punchy flat wound style string. Strong fundamental and much less overtones, which is another reason I like them for how they play with overwound and vintage style Gibson pickups allowing them to keep better focus. The proper comparison should be with Precision flats in which case in my opinion, I'd take the Brite flats over those all day.
I do understand what you're saying.
I didn't expect the BFs to sound like rounds in any way. I was looking for a half-way point between the Pressurewounds on my Yamaha and the Precision Flats on my P. I would have been reasonably happy if the BFs continued to sound the way they did at the beginning but they did move a little too close to the flatwound territory.
I would try them again if I end up with a different bass, but for now, my Jazz bass is a lot happier with the PWs.
I wonder... when I did try the Brite Flats on my fretted Jazz bass (on which I did not like them), it was after using them on the fretless Jazz bass for a while, then deciding I'd rather have roundwound/pressurewound on the fretless bass.
So maybe the sound I got on my fretted Jazz was not unlike what you had after a few weeks on your fretted Jazz...
I was just going to ask you...
The audio clip of the BFs on your fretless you posted in another thread, how new were they? And how long did you keep them on the fretless before switching them over to the fretted?
The audio clip on the fretless, the strings were pretty new. I don't remember how long I had them on before moving them to the fretted bass, but I would guess at least a few weeks. I do not recall the tone of the strings appreciably deteriorating while still on the fretless bass, but maybe I just hadn't noticed. Or maybe I subconsciously noticed, and that was part of what prompted me to move back to rounder-wound strings.
EDIT: maybe time to develop a Rotosound-esque legend of changing GHS Brite Flats every day! ;-)
