I've stewed on this for a while, but wanted to get some feedback before I start pushing my luck with a seller on Amazon (might be too late) or reach out to Customer Service.
Over the course of several years (no less than 5 or 6) I've used GHS Precisions Flats for any bass I wanted flats on. I've used far more than a couple of pairs over that time period, so I'm pretty familiar with the feel and sound of them. I think something's changed though. On a bass I actually had these flats on before (older 2000s Ibanez SR P/J), I put another pair on and something seems very different. I'll give the brief history of changes to the bass:
- Acquired said bass with stock electronics, came with rounds on it
- Changed electronics to a DiMarzio Will Power Middle (the older, all black one) and a DiMarzio Area J in the bridge. Had an Audere 3-band preamp in there.
- Sounded good with rounds, wanted to switch to flats since I had another P/J with rounds. Very crisp and articulate, with that solid bottom end I've come to expect from the GHS Flats
- Switched pickups to EMG PJ-X and put rounds on too. Exactly what you'd expect from EMGs, super articulate and very balanced. Tone was also really flexible as well.
- Decide to put some GHS P Flats on (.045-.105) that I ordered on Amazon and....here we are.
Right off the bat these felt rough, WAY more rough than any other pair I've used. The strings were undoubtedly new, with purple threads, and nothing trimmed off the ends. They were also as straight as you'd expect from a new set, kept coiled in a package. It's been a while since I got a new pair, so I chalked it up to poor memory and proceeded to put them on. I gently tuned it up and let the neck settle for a while, then played through my typical combo amp...sounded kind of "off".
Seemed muddier (hate to use a generic term like that), but with the EMGs it shoulda been WAY brighter than it was. The DiMarzio WPM was an insanely dark pickup, and with the Audere set flat (passive sound, according to them) it still had possessed the snap and thump I look for, and on this same exact bass (so pickup placement isn't the cause). After this I chalked it up to acoustics in the room, so I hooked it up to my Zoom B3n, playing through my Shure SRH-440 headphones. Not the most high-fidelity headphones, but I'd say they lean towards the brighter side than muddy...pretty much the same results. Soloed, in the mix, same.
I plug in my P-Bass with GHS Flats and they feel silky smooth and sound warm and snappy...these are also very broken-in strings (over 5 years on this particular bass), so they should be mud city compared to a fresh set with less than 3 hours of play. I backed off the pickup height, played with volume levels, and still it's coming off completely wrong on the new GHS PF. I did grab these from Amazon, but as described above they only differ in feel and sound, pretty dead-on from a looks perspective.
SOOO....just checking to make sure I'm not off my rocker, as the only explanations I can come up with are:
- The formula has changed or manufacturing has, and I'm unaware (asking on here to see if anyone else felt this too)
- Set I got from Amazon was counterfeit, which wouldn't be impossible since string packs aren't sealed
- These got stored in a very humid, hot environment and it messed with the strings, so the materials became compromised due to poor handling
- This set is defective and is not representative of the standard for GHS PFs
I'm thinking that reaching out to GHS might be my best option at this time, since I doubt I could do an Amazon return on something like this. In the off chance they blow me off (they aren't aware of how much I use/used these type of strings in the past), I'd like to at least recoup my money somehow. If this is a Fender/D'Addario situation where they've been outsourced or something like that (doubtful, I think strings is all they do) I want to keep from wasting my time and just move on. Maybe some LaBellas or Rotos will do the trick.
tl;dr - Used GHS Precision Flats on this bass before (with darker pickups) to expected results. Did a switch to EMG X's with rounds, then went back to GHS PF to find they feel and sound completely wrong (WAY darker/muddier). Has there been a change to GHS PFs I'm not aware of? Could this be a counterfeit set, poorly stored, or defective? Anyone else experience this recently with GHS before I start the customer service shuffle?
Over the course of several years (no less than 5 or 6) I've used GHS Precisions Flats for any bass I wanted flats on. I've used far more than a couple of pairs over that time period, so I'm pretty familiar with the feel and sound of them. I think something's changed though. On a bass I actually had these flats on before (older 2000s Ibanez SR P/J), I put another pair on and something seems very different. I'll give the brief history of changes to the bass:
- Acquired said bass with stock electronics, came with rounds on it
- Changed electronics to a DiMarzio Will Power Middle (the older, all black one) and a DiMarzio Area J in the bridge. Had an Audere 3-band preamp in there.
- Sounded good with rounds, wanted to switch to flats since I had another P/J with rounds. Very crisp and articulate, with that solid bottom end I've come to expect from the GHS Flats
- Switched pickups to EMG PJ-X and put rounds on too. Exactly what you'd expect from EMGs, super articulate and very balanced. Tone was also really flexible as well.
- Decide to put some GHS P Flats on (.045-.105) that I ordered on Amazon and....here we are.
Right off the bat these felt rough, WAY more rough than any other pair I've used. The strings were undoubtedly new, with purple threads, and nothing trimmed off the ends. They were also as straight as you'd expect from a new set, kept coiled in a package. It's been a while since I got a new pair, so I chalked it up to poor memory and proceeded to put them on. I gently tuned it up and let the neck settle for a while, then played through my typical combo amp...sounded kind of "off".
Seemed muddier (hate to use a generic term like that), but with the EMGs it shoulda been WAY brighter than it was. The DiMarzio WPM was an insanely dark pickup, and with the Audere set flat (passive sound, according to them) it still had possessed the snap and thump I look for, and on this same exact bass (so pickup placement isn't the cause). After this I chalked it up to acoustics in the room, so I hooked it up to my Zoom B3n, playing through my Shure SRH-440 headphones. Not the most high-fidelity headphones, but I'd say they lean towards the brighter side than muddy...pretty much the same results. Soloed, in the mix, same.
I plug in my P-Bass with GHS Flats and they feel silky smooth and sound warm and snappy...these are also very broken-in strings (over 5 years on this particular bass), so they should be mud city compared to a fresh set with less than 3 hours of play. I backed off the pickup height, played with volume levels, and still it's coming off completely wrong on the new GHS PF. I did grab these from Amazon, but as described above they only differ in feel and sound, pretty dead-on from a looks perspective.
SOOO....just checking to make sure I'm not off my rocker, as the only explanations I can come up with are:
- The formula has changed or manufacturing has, and I'm unaware (asking on here to see if anyone else felt this too)
- Set I got from Amazon was counterfeit, which wouldn't be impossible since string packs aren't sealed
- These got stored in a very humid, hot environment and it messed with the strings, so the materials became compromised due to poor handling
- This set is defective and is not representative of the standard for GHS PFs
I'm thinking that reaching out to GHS might be my best option at this time, since I doubt I could do an Amazon return on something like this. In the off chance they blow me off (they aren't aware of how much I use/used these type of strings in the past), I'd like to at least recoup my money somehow. If this is a Fender/D'Addario situation where they've been outsourced or something like that (doubtful, I think strings is all they do) I want to keep from wasting my time and just move on. Maybe some LaBellas or Rotos will do the trick.
tl;dr - Used GHS Precision Flats on this bass before (with darker pickups) to expected results. Did a switch to EMG X's with rounds, then went back to GHS PF to find they feel and sound completely wrong (WAY darker/muddier). Has there been a change to GHS PFs I'm not aware of? Could this be a counterfeit set, poorly stored, or defective? Anyone else experience this recently with GHS before I start the customer service shuffle?
