I was asked by Elizabeth Randall (the National Sales Manager for GHS strings) if a set of Balanced Tension Flats would be welcome by bassists? I said YES-YES-YES!!! Please comment if you agree! With enough support, maybe we can make it happen.
If you're talking just about "balanced tension," have you looked into the CM3050 set (45-60-80-105)? Because your original email to Elizabeth (which I'm CC'd on), asked about making a set of flats like our Balanced Nickels, which is slightly more involved than just "balanced tension."
I'm still hoping for a balanced tension set of stainless steel round wounds. No company seems to care much about users of SS rounds, let alone in balanced tension. But I support this idea, nevertheless, in solidarity with my fellow bass players.
Don't confuse "balanced tension" with "balanced construction". A whole lot easier to achieve BT than BC. In fact, a lot of GHS factory sets are quite well balanced in tension already, even the Super Steels.
You're right. It's just that, as an SSRW user and BT lover, I sometimes feel a little lonely in the strings forum.
I am in support of balanced tension strings, I think balanced tension strings are much better to play than sticking with "traditional" guesses I mean gauges.
Maybe you should start up a mega thread for all the SS roundwound users so you can commiserate with one another in one place.
Maybe sometime down the road... But "balanced construction flatwound" wouldn't be at the top of my wish list for GHS.
Would you be excited if GHS were ever to come up with an idea for balanced-construction, pressurewound, round-core Super Steels?
Nope, I can't stand the floppiness and the soft attack of round-cores. But I would try them anyway because I may be surprised.
Not all round cores are created equal. I was quite surprised at how firm the light set (40-101) of the Balanced Nickels felt when I tried them for the first time. The same with the Round Core Boomers. "Round core" doesn't necessarily have to mean "floppy".
Yes, I guess it depends on the diameter of the core. The Dunlop SBs, for example, seemed very similar to the DR Hi-Beams. But what bothered me the most was the difficulty of having a powerful and aggressive attack with a pick. These strings seemed to absorb my energy rather than giving it back.
I've still not tried GHS flats but they're on my list for my next string purchase. Balanced sets would be cool I'd imagine.
I love the feel of the Balanced Nickels. While I cannot measure their tensions, they have a great feel and tone from string to string. Flats with a similar feel and even timbre from string to string would be awesome.
The Balanced Nickels were a big step forward for GHS in terms of innovation - balanced construction, pure nickel final cover and round core. How about a flatwound version of them? Pure Nickel flatwound on a round core with balanced construction! This whole idea of "balanced construction" for a flatwound is an intriguing one, and a very challenging one, considering its main objective is "balanced tone" across all strings and up and down the neck. How many posts have we all read by people complaining how unbalanced their new set of flats sounded, and people advising them to give them six months to ten years for them to "balance out eventually"?