Help me pick a flatwound for my "bright" maple P-bass

[Nhbowhunter]

Optima RB flats

 

[Mike Vee]

Optima RB flats

very interested, will check them out

 

[Mike Vee]

Magma Ultraflats. No squeaks

My review and people's additional thoughts on them

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/magma-ultra-flats-impression-flat-that-sounds-like-a-round.1639943/

These are VERY interesting, but how's the silk? In your pics it looks like its unwinding and coming apart, and like they come looking very uneven and janky. Dunlops do that and i HATE it. Can you confirm?

 

[logdrum]

The silks are tight. Already more than one month. I'll snap another pic. If anything they really wrapped them tight

 

[E2942]

Maple body basses sound fantastic.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Different strokes for different folks of course and you may be using different gear with different settings than I do. I use a passive 1982 Fender Jazz (US of course because MIM wasn't started yet). It is known for that dreaded 60Hz hum if the two single coil pickups are set at the same levels. If they are set at the same levels they operate as humbuckers since each of the pickups is wound the opposite direction from the other one. I currently use DNA and Eden amps and never had the problem. So obviously you are experiencing something I have not...at least not yet and I've used them for over 5-years now.

I have experienced that grounding hum you mention with the gear I was using in the 60's and 70's - '66 Fender Bassman in the 60's and Standel MCIIb/SAM30b in the 70's. But that's before electrical plugs were either polarized or grounded. All amps back then came with a toggle switch to change the ground. Even after flipping that toggle to get rid of the hum, you had to be careful. If the PA the mics were going into weren't grounded in the same polarity, you'd get a nasty electrical kiss that you don't want to get! That's why we used to all touch the mic before singing into it. If you touched it and it hummed, you changed the polarity on your amp.

I've not heard of that grounding hum since then and have never heard that from any of my strings since then. I don't think I'm supposed to be the ground though anyhow and it's interesting it didn't happen with other strings....hmmmm

I've heard it at bar gigs with questionable wiring and neon all over the place, and or dimmers on the house lights.
That's why there is a bridge ground. You are a shunt for rf noise.

I shielded every bass I own and only had a real issue with a Dano Longhorn with tapes. Once I shielded it properly, the issue was no longer an issue.

I got a good lip zap a couple times back in the day, one of the myriad of reasons I adopted wireless, along with high 5 ing a guitarist with a non updated ancient Princeton: zaaap

 

[Mike Vee]

The silks are tight. Already more than one month. I'll snap another pic. If anything they really wrapped them tight

I'm going to try them. My hopes is that all 4 strings are similar to TI E&A but a tiny bit stiffer.

 

[FullumMusic]

Aren't tapes roundwound strings covered in nylon?

Yes. But their outermost winding, the nylon, the part under your fingers and touching the frets is flat. And they BEND! The OP wanted flatwound strings that are very low tension. La Bella tapes fit that description to a T. It's just that their flatwound part is nylon instead of metal.

Depending on how you play them, you can make them sound almost exactly like metal flats (both the really muted dark flat tone, or the snarling flats-on-P tone), or make them sorta split the difference between flats & well-worn-in-but-not-dead rounds. It's all in how you play them. They sound way more like flats than rounds, though, in the end.

I have to double check, but i think La Bella Deep Talking Flats might be a round core, with a layer of round wire under the external flat layer. Don't quote me on that. I could be completely off base. Could just be a round core and then flat layers all the way up. I need to figure out if this is true but i'm unwilling to cut open the flats off my Olinto P. I actually just saw Eric from La Bella and could have specifically asked him yesterday, but alas, i'm just guessing until i find evidence one way or the other.

 

[HaphAsSard]

I need to figure out if this is true but i'm unwilling to cut open the flats off my Olinto P.

Whoa, no need to:

1) in some cases it's right there on the product webpage
"[...] thinner core [...] Hex core [...]"
^ OSF-4 Olinto Signature Flats – 4-String Set, 47-107
"[...] round cores [...]"
^ LTF-4A Low Tension Flats 42-100
So far, round core for the Low Tension Flats, thin hex core for the Olinto Signatures.

2) core shape for the regular Deep Talkin' Bass Flats, the 1954 Originals and the Gold Flats is not specified on currently web-published official material, but is described as hexagonal by vendor Strings by Mail
"[...] Core: Hex [...]"
^ Invalid Link Removed
^ Invalid Link Removed
^ Invalid Link Removed

You could also get a magnifying glass right against the ball ends and see for yourself.

As for underwindings between core and flat ribbon,
- yes, there are (except for high C's and thin G's, I believe), as is the case with any bass flatwound out there
- yes, they are round-section wires.

 

[FullumMusic]

Whoa, no need to:

1) in some cases it's right there on the product webpage
"[...] thinner core [...] Hex core [...]"
^ OSF-4 Olinto Signature Flats – 4-String Set, 47-107
"[...] round cores [...]"
^ LTF-4A Low Tension Flats 42-100
So far, round core for the Low Tension Flats, thin hex core for the Olinto Signatures.

2) core shape for the regular Deep Talkin' Bass Flats, the 1954 Originals and the Gold Flats is not specified on currently web-published official material, but is described as hexagonal by vendor Strings by Mail
"[...] Core: Hex [...]"
^ Invalid Link Removed
^ Invalid Link Removed
^ Invalid Link Removed

You could also get a magnifying glass right against the ball ends and see for yourself.

As for underwindings between core and flat ribbon,
- yes, there are (except for high C's and thin G's, I believe), as is the case with any bass flatwound out there
- yes, they are round-section wires.

heheheh. I might be crazy but i'm not Cutting My Flats to Fact-Check My TB Post Crazy.

Yeah, it wasn't the core i was unsure about. Like you said, it's all on the la bella site. It's the under-windings that i was uncertain about. But since you're confirming my hunch that the under-windings (of at least the thicker strings) are round-section wires, then it goes to the point i was making to @andare that, yes, Tapes are just "Nylon around Rounds", but so are the metal flats Flats .

 

[Nhbowhunter]

Labella low tensions would work too.
Round core/low tension and I find them very to be pretty bright

 

[GIBrat51]

I keep 2 P-basses:

1) An AO 60s P with rosewood board and LaBella LTFs - perfection

2) An International Series P with maple board (basically a 70s P). This is meant to be my brighter P-bass. I am having a little hard time finding the proper string.

I only like flats. I only like flexible strings. Right now it has Fender 9050L. They feel and look great, but they seriously lack that low-mid grind I love. Just not feeling the sound, it's got no huevos with these strings on it. They sound very "hollow" just like chromes unless I really EQ them a lot - which I don't like to do. No bueno.

So what's a brighter flat that also has lots of low-mid grind and doesn't sound hollow or scooped? Should I try Cobalts? Roto 77s?

Strings that are already a no-go: TIs, chromes, fedners, pressurewounds, any rounds whatsoever.

Well...
Like @michael_t, I'm kind of surprised that the Fender 9050's don't work for you. But... if they don't, they don't.
Flats I'm familiar with, that might suit your criteria - which seems to be "just a little darker than the Fenders"?
- GHS #3025 Precision Flats. Their lighter gauge flats, that are a near-clone of the original Squier Flats that P-Basses shipped with, till 1982. I have the slightly heavier M3050s on my '78 P-Bass. They have a more pronounced low end, but still have good low-mids and mids. Not a lot in the way of highs, though... The original Squier strings - and the 3025 P-Flats - are more evenly balanced in that regard.
- Optima 4440RB Flats. Optima's near clones of the original Maxima Flats that Ricks used to be shipped with. Another lighter gauge flat, with pretty balanced tones. Like the 3025 P-Flats, in fact; just with slightly different gauges. I learned to play bass in 1968, 0n a friend's '68 4001 - with it's Maxima Flats. The RB's on my '01 4003 sound almost the same...
- EB Group IV Flats. My Schecter Stiletto Studio lined fretless came with these on it. Not really broken in yet, but they're sounding like they'll be in the same ball park as the other strings I've listed...
Other flats I might suggest, all lean more toward the strong lows and low-mids - to the detriment of mids and highs. Which might be fine for what you play (it certainly is for me, a lot of the time), or it might not...
But, given the stated criteria? Those flats I've listed would be my suggestion...

 

[Mike Vee]

Thanks a lot, all. I think I'm going to upgrade the pickups to the Mojotone 70s P and put an Emerson wiring harness in there. I'll leave the Fenders on for now so that I can get a good comparison but then I might try the magma next!

 

[Mike Vee]

Well...
Like @michael_t, I'm kind of surprised that the Fender 9050's don't work for you. But... if they don't, they don't.
Flats I'm familiar with, that might suit your criteria - which seems to be "just a little darker than the Fenders"?
- GHS #3025 Precision Flats. Their lighter gauge flats, that are a near-clone of the original Squier Flats that P-Basses shipped with, till 1982. I have the slightly heavier M3050s on my '78 P-Bass. They have a more pronounced low end, but still have good low-mids and mids. Not a lot in the way of highs, though... The original Squier strings - and the 3025 P-Flats - are more evenly balanced in that regard.
- Optima 4440RB Flats. Optima's near clones of the original Maxima Flats that Ricks used to be shipped with. Another lighter gauge flat, with pretty balanced tones. Like the 3025 P-Flats, in fact; just with slightly different gauges. I learned to play bass in 1968, 0n a friend's '68 4001 - with it's Maxima Flats. The RB's on my '01 4003 sound almost the same...
- EB Group IV Flats. My Schecter Stiletto Studio lined fretless came with these on it. Not really broken in yet, but they're sounding like they'll be in the same ball park as the other strings I've listed...
Other flats I might suggest, all lean more toward the strong lows and low-mids - to the detriment of mids and highs. Which might be fine for what you play (it certainly is for me, a lot of the time), or it might not...
But, given the stated criteria? Those flats I've listed would be my suggestion...

What color are the Optima silks?

 

[GIBrat51]

What color are the Optima silks?

The Optima RB silks are somewhere between lavender and purple. The silks on the 45-100 Optima 4099L "Chromes" - which I also use, and you might like as well - are an orangey, butterscotch color. I thought about them tonight, as I was checking to see if the set I'd taken off my aluminum-necked '78 Kramer 450B (ball end silk was on the saddles) would fit on my Epi Jack Casady Bass. Sadly, they won't; they're cut just a hair too short...

 

[Rip Van Dan]

I've heard it at bar gigs with questionable wiring and neon all over the place, and or dimmers on the house lights.
That's why there is a bridge ground. You are a shunt for rf noise.

I shielded every bass I own and only had a real issue with a Dano Longhorn with tapes. Once I shielded it properly, the issue was no longer an issue.

I got a good lip zap a couple times back in the day, one of the myriad of reasons I adopted wireless, along with high 5 ing a guitarist with a non updated ancient Princeton: zaaap

Yeah playing under neon will do that. I remember back in the late 60's picking up the local am radio station playing through my '66 Fender Bassman (blackface, all-tube).

I use wireless too but hadn't really consider that it protected me from polarity problems...another good reason to go wireless!