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How I Sucked At Buying My First Flats (Help?)

St. Louis Scot

St. Louis Scot

Guest
Sep 16, 2013
256
96
Austin, Tx
stlscot.weebly.com
#1
How I Sucked At Buying My First Flats + Advice Request #1​

Long story short, I got impatient; didn't buy my first set of flats from www.bassstringsonline.com; now I have strings on my main electric that I hate.

I was going to buy LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass Strings, but wanted them today (insert 2yo-like tantrum here.) Went to GC instead but was NOT willing to pay GC prices. So I bought HiBeams instead. The tone is fine, but the tension... ugh! Waaaaay too tight for me. I can't leave these on. I was thinking maybe the tension is due to the stainless steel. But LaBella's are stainless too, right?

Anyone else find the HiBeams to be tight? Recommendations? Go with the LaBella's like I originally planned? Maybe try chromes?

Advice Request #2​

Today I was asked to start on an acoustic gig. I have a nice Aria FEB02 A/ EB that I hardly ever get to play. (See profile pic) Wonderful warm tone plugged in or acoustic. It still has on the bronze wound rounds that came with it. I want to move to tapes. I think that will give the best feel and tone. I noticed there are a lot more brands than I anticipated. Anyone else using tapes on acoustic/electrics? Any brand recommendations? The Aria is a 34" scale.
 
#4
Daddarios are, to me, low tension, feel good, sound nice.
Advice request #2:
If your current bronze strings feel good and sound good, why not stick with them for a while?
IMO the player is 85% of the sound, the strings are 5% to 10% of the sound, so I'd say stay with the bronze.
 
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#5
Daddarios are, to me, low tension, feel good, sound nice.
Advice request #2:
If your current bronze strings feel good and sound good, why not stick with them for a while?
IMO the player is 85% of the sound, the strings are 5% to 10% of the sound, so I'd say stay with the bronze.
 
#9
My suggestion is to go back to the Labellas you wanted at first.

The Deep Talkin' flats light gauge 760FL set in .043-.104 works for me on long, medium and short scale basses, and they never feel too stiff. I put the Jamerson set on one bass and immediately took them off, so it's not like I'm immune to stiff-feeling strings.

On your Aria - you can go to tapes, but stay with the smallest gauge you can find if you have an acoustic-style bridge. What I did on my Applause A/E bass was to install Chromes. They feel familiar and sound good. Check the bridge on that Aria - tape over strings make the diameter larger and some bridges on A/E basses do not accept strings with diameter that large. I just BARELY got the Chromes through the bridge on my Applause. (Below)

Applause_Bass_WS-2_in_case.jpg
 
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#13
St. Louis Scot said:
How I Sucked At Buying My First Flats + Advice Request #1​

Long story short, I got impatient; didn't buy my first set of flats from www.bassstringsonline.com; now I have strings on my main electric that I hate.

I was going to buy LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass Strings, but wanted them today (insert 2yo-like tantrum here.) Went to GC instead but was NOT willing to pay GC prices. So I bought HiBeams instead. The tone is fine, but the tension... ugh! Waaaaay too tight for me. I can't leave these on. I was thinking maybe the tension is due to the stainless steel. But LaBella's are stainless too, right?

Anyone else find the HiBeams to be tight? Recommendations? Go with the LaBella's like I originally planned? Maybe try chromes?
Click to expand...

Hi-Beam flats were higher tension than I prefer. I did enjoy the feel and tone.

I've had Labella 39-96 DTF on a bass for the past year and they are my favorite Labella flat. I've also tried Labella 43-104 but prefer the lower tension of the 39-96. I feel that the Labella has a much more full and satisfying fundamental as compared to Chromes which always sound hollow to me

I have a set of TI Flats sitting in my string box... waiting until I get the urge to play them again.

I tried a pre-production set of the Labella low-tension flats and ended up not bonding with them.

I prefer GHS Precision flats over the Labella low-tension if you're looking for a flat with "earthy thud." You can buy GHS singles at Bass Strings Online and create your own low tension set. I have a custom set of 40-55-75-105 and really like the tone and balance.

I also really like Sadowsky Black Label Flats 40-100... more fullness than Chromes and more edge than Labella DTF.
 
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#16
Did you buy Hi-Beam (rounds) or Hi-Beam Flats? Those shouldn't be super high tension if either of those... Which gauge specifically did you get? The only one that may be really high is the 50-110 Hi-Beam Rounds.

There are a ton of options you can go with... If you are willing to wait a couple of days for a shipment to arrive that is ;)

You might want to look at the lightest gauge La Bella Deep Talkin' Flats or their new La Bella Low Tension FLexible Flats. Those will give you the warmest tone that are easy to play. Next up light gauge chromes, Light Gauge Ernie Ball Flats, Light Gauge Rotosound, Light Gauge Sadowsky... to name a few...
 
#17
Personally, I love the La Bella Deep Talkin' Flats, over and above the DAddario Chromes. I've also had the TI flats, but felt they were too 'floppy', low tension. Anyone who likes the Chromes will probably find the Deep Talkin' flats to be a pleasant surprise. I feel that the La Bella are smoother in feel and produce a clearer tone- especially down low.
 
#18
Have you set up your bass since installing the DRs?

I personally like a bit of neck relief on a Fender with flats but you can get some very low action with most flats and most basses, and they will seem a lot lower tension than they might now.

Don't forget a lot of flats feel stiffer than rounds but are not necessarily high tension. So not having to apply a lot of pressure to fret them makes a much bigger difference than a small adjustment will make with rounds.

Just trying to save you some cash if you like the tone of the Hi-Beams.

I think DR made a mistake naming their flats this way myself, especially since they are also saddled with the 'Legend' tab.
 
#19
TI flats have similar tension to rounds. Feel like butter. I tried Chromes and didn't care for the higher tension. As has been said, if you don't like higher tension, then you need to go to a lower gauge for flats than you normally would for rounds.
 
#20
Gasman said:
TI flats have similar tension to rounds. Feel like butter. l
Click to expand...

I totally disagree. Having used 30-90 gauge strings, in both hex core (roto funkmaster) abd round core (hi beam), I found out that the .070 A string on the Thomastik set is stiffer than the 0.70 A string from those sets of roundwound.

the .056 D is heavy compared to the .050 D from round sets.

an usual 0.100 E string is not that stiffer tha TI's, and the .043 G can be compared with a .045 round G.

they seem to be low tension because the gauge is particular, with .070 A and .056 D compared to .100 E and .043 G.


Compared to an usual 40-100 or 45-105 set they feel low tension.
compared to the exact same gauge of rounds they don't.
 

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