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I hate flats! am I nuts?

#21
"I hate flats! am I nuts?"

Pretty much the majority of the bass playing world has agreed with you since the early 70s. Just simply go into a music store and try to find a single bass with flats. They might have one or two. Most players prefer rounds.
 
#23
slopeshoulder said:
Every time I play a bass or hear a bass, especially soloed or priminent in a mix, with flats, even on the famous records, I want to wretch and take up clarinet.

I also engineer and produce, and have never found that a bass with rounds, hi pass filtered or tone pot down a bit, has been hard to mix.
I just don't get it. Maybe it's a recorded frequency in a mix (that I like, say Jamerson) vs. the instrument by itself or in my hands?

(having said that, i do get good results every now and then with my vintage hofner with pyramid flats after eq'ing, which I also don't get).

What am I missing? I feel I should put some flats on my P bass, but then I'll hear one and it's hello clarinet teacher...

Not trolling against flats. I want ot like them. But it sounds so nasal and one dimensional and farty to me.
Click to expand...

They are the right string for some setups and sounds. Not for everyone or everything. And maybe they're not your thing. I've got some on a Sting Signature Precision Bass, and I am enjoying the change in feel, response and sound. Whether I will keep them on my bass for the long haul, remains to be seen. My most recent experience with them was playing bass in a practice with an organ trio. I was able to duplicate (to a reasonable degree) the bass sound of the Hammond organ.
 
#24
Say what you want about stainless steel rounds with the treble turned max up, YUK! sounds like an electric spring on steroids! My Yamaha BX1 with D M flats, treble turned off on the guitar, treble and bright turned of on one of my many vintage Kustom amps, gives me a distortion free tone perfect rich and punchy true bass sound. Buts thats just my opinion of what a bass should sound like, it's a bass, not a guitar. Basically most of the players that use volume, treble, brightness, bright rounds etc., are usually trying to mask the fact that they can't play the bass with any kind of definition,sustain,discipline and most bass players don't even know that the bass guitar is a PERCUSSION instrument, not a rhythm guitar.
 
#26
You hate flats?? I'd say you can hate war, killing puppies, global warming and world hunger... and dislike flats :hiding:

But besides that :D. They're not for me too. I didn't like the feel and tension and there was too little life in them. I do like old roundwounds, but flats have a different kind of lifelessness.
 
#28
rockzombie said:
Buts thats just my opinion of what a bass should sound like, it's a bass, not a guitar. Basically most of the players that use volume, treble, brightness, bright rounds etc., are usually trying to mask the fact that they can't play the bass with any kind of definition,sustain,discipline and most bass players don't even know that the bass guitar is a PERCUSSION instrument, not a rhythm guitar.
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Although I use flats and rounds in a roughly 50/50 ratio, this post just begs to be mocked and ridiculed into the deepest pits of inferno. It's does the exact same thing any sanctimonious know-it-all guy does when he thinks he knows the answer: loudly proclaims his opinions as truth while lambasting anyone who disagrees as not knowing what they're talking about.

I hate to break it to you, buddy, but the bass guitar isn't a percussion instrument. Read a book. Thanks.:D
 
#29
mmbongo said:
You're definitely not alone. I can't stand flats either. I like to have some tone, not just a dull thud. Funny thing is, it seems like I buy a set of flats about every 3 years just to make sure I don't like them. I just can't get any useable tone out of them. The last set of flats I had were actually installed on my Peavey Millennium USA when I bought it. After playing it for about 10 minutes I just felt like throwing it in the dumpster and just eating my loss because I couldn't stomach selling a bass that sounded that bad to anybody. Then I put some Dunlop Nickel Rounds on it and BAM! One of the best sounding basses on Earth.

To each his own I guess, I personally just can't get good tone from flats.
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everyone seems to LOVE old grimy flats, instead of buying new flats every 3 years, keep them and try them over and over again. maybe **** em up a bit every time you realize you hate them.
 
#33
I can't stand flats either.
I love it when the first thing guys do is slap flats on their high end bass -that they bought because it sounds so much better than anything else, and then make it sound like a Squire with flats...........

My point is, I'm with the OP, I hate flats. Played them. Tried to like them.
Hate them.
To me they are the ultimate equalizer of basses- they make all comparble basses sound EXACTLY alike.
A Sadowsky Jazz with flats will sound like a Squire Jazz in seconds.
 
#34
rockzombie said:
...and most bass players don't even know that the bass guitar is a PERCUSSION instrument...
Click to expand...
Did you just make that up yourself?
or did somebody else feed you that little gem?

If someone fed you that line, you should go find them and...
774_smiley_getting_kicked_in_the_balls.gif


You're just wrong about that.
 
#38
My Warwick Corvette w/Chromes isn't even close to a Squier in sound. I tried a Squier. It lacked "balls". Almost made me not want a fretless. Glad I bit the bullet and bought my Warwick. Which sounds great with flats. Same as my Ibby with humbuckers, great with flats too. Oh, and my Yamaha with P/J, and Fender Aerodyne P/J. Yes, they all sound different too. Just with the thump of flats. I play with a pick too.
 

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