Finally got a set of GHS Precision Flats (Jason at Bassstringsonline.com was very helpful) and put them on the Portamento.
I found them not as toppy as the Chromes, as expected, nice smooth feel - they even polished my fingertips while I was playing them
- and when I set my Promethean amp to flat I could use the piezo without rolling off any top (always had to roll off with the chromes - I try to leave the amp on flat so I can easily use it with different basses).
But then, after a couple of days the action began to deteriorate. Sorted that with a quick (and I thought very minor) tweak of the truss rod, seemed to be fine. Unfortunately, a day or so later this was followed by some major rattles and "wangs", so I'd obviously overdone the correction and it's a "slow mover". The timing was unfortunate, it manifested on one of the residency gigs with the Tony Greenwood Band, (bigger audience = greater embarrassment factor). I'd been using my GWB35 for gigs till I thought the strings and neck had settled down on the Portamento, maybe the change in temperature and humidity (stage and lots of people) contributed to the problem. Anyway, I took a tiny bit, maybe 5 degrees, off the truss rod between sets (hate doing that on a gig) and it was better during the second/third sets. Will have to wait a few days to see if the neck has settled down. I have noticed it move a bit over the 6 or so months I've had it (without any adjustments), so maybe that's a "feature" of the bass.
As for the strings, I'm used to the way the Chromes feel, work and sound, so at the moment the jury's out on the Precision flats. The string compliance doesn't feel as loose as the Chromes did (that was something I really liked in the Chromes), but the tone is good, just want to see how they work once the neck settles down. The relatively dead note on 1st string D seemed worse to me, but that may be subjective.
I found them not as toppy as the Chromes, as expected, nice smooth feel - they even polished my fingertips while I was playing them
- and when I set my Promethean amp to flat I could use the piezo without rolling off any top (always had to roll off with the chromes - I try to leave the amp on flat so I can easily use it with different basses).But then, after a couple of days the action began to deteriorate. Sorted that with a quick (and I thought very minor) tweak of the truss rod, seemed to be fine. Unfortunately, a day or so later this was followed by some major rattles and "wangs", so I'd obviously overdone the correction and it's a "slow mover". The timing was unfortunate, it manifested on one of the residency gigs with the Tony Greenwood Band, (bigger audience = greater embarrassment factor). I'd been using my GWB35 for gigs till I thought the strings and neck had settled down on the Portamento, maybe the change in temperature and humidity (stage and lots of people) contributed to the problem. Anyway, I took a tiny bit, maybe 5 degrees, off the truss rod between sets (hate doing that on a gig) and it was better during the second/third sets. Will have to wait a few days to see if the neck has settled down. I have noticed it move a bit over the 6 or so months I've had it (without any adjustments), so maybe that's a "feature" of the bass.
As for the strings, I'm used to the way the Chromes feel, work and sound, so at the moment the jury's out on the Precision flats. The string compliance doesn't feel as loose as the Chromes did (that was something I really liked in the Chromes), but the tone is good, just want to see how they work once the neck settles down. The relatively dead note on 1st string D seemed worse to me, but that may be subjective.
