Just joined the group today, new Warwick in hand

[pickindoug]

Hello all, glad to be here. Seeking thoughts about flatwounds on a fretless Warwick Corvette I just picked up. It came with rounds, sounded great, but since the bass needed a little TLC, I thought I'd try some flats. I had a couple sets in stock, GHS lights, and D'Addario Chromes. Went with the GHS lights as they matched the gauge of the roundwounds that were on there (.045-.095). Used the bass with rounds on a jam Friday night and got compliments for the overall tone. Hope the flats don't take too much of that away....sounded good when I plugged it up for a few minutes, but not in the same amp I used Friday. Appreciate any input from the hive mind here. The Warwick bridge makes it really easy to change strings without unbending the tuner ends.

I've owned and operated basses since the late 1960s. Played in several bands along the way. Other basses in the arsenal: Kawai F2B, Kawai RB100 (graphite neck, koa body), '71 Fender P bass, Tacoma CB10. I've caught and released some fine basses over the years. Curbow Petite 5 fretless (not Cort), Warrior 5 and 6 string, MIM J Bass, Rick copy (Univox), Hofner, just to name a few. Relatively short fingers and big palms led me to the conclusion that 4 strings fit me best.

 

[BassicJazzy]

Hello all, glad to be here. Seeking thoughts about flatwounds on a fretless Warwick Corvette I just picked up. It came with rounds, sounded great, but since the bass needed a little TLC, I thought I'd try some flats. I had a couple sets in stock, GHS lights, and D'Addario Chromes. Went with the GHS lights as they matched the gauge of the roundwounds that were on there (.045-.095). Used the bass with rounds on a jam Friday night and got compliments for the overall tone. Hope the flats don't take too much of that away....sounded good when I plugged it up for a few minutes, but not in the same amp I used Friday. Appreciate any input from the hive mind here. The Warwick bridge makes it really easy to change strings without unbending the tuner ends.

I've owned and operated basses since the late 1960s. Played in several bands along the way. Other basses in the arsenal: Kawai F2B, Kawai RB100 (graphite neck, koa body), '71 Fender P bass, Tacoma CB10. I've caught and released some fine basses over the years. Curbow Petite 5 fretless (not Cort), Warrior 5 and 6 string, MIM J Bass, Rick copy (Univox), Hofner, just to name a few. Relatively short fingers and big palms led me to the conclusion that 4 strings fit me best.

That's a beautiful bass. I never played one due to their limited availability here, no stock at local stores, and usually backordered at Sweetwater. I wanted something similar to expand the range of tones I could access, went with the IbanezSB1350B, which has similar action (or so I am told). The Ibanez came set-up with D'Addario XLs, .45 to .105, and I found unwanted resonance to be a bit of an issue so changed out the factory strings for D'Addario black tapes, same gauge. These are similar to flats but have slightly more percussive sound, and they aren't quite as "sticky," plus have lower tension. I have been really pleased with the results. I still have the bright sound of at least half-rounds, but not the excessive resonance. Now, the Ibanez is made of very light Mahogany so perhaps the Warwick doesn't have the same issue, but I think you would get more tone out of the tapes than you would out of the flats. One issue to note with the tapes, occasionally you may have a string stick a bit in the nut and then release at an inopportune moment, dropping you out of tune. Slight filing of the but and/or string lube at the nut can solve that. Has happened to me twice in a year, so not a major issue.

 

[Lo-E]

That’s a beauty! Welcome to TB!

I’ve had a fretless Corvette for a while. I bought it from a friend, unsure if it would really be my thing (I lean towards Fenderish basses) and I ended up really liking it. I liked it enough to source an MEC preamp and convert it to active.

As a fairly modern looking and sounding bass, I never really thought about stringing it with flats. I used several different sets of rounds on it and eventually settled on the rounds I use on most of my fretless basses: DR Sunbeams. I special-order sets in 45-60-80-105 gauges but a regular 45-65-85-105 set would do fine as well.

If I were to string it up with flats I’d probably stick to the modern theme and go with TI flats. Compression wound strings would probably also do really well on it.