Mustang with flats VS Precison with flats

[eric blank]

Will they sound very similar?

I play original music and have a pretty minimalist style (think the Clash, Talking Heads, Gorillaz)... I always use flats and mostly play with a pick. I'm considering switching over to the mustang because I find them easier to play live - I have small hands and a slender frame... Enough that a P bass looks pretty big on me and feels like a chore to play.

Interested to hear your thoughts and whether or not anyone has had the same dilemma.

 

[mongo2]

I've used both the Mustang and P bass with flats extensively over many years. IME, with a bit of eq they're capable of very similar tones.

 

[Alkali Ike]

If your Mustang bridge is thru-body, keep in mind you probably need medium-scale strings (you probably already know that). Also some flats may not intonate well. Rotosound RS77M flats don't even come close to intonating on my Mustang Reissue. D'Addario DCB81M flats intonated fine, but the tension was too high for me.

 

[mongo2]

Good point about strings. I've used longscale Chromes on my Mustang RI with no issues.

 

[Bongolation]

Proper strings are always the hassle with bass.

Worse on shortscale.

Worse still with flats.

I'll never own another shortscale unless it's an outright gift. The nuisance is just too great.

 

[christw]

My Bronco (with a guitar neck humbucker in it and Fender short scale rounds on it) always sounds like a P bass with flats through and SVT. It's mildly muffled, lots of low mids, and never gets woofy/boomy. I'd be afraid to put tapewounds or flats on it and see how it sounds.

Anyways, I was using it in place of my P bass because it sounded more of the vintage variety than my HW1 did.

 

[tc99]

I have used (and liked) Thomastik-Infeld flats for short scale applications. Relatively low gauge and tension. That will help with the string through the body part too. Still, I prefer chromes for standard scale.

 

[Bongolation]

I have used (and liked) Thomastik-Infeld flats for short scale applications.

Too expensive to be viable, especially on a cheap shortscale.

And especially too expensive to take a chance on, given the usual fitting grief.

If I lost my mind and dropped that kind of money on a freakin' set of bass strings and they didn't fit, someone would have to die.

 

[mongo2]

Too expensive to be viable, especially on a cheap shortscale.

And especially too expensive to take a chance on, given the usual fitting grief.

If I lost my mind and dropped that kind of money on a freakin' set of bass strings and they didn't fit, someone would have to die.

 

[dlenaghan]

Go for it, but buy a used one, late 70s on eBay. In great shape it should run about 700 bucks. Replace the tone pot with a Stellartone Tonestyler and you're ready to go. With my Sansamp, I get all the fat, warm SVT drive I can manage, but I play with rounds.

 

[BassJo]

I use medium scale D'addario Chromes on my '77 Mustang, and they play and sound great! My favourite strings for that bass.
The Mustang has a voice of its own, but it's pretty similar to a P-bass yes.