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Need help picking flats for this '71 Pbass

#81
Phaidrus said:
Have you tried both regular 45-105 and heavy 50-110 Roto 77s?

Currently 9050M on a Pbass of mine and it would be good to know whether the heavy Rotos have similar or higher tension.

As of 9050s being thumpy, like you said, I don't think they are particularly thumpy.
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If you want to scare yourself, look at Rotosound's tension chart online, sometime. When you get to the RS77s? Be sitting down; the numbers are... scary high. IIRC, a set of the 45-105 RS77LD's clock in at 230 lbs. or so. Which is way higher that a set of 9050L's. Roto 77's reputation as being "bridge cable" stiff is very well deserved. IIRC, the 50-110 set's tension is even worse... I put the RS77LD's on my "A-spec" necked '78 P-Bass the day I bought it, in the summer of 1988. They stayed on it until 2005 or so, with no problem whatsoever. The optional "A" neck that the bass has, is basically a Jazz Bass neck (a '78 Jazz Bass), with dot fretboard inlays and a P-Bass decal on the headstock. It was fine wearing the Roto's - and it still is, wearing GHS Precision Flats now...
But, yes; Roto RS77LD's are considerably higher tension than the Fenders are...:cool:
 
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#82
GIBrat51 said:
If you want to scare yourself, look at Rotosound's tension chart online, sometime. When you get to the RS77s? Be sitting down; the numbers are... scary high. IIRC, a set of the 45-105 RS77LD's clock in at 230 lbs. or so. Which is way higher that a set of 9050L's. Roto 77's reputation as being "bridge cable" stiff is very well deserved. IIRC, the 50-110 set's tension is even worse... I put the RS77LD's on my "A-spec" necked '78 P-Bass the day I bought it, in the summer of 1988. They stayed on it until 2005 or so, with no problem whatsoever. The optional "A" neck that the bass has, is basically a Jazz Bass neck (a '78 Jazz Bass), with dot fretboard inlays and a P-Bass decal on the headstock. It was fine wearing the Roto's - and it still is, wearing GHS Precision Flats now...
But, yes; Roto RS77LD's are considerably higher tension than the Fenders are...:cool:
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According to Rotosound, the 45-65-85-105 RS77 are 214.41 lbs. and the 50-75-95-110 RS77 are 253 lbs.

According to GHS, the 55-70-90-105 Precision Flats are 229.1 lbs., which could also be the tension of the Fender 9050M, them being the exact same gauge. That is an assumption, of course.

So if I were to switch to the standard 45-105 Rotos, it would be less tension than what I currently have on the Pbass. If I were to switch to the heavy Rotos, well no, I'm staying away from them.:eek:
 
#83
I think Roto 77s brand new are pretty bright, but they're still a classic flatwound, and they still move down to a very definite classic thump sound. They just start out brighter than most of the others in the same space and vintage.

I like them, though I moved to the cobalt flats for my main slab because I wanted the brightness to last longer and the strings overall to age more evenly than the Rotos did. I'll probably put them on another bass at some point.
 
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#84
I would say that if he doesn't plan on playing it much and therefore won't have the playing time to break in a traditional set of flats properly then I'd recommend the labella LTF's or a lighter gauge of the GHS precision flats. Great, traditional out of the box sound with little break in time if at all. And easy on the fingers as well.
 
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#85
GIBrat51 said:
I've noticed that quite a few people seem to feel that Roto 77's are fairly bright flats. I had the 77LD's on my '78 Fender P-Bass for several years; had them on my '18 Gibson Thunderbird, too. To me, they were anything but bright. I'd class them - on those basses - as somewhere between Optima RB's, and heavy gauge GHS Precision Flats. A very strong low end, but also noticeably good low-mids and mids. Top end? Yeah, it's there, but... there ain't much. On the basses that currently wear Fender 9050L's in my herd? To me, they sound an awful lot like the TI Jazz Flats that my Alembic wears - minus the orchestral harmonics. When they were on my P-Bass, they sounded the same as my basses that wear them now. In fact, I replaced them with the set of GHS P-Flats that the P-Bass bass wears now, because they just weren't thumpy enough. Even with a foam mute in the bridge cover...
So, I don't know. Maybe my ears are just weird, but, to me? Fender 9050L's aren't very thumpy - at all...:rolleyes:
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I dont find Fender flats to be thumpy either but they do need lots of playing time to break in.
 
#86
Since the guy is a guitar player he might like GHS Pressurewounds, they sound brighter are very smooth, reasonably priced and sound great out of the box....low tension too, a great all around string and work very well with a foam mute...many flats are limited tonally, Pressurewounds are not....GHS Precision flats are great as well right out of the box.

I dont know what the players bass rig is but he may have to try several sets to figure it out since bass is not his main instrument (hey we all do!!)....definitely try a foam mute for the Jamerson sound....i make my own foam mutes, with different thickness for more muted or not tones.
 

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