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Non dead flats
- Thread starter rodv66
- Start date
That makes sense. I don't use a really low action, just what the standard setup guide recommends. I tend to dig in a bit get dynamics and the sound I want, so my right hand really suffered with the Rotos.
I find sliding on roundwounds easier on my fingers than flats. The flats tend to get sticky and my finger will grab after awhile. Never have that problem with rounds. Noticed it in the 70's and it still holds true today.
I like them. I have TI jazz flats on my P that sound nice and in the past I had GHS brite flats which were more round wound tone with the flat wound feel
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Addressing the ease of play question. I began playing bass in 1967. Flats were really all there was. I used LaBella heavy gauge blue silk on my hideously ugly Kent short scale 833 hollowbody violin bass with a cutaway. Then, in 1969, one day at band rehearsal, the local pot dealer came down to jam.. he had a Traynor YBA3-A and 6-10 cabinet. The bass? A 1960 Fender Jazz bass strung with Rotosounds. I never saw or heard a set of those until that moment. He played with a pick. I couldn't believe what I heard. I went out the next Saturday to Manny's Music and bought a set. 21 bucks. Amazing how the price has stayed nearly the same. But 21 bucks was expensive back then. I didn't know about the possibility of breaking the string winding the bare string around the machine- and as per the warning on the package.. did not attempt to put them on the Kent. It would be a while before I had a bass to put them on.
I built a bass in 1971, but it had a Gibson sidewinder pickup on it.. it sounded nothing like the J-bass I had heard. Fast forward, and I've played just about every string type and brand there is.
As far as feel goes, Jimmy is right, you CAN get used to anything. Carl Thompson told me that once. Flats, surprisingly, will produce harder, more noticeable callusing. More string surface is actually in contact with your fingers. Guys who begin playing upright after learning on electric basses with rounds discover this. Rounds initially feel rough to the touch, but for me, are easier on my fingers. Especially nickel ones.
What seems to make the MOST difference, is the atmospheric conditions, and the effect of those conditions on your hands and fingers. When the stage is hot, and you're sweating, the neck gets 'gummy' you get dirt on the ball of the thumb of your fingering hand, and crud in between your fingers... regardless of strings. It always makes playing a drag.
Flats seem to take on a decidedly uncomfortable, almost immovable steel cable feel in those conditions.
What I do, is keep a towel handy- or Kleenex in my jacket pocket..and just keep right on playing.
I love both types of strings. My Classic rock/ R&B band- the Fenders with flats are the only way to go. My main instruments, Edwards modern 5's (bass in my profile pic) with stainless rounds sound wrong for that music.
I built a bass in 1971, but it had a Gibson sidewinder pickup on it.. it sounded nothing like the J-bass I had heard. Fast forward, and I've played just about every string type and brand there is.
As far as feel goes, Jimmy is right, you CAN get used to anything. Carl Thompson told me that once. Flats, surprisingly, will produce harder, more noticeable callusing. More string surface is actually in contact with your fingers. Guys who begin playing upright after learning on electric basses with rounds discover this. Rounds initially feel rough to the touch, but for me, are easier on my fingers. Especially nickel ones.
What seems to make the MOST difference, is the atmospheric conditions, and the effect of those conditions on your hands and fingers. When the stage is hot, and you're sweating, the neck gets 'gummy' you get dirt on the ball of the thumb of your fingering hand, and crud in between your fingers... regardless of strings. It always makes playing a drag.
Flats seem to take on a decidedly uncomfortable, almost immovable steel cable feel in those conditions.
What I do, is keep a towel handy- or Kleenex in my jacket pocket..and just keep right on playing.
I love both types of strings. My Classic rock/ R&B band- the Fenders with flats are the only way to go. My main instruments, Edwards modern 5's (bass in my profile pic) with stainless rounds sound wrong for that music.
I remember reading somewhere that Fender basses came stock with flats up until the early '80s. It almost seems hard to believe, but is that true?
Did not know that was here, will look it upI notice you don't have a number for the NJ bassist club
more Belleville attitude coming your way I started playing upright in 1967 @ 9 years old ha-ha-ha
I'm not sure of the exact year they stopped shipping with flats (I thought it was closer to 79), but yes, it went on well after rounds had overtaken flats in popularity.
It's interesting how much things had changed just a few years later. I bought my first set of flatwounds in 1991 and some music stores didn't even carry flats at that time. I managed to find a set at Guitar Center, and that was the only set they had--not the only type of set, but the one and only set of flatwounds they had. And it looked like it had been sitting on their shelf for ten years. It was a really heavy gauge set of Rotosounds but the packaging was way different than their current set. I had to file the A slot on my nut to make it fit.
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Kids...
Believe it or not, it wasn't up until the mid-to-late 70's that most manufacturers shipped basses with rounds. And I don't think Fender did it till like 79.
TB member @JTE, who used to manage a musical instrument store, has said many times that Fender continued shipping basses with flats until 1983 when some lines/models started coming with rounds on (the complete conversion probably happening shortly after). Music Man basses already came with half-rounds and full-rounds at the turn of the decade, IIRC. As in, if I correctly remember having read about it here - I was literally a kid at the time!
Put the Harris flats on today and they are like railroad tracks. My plucking hand is sore, because I never played anything so thick and heavy. They sound great and especially with a sans amp VT, with just a bit of drive. Pretty easy to move up and down the neck, but forget string bending.
You might should give Chromes a try. I have the 45-100 set on my PBass and while they are more stiff than rounds they feel very good under my fingers. I've had them on my bass for almost 3 years and are no where near being dead. They have a very clean and clear sound and sit in the mix very well.
