One with flats and one with rounds ?

[whatever4]

If I played like a crazy person still, I’d have a round and a flat P and J. Instead I go round P flat J.

Yeah, I think rounds take some of the muddiness out of a P, and flats fatten up the thin sound of a J.

 

[darwin-bass]

Ok , who here really does this?

I do. P with rounds and another with flats. Fretless ‘ray with flats and fretted ‘ray with rounds. And they all get played.

 

[butterfingers1]

Four with flats.

 

[Pet Sounds]

Ok , who here really does this?

I do on my Precision, Jazz, StingRay and Rickenbacker basses. Flats and tapewounds on my German Hofners.

 

[factory presets]

Only just.

Flats on a Squier Jazz and rounds on a J-ish Heartfield. Probably keep them on the Squier. But I could easily justify one P with each.

Too bad I only got one P.

 

[staurosjohn]

Roto SS rounds on my RIC for 35yrs… switched to Fenders, in 2010… (3) flats to (1) rounds

 

[LowendG]

Ok , who here really does this?

I always have one P with flats and one with rounds. Especially for recording those are my two most-used sounds. I'd say they're neck and neck, about 50/50 in use.
I recently added a second Jazz too so I can do the same. Interestingly it's the flatwound one that gets 90% of the play with those.
I can't think of too many other basses I would likely do this with though. Maybe if I had a couple 'Rays that would be cool, but I just never need that sound.

 

[Bag of Lazers]

I always have a P and a J with flats. I also have couple of each with rounds. It's good to be versatile if you're playing different genres.

 

[GroovyBaby]

Ok , who here really does this?

I do. I have a P bass with TI rounds and a P bass with TI flats. I use both and appreciate the differences.

 

[Altitude]

I’d do that for sure if I were doing session work, and probably would if I were doing lots of pickup gigs. Point being, where’s the point where you have to react so quickly with a bass/string config that swapping strings is impractical (can you cover a session at 3PM today? Bring a P-bass with rounds).

When you consider, that’s actually a pretty high bar. Me, I’m playing six or eight gigs a year with a few rehearsals in front of them. I can restring.

For the scoreboard though, my P has Labella flats on it right now. I have a set of Chromes and a set of NYXLs that have both been on it and are at the ready.

My J has Pressurewounds on it that are kind of dead and sound pretty sweet. I also have a set of Sadowsky Blue Label flats that are trimmed for that bass, they’re about 15 years old but have very little mileage on them. I’ve been thinking about putting them back on it for a while, they feel and sound great.

My Skjold 6 has Labella white nylon tapewounds on it, I also have a set of Pressurewounds, a set of Half-Rounds, and a set of D’Addario XLs for that bass.

My Skjold 5 has a set of Skjold nickel hybrid rounds on it. That bass is very dark; I’ve never put flats on it and I doubt they would sound good.

I have a semi hollow ESP LTD bass that has Labella Gold tapewounds on it. The low tension is ideal.

Not that you asked…

 

[pbassnut]

Ok , who here really does this?

That's something I often tell myself to justify getting another bass that I need like another hole in the head.

 

[Sam Evans]

And missing out on the best part of owning a fretless? That growl yo.

Haha! That's not the sound I'm going for, though ...

 

[Sam Dingle]

Me. Well kind of. I have 3 main P basses one with flats that I honestly use like 4 times a year, one with rounds tuned standard and one with rounds tuned down a whole step

 

[Luther]

Me.

 

[RavenousPoe]

I have flats on my 4003 for more vintage stuff, along the lines of Sabbath and Maiden, and then rounds on my P Bass for more modern stuff like thrash and the like. Toying with the idea of dropping the P bass down to BEAD to negate the need of my 5 strings, since I only have them for one project anyways.

 

[Pings Bass]

I think I'm at 3 with flats, 4 with rounds (if you count the upright).

Basically run flats on fretless and rounds on fretted, for feel more than sound. Used to run rounds on fretless when I was playing rock and switching between fretted and fretless and wanted similar feel. Now I mostly switch between upright and fretless, and likewise prefer the similar feel.

 

[FenderP]

All flats or tapes here. I may use different brands but I am a "never roundwound" guy.

 

[someguyfromNC]

pj has rounds the other p has flats.

 

[sethlow3]

I did string up my P’s that way, but I realized I’m much more of a rocker at heart over the years. So one is a 5 standard rounds and the other is a 4 half step down rounds.

Now I’m reserving the next bass to be a hollow one and that will get the flats. It just blends over tonally so much better IMO.

 

[mikewalker]

No dupes; but one each ROUNDS, FLATS, TAPES...