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Praise Report: GHS Precision Flats

How do they feel?
Do they still have tension or are they floppy? (TI's)

They are not at all floppy. I found they have different tension on different basses (less tension on my MIM Jazz Fretless, more on my EBMM Sterling Fretless).

But subjectively way less tension than Fender 9050 Flats .050 -.100, for example.

I did try out a defretted EBMM Stingray at Guitarget once with flats that were floppy, so I know what you mean...
 
Problem i have with these flats is the d and g take sooo long to break in and they sound horribly unbalanced for a long time.
But when broken in after a handful of months they do sound amazing. Thump masters.

Yes, that's true. I normally don't exercise running scales, but in order to play in this set, I did. A LOT. I ran single string scales on both the D and G to get them to begin play in. I'm thinking six months will be the magic age when they will all come together as one, and I have every reason to believe they will stay that way for a long time. They're gigable now, but I wouldn't record with them just yet.
 
I have GHS P flats on two basses and love them deeply... Usually a finger style player but have been enjoying pick playing too with these on my SCPB... Finally getting those 60's rock and funk tones I was dreaming of (it makes a huge difference).
Hats off to GHS for these...
 
I'm thinking about swtiching to ghs flats on my classic 50's p-bass. I have LaBella 0760M on it now and the tension for my fretting hand near the nut on the E and A strings is just way too much. I love the huge tension for my plucking hand and tone of those, but it's my second time having a go at them and I don't want to injure myself either...

Would the ghs flats in their biggest gauge give me approximately the same thump and feel while being a tad looser ?
 
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I like the GHS flats but I had a weird problem with one this week. I noticed that the G and F on my D string were out of tune. I checked the open D string and the tuner and my ear said it was fine. The tuner thinks those two notes are in tune too but my ear says they are a quarter step or so off. I don't know how that can be. I'd like to do a search on this problem but what would I search on? Does it have a name? Searching on "out of tune" won't get me anything useful or if it does the useful stuff will be lost in the tons of normal tuning problems.

I guess even flats wear out or break. These weren't very old, only about a year but I'm not upset or dissing the product. Changing strings once a year is no big deal even if flats users normally never change them!
 
I'm thinking about swtiching to ghs flats on my classic 50's p-bass. I have LaBella 0760M on it now and the tension for my fretting hand near the nut on the E and A strings is just way too much. I love the huge tension for my plucking hand and tone of those, but it's my second time having a go at them and I don't want to injure myself either...

Would the ghs flats in their biggest gauge give me approximately the same thump and feel while being a tad looser ?

I had a set of the 55-105 on my jazz before i sold it. Even at that gauge imo they dont come close to tension of medium labellas, chromes, or fender.
 
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I had a set of the 55-105 on my jazz before i sold it. Even at that gauge imo they dont come close to tension of medium labellas, chromes, or fender.

Might just go back to chromes then. The 0760M feel much stiffer than the regular chromes and if the ghs are even looser than chromes, they might not feel stiff enough for me.

Such a pity, the 0760M are probably my favourite and least favourite string all rolled up into one.
 
Might just go back to chromes then. The 0760M feel much stiffer than the regular chromes and if the ghs are even looser than chromes, they might not feel stiff enough for me.

Such a pity, the 0760M are probably my favourite and least favourite string all rolled up into one.

They will have tension at first, but they do "relax" after a short time.
I would suggest the fender heavy flats.
Lots of tension there, just give them a month to break in and they have a growly punchy thump all there own.
 
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I'm thinking about swtiching to ghs flats on my classic 50's p-bass. I have LaBella 0760M on it now and the tension for my fretting hand near the nut on the E and A strings is just way too much. I love the huge tension for my plucking hand and tone of those, but it's my second time having a go at them and I don't want to injure myself either...

I'm thinking about going the other way - buying 0760M set to replace my GHS Precisions. Been going back and forth on it in my head, and that video kind of pushed me over the edge - it's more or less the same sound I'm hearing on mine, and it isn't the sound I want to hear. Played someone else's bass for a few minutes Friday with black silk flats, probably 0760FS? and it was heavenly.

Are you reasonably sure you're set up right? String height at the first fret should be really minimal - according to this video, 0.022 inches, about 1/2 mm. With heavy, stiff strings, wouldn't be surprised if you could get away with even less if you're careful.
 

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