Depending on how aggressive your play is, a good set of flats or wounds will last a long time. In the realm of 1 to 2 years for rounds, and over 5 with flats. Kudos on the BB424x. I have a BB424x with chromes. The BB also sounds great with rounds and depending on how much you play or how aggressive your style is, strings should last at least 2 years with regular usage. If you're considering flats, let your rounds get into the muddy sound and wear they down until they break, and buy strings in bulk as an investment.
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Putting Flatwounds just for lifetime?
- Thread starter Mili
- Start date
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- flatwounds roundwounds
SADOWSKY BLUE LABEL FLATS PROBLEM SOLVED they sound like rounds but feel like flats!!!!!!!!!
I love these strings but these are quite warm sounding though. They are a more flexible version of their Deep Talkin' model.
You'll never get the brightness that you're getting from Elixirs if you switch to flats of any kind. Flats aren't designed to sound like that. Get some new Elixirs, IMO they last longer than other coated strings, and wipe them off after every gig or practice session and they should last a good while. Keep your hands clean too.
You can get a little more mileage out of regular strings by soaking them in denatured alcohol ($6-9, reusable) which dissolves the dirt and skin off. I've never touched flats and don't plan to.
For those who think they won't last a lifetime, I have a set of flats that have been on a Danelectro bass for 40 years.
Fender flats work well for a brighter sound. They have a nice grit to them, kind of a grind I suppose. They age well, too. Or, Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats are a solid choice. Very, very bright for a flat. I ran some of those for six months before taking them off. They are just too bright for my tastes. If I wanted a brighter flat that ages well, I’d choose the Fender flats.
I have no comments about tension. I prefer stiff strings, usually running La Bella’s .49 or 1954s until I get an urge to try something different, but they usually get put right back on a few months down the road.
I have no comments about tension. I prefer stiff strings, usually running La Bella’s .49 or 1954s until I get an urge to try something different, but they usually get put right back on a few months down the road.
I have had the same set of TI Jazz flats on my Fender Jazz since 2010.
They still sound fantastic.
They still sound fantastic.
99% of time I play finger style and very gentle (something like Garry Willis). Now I'm using elixir and I'm monitoring its sound( Elixir Nanoweb coated comparison after 3 months of use) Still in good condition but recently i'm making youtube cover videos so i can't play with dead Roundwounds. I practice 5 hours a day with sweaty fingers so uncoated strings will be dead in 3 months in best case scenario.
Yes I'm aware of that but i want to get close as possible.
Good point, Thanks for advice.
Agree with Mili. Just read his post, the first in this thread mentioning nano coated strings.
I love flats and rounds, but in your case, I would think about buying nano coated strings from Elixir. I have a set on one of my basses for more than 13 years and I played it a lot for about 3 years at least 3 hours a week and they still have more high end than some new sets of roundwounds after two weeks. They sound like rounds. Maybe during the first hours of playing you have a little bit less brilliance than with uncoated strings, but only after a few hours of playing you have more high end than any comparable roundwound after the same amount of playing that is uncoated. And they seem to last forever (cause no fat from your skin can get inbetween the wire).
Flatwounds just for the purpose of keeping their tune longer don't make sense to me.
I love flats and rounds, but in your case, I would think about buying nano coated strings from Elixir. I have a set on one of my basses for more than 13 years and I played it a lot for about 3 years at least 3 hours a week and they still have more high end than some new sets of roundwounds after two weeks. They sound like rounds. Maybe during the first hours of playing you have a little bit less brilliance than with uncoated strings, but only after a few hours of playing you have more high end than any comparable roundwound after the same amount of playing that is uncoated. And they seem to last forever (cause no fat from your skin can get inbetween the wire).
Flatwounds just for the purpose of keeping their tune longer don't make sense to me.
Nice job, how many times it works? I mean if roundwounds die because of dirt so if somehow we clean that completely, should we expect to hear the fresh sound again? Unless the corrosion makes the problem.
Yes this absolutely works ( forget about boiling BTW). I rotate my Roto 66s this way because I want that new piano sound and can't afford the cost of buying several sets a year. However I don't think will work on elixers on account of the coating.
I just checked a review on youtube and that was amazing. Thank you.
- Jun 6, 2012
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They never sound like flats, they just sound flat. I would rather slap with flats than expect the oldest roundwounds on earth to sound like flatwounds. If they would, I would just use roundwounds and would celebrate them dying every second. Instead of paying the high price for Labellas in Europe (they got a bit cheaper lately). It's much harder to make rounds sound like flats than the other way round, but even the later isn't really satisfying.
Yes! All I play on are Labella's - love them and don't want anything else on my gear....
