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Roundwound growl, Flatwound thump...how can I get both?

#22
Jirishman said:
As the title says, I'd like to find a string that marries the qualities of both a roundwound and flatwound string. I have tried half-rounds, and while the thump was pretty good, I found they lost that brightness/growl pretty quickly.

One option I've been looking at are GHS Pressurewound strings, or should I try a heavier-gauge roundwound? Any help/advice here would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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What Half-Rounds did you try? I use D'addario Half-Rounds and they sound great to me. I play a lot of funk, blues, rock, and jazz stuff. Ive never had a hard time getting an old school thump, or a nice (albeit, different) slap tone with them.
 
#23
I just don't see how you can do this without compromising. What I do is have 2 of the same basses and 1 is strung with flats, the other with rotosound swings. It's working brilliantly so that's what I'm going to stick with, easy enough to switch basses if their identical models, tone/volume wise. If your choice of bass isn't too dear you may try this instead of settling for strings that aren't perfect.
 
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#24
I definitely got that effect with Pressurewounds, and I really liked them soloed. But they seemed pretty muddy in a band mix compared to my usual choices (just not compatible with my bass, rig, and bandmates all together).
The .106 set has great balanced tension.
 
#27
Personally, my opinion is that if you try to get the best of both worlds when two things are so drastically different, you are usually going to be disappointed, and either those qualities that you like don't work well together, or they simply aren't there.
 
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#29
Pier_ said:
IMHO the best way to get nearest to "both" is to keep a set of roundwound and use foam mute at the bridge when needed. it's not "the same" as having flats on the bass, but you'll get the short sustain and quick attack.
*snip*
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This is what I've been doing on my FrankenP for about 6 mos. now and I'm digging it. Same attack with quicker decay and far easier (and cheaper!) than a string shootout.
 
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#34
image.jpg
 
#40
Jirishman said:
As the title says, I'd like to find a string that marries the qualities of both a roundwound and flatwound string. I have tried half-rounds, and while the thump was pretty good, I found they lost that brightness/growl pretty quickly.

One option I've been looking at are GHS Pressurewound strings, or should I try a heavier-gauge roundwound? Any help/advice here would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I think Ernie Ball just came out with a new string just for this dilemma. The Slinky Flatwounds. I haven't tried them yet but plan to soon. It's supposedly the best of both worlds!
 

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