SB2 with MFD pickups. What flat wounds would you use?

[CaribooBass]

I have a really nice G&L American SB2 and it currently has round wound strings on it.

Well it is time to change the strings and I am thinking about putting on flat-wounds.

I have flat wounds on my fretless Jazz bass and they are made by Fender. I like them but they are the only flats I have any experience with.

They work great for a Jazz bass, but the SB2 has MFD pickups. Would I not need a better quality set of strings?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Clayton

 

[Hillbilly Sam]

I don't understand why you suggest that MFD pickups would requiere a "better quality set of strings" than a jazz bass. Anyway, will try to help you with what you're asking!

My experience with MFDs is that they're hot, strong and quite aggressive pickups. I found some sort of metallic sizzle/clank in them, no matter what flatwound or tapewound I tried.

For me, the flats that worked best were those that do the thumpy/woody kind of thing.
So I'd discard the Fender/d'Addario/Ernie Ball, quite metallic sounding for my taste. I think MFDs got enough of that already.
I'd go for:
1. Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats if you can handle light and flexible strings and want a woody but articulated and rich sound. These were my favourite pairing with MFDs.
2. La Bella DTFs (set choice according to your preferred gauge) if you want a more thumpy and thicker/boomy sound, although a bit less articulated and rich than with Thomastiks.
These were really OK for me too, but found that MFDs can sound big enough to sport Thomastiks and still sound thick. The La Bellas took away quite a bit of harmonic for my taste.
3. Dunlop flatwounds: I find them to provide some sort of "woody thump", kinda like in-between the former 2.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[GIBrat51]

I have a really nice G&L American SB2 and it currently has round wound strings on it.

Well it is time to change the strings and I am thinking about putting on flat-wounds.

I have flat wounds on my fretless Jazz bass and they are made by Fender. I like them but they are the only flats I have any experience with.

They work great for a Jazz bass, but the SB2 has MFD pickups. Would I not need a better quality set of strings?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Clayton

Well... in a word? NO.
Unless you go on-line and buy no-name strings made by the Glorious Red Banner People's Revolutionary String Collective, for $10 a set - including shipping? It's pretty hard to buy flats that are much "better quality" than the fender 9050s. There are flats that sound different - but that ain't necessarily better. There are some that are stiffer - or more flexible - but, neither are necessarily better, either. What matters is - how do the strings feel and sound - to You.. Do they serve the music that you play, or would some other flats do a better job? While it is true that, for most things, you get what you pay for, there's a price point where a little thing called "snob appeal" creeps in...
I've been playing bass since 1968 - and, 99.9% of the time? Those basses were wearing flats. All kinds of flats. For a time, every new-to-me bass I bought, got a set of EB Hybrid Slinkys when I set it up. They were inexpensive; readily available; very consistent in tone; and, for rounds, played and felt good. They stayed on the bass until I decided what strings it was going to wear permanently. But, because the Slinkys always wound up being replaced by flats, I decided to stop using them, and start using some kind of flats for that job. The ones I chose? Fender 9050Ls. For pretty much the same reasons that I used the Slinkys. But, the Fenders wound up staying on several of my 23 basses. The ones that I think sound best with them... I have one bass with tapes, and one bass with TI Jazz Rounds, but all the rest wear a wide variety of flats; and some of those flats cost a lot. But, honestly? I don't really see that they're "higher quality" than the Fenders. All of them have had people here complain about them - sometimes, a lot of people. Some of them are a lot more complicated in their construction - TI's for instance; and some of them are obviously hand made - Dogal R44's are gorgeous - but... that doesn't mean they're higher quality. It just means that they're different. So...
Bottom line? It's your bass; put whatever flat wound strings that tickle your fancy on it. But, I'd recommend that you at least try the Fenders, before you dismiss them out of hand. Not only will you know for sure if they work for you on that SB2, but that will give you a starting point as to what kind of flats that will work best. However; don't be surprised to find that you like them on that bass, too. Why? Because the 9050's are what my '15 G&L Tom Hamilton Signature ASAT Bass wears...

 

[michael_t]

I have a really nice G&L American SB2 and it currently has round wound strings on it.

Well it is time to change the strings and I am thinking about putting on flat-wounds.

I have flat wounds on my fretless Jazz bass and they are made by Fender. I like them but they are the only flats I have any experience with.

They work great for a Jazz bass, but the SB2 has MFD pickups. Would I not need a better quality set of strings?

As already been pointed out, choosing the right strings for any given bass is NOT about "quality", but it's all about the tonal character that matches the bass well according to how you would want it to sound.

So, the question is what's your tonal goal for the SB2? How would you want it to sound compared to the fretless Jazz with Fender flats?