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Strings- How bright? Or not at all?

zontar

zontar

Feb 19, 2014
14,173
46,005
J-5
#1
It can depend on the style of music you play, and other contextual stuff, but some like bright strings & others don’t. Or how bright?
Brightness can help you cut through the mix, or be too shrill.
Of course the strings aren’t the only factor.

But just isolating strings for a moment, what is your preference?

Mine has always been for bright strings, so I tend not to like flatwounds.
If it’s too bright I can “de-bright them by amp or bass settings, EQ pedal, or technique.
I find it easier to take away brightness than to add it.
Of course YMMV, even if you like brightness as well.

So what are your thoughts?
And if you play guitar as well, does it differ for you?
Since the guitar is midrange, my thoughts are pretty much the same for both guitar and bass.
Thanks.
 
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#3
my preference is pretty bright, I guess. for example, I took off flats from a Hofner to enjoy stainless rounds even there. all my basses are wearing stainless rounds, without them something seems missing.

on guitars I use nickels tho.
 
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#5
zontar said:
It can depend on the style of music you play, and other contextual stuff, but some like bright strings & others don’t. Or how bright?
Brightness can help you cut through the mix, or be too shrill.
Of course the strings aren’t the only factor.

But just isolating strings for a moment, what is your preference?

Mine has always been for bright strings, so I tend not to like flatwounds.
If it’s too bright I can “de-bright them by amp or bass settings, EQ pedal, or technique.
I find it easier to take away brightness than to add it.
Of course YMMV, even if you like brightness as well.

So what are your thoughts?
And if you play guitar as well, does it differ for you?
Since the guitar is midrange, my thoughts are pretty much the same for both guitar and bass.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Always go for bright and tone it down if you need to. Tone knobs and treble on preamps are here for a reason. You can find some really cool things by barely cracking into the tone knob on some basses. Also if the strings are too mellow and you try to compensate with EQ it always sounds too synthetic and you'll never get the rich harmonics and subtle undertones of fresh strings. Even fresh flat wounds sound better than old worn out flats. Sure it takes a long time to wear them out but eventually they absolutely do. They stop intonating and everything else. Also since all strings lose brightness after a while it's better to go brighter and let them settle vs too mellow and you are unhappy after they settle.
 
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#7
I have no use for flats, hated them even back when that’s all there was. I have no desire to approximate an upright, or uphold any pointless/stagnant notion of ‘tradition’ on electric and while I certainly put Jamerson on a pedestal for his note choices, his sound was muddy and boring to me. Plus, that was 60 years ago.
While Entwistle, Wetton, Burnel, Hook, perhaps Lake at times, were sonic guides, I never set out to imitate them. I have always hit clearance bins, otherwise defaulting to GHS or Ernie rounds if I have the budget, but leave them on until the finger schmutz gets too gross. So while the zing does go away, the tone will eventually get freshened. I’m all for clarity and sustain. There’s always EQ controls to take any edge off.
 
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#9
Brightness won't help you "cut" in a rock mix. Can't speak to other genre's.....but generally low mids will help you cut more than brightness will. Brightness WILL get in the way of vocals, guitars and keyboards. A good sound engineer is going to frequency slot every instrument. That means for bass they will cut you at 60hz to make room for the kick drum, and LPF (or slot) you at higher frequencies to make room for the guitars and vocals. End result? All of that wonderful brightness will be mixed out of existence. Sure there are exceptions, but this is a pretty standard practice in most clubs.

That said, I prefer bright flats like Cobalts or Chromes because I love the feel of flats and need the top end on tap for the few times I slap in our set.
 
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#11
LaBella flats
I played around with rounds but I don't care for that zing, and finger/string zippy sound. I want pure unadulterated controlled tone. I am capable of determining the expanse and control of the tone, preferring the string to not add any characteristic sound effects, which is an atribute of out of control roundwound oscillations.

Some folks enjoy that, I'm not in that camp.

A good rack mounted bass eq brings sonic wonders into any mix or any room...7 band pedal eq does okay but I've worked a few audio engineers that would scoff and blow at the mention of OB or pedal eq solutions 🫥
 
#17
Nuisance said:
Brightness won't help you "cut" in a rock mix. Can't speak to other genre's.....but generally low mids will help you cut more than brightness will. Brightness WILL get in the way of vocals, guitars and keyboards. A good sound engineer is going to frequency slot every instrument. That means for bass they will cut you at 60hz to make room for the kick drum, and LPF (or slot) you at higher frequencies to make room for the guitars and vocals. End result? All of that wonderful brightness will be mixed out of existence. Sure there are exceptions, but this is a pretty standard practice in most clubs.

That said, I prefer bright flats like Cobalts or Chromes because I love the feel of flats and need the top end on tap for the few times I slap in our set.
Click to expand...
My experience is that it does, although this was written initially for guitar, and I made some edits to it.
However, as others have agreed, start with bright and you can take it out more easily (and better), than adding it in.
My first bass wasn’t getting me the sound I liked, but it had flat# and a string mute.
I considered all sorts of things for more brightness, and was playing primarily hard rock and classic metal.
I put round wounds on, and removed the mute, that was the sound I wanted, it was brighter, and I could tone it down with the controls of the bass and/or the amp, or by technique.
I no longer got lost in the mix.
Of course, as I mentioned, YMMV.
Lots of variables from how you play to the pickups and amp, etc, and how the others you play with do those things with their instruments.
Not doubting that is your experience, and yes you can overlap with others, but if so, cut the brightness yourself, before any sound guy or engineer gets a chance to.
And an EQ pedal is handy as well.
Not saying I outrank you, but it has worked for me.
 
#19
The tone from flats can be OK depending on what I’m after but I just don’t like the feel. As others have said, if strings are too bright it’s easier to dial that back.

However, I will vary strings from bass to bass depending on what I think works well with that bass. I find different strings match better with certain basses. For example, I like Pressurewounds on fretless basses, and have them on another bass that I find overall a little bright. Most wear regular nickel rounds, but a couple wear stainless steel and on one of the short scales I use GHS Balanced NIckels, which are very mellow sounding nickels. Just depends on the bass.
 

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