Switching To Flatwounds On P-Bass?

[2saddleslab]

THEY SAY.... if you put flats on an American Standard, to use the top holes, not the through body, as the sharp angle leads to breakage.
So they say,,,,,

They say lots of things, doesn't make it true. On this they know not what they speak.

 

[Doner Designs]

If you solo the neck pickup on your Jaco it will sound a lot like that (minus the hum).

With a P you will eliminate the mid scoop that you get on a jazz bass when both pickups are on full.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Like Pino , I prefer T I Flats on my Pbass.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Long as we are talking, give me a suggestion. I play rotosound swing steels (45-105). I want a flat thump, with similar tension.

Anybody?

 

[meatwad]

THEY SAY.... if you put flats on an American Standard, to use the top holes, not the through body, as the sharp angle leads to breakage.
So they say,,,,,

Let's just say that IME, "they" might know what they are talking about, if ya know what I mean?

 

[bassbully]

I can't think of any string but flats for a P bass.

 

[el jeffe bass]

I have used Fender flats, GHS flats and La Bella DTF's on my main P-bass. I like them all but prefer the DTF's. On my fretless P-bass I like tape wound.

 

[Mammoth_Bass]

Anybody?

I like EB custom gauge flatwounds group 3

 

[rodv66]

Using the Harris flats and those things are beasts. Like a workout everytime I pick up my pbass. Think you can use them to hold up a bridge they are so thick

 

[quickfix]

I've two Precisions. My current favourites are Chromes, ECB82 and 81 sets. Last week it was my Labellas, 760FS and LTFlats. I rotate them back and forth to suit tastes and projects. They'll get rotated again down the road somewhere.
But my love of flats never wanes.

 

[Hotblack]

Long as we are talking, give me a suggestion. I play rotosound swing steels (45-105). I want a flat thump, with similar tension.

Flat thump? I would go LaBella.
Fender flats also have what I would describe as flat thump, but significantly higher tension than the LaBella's.

 

[fourstringbliss]

Long as we are talking, give me a suggestion. I play rotosound swing steels (45-105). I want a flat thump, with similar tension.

If you mean strings that have a short decay and muted highs right out of the package, GHS Precision Flats are what you want.

 

[DigitalMan]

Sounds like we are considering the same thing.

Stack Rank Your Three Favorite Flats

Over in the strings forum. Fwiw I have TI's sitting in the bench waiting for me to get around to installing them. Maybe this week sometime...

 

[audioglenn]

If you've never played a P bass with flatwound strings, then you owe it to yourself to do so. You NEED to know that your P bass is capable of that
sound/feel. Sure, it's going to be different. But, give them a fair shot. It's a sound that you will never duplicate with round wound strings.

 

[bobyoung53]

Anybody?

How about Labellas, the gauge below their standard (45-105) ought to be similar in tension to the Rotos. They're great strings.

 

[Antisyzygy]

Five of the six basses I own all have round wounds with the exception of my Fender Jaco signature J fretless which has the flats. Love it BTW.

I am tempted to convert my current production Am Std P-bass to flats but don't really know what I'm in store for tone-wise. I love the tone of the flats on the Jaco but sometimes would like that same tone with a fretted bass. Will the pickups on my P react well with flats or are they more designed for rounds?

Thanks,

If you're concerned about the adjustment to your sound try cobalt flats. They're brighter than most flats. They also snarl a little, or have some high mids that kinda come out.

They do sound a bit thumpy so you can try rolling off your tone knob to see how that might work.

They also didn't feel quite as high tension as I remember chrome flatwounds feeling.

Long story short, coming from rounds it wasn't a big adjustment--it was just enough.

I tried chrome flats one time and they felt fairly high tension. They made a clicky sound a bit too much when played. I may have needed to break them in longer but I didn't like it.

The only warmer flats I've tried were on fretless basses and they feel and sound quite nice. However I wonder if you won't like how thumpy they are coming straight from rounds.

It all depends. Do you want to dip your foot in the water or jump in?

 

[Antisyzygy]

They say lots of things, doesn't make it true. On this they know not what they speak.

I believe the first iteration of EB cobalt flats had this problem because the wrapping around the string core would shift apart a little when at a sharp angle. This left a weak point in the string. If you unstring and restring a few times it could break.

They've since fixed it I think.

 

[JJ is Coo]

I think of flats as being more "airy" sounding. And just generally more vintage sounding. You can pluck the strings really hard and it won't give you a clacky, growly kind of sound. It just gets phunkier!

 

[peledog]

It's all personal preference. There are no rules.

 

[LUCE]

THEY SAY.... if you put flats on an American Standard, to use the top holes, not the through body, as the sharp angle leads to breakage.
So they say,,,,,

Original P-bass was strings-through-body only and came with flats. My '75 came from the factory with flats.