Installed, tuned, and played for about 20 minutes and my first impressions of these TI flats:
1- Floppy never came to my mind, but definitely lower tension. I would describe it as "supple" as someone else on TB before used that term. I can definitely feel the lower tension in the D and G strings.
2- Noticed I need to pay a little more attention on fretting technique, and not be lazy and sloppy which I can be on the Cobalt FWs.
3- Tone on the .136 B string was surprisingly good for a flatwound. Probably the best along with the GHS PW I have, but that is a custom set that MichaelT recommended.
4- These strings have mids and mid-highs until the cow finishes jumping the moon as flatwounds go. Certainly not old-school thump like Labellas, but it does have a nice thump tone underlying the mids. I suspect these will cut through the mix well. I'll find out on Sunday.
5- These pair well with my Markbass LM2, EQ even up on both the Kiesel and amp. No VLE or VPF (turned off). The Kiesel has the radius single coil (green dots for those that know Kiesel color codes - reminds me of my Pings). These are the first strings I like on all three settings (neck single coil, bridge single coil, and humbucker which is both).
6- No highs like my RWs. The PW has more highs, and the Cobalt flats had more high that I can remember (I played those strings for over 2 years, so my memory of those out of the box is likely faulty). I'd guess that the highs are in the ballpark to the cobalts at 6 months.
7- Cobalt flats are definitely smoother to me. I can feel the outer winding on the TIs somewhat, not much at all. I couldn't on the Cobalts.
8- Confirming red silk at both ends, brass ball ends.
We'll see how these break in and age. I hoping these will age gracefully for several years or more. It better at $100 bucks.
The Cobalts don't age gracefully per my sample size of one set. It wasn't the loss of mids and highs that was the problem, but the volume difference between strings grew to being unusable. PWs age gracefully per my experience.
