Well, now I've really gone and done it...
Money is a little tight right now, so I'm not buying any new strings for a while, and my current favorite roundwounds (DR Sunbeams) were getting stale and lifeless. I had already boiled/thoroughly cleaned two old sets of them and had nothing to replace them with.
Except for an old (5-7 years?) set of TI Flats. I thought, what the heck, I'll put them on and give them a try, since I never used them on my current bass or played them through my current rig, so I had no idea how'd they sound now.
I tried liking them as my mainstay strings over the years...but kept going back to roundwounds. I've tried every other flat made...and flats just don't appeal to me as much as rounds.
But seeing as how I built my own custom bass, and built my own 115 neo cabs (that are very mid-voiced) and I couldn't go buy some new rounds, I thought I'd give them yet another try.
I'm glad I did. My gig Friday night was a full house, and we were rockin the place. My first thought as we ripped through the first part of the first set, was that Wow, my sound is huge! Notes were so well defined and thick, yet surprisingly not boomy. The TI's had enough thump to give me that ol' bass sound, yet I wasn't getting lost in the mix (two guitar players, keyboardist and a loud drummer).
But I knew I had some songs coming up in the second set that I knew would be a real test. "Never Been Any Reason" and "Carry on Wayward Son" were definitely my "roundwound", bright string songs. I didn't think the TI's were going to do those songs justice.
But they were amazingly bright and clear (due to TI Flats being very mid enhanced, if you will). No, they didn't cop a roundwound personality and weren't a perfect fit for those songs. But what they lacked in that roundwound zinginess, they made up for with such definition...and sustain!
The TI's sustain just as long as any rounds I've played. They also are quite brilliant for a flat (not zingy bright like a round, but not just the dull thump of other flats either). They also are more even in tone and output all across EADG than my fave roundwounds. The D and G strings don't sound so weak. All the strings sound full, fat, well defined, and most of all clear. "Clear" and "sustain" are not words I usually associate with flats. I do now.
Now, keep in mind these strings are 5 to 7 years old and have been on and off quite a few of my basses already. I just had them lying around and my new bass needed a string change.
Happy I did. Before the gig, I commented to my wife..."You know, if these strings work on my bass and through my new rig, I may not have to buy so many strings anymore."
Now I don't.
Money is a little tight right now, so I'm not buying any new strings for a while, and my current favorite roundwounds (DR Sunbeams) were getting stale and lifeless. I had already boiled/thoroughly cleaned two old sets of them and had nothing to replace them with.
Except for an old (5-7 years?) set of TI Flats. I thought, what the heck, I'll put them on and give them a try, since I never used them on my current bass or played them through my current rig, so I had no idea how'd they sound now.
I tried liking them as my mainstay strings over the years...but kept going back to roundwounds. I've tried every other flat made...and flats just don't appeal to me as much as rounds.
But seeing as how I built my own custom bass, and built my own 115 neo cabs (that are very mid-voiced) and I couldn't go buy some new rounds, I thought I'd give them yet another try.
I'm glad I did. My gig Friday night was a full house, and we were rockin the place. My first thought as we ripped through the first part of the first set, was that Wow, my sound is huge! Notes were so well defined and thick, yet surprisingly not boomy. The TI's had enough thump to give me that ol' bass sound, yet I wasn't getting lost in the mix (two guitar players, keyboardist and a loud drummer).
But I knew I had some songs coming up in the second set that I knew would be a real test. "Never Been Any Reason" and "Carry on Wayward Son" were definitely my "roundwound", bright string songs. I didn't think the TI's were going to do those songs justice.
But they were amazingly bright and clear (due to TI Flats being very mid enhanced, if you will). No, they didn't cop a roundwound personality and weren't a perfect fit for those songs. But what they lacked in that roundwound zinginess, they made up for with such definition...and sustain!
The TI's sustain just as long as any rounds I've played. They also are quite brilliant for a flat (not zingy bright like a round, but not just the dull thump of other flats either). They also are more even in tone and output all across EADG than my fave roundwounds. The D and G strings don't sound so weak. All the strings sound full, fat, well defined, and most of all clear. "Clear" and "sustain" are not words I usually associate with flats. I do now.
Now, keep in mind these strings are 5 to 7 years old and have been on and off quite a few of my basses already. I just had them lying around and my new bass needed a string change.
Happy I did. Before the gig, I commented to my wife..."You know, if these strings work on my bass and through my new rig, I may not have to buy so many strings anymore."
Now I don't.
)...which I attribute to the weird overtones one gets with other strings. The TI's were more (as someone else said) "articulate". Unlike EVERY other brand of string, be it flats or rounds, TI's have a silk wrap between the core and the outer winding which eliminates those overtones. When you hit a note, it is strikingly defined. 
