Turnaround
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Actually he was a Forward for the California Golden Seals and later as Centre with the New York Rangers.
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Well this is embarrassing ...
- Thread starter Jonathan Broga
- Start date
Try Thomastik flats and be amazed at their character, sustain, and longevity. I have them on both my Jazz and Precision and they are still full of life after being played constantly for over a year now.
I used to be rabidly attached to round wounds. Then I tried a P strung with flats for a recording project. Everything changed and i suddenly understood why La Bella has been making strings as long as they have. ALL my basses got the flat wound treatment and have stayed that way for years. Then I purchased a used Yamaha BBP34 that arrived with a new set of DR Hi-beams installed. Wow! It was like that scene in the Wizard Of Oz when Dorothy arrives in Oz and it goes from black and white to color. Now I keep the Yamaha, a mustang with a mudbucker, and a Jerry Jones Longhorn strung with rounds and everything else keeps the flats. On thing that has radically changed in my playing over the years is my use of the tone knob. I used to play with it wide open and never touched it. Nor the volume for that matter. Just EQed everything through the amp. Now I crank the amp and make liberal use of the volume and tone knobs. THAT’S something I wish I’d figured out years ago.
I remember watching a video about Entwistle's sound where he was NEVER satisfied with it totally. He had a stack of equipment almost as tall as he was to give him the sound he was looking for. Yet, I don't think it was what he was looking for but in the video it was close to what he heard in his head.
The amazing thing is when The Who was in the studio his bass sounds like it went in to the console straight from the DI on later recordings. Crazy. Jack Casady is another one that comes to mind as to not needing any additional 'processing'
I'll pass. At the price they want for them, I can get 2-3 sets of rounds, but glad you like them.
Welcome aboard! I "discovered" flats about two years ago, and now everything has them, including my Ray34CA.
I dunno.... I have mood swings apparently. I shift back and forth between flats/rounds. At one time all my toys had flats. Then slowly I started to favor rounds. Now I try to match the bass with the strings to get the right character.... its a deep subject.
But yeah.... Labella and/or TI would be my preference for flats. They have their place. A "P" or a "PJ" properly setup with flats does melt in your ear.
But yeah.... Labella and/or TI would be my preference for flats. They have their place. A "P" or a "PJ" properly setup with flats does melt in your ear.
So, we need a high pass filter and a low pass filter. Do we also need a mid pass filter?
Many things we swear by work until something new feels like it does or, actually works better. There's no right or wrong way when it comes to creating. There are established processes thru-out the industry that get broken and we yammer on about the rule breakers when they appear.
Playing stays interesting if we keep growing. That means trying new things and shuckin' the comfort zones we lean on.
FWIW; EBCobalt Flats work really well on my Dimension Deluxe, on the Precision V, I've been considering going back to DR Low Rider Nickels. I've always liked the strings on the P-Bass. The EBCobalts work just fine on it but when I play 1st position F, I don't like how it sounds. For one stinkin' note, I'm considering a string change.
Or, (and) it could be because while I like my Mesa WD800 well enough, I still don't understand all the knobs & what they do, even tho' I've read that damn manual about 4 times now.
One thing I miss about the LH1000, it was what it was, limited knobs left me with; "I guess that's the tone I got" and got on with things.
Playing stays interesting if we keep growing. That means trying new things and shuckin' the comfort zones we lean on.
FWIW; EBCobalt Flats work really well on my Dimension Deluxe, on the Precision V, I've been considering going back to DR Low Rider Nickels. I've always liked the strings on the P-Bass. The EBCobalts work just fine on it but when I play 1st position F, I don't like how it sounds. For one stinkin' note, I'm considering a string change.
Or, (and) it could be because while I like my Mesa WD800 well enough, I still don't understand all the knobs & what they do, even tho' I've read that damn manual about 4 times now.
One thing I miss about the LH1000, it was what it was, limited knobs left me with; "I guess that's the tone I got" and got on with things.
Flats are a fad I have fallen for myself. I have flats on three of my basses: a Guild Starfire I with a split coil, a Höfner Ignition Club and an Orange O-Bass. The Höfner kinda wants flats (TIs in this case), the Orange O-Bass only sounds great (to me) with flats (well broken-in Pyramid Golds there), the Guild Starfire also sounds great with flats but I'm starting to think I want to switch to nickel roundwounds there. Also, I have a Jack Casady which I think is unsuited to flats (it's too dark yet growly, it shines with roundwounds) and a Danelectro '63 long scale that really sings with the thinnest Rotosound rounds you can buy.
I recently started learning jazz. So often it was recommended to me and I wouldn't care. Little did I know.
It’s not about the gear, it’s about the music. The gear exists to facilitate musical expression. On it’s own, the gear is just a bunch of wood and metal and plastic.I bought my first bass 34 years ago, an early 80's Japan Squire P bass for $200. I have played on and off since in bands and at church. I have owned probably a dozen basses over that time, initially trying to emulate the style of Duff McKegan, then Bobby Sheehan, and in the last few years I have been trying to think like Phil Lesh. I have a Starfire II on the way, and have been reading what I can about Phil's strings. As a result of that reading I decided I will use flats on it, and while I waited for it to arrive I ordered some to try just to see what they are about.
So yesterday I put on GHS CM3050 Precision Custom Medium) on a bass for the first time, in this case an Elite Jazz (18v active, but not the best pre-amp ever, for sure) and went to rehearsal. I play through a Markbass 210 combo tied into the PA that has an 18" sub.
Doh!
I believe I actually became a better bandmate and player just by changing the type of strings! I now understand the "thump" that I have read about, that my sound has apparently been missing. We do some old country in addition to classic rock, and this new anchor on the bottom was absolutely the sound those tunes needed. The character of the tone allowed whatever it is in my brain that drives me to overplay to chill out and lay back. The space became more useful than it has been with all the other bass/string combinations I have played in the past, and using that space and that thump to do my job on the bottom end created a noticeable improvement in the sound of the band overall. I actually played differently in response to how the strings played, and that smooth slick feeling is totally new to me. And great!
I am shocked and chagrined that as I get older I only realize how little I have known all this time. It seems a bit late to make a "discovery" that has been there on the shelf of every music shop I have perused since high school. I have a Grainger 4 with D'Addario XL ProSteels that fits me like a bespoke glove, but it didn't come out of the case last night. I guess now I will be figuring out what to do with this new sound. I don't know whether it changes everything for me, or if I will find having the option between what will soon be 3 fairly different tones results in me using them all, or if I am a straight flats guy now.
Any thing else in the bass world that I definitely should have experienced at this point?
Oh wait I do see a pattern here - I just recalled that the guitarist and I had been poo-pooing 6 strings with comments like, "If I haven't mastered 4 strings, why do I need more. When 4 just isn't enough for saying what I want to say I, then maybe I will need a 5 or a 6, but I am nowhere near that now. If 4 was good enough for Europe 72, 74, 77-78 for Phil it's certainly good enough for me. Those guys with 6's are mostly kidding themselves." Then I tried one at an open mic and realized how easy it was to play across the board to riff more easily, more quickly, and more articulately. It wasn't about needing more notes, it was accessing them efficiently, how they sound in different places, and having more choice.
Ok so aside from flats and 6's, what else does everyone else know that I continue to kid myself about?
"I play through a Markbass 210 combo tied into the PA that has an 18" sub."I bought my first bass 34 years ago, an early 80's Japan Squire P bass for $200. I have played on and off since in bands and at church. I have owned probably a dozen basses over that time, initially trying to emulate the style of Duff McKegan, then Bobby Sheehan, and in the last few years I have been trying to think like Phil Lesh. I have a Starfire II on the way, and have been reading what I can about Phil's strings. As a result of that reading I decided I will use flats on it, and while I waited for it to arrive I ordered some to try just to see what they are about.
So yesterday I put on GHS CM3050 Precision Custom Medium) on a bass for the first time, in this case an Elite Jazz (18v active, but not the best pre-amp ever, for sure) and went to rehearsal. I play through a Markbass 210 combo tied into the PA that has an 18" sub.
Doh!
I believe I actually became a better bandmate and player just by changing the type of strings! I now understand the "thump" that I have read about, that my sound has apparently been missing. We do some old country in addition to classic rock, and this new anchor on the bottom was absolutely the sound those tunes needed. The character of the tone allowed whatever it is in my brain that drives me to overplay to chill out and lay back. The space became more useful than it has been with all the other bass/string combinations I have played in the past, and using that space and that thump to do my job on the bottom end created a noticeable improvement in the sound of the band overall. I actually played differently in response to how the strings played, and that smooth slick feeling is totally new to me. And great!
I am shocked and chagrined that as I get older I only realize how little I have known all this time. It seems a bit late to make a "discovery" that has been there on the shelf of every music shop I have perused since high school. I have a Grainger 4 with D'Addario XL ProSteels that fits me like a bespoke glove, but it didn't come out of the case last night. I guess now I will be figuring out what to do with this new sound. I don't know whether it changes everything for me, or if I will find having the option between what will soon be 3 fairly different tones results in me using them all, or if I am a straight flats guy now.
Any thing else in the bass world that I definitely should have experienced at this point?
Oh wait I do see a pattern here - I just recalled that the guitarist and I had been poo-pooing 6 strings with comments like, "If I haven't mastered 4 strings, why do I need more. When 4 just isn't enough for saying what I want to say I, then maybe I will need a 5 or a 6, but I am nowhere near that now. If 4 was good enough for Europe 72, 74, 77-78 for Phil it's certainly good enough for me. Those guys with 6's are mostly kidding themselves." Then I tried one at an open mic and realized how easy it was to play across the board to riff more easily, more quickly, and more articulately. It wasn't about needing more notes, it was accessing them efficiently, how they sound in different places, and having more choice.
Ok so aside from flats and 6's, what else does everyone else know that I continue to kid myself about?
I think that 18" sub also played a little part.
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Ok so aside from flats and 6's, what else does everyone else know that I continue to kid myself about?
Wait until the first time you play those flats with a pick!
The Thomastik flats will last you a way longer than your 2-3 sets of rounds.
