What I've discovered about flats......

[lmfreeman9]

Actually, I was in a trio in 1969 called Speed Limited, running flats on my P bass. Rounds had been invented, but I hadn't heard about them. I'm not sure if Noel Redding used flats with Hendrix or Mel Schacher with Grand Funk, but it sounds likely. I think John Paul Jones used flats with Zep and Jack Bruce did with Cream. Dee Murray used flats with EJ.

Probably 75% of all the classic Rock, Country and R&B recordings were made on a P-Bass with Flats. That is THE sound.

 

[Poor Tom]

JPJ of Zeppelin was actually a big Rotosound user.

 

[guroove]

JPJ of Zeppelin was actually a big Rotosound user.

He used Rotosound Jazz Bass flatwounds on his '62 fender jazz, but most of his other basses, like the Telecaster bass on Black Dog and Out on the Tiles, he used roundwounds. The Alembic basses on Physical Graffiti and later albums were all strung with roundwounds.

 

[Tom Howland]

I've used flats on some of my basses for the last 25 years.
The key is some of my basses.
Because, each bass tells you what string are best for it.
My 1966-P=Bass loves flats.
But my 1971 P-bass loves rounds.
The 1966 is lightweight Alder body, with a Rosewood fingerboard.
The 1971, Ash body, with Maple fingerboard, a little heavier in weight.
I always try both flats, and rounds, on any bass that I keep.

 

[Rezdog]

Greetings from the North,

What is this need to control the dance floor and bounce the booty? Is it just an inherent Detroit area bass playin thang? lol..... I've been using Tapewounds about 70% of the time for a few decades now. Just a little different from flats but I know what you're sayin.

Rezdog

 

[groovenut57]

Hey groovenut. How cold is it in Winnipeg? Haven't even had snow yet in Peterborough.

You mean "how warm is it in Winnipeg"?
As I say, it's a tropical paradise:

Link Removed

 

[dvh]

Sheesh! At least it's good and sunny!

 

[ggunn]

A power trio is fine for bassists who use roundwounds.
Any more musicians in the band and the need for flats is
greatly needed. Dual guitars, keys, multi vocals, fiddle, snyth, whatever, the more musicians in the band the more your overall sound will benefit from flats.
You see, with flats you come up from below with a thick undercurrent of bass, an 18 inch slab-of-granite foundation for your band to launch from.
It took 35 years and a cetain level of maturity for me to realize this and it became apparent that I had to back away from the zingy in your face sound of rounds and offer to my band true bottom.
The good news is, for bassists who use flats, is the power is now with you. YOU control the dance floor, YOU control the feel and the mood of the song, YOU decide the emotional gravity of the song, all from an annoynmous perch just left of the drummer.

Interesting, but my experience is just the opposite. DSFDF.

 

[Groove Doctor]

Actually, frequency masking is a corollary of the Fletcher Munson curve and the related field of psychoacoustics. It is the tendency of lower frequencies on the audible spectrum to mask those slightly higher in pitch than said frequency when boosted. The reverse is true, cut bass, and the higher freqs sound boosted.
That being said, can anyone prove with a plot or analysis of some kind that flats have a stronger fundamental or more solid low end? Or is it mereley the attenuation of the treble that makes our ears perceive more low end?
Seriously, I'm not being snarky here--I really want to know!

Me too....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoacoustics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_fundamental
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre
I love this definition -
"Timbre has been called a 'wastebasket' attribute or category, or 'the psychoacoustician's multidimensional wastebasket category for everything that cannot be qualified as pitch or loudness' (i.e. the 'shape' of the sound)".

Anyone wanna add links to threads/sites to help blokes like us know some of the basics? or start new thread?

 

[guroove]

I can tell you that Rotosound Jazz bass flats do not have as much low end as Ken Smith Stainless Steel roundwounds. I just changed strings with my bass plugged in last night, and the difference was huge. Much more bottom out of the Ken Smith rounds.

 

[blowinblue]

Yes, the world (bass world) is truly flat. Use roundwounds and you risk sailing off the edge of the earth into oblivion. We will miss you...really we will.

M. M.

 

[Basshappi]

I forgot to mention that I use TI flats on my Yamaha BB400 and love 'em.
I know that will come as a shock to all those who thought I was as pure as wind-driven snow.

 

[stratovani]

The more things change........

Back in the day, when I was a baby bassplayer and the great mammoths strode the ice-covered plains, I and every other bassplayer I came in contact with or read about (there were no personal computers much less the internet in those days of yore) hated flats and were abandoning them in droves.

Rotosounds were like the great monolith in 2001: A Space Odessey and we were the yammering ape-men lured to and enlightened by the mystical and mesmerizing "roundwound sound". Guitarists and soundmen across the land cowered in fear of our new and mighty presence in the mix!

But slowly and stealthily, seething up from the stygian darkness like some thrice-cursed and diabolical cult of the Elder gods whom men, blinded by the starry glitter of their safe and comfortable modern world believed to have perished from the earth in aeons-haunted antiquity, crept Flatwounds. Aided by the foul works of their zealous and bestial servants they have begun to corrupt once more the hearts of men!

This post is the Cygnus X-1 Book 2: Hemispheres of the rounds vs flats discussion. I like it!

 

[TeddyBearLove]

Egad...My cross-dressing tendencies of late are making me feel like less than a man. I've taken to wearing "half rounds."

 

[rheohead]

Aaaah...a thread I can sink my teeth into.

When I first started playing bass (back in the 80's), I tried every string I could get my hands on. All roundwounds. When I bought my first "serious" bass, a 1969 Fender Precision (used), it had a set of Dean Markley Flatwounds on it. Hated them. Then my local dealer said: "You want some nice flats, try these" and handed me a set of Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flatwounds. Haven't used another brand of strings in 22 years.

They are pricey and somethimes hard to get, so I tend to buy them in bunches, but what a sound! My current custom bass is mahogany body with an ebony fretboard and 2 Bartolini soapbars. Amp: Genz Benz (old GBE series 2) and Genz Benz 2X10 XB cab. The sound is tight and punchy and I've never had any problems being heard.

Unintentionally, my sound is pretty much exactly like John-Paul Jones playing Dazed and Confused on The Song Remains the Same.

Can't beat the smoothness...

 

[Jim Carr]

I will not do the "back when I started" thing--too boring and way too depressing, but this thread is distressing to me.

IMHO, it is how well you make music that matters, not ideology about gear. To paraphrase a famous user of dead Labella Flat wounds, "Strings might be 2%. Might."

[RANT]I know we all get uppity and opinionated about our own pile of gear, but Sheesh folks, they are just tools. I love gear too (heaven help me), but strings, while essential, will not make you the master of the groove as implied (and [pace] partially recanted) by the OP. That is one thing you have to get the old fashioned way, you have to earn it. [/RANT]