what will flats do to my p-bass?

Flats have less highs, less sustain, and a very warm sound. I really doubt you'll like them for hardcore. Think Motown.

 

Get some wide wrist bands for the sweating. Both hands, and it will keep the neck from getting "sticky"

 

Some flats can get a you bright flat tone with plenty of definition, for example sadowsky flats....I use Thomastik flats and they have plenty of sustain and brightness IMHO...

 

What about half rounds?
I tried some S'Addario half rounds a while back on a fretless I used to own.
In comparison to flats they were a bit brighter and had better sustain.

http://www.daddario.com/DADProducts.aspx?ID=3&CLASS=ACCA

 

yes, Flats can growl, but not like roundwounds...imagine a kind of warm bassy 60's stax/motown sound....The Thomastisk I use have more midrange than trad. flats and IMHO have a bit more of the roundwound growl...

Distortion, I'm not sure how this will work....

 

If your not sure about going directly to flats i would suggest as mentioned before to try either Halfrounds or pressurewounds. I love GHS Pressurewounds, they are eggshaped and nickelplated and they take away about 75% of string noise. After about 1-2 months they are, to me, 50/50 Roundwound and flatwound in sound and they are smoother to play then roundwounds.

 

Try to find a bass with flats to try out. You'll know whether or not you like them within a minute.

 

Flats will pretty much sound the same for quite a long time. They go like "thump" in the beginning and "thump" in the end

 

I think it was a friendly suggestion to help allieviate that problem.

 

fender flats work really well for hardcore, imo. especially on a BEAD strung P.

 

TI-flats on my 1966 P-bass.
My fav sound.
Of all the basses I've owned flats work best on a P-bass.
Just brings out true sound of bass.
A Jazz bass, and musicman stingray, also sound great.

 

Try em out and do what you feel like doing. Steve Harris used flatwounds in Iron Maiden(on a p-bass). Don't let anyone tell you something is for a certain kind of music.

 

As for the Mo-Town thing. That is just what they happened to used back then. It used to be that flatwound strings came stock on most bass guitars. So people got used to them. Thus making it the Mo-Town sound.

To best recreate what they were doing, it would be good advice to use what they were using. But if you are doing you own ****. Do what you want.

I encourage you to try the flatwounds with your distortion on your p-bass.. It might sound awesome!

 

i have an american standard p that i recently strung with d'addario chrome flats. i really like the feel, and the sound is pretty one dimensional but very good when i want to thump. then i picked up a tech 21 xxl bass distortion pedal and tried it with that bass. it just plain sings with that setup, very cool tone.

in short: p-bass + flatwounds + distortion = WOW