Yes, another thread about Roger Waters' strings!

[miles'tone]

Roto 77 flats do sound like fat rounds when new in a way. The E has quite an open wrap too for a flatwound that you can get a bit of pick scrape from.
Re the live stuff - I'm sure he could have had a new set of the 77's on for every gig if he desired. That would give him the brightness and fat clank easy.

And yes, if he actually read this thread he'd probably think we're all mad to care and tell us all just to go write some songs as that's all that's important really. :O

 

[winterburn69]

Hmmmm. I'm still a believer that the albums were done with Roto flats. Certainly sounds like flats to me. Plus Pink Floyd songs just sound "better" when you play them with a bass that has flats IMO.

I was playing along to Is There Anybody Out There? yesterday and differences in tones were unbelievable. I used a Squier P with fairly new Roto rounds. Roger definitely sounded like flats. There was just so much thump compared to a P with rounds. But then again you gotta take into consideration the amp he was playing through was much better and of course the Fender vs. Squier thing.

 

[Bassdude15]

Huge Floyd & Waters fan here. Lately I've been listening to alot of bootlegs of the In the Flesh tour (the 1977 one) and the Wall tour (1980/1981) and I agree it kinda sounds like rounds, not fresh ones, broken in ones, but still rounds.

Just took a quick listen to Sheep, SoYCD (parts 6-9) and Money from the Mr. Pig bootleg (May 9, 1977) to verify.

I'll also add that Waterish.com states he's been using RotoSound 66 rounds since 2000. Kinda sounds like them too on the In the Flesh (1999-2002) DVD/CD, which was recorded in 2000.

Here's one more thought, it wouldn't be possible for the DSotM and WYWH tours, but perhaps possibly Roger's bass had flats and Snowy White's bass had rounds? Snowy White played bass on a few songs where Roger played the geetar (Sheep, Welcome to the Machine and Pigs (Three Different Ones) IIRC. I'm sure for the Wall shows Andy Brown's bass was completely identical to Roger's considering everything else was.

Roger played bass on most live versions of pigs. Snowy sometimes played the solos

 

[bluesblaster]

I think Roger would laugh his ass off at this thread, because I seriously doubt he spends 10 seconds thinking about strings.

probably true.

If you watch the Pompeii doc. it sounds like flats in the studio and on the recording DSOTM, however in a live setting he is absolutley using RW's, probably Roto Swing bass, flats are probably roto's too

 

[stevenclements]

He uses flats pure and simple - Rotosound 66

View these


but honestly use what you like... no one should spend much time on this.

 

[ronlitz]

He uses flats pure and simple - Rotosound 66

Rotosound 66 are not flats - they are stainless steel roundwounds.

 

[Badwater]

I think Roger and Cliff both used picks to get their tone. Especially when they pick near the bridge.

 

[hbarcat]

I was in a PF cover band called The Three Pigs and we performed the Pompeii version of Echoes, Careful With That Axe, and One of These Days. We also covered other early songs like Fearless, Interstellar Overdrive, Childhoods End, and Cymbaline, plus most of DSOTM and Animals.

I made a point to listen to bootleg copies of live shows and I must have watched the Pompeii video a hundred times.

I can definitively say that Roger is playing rounds on at least most of the songs on Pompeii (possibly all of them) and at least many songs (perhaps all) during their live shows from Meddle through Animals. And he always played with a pick.

Check out Echoes from the Pompeii video during the middle part with the weird sound effects. Roger is rubbing a slide on his bass strings around in a circle with a ton of echo effect. I've played that part many times myself and I found it impossible to get that sound with flats. It's easy with rounds though.

I suspect that what some of you said about Rog not caring enough to change his strings was true. They're rounds, but so dead they sound almost like flats.


What Waters did in the studio I have no idea. Rounds? Flats? David on bass? Don't know.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

For what it's worth the Rotosound website says the 77 flats can be "heard on": Piper at the gates of dawn, Atom hearth mother, Dark side of the moon, Wish you were here, Animal and The Wall.

Personally I would never trust claims made by ANY manufacturer but in this case my ears also tell me Roto 77 flats on these albums (with the exception of some tracks on The Wall which sound very much like rounds to me). For those of you that haven't actually tested Roto flats they are VERY different from any other flatwounds out there and much closer to rounds than typical old school flats like LaBellas.

I agreed that the Pompeii sound is kinda round-ish but heavy picking near the bridge and a bright British-style overdriven tube amp (like a Hiwatt set for demolition!) can easily get you there with Roto flats, including the string noise.

 

[zombywoof5050]

I played in a Pink Floyd tribute band, yet I don't think it's absolutely neccessary to try and nail every aspect of RW's tone. We played all of Meddle, WYWH, DSOTM, & Animals, about half of The Wall, and a few of the earlier songs. I used a Precision with Labella 760FL flats, and it sounded just fine. The only 2 songs I ever used a pick for were One Of These Days & Happiest Days Of Our Lives, the rest was all fingers (sounded just fine with the right EQ/technique). I used my fretless Wal for Pillow Of Winds & Hey You. Sometimes I feel like people obsess too much about nailing every nuance, please don't be offended as it's just my opinion.

 

[valaka]

According to this close-up shot from live performanc of Us and Them in Amsterdam in 2018, it looks like he was using flats. At least for this song. link:
It may be just some weird video compression that turned rounds into flats, but since one can see hairs on Rog’s hand pretty sharply, I doubt it. Screenshot:

 

[LetItGrowTone]

In the rig rundown in post #45 the man says "Roto 66 Swing", while that bass, and the first one also shown close up, are wearing flats.

The strings on the first bass have red silks on both ends and plain brass balls.

 

[valaka]

He uses flats pure and simple - Rotosound 66

View these


but honestly use what you like... no one should spend much time on this.

I you look at this screenshot from the video you refer to, it’s obvious, he uses rounds (although it looks like flats due to camera motion).

 

[LetItGrowTone]

Looks like you're right. Thank you.

 

[NoiseNinja]

And they all laughed and rolled their eyes at Syd Barrett when he suggested to add a saxophone player and girl backing singers to their lineup.

Crazy talk?

A few years later who was then laughing...

Though I do believe he was being sarcastic.

 

[keith1r]

Rotosound flats and rounds both have red silks. The flats have black silks at the ends

 

[trothwell]

Rotosound flats and rounds both have red silks. The flats have black silks at the ends

This has been true for a while, but I just opened a new package of Rotosound 77 flats yesterday and the black silk at the bridge end was gone! No wrapping at all. Still the red silk at the tuner end though.

 

[bigbottomend]

That prem guitar video - Roadie/tech guy is wrong, maximise the window and you can clearly see they are flats. Jazz 77's
Roger W, Steve Harris, Phil Lynott, Sting, John Deacon -All use Jazz 77's , look at the bottom of this page
Jazz Bass 77 Standard | 45-105 • Rotosound Music Strings