Your favorites flats with ebony?

[logdrum]

GHS Precision Flats?

Just as the Swedes would say - "precis" = exactly.

 

[douglasbass]

@logdrum What gauge? 55-105, or 45-105 perhaps?

 

[kumimajava]

Fretless LaBella DTF
Fretted TI JF

Flaky answer due preference for the stiffer feel on fretless.

But the honest answer is all fingerboards sound the same when they're plugged in. If the bass has frets.

I was going to suggest the same - except in reverse:

TI-JF on freltess
LaBella DTF on fretted.

... due to preferecne for stiffer strings on the fretted, in my case, for some reason

Also, the brighter feel of the TI-JF to me brings out a lot of the nice 'fretless' sound; fretted basses tend to sound plenty 'bright' by default, thence the somewhat more muted sound of the DTFs matches well, to my ear.

 

[_B_E_A_D_G_]

Ernie Ball Flatwound group III

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[iiipopes]

Thanks, I also have a guitar with an ebony fretboard and GHS flat steels actually -- great sound.
Optima strings I have never heard, to my knowledge.
I do have a nearly new set of LaBella DTFs that might be good.

1) Since we are now discussing guitar flats as well, on my Epiphone Alley Kat (yes - something happened - when this was a new model Epiphone was considering having a limited series with better pickups and the ebony fretboard, but it was never marketed as such. I think I got one that slipped out the door. Two luthiers have confirmed it has an ebony fretboard instead of the spec rosewood, and it has a good Epi version of a humbucker as well). On it I play DR Legend flats, as to my ears they sound the closest to the venerable Gibson Sonomatics. So the guitar sounds more like an expensive Gibson instead of a mid-line Epi.
2) You have heard the Optima. The Optima RB set is the spiritual successor to the Maxima flats that Rickenbacker used OEM on 4001 basses in the '60's and '70's. They are on many classic albums, including the Beatles Sgt. Pepper.
3) La Bella flats are great strings. Mirror polished. Very neutral tone. A little bit of top end articulation ping when they are new. Since ebony is also a neutral toned fretboard with a ping on the top end, they should go well together.

 

[the_home]

Pyramid is my first choice.

 

[logdrum]

@logdrum What gauge? 55-105, or 45-105 perhaps?

It's a six string 36 inch scale and I needed a 38 winding length so I got the 95-45 + 126 + 28 > I also had brite flats until recently and I had only had medium heavy gauges 129-108-84-62-49 + 27

For my fretless, I just put Precison flats and went the regular 5 string set 126 - 45 but I think I am will go 95-45 with 126 and move the other strings to my P-bass.

You need to listen or read @michael_t 's post on GHS strings. He has a lot of experience on them and after reading his posts, I have gone light, not necessarily for ease of playing but how punchier the light gauges are.

 

[Joebone]

On ebony - best results with Sadowsky flats. And while I've not done it, would expect Dunlop flats also to work well. I'm not into high tension, and on fretless am looking for expression more than thump. For the right player, TI jazz flats or GHS tapewounds might rock it, but on fretless I want a bit more tension than I might favor on fretted bass.