Flatwound strings

[farmer61]

anyone use them all the time?

I play with light gauges at the mo and had to restring with standard's which feel like cheese graters. Toying with the idea of playing with flats on all my basses.

Just wondered what you all felt??

Edited May 4, 2011 by farmer61

[Old Horse Murphy]

[quote name='farmer61' post='1219926' date='May 4 2011, 03:04 PM']anyone use them all the time?

I playing with light gauges at the mo and had to restring with standard's which feel like cheese graters. Toying with the idea of playing with flats on all my basses.

Just wondered what you all felt??[/quote]

I use them on everything. Even my Tennis Racquet.

Wouldn't use anything else, fretted or fretless

[Clarky]

There'a bunch of flats-with-fretted devotees here - WoT, Jean-Luc Pickguard, Happy Jack, me to name a few .. and Old Horse Murphy! Virtually no fret noise, easy sliding (try playing the start to London Calling with flats and you will smile) and lovely rich sound. TI Flats for skinnier gauge, La Bellas or Pyramid Golds for meatier strings. Or go half way and get some Status Hotwire half-rounds which are dead cheaop (£17 on their website) and have a bit more bite. Its all good!

Edited May 4, 2011 by Clarky

[EssentialTension]

... and me. Flats on everything, although not all the same kind. Even flats on an ABG.

[Wil]

Used to use flats on a P in a rock band, got a great JPJ tone but struggled to cut through so went back to rounds. Wouldn't mind a set again on my P for finger funk purposes and for that lush, palm muted with a pick tic tac sound.

[Jerry_B]

I think it depends on whether you play with a plectrum or not. IMHO, some higher tension flats aren't suited to such playing. They tend to clank a bit on the frets if you dig in. As I play with a plectrum I've settled on either LaBellas or Elites.

[bigjohn]

flatter the better for me.

[Michaelg]

use flats on my gretsch, much prefer them to rounds. its easy to play for a very long time with flats. however i am considering moving to half round strings for recording.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Michaelg

[wateroftyne]

Flat, flat, flat.

Although you will feel like a leper at bass bashes, when you're surrounded by people solo'ing on zingy rounds....

[paul_5]

Yup, flats on everything here too.

[Dave Vader]

Yep, flat on everything, stops people confusing me for a guitarist....

[thisnameistaken]

I use flats on my Jazz for my ska/rocksteady band, kills 99% of all known harmonics dead.

[TheBear]

Flat!

I equipped both my "real" basses lately.. no coming back.

[krispn]

I'd say flats too but on some track where I use distortion on the entire song the rounds do work better but overall I'd say flats all the time - played ina 3 piece 'punk' band and got complimented my the sund guy for my tone - best bass sound all night - it was a p bass with flats.


Currently using either D'Addario Chromes or LaBell Deep Talkin flats and just about to try some out on a Big Al hopefully with some EQ'ing I can get the zing for the distorted tune as mentioned above.

Try them!

[deaver]

And me. Flats all round.

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='deaver' post='1222481' date='May 6 2011, 06:46 PM']Flats all round.[/quote]
Make your mind up!

[paul_5]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1219970' date='May 4 2011, 03:34 PM']Flat, flat, flat.

Although you will feel like a leper at bass bashes, when you're surrounded by people solo'ing on zingy rounds....[/quote]

Do we need a 'flat bash'?

[Pow_22]

Took me a while and a set of Thomastik Flats on my Retrovibe to convert but now everything ive got is flat loaded and i was the staunchest user of DR Fatbeams going!

Edited May 6, 2011 by Pow_22

[KiOgon]

Yep flats on all mine, black nylon flats, shiny steel flats & most recently flats cleaned/polished with Fast Fret GHS are my favourite flats so I thought I'd try their *famous* Fast Frets. I've only tried it on 1 bass so far, early days but it feels good greased lightning

[Delberthot]

I thought I'd tried all the flats and had almost given up getting something I liked until I tried Rotos. I now have them on my Epi T-bird and Fernandes fretless. I also had them on my Epi Les Paul.

I now simply can't stand the roughness of rounds now. They feel wrong to me now and the Rotos are bright enough to still give me my own trademark punchy sound.

I don't think I could even consider rounds now

[Roland Rock]

I played on rounds for the first time in about 14 years last week - it was like running nails down a blackboard! Felt not just wrong, but nauseating!

[xgsjx]

Bought a set of TI flats for my Ibby last year & wish I would have done it 20 years ago.

[Doddy]

I use flats on my main Precision Bass. It sounds great,especially for recording.

[daz]

I use Rotosound flats on all my bases.

[gub]

Must try these flat things , ok so now on next pay day i have to get myself a hat and a set of flats, coming on here always ends up with me spending more money!