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Putting Flats on an active bass?????


Pestie
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Hello everyone

I know I am a bit dense when it comes to new things but I do need help with this one. I have just bought a lovely Ibanez SR500 off the forum. It is a bit too crisp for me as it is. Is it okay to put a nice set of flats on it or will this just take away the character or the bass. I love the bass but prefer a more old school heavy sound.

All advice gratefully accepted.

Thank you

Mike(Pestie) ;)

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It won't "take away" the character, but it will of course change it ... that's why you're changing the strings, right?

Active/passive is of little relevance (IMHO) in this situation.

Is it OK? Yup - it's your bass, you do what makes it sound 'right' to your ears.

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[quote name='Pestie' timestamp='1381908719' post='2245129']
Hello everyone

I know I am a bit dense when it comes to new things but I do need help with this one. I have just bought a lovely Ibanez SR500 off the forum. It is a bit too crisp for me as it is. Is it okay to put a nice set of flats on it or will this just take away the character or the bass. I love the bass but prefer a more old school heavy sound.

All advice gratefully accepted.

Thank you

Mike(Pestie) ;)
[/quote]

Mike, do what you want mate, you're the character, the bass is your tool. I'm putting black nylon tapewound on my new active Jaguar :)

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I had a Ibanez SR500 a few years ago and I had La Bella flats on it, and it sounded awsome!
And being active, you can really play around with the sounds you can get from it.

I did try out a lot of different brands before settling on La Bella, they ain't cheap, but they are great strings, and you never really need to change them, I had the same set on for years, so in the long run they probably work out cheaper than rounds.

I have now moved on to an Ibanez SR1200 which I absolutely love, I think a lot of people overlook Ibanez in their pursuit for the usual precision/jazz/stingray etc.. which are all fantastic basses I might add, but the craftsmanship, build quality and playability of Ibanez is far superior for less money IMO.

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I've gigged both Stingray and Modulus Flea with flats and both sounded way better than they did with rounds to my ear. When you push the highs you lose a lot of the harshness of the rounds whilst maintaining the bite. In short, flats are surprisingly good on active basses, but I totally understand your thinking, when my Flea arrived it was strung with La Bellas, which I remember at the time struck me as a very odd thing to do!

C

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I have an SR500, and I put TI flats on it when the original rounds wore out.

Sounds really great with the TI's, although they are a little on the low tension side if you like a really low action (I get a bit of string clicking on the frets sometimes, which is annoying when recording)

IMO active/passive is not really relevant, but I'd steer clear of super high tension flats due to the very thin neck on the SR.

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Put on some Sister Sledge or Chic, listen to 'Nard Edwards and those flats on a Stingray.

(Actually, listen to a master at work on them!)

And, as others have said, it's you, your sound, go for it, if you don't like it being £20 shorter is the only outcome. Doesn't matter if some others don't think it's the 'done thing'.

For what it's worth, I use a Stingray with dull Newtone Platinum round wounds (not quite flats but with the thinner outer windings) and love the sound I can get from them.

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I have a P retro in my Precision and I fairly recently re-strung it with La Bella flats. It brings out the woodiness and tone in a way that roundwounds never could and gives what is, for me, the absolutely perfect old school precision bass tone. So, yes, go for it! If all else fails and you don't like them, I'll buy them off you...

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I've got an SR505 which I found far too trebley with rounds on. Was constantly playing with the Treble backed right off, which left nowhere to go. Put some Status Hotwire half rounds on and it was a vast improvement. Happy with the sound with everything flat, which gives plenty of room for adjustment as required.

(also note that I personally found the status hotwires far nicer (sound and feel wise) than the d'addario half rounds)

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This is all great thank you. I have just ordered a set of Labella Flats from Mark at Bass direct and will get them on as soon as they come. I think the idea of two SR500's is a very good one because as 6v6, thebrig, and CountBassy all state, these Ibanez basses are really excellent quality. I have been looking at them for ages and am really pleased I got this one, it is wonderful and when the flats go on Whoa!!!!!!!! hold me down.

Thank you yet again for some cracking help. :D

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When the strings arrive, FWIW my advice would be NOT to string them through-body, and to ensure that only the silks go around the winding posts.

Others will have their own views, but IME flats are susceptible to weakening if subject to unnecessary stresses, especially at the tuners.

Also, while tightening them up, try to make sure that they don't twist over the length of the string ... if in doubt, slacken off again while watching the BALL end of the string at the bridge. If it suddenly spins as you loosen off, then the string had twisted.

I absolutely love flats (especially LaBella FLs) but stringing up properly in the first place will give you years of life out of them, and most bass players seem to think it's only polite to assume that all other bass players already know all this stuff!

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I had a 3 band Stingray that I felt was way too toppy, fitted flats and got the sound I wanted. The bass guitar is just a tool to achieve what you desire musically; as everyone else had said, go for it, it's your bass and your sound, ignore any naysayers.

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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1381939858' post='2245800']
Very stylish. If you use the Pyramid Black Nylons then you'll get gold silks to match your lion. Nice.
[/quote]
:D I wish I'd known that. However, the LaBellas have purple silks I think which may add some nice contrast, and look more utilitarian than looking like I selected strings to match, which I did anyway more or less :lol:

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Whilst we're talking about LaBellas,
My Jazzer, Ibby Blazer and Warwick Fortress are 36" from where the ball end sits at the bridge to the nut. The 34" Scale LaBellas state that the silks are 34" from ball End to the start of the silk winding. Should I be looking at extra long scale strings for these basses, I would have thought not so I'm a bit confused to be honest.
Anyone care to enlighten me ??
Cheers.
B)

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[quote name='kennyrodg' timestamp='1381949035' post='2245990']
Whilst we're talking about LaBellas,
My Jazzer, Ibby Blazer and Warwick Fortress are 36" from where the ball end sits at the bridge to the nut. The 34" Scale LaBellas state that the silks are 34" from ball End to the start of the silk winding. Should I be looking at extra long scale strings for these basses, I would have thought not so I'm a bit confused to be honest.
Anyone care to enlighten me ??
Cheers.
B)
[/quote]
My long scale La Bellas are approx 37" (not 34") from ball end to silk.

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Cheers Bud,
I should have also said that the 34" ball end to silk are their medium scale strings.
I've always thought that Fenders etc were medium scale but 34" ball end to silk would not fit if that were the case.
MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm.
B)

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