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Flats!


Telebass
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Yes indeed. There seems to be a real prejudice against flats in the bass playing community. When I came back to playing bass a few years back, it seemed as if flats were completely gone, that some new string technology allowed rounds to do both jobs. They can't. There is a strange quality to flats that you just can't get from rounds, and which I have to admit, I can't describe adequately. I think however that the key word is 'sweet'. The first time I played my Precision with TI flats through a TE head and 115, I was just blown away at how sweet it sounded. No fret buzz, no ringing, just a beautiful, sweet, sustained note, and no squeaks as I mover to another position. I will certainly always have at least one bass strung with rounds (at present it's my Flea, but even that sound out of this world with flats), but I'm a flat man from hereon in
Chris

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Beedster hit the nail on the head--its just very hard to describe the difference.Ive flats on my Sting 53 P Bass and just love the feel and sound--Im seriously thinking of putting flats on all my basses.The only thing I prefer about rounds is sliding --it feels easier on rounds.

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[quote name='aido43' post='69283' date='Oct 3 2007, 10:34 PM']Beedster hit the nail on the head--its just very hard to describe the difference.Ive flats on my Sting 53 P Bass and just love the feel and sound--Im seriously thinking of putting flats on all my basses.The only thing I prefer about rounds is sliding --it feels easier on rounds.[/quote]
?

Rounds are rough - flats are smooth.

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Never really tried flats.

Do they work in a rock context?
I tend to use quite a deep bassy sound, but with top end sparkle too.
And also a bunch of pedals.

I have always had this sound in my head where they are lifeless and dull sounding.
Am i completely wrong?

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The nicest flats in the world if you can get used to the slightly lighter gauge and more flexable feel are the Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats. These strings are the dogs bo***cks if you are after smooth playing with warmth and punch in gob fulls...they even slap OK! Bernard Edwards used flats on his Stingray for all that classic Chic funk...the TI's on a Ray are fabulous, punchy and warm and funkkkkyyyy. Same applies to most any P bass or Fretless bass. I use them on everything I have with the exception of my Status S2 headless classic which I cant get them for and its my slap & pop machine so it has rounds on...try them out guys, you will be amazed at how these things will work wonders on your tone.... :)

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I like the Rotosound Jazz flats I started off using 45-105 (cos that was the guage of the rounds I was using at the time). These I found too tight so I moved down to 40-100 never looked back. As for price Strings direct do single sets at £23 (I'm sure postage was free and they came the next day), Steve Harris sig's the same price. If you bulk buy 5 Jazz sets or more they are £21 a set. I found these strings to be quite bright compared to other flats I have used and I was able to slap with them.

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Having gigged them, I found them fine, but a couple of regular punters said I was hard to hear and din't cut through enough, so they'll be coming off again...However, they are going ON somewhere else, possibly the Kramer. I did think of putting them on the Telebass, but flats with that big humbucker would be just too much woof and mud!

Edited by Telebass
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  • 2 weeks later...

Bringing up an older thread because it's relevent.


After oooing and ahhing over trying flats again now I'm more experienced, stuck some on my VMJ tonight, and WOAH, they sound really nice. I liked the sound (but hated the feel) of the Roto Nickels I had on there, and these Roto Jazz's sound and feel so much better on this bass, even through my Peavy Microbass at low volume, much thump and bass.

Tone control seems to work much better as well, which is a plus as I always pretty much ran with it only turned a little bit when it's strung with rounds. Nice dead thump or just that little bit of top, s' nice.

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