Strings.....a complete mystery to me

[lowlandtrees]

Been playing guitar 40 years and bass 6 or 7 and just found out that I know virtually nothing about about strings....ie different materials, tensions, lengths blah blah. How could something so basic to playing escape me? Anyway I have a 78 rick 4001 strung with medium flats that is a dream to play but the Rick sound is not for me so I am letting it go but love the strings and thinking of putting heavy flats on my MM SUB. I love the sound of the MM but I keep it strung with heavy high tension wound strings (don't ask). Thinking of putting heavy flats on the MM. Would I still get the same sound and action from the flats on the MM? I am pretty skint at the moment so can' t afford to go experimenting with different bass strings.

[Iheartreverb]

Your tone will change massively in the move from rounds to flats as will the tension. More so that a move up or down a gauge on either side of the fence. If your gonna move to flats, get it set up again afterwards.
Flats aren't for everyone, I like the description of them but in reality didn't work for me.

[HowieBass]

I think flats are usually higher tension than roundwounds for equivalent gauges so you might get a similar feel with a lighter gauge than you've currently got strung on the SUB, but yes it'll sound massively different (though at least flats tend to 'improve' with age, if you like that mellow sound). And don't feel so bad about not knowing much about strings; I only fairly recently discovered how much nicer nickel roundwounds feel after using stainless steel roundwounds for years!

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='lowlandtrees' timestamp='1387185618' post='2308998']
Been playing guitar 40 years and bass 6 or 7 and just found out that I know virtually nothing about about strings....ie different materials, tensions, lengths blah blah. How could something so basic to playing escape me? Anyway I have a 78 rick 4001 strung with medium flats that is a dream to play but the Rick sound is not for me so I am letting it go but love the strings and thinking of putting heavy flats on my MM SUB. I love the sound of the MM but I keep it strung with heavy high tension wound strings (don't ask). Thinking of putting heavy flats on the MM. Would I still get the same sound and action from the flats on the MM? I am pretty skint at the moment so can' t afford to go experimenting with different bass strings.
[/quote]
What are you trying to achieve? If I'm reading you correctly, you seem to want to put flats on the MM and yet have it sound the same as it does with rounds. That is unlikely to happen.

[Conan]

There are some very cheap bass strings available - do a bit of a search on here, there was someone posted a link a few days ago to someone on Ebay selling strings at a FIVER a set!

At that price, you can afford to experiment.

There are also some people (me included) selling used strings at very good prices! [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/223853-used-strings-smooth-and-mellow/page__p__2301971__hl__strings__fromsearch__1#entry2301971"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/223853-used-strings-smooth-and-mellow/page__p__2301971__hl__strings__fromsearch__1#entry2301971[/url]