Mixing Rounds and flats?

[P-Belly Evans]

I absolutely love the sound of a good flat wound string, but fancy trying something different on my thunderbird. The rounds make the lows sound huge, but can also sound a little too piano like and resonant on the highs. I am gonna test it out and put rounds on E, A and flats on D, G when I get a minute. 

Now my question is, if I do find it a eureka moment, are there any issues it could cause by leaving them on longer term?  They are the same gauge, but for example should I be wary of differing string tensions etc. 

Any advice would be appreciated. 

 

[Reggaebass]

Have you tried half rounds P belly, I’ve got them on one jazz, the ones I’ve got are a bit brighter than my flats but smooth 🙂

[P-Belly Evans]

1 minute ago, Reggaebass said:

Have you tried half rounds P belly, I’ve got them on one jazz, the ones I’ve got are a bit brighter than my flats but smooth 🙂

I haven't. Cheers mucka. I will try to find some demos on you tube... if such things exist.. the closest to try before you buy I can get probably. 

[Merton]

Half rounds are a dream. The warmth of the flat with just a little more zing if you require. Reminds me I have a set for my Finn, must get them on there.

[bassist_lewis]

Quite a few years ago I heard somewhere that Dave Swift of Jules Holland fame used flat wound E-G but a round wound low B. Apparently the round B has more clarity than a flat, and sounds almost the same in the mix.

[fretmeister]

I’ve tried that. I found that many flats give a lower output making string volume balance more tricky.

 

presumably the flats I used had a lower ferrous content.

[fretmeister]

1 minute ago, bassist_lewis said:

Quite a few years ago I heard somewhere that Dave Swift of Jules Holland fame used flat wound E-G but a round wound low B. Apparently the round B has more clarity than a flat, and sounds almost the same in the mix.

Definitely. I’ve tried everything and flat low B strings are never as good as the others.

[Reggaebass]

I’m pretty sure mine are D’Addario, if you like the feel of flats they are good, you can see how smooth they are here 

[P-Belly Evans]

19 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I’ve tried that. I found that many flats give a lower output making string volume balance more tricky.

 

presumably the flats I used had a lower ferrous content.

Cheers for the heads up. At least there are no exploding bass stories yet 😂

[hooky_lowdown]

I recently tried fender 7150's which are pure nickel, rather than nickel plated, and wow! Much prefer them to half rounds, they sound warm straight out of the packet, huge low end and the high end is nicely balanced, no nasty overtones. Really smooth, as smooth as half rounds imho. Playing with a pick they can growl nicely when digging in.

[fretmeister]

13 hours ago, P-Belly Evans said:

Cheers for the heads up. At least there are no exploding bass stories yet 😂

Could just compress the hell out of it. That would solve the problem! Zero dynamics!  

 

I must admit I'm quite tempted to try a mix set again with different brands. Could get expensive though.

[Reggaebass]

I’ve never actually thought about doing this before, I bought a set of LTF’s and the G had been cut too short and labella wanted £16 + postage for a single string, I might just try a different string.

[jrixn1]

I played a mixed set for a while: rounds on the E and B, and flats on the A, D, and G.  I can't remember for sure which brands, but it might have been Yamaha rounds and Fender 9050 flats.  They blended well, both tonally and volume-wise - the latter through chance really, rather than anything I did.

[Dan Dare]

I'm trying out some Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats at the moment. I got a 5 string and fancied a brighter sound, but didn't like the rounds it came with. I'm pleased with the Cobalts so far. Plenty bright enough, without that zing/clang I hate. I wouldn't replace the La Bellas on my P bass with them - they're far too bright - but they do the job on the 5. Worth a punt on a set?

[dmccombe7]

On 04/08/2020 at 19:53, Reggaebass said:

Have you tried half rounds P belly, I’ve got them on one jazz, the ones I’ve got are a bit brighter than my flats but smooth 🙂

I might actually go down that route myself. I like the fact the flats i have on my Sandberg VM4 last for ages but sometimes i would like a bit of zing on the top end. The Cobalt flats also sound interesting.

Dave

[fretmeister]

The Cobalts are good strings. They did have some QC issues for a while with breakages and rust (there is a thread somewhere) but I'm hoping they've fixed that now.

[Reggaebass]

53 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I might actually go down that route myself. I like the fact the flats i have on my Sandberg VM4 last for ages but sometimes i would like a bit of zing on the top end. The Cobalt flats also sound interesting.

Dave

Hi dave, I bought a used set on here and they are definitely brighter than my labella flats, I can imagine a new set would be even brighter,  I would say they have more mids than zing, if that makes sense 🙂

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Hi dave, I bought a used set on here and they are definitely brighter than my labella flats, I can imagine a new set would be even brighter,  I would say they have more mids than zing, if that makes sense 🙂

I like a nice high mid sound to give me that little cut thru a mix in rock bands. The flats are great but they bass always sounds as tho its just "there" and it holds the songs together really well but i struggle to get that bit of edge with them.

Dave

[pbasspecial]

Maybe do the opposite of what I used to do a few years back where I used to put a foam mute under the E and A strings but not the D & G so I had nice low end thump but bright pop for higher octave parts. 

Maybe slip a bit of foam under the D & G and see if that helps. 

[ahpook]

Never mix them on the same axle

Edited August 6, 2020 by ahpook