DGCF Stiff bright flats

[taha_never]

Hello fellow down tuners in Basschat 🙋‍♂️

please help me find the brightest sounding stiff flats for standard D tuning.

my P-bass which is a roger waters model is currently strung with 45-105 d'addario chromes which are pretty good in that tuning.

just wanted to know if there is any other set with stiffer feel and brighter sound.

I've heard steve harris set goes dead sounding pretty soon. so what are other options out there which I should be aware of?

thanks.

[Reggaebass]

I found fender flats quite high tension, and they were too bright for me 🙂

[ped]

The brightest flats are EB Cobalt flats. I couldn't say what the tension is like when downtuned or in the heavier sets but the lightest set feel great on my Stingray. When new, they sound nearly as bright as rounds, but they settle down a little and don't seem to ever go as dead as traditional flats.

[hooky_lowdown]

Yup, fender flats are the highest tension, bright flats.

Rotosound flats are slightly higher tension, but are dead sounding imho. 

If drop tuning you'll want to get the heaviest guage.

 

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 15, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[jrixn1]

La Bella Deep Talkin' 0760M are heavy tension and 52-110 gauge.  It's been a while since I've played Chromes, but I think the La Bellas might be stiffer.  Now while they're not going to be brighter than Chromes, I don't find them as dark as generally reported.  The mp3s attached to this post were La Bella 0760M in DGCF tuning on a P bass.

[thodrik]

I used to use the Steve Harris set for C sharp tuning(probably 10 years ago). Gauges are 110, 95, 75, 50. In standard tuning the tension was insane so credit for Steve Harris for playing them in standard! I didn't consider them to be 'dull' sounding until I went back to flats last year and got a set of Labellas, which I though were too bright and removed after a few months!

I see that EB do a 55-110 set which would be fine for D standard. 

[taha_never]

thanks for sharing your knowledge. guess I'm going to start with EB cobalts 55-110 🙏👍

[Delberthot]

If you like the D'addarios then have a look at their tension chart and buy the corresponding single strings for your chosen tuning. This is what I do but for standard tuning.

Mine are 45,60,80,110

[lee650]

On 07/07/2021 at 17:04, ped said:

The brightest flats are EB Cobalt flats. I couldn't say what the tension is like when downtuned or in the heavier sets but the lightest set feel great on my Stingray. When new, they sound nearly as bright as rounds, but they settle down a little and don't seem to ever go as dead as traditional flats.

Yeah I've got the Cobalts on my old JV jazz (weeny 95-40 ones 😂) and they are lovely and bright, even slapping is nice on them. I'd imagine a heavy set, will give you what you need 😁

[ped]

I’ve got two sets for sale!!

[Guest]

On 07/07/2021 at 17:08, Jus Lukin said:

Fender flats are now essentially repackaged Chromes.

I could be wrong though.

The standard line on TalkBass is that Daddario make Fenders strings, but to Fenders own specs.

[such]

Fender flats are very different to Chromes. They do look similar, however they're made of a different alloy (Fenders look more grey in comparison). Chromes have puffier bottom end and a certain twang up top that almost never dies. Somewhat scooped mids too. Fenders are tighter sound-wise, with rich, complex, almost rounds-like mids. They start very clanky, but then evolve to that growly punch with lots of sustain. Fenders are my favourite flats (together with Dunlop, for very different uses), Chromes are not, and it's not even close.