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Best strings for synth bass


Burns-bass
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This is a weird one!

 

My Roland GR bass is going to the shop for a setup and some work. I was going to fit chrome flats to it, but someone said that wouldn’t be good for the synth pickup.

 

Does anyone have any ideas or opinions (hopefully based on experience of using such systems in the past).

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3 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

This is a weird one!

 

My Roland GR bass is going to the shop for a setup and some work. I was going to fit chrome flats to it, but someone said that wouldn’t be good for the synth pickup.

 

Does anyone have any ideas or opinions (hopefully based on experience of using such systems in the past).


I have extensive experience with the GK3b pickups and the Vbass and VB99. I think the G-33 bass pickup is still a magnetic type? If so, I think k flats would work well actually. No reason why not. I didn't find strings had any more effect than they would with a normal magnetic pickup, but the unit you’re plugging into may vary. Perhaps an older unit might benefit from a strong fundamental and therefore flats may help. But I think you’ll agree with me when I say it’s more about a clean technique. 

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IIRC the synth part of your bass uses pitch detection rather than modelling to produce sounds. Therefore in theory a string which produces less overtones should make the process easier, but it may be that the detection relies to some extent the higher harmonics which will be more prevalent in a round-wound string. The other thing you need to consider is how often you intend to use it as just a bass without the synthesiser capabilities and when you are using synth sounds how much of the bass sound you want to mix in and what bass sounds work best in conjunction with your chosen synth sounds. Ultimately I suspect you'll need to try both and see which ones give the best result or least worst compromise.

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Thanks for the replies it's appreciated. I had the G77B package previously (I've owned several) and that worked really well with rounds. Agreed that technique played a huge part in it.

 

The issue I have is the unit is currently not working well and the tracking is off (intermittently works and then doesn't). I've isolated the fact that the blend switch (synth - synth/bass - bass) is faulty working and I think this is the root of the issue with the unit. I'm getting this sorted out in the next few weeks, at which time I'll know what works and what doesn't. (It's quite exciting!) If it's not the wiring in the bass, I'll swap the cable and see if that's the cause. Only then will I know if the synth unit is faulty. 

 

Assuming it works, while the synth unit is in exceptional physical condition, it's too fragile really to gig with so I'll probably keep it at home as a curio/collectible. If it were going to be gigged I'd use flats, but my experience with rounds was positive and it's an active bass too, so I think I'll try those first. If anything, it'll save me £25 if the bass doesn't work.

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