-::-What Round Wound's??-::-

[Oggy]

Hi fellow Basschatters,

I have flat wound strings on both my Mustang and SG sorties’! I love the feel and playability of flats and have no complaints with the sound I get from both basses – suits what I play, for now that is.

I’ve been playing around with a wee bit of popping and am even trying my hand at slapping – the flats just don’t give me that fizz and zing sort of sound I’m after so it looks as though it’ll have to be some sort / type / make of round wound strings, I think………

One of the big benefits of the flat wound strings (for me anyway) is being able to slide up and down the fret board without removing several layers of skin from the finger tips. Yes, my left hand finger tips are reasonably hard, as are the two ‘plucking’ fingers on my right hand, but a couple of back to back gigs or practice sessions still gives them all a nice burn - ouch. OK I'm a bit of a wus .

I’ve seen in discussions on this site other players recommending ‘slinky’ round wound strings, I’ve not had any experience of them what can you guys tell me about them regarding being able to pop / slap / slid and finger wear. The only round wound string I’ve used were pretty rough on the fingers and not really ideal for sliding up and down the fret board, well not unless your finger tips were like the soles of my Missus feet . Recommendations on string types would be appreciated; I’ll, probably, only change the string type on the SG and leave the Mustang alone for now.

Oggy

[Lfalex v1.1]

Roundwound recommendations?

DR (Marcus Miller) Fatbeams. Nice and compliant, Slap friendly but good all-rounders. Not too rough on the fingers for Stainless steel.

DR Sunbeams. Much of the above applies, but Nickel-plated. Higher output due to the Nickel content interacting with the pick-ups. Smoother under the fingers, too. A bit deeper and rounder sounding.

Elixir Nanoweb Coated strings. Last for ages due to polymer coating. Good tone, too. I find them a bit "quacky" when used on Phenolic fretboards, and a Graphite neck won't help that much, either. On a wooden Fretboard/neck they sound more natural.

Downsides? None of the above are cheap, but they [i]are[/i] generally available.

As for EB Slinkys, the last set I had on my Yamaha were tonally good to start with, but died really quickly and felt like a cheese grater from the start. It wasn't painful/uncomfortable, but they felt rough and unfinished compaerd to some others.

[Davo-London]

You won't wear your fingers off - don't worry about that. You will get more string noise.

My recommendation is DR Sunbeams. Love 'em.

Davo

[Oggy]

It’s lunchtime – Yes, back to important matters with no boss around .

Sounds like both you guys ([b]Davo-London & Lfalex V1.1[/b]) think the DR Sunbeams are the way forward. I’ve had a look at [url="http://www.stringbusters.com"]Stringbusters Site[/url] - £27.60 for a set. Looks like its ‘one size fits all, no Short Scale option available.

I was thinking of ordering the Medium (45 65 85 105) set and just cut them to length, do you guys think they may to heavy for the SG Short Scale, not to mention my fingers?

Oggy

[Lfalex v1.1]

45-105 wouldn't be that strenuous, as both Sunbeams and Fatbeams have round cores rather than hexagonal ones. In practice, this makes them [i]feel[/i] "less taut" under the fingers when fretting (even if they're tuned to the correct pitch)
My concern would be length; Will you end up winding the thicker part of the string around the machinehead if you use 34" strings? The DRs are long enough for [b]at least[/b] 34" through-body stringing.
Do you have to cut down your current strings in the same way, and does this work well enough?

Otherwise, give the DRs a shot. They might just be what you're after.

[OutToPlayJazz]

Did you say SG shortscale? If this has the big humbucker pickup right at the end of the neck, it'll be no good for slap playing - When you hit the string with your thumb, the "slap" sound comes from the string rebounding mainly off the last fret. When you have a pickup right at the end of the fingerboard, you also bang the string onto the pickup and just make a huge banging sound. Your Mustang with it's single P pickup in the sweet spot would be a better option for this style of playing.

[noelk27]

Depends on the sound you want to achieve and the characteristics of the instruments you use. With the DR strings, the Hi-Beams and Sunbeams work well across styles, and have a bite I associate with modern instruments, but if you prefer a 70s sound then Lo-Rider Steels or Lo-Rider Nickels may work better. I found that the Hi-Beams and Sunbeams work fantastic on most of the instruments I play (80s Yamaha BB series, G&L L series, 90s Sadowsky) but Lo-Rider strings work better on 80s Goodfellow and late 70s and early 80s Aria SB series basses (PPII and MBI pickups working best with Lo-Rider Nickels, and later MBII and Alembic AXY pickups with Lo-Rider Steels).

[Oggy]

[quote][b]Lfalex v1.1[/b] Posted Yesterday, 06:54 PM
45-105 wouldn't be that strenuous, as both Sunbeams and Fatbeams have round cores rather than hexagonal ones. In practice, this makes them feel "less taut" under the fingers when fretting (even if they're tuned to the correct pitch)
My concern would be length; Will you end up winding the thicker part of the string around the machinehead if you use 34" strings? The DRs are long enough for at least 34" through-body stringing.
Do you have to cut down your current strings in the same way, and does this work well enough?

Otherwise, give the DRs a shot. They might just be what you're after.[/quote]

Hi Lfalex,
The Deep Talking flats I use at the moment are 'short scale' so no worries about cutting to length or unravelling. I can't seem to find the Dr Sumbeams in a short scale offering; well locally that is, I think I can order them from the USA though - I'll have another 'Google' and see if can find some.

Thanks for getting back to me, appreciated.

Oggy

[quote][b]OutToPlayJazz[/b] Posted Yesterday, 07:16 PM
Did you say SG shortscale? If this has the big humbucker pickup right at the end of the neck, it'll be no good for slap playing - When you hit the string with your thumb, the "slap" sound comes from the string rebounding mainly off the last fret. When you have a pickup right at the end of the fingerboard, you also bang the string onto the pickup and just make a huge banging sound. Your Mustang with it's single P pickup in the sweet spot would be a better option for this style of playing. cool.gif[/quote]

Hi OutToPlayJazz,

Yes, I did say SG Shortscale - I see exactly what your saying though. The string 'bashing' into the neck pickup wouldn't, I'm sure, produce the desired result - well spotted that man. I'll put them, if I can get hold of a set, on the Mustang and see how I go. This is new territory for me so it'll take quite a bit of practice to get a technique sorted.

Many thanks.


Oggy

[quote][b]noelk27[/b] Posted Yesterday, 07:38 PM
Depends on the sound you want to achieve and the characteristics of the instruments you use. With the DR strings, the Hi-Beams and Sunbeams work well across styles, and have a bite I associate with modern instruments, but if you prefer a 70s sound then Lo-Rider Steels or Lo-Rider Nickels may work better. I found that the Hi-Beams and Sunbeams work fantastic on most of the instruments I play (80s Yamaha BB series, G&L L series, 90s Sadowsky) but Lo-Rider strings work better on 80s Goodfellow and late 70s and early 80s Aria SB series basses (PPII and MBI pickups working best with Lo-Rider Nickels, and later MBII and Alembic AXY pickups with Lo-Rider Steels)[/quote]

Hi noelk27,

As OutToPlayJazz suggested I'll put them on the Mustang, I have no idea what to expect from the combination of Sunbeams, Mustang and lack of any experience in the slap pop department - could be interesting or a disaster, but I do know it'll be fun to try and get something resembling those 80's sounds.

Thanks Noel.

Oggy

[xgsjx]

I've recently converted from rounds (DR Strings peacock blues) to TI Jazz flats. I do a little slap on these (just in a couple of songs tho) & although not zingy like rounds, I prefer the sound from them. If you ain't in a huge hurry, I'll record me doing a bit of slap direct into my Mac & pop a link on here. But it's getting my other half off youtube long enough for me to plug things in.
Oh, she's making cakes tonight so I might get a chance then!

Might not be what you're looking for, but you never know.

[Oggy]

[quote name='xgsjx' post='921879' date='Aug 11 2010, 07:10 PM']I've recently converted from rounds (DR Strings peacock blues) to TI Jazz flats. I do a little slap on these (just in a couple of songs tho) & although not zingy like rounds, I prefer the sound from them. If you ain't in a huge hurry, I'll record me doing a bit of slap direct into my Mac & pop a link on here. But it's getting my other half off youtube long enough for me to plug things in.
Oh, she's making cakes tonight so I might get a chance then!

Might not be what you're looking for, but you never know.[/quote]

That'd be great, thanks xgsjx. No screaming hurry, remember I'm after Short Scale strings, I'm having problems trying to source Dr Sunbeams or Hi Beams for that scale - I suppose what might be termed as 'high end' strings are used mainly on full scale basses.

This whole popping / slapping only came about because I was clowning around at rehearsal and the other two band members think it might sound 'different' if we incorporated a wee bit into a couple of our current Blues numbers - the mind boggles :wacko:, but who knows.

Looking forward to hearing them.

Oggy

[xgsjx]

Hey Oggy, I've not got the 1/4 jack to mini jack wire to plug into my mac, but I'll get it tomorrow & hopefully record something by the weekend.

Thomann sell the TI JF324 Jazz flats. They're a 32" scale (mine are JF344s, a 34" scale).

I'm gonna set up my wee Vox & try recording using the mac's mic. If it's rubbish it ain't getting posted!

[xgsjx]

I've recorded a clip using photobooth & picked up with the in built mic. Hope it gives you an idea of how they sound.
I put info about settings in the description on the vid. Usually I pan 75% to the neck p/u when playing with fingers & slip to 50/50 when slapping, but as you can hear, I don't do too much of it! lol

[Oggy]

[quote name='xgsjx' post='922048' date='Aug 11 2010, 09:45 PM']I've recorded a clip using photobooth & picked up with the in built mic. Hope it gives you an idea of how they sound.
I put info about settings in the description on the vid. Usually I pan 75% to the neck p/u when playing with fingers & slip to 50/50 when slapping, but as you can hear, I don't do too much of it! lol

[/quote]

Excellent – great stuff, sounds sort of honky on my PC.

The problem I have with my setup is that I can’t slap/pop on the Gibson SG, as 'OutToPlayJazz' pointed out to me; that rather large neck pup gets a right bashing and it sounds – well Agggggggggg.

The Mustang has only the one central pup so it’s in the frame for the pop/slap experiment. The single pup sort of limits the variation in available sound so initially I’ll stick a set of Hi Beams on it and see how I go.

I have to say that tracking down a set of Short Scale 'Hi Beams or Sunbeams' was a bit of a mission. The guys at Stringbusters (Adam & James) came through with a set of Medium Gauge, short Scale Hi Beams for me, they have to order them in and were happy to do so – great service – they even answer email and will take orders over the phone.

Oggy

[xgsjx]

[quote name='Oggy' post='922783' date='Aug 12 2010, 02:23 PM']Excellent – great stuff, sounds sort of honky on my PC.

The problem I have with my setup is that I can’t slap/pop on the Gibson SG, as 'OutToPlayJazz' pointed out to me; that rather large neck pup gets a right bashing and it sounds – well Agggggggggg.

The Mustang has only the one central pup so it’s in the frame for the pop/slap experiment. The single pup sort of limits the variation in available sound so initially I’ll stick a set of Hi Beams on it and see how I go.

I have to say that tracking down a set of Short Scale 'Hi Beams or Sunbeams' was a bit of a mission. The guys at Stringbusters (Adam & James) came through with a set of Medium Gauge, short Scale Hi Beams for me, they have to order them in and were happy to do so – great service – they even answer email and will take orders over the phone.

Oggy [/quote]
Cheers. It does have plenty of depth to the sound when played thru headphones (or better speakers), but it's down to the set up of the bass. They aren't zingy tho!

I got my TIs from stringbusters, excellent service here too.

Best of luck with your new direction, you'll have to record some stuff when you get things rolling & pop a link on here.