Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've tried flats before but haven't liked them.

Lately, I've wanted to switch back to flats and got the Labellas. I've seen people praise them here, but you know, people hype what they like.

I can't believe how wonderful my Ric sounds with flats as opposed to rounds, at least for what I play. I'm 100% pleased with them.

flats vs rounds always come back to 'why not both' for me

I keep rounds on my Precision and Jazz Basses. But I've got flats on my Hofner and Ric. I'm happy to have the best of both worlds.

ch willie wrote:I've tried flats before but haven't liked them.

Lately, I've wanted to switch back to flats and got the Labellas. I've seen people praise them here, but you know, people hype what they like.

I can't believe how wonderful my Ric sounds with flats as opposed to rounds, at least for what I play. I'm 100% pleased with them.

Another good flatwound for Rics are Fender 9050's. I like both La Bellas and Fenders, the Fenders are a little bit brighter and the La Bella's have a little bit more midrange character.

radapaw wrote:flats vs rounds always come back to 'why not both' for me

That's what I do with the two Laredos.

I've tried LaBella deep talking flats on P-basses a couple of times & I can't deal with the high tension.

They're way too tight & bowed the necks considerably.

I wouldn't dare try putting them on a Ric bass.

Anyone else here experience this?

I haven't tried LaBellas at all. Very happy with TI Flats on my '69 4001 and Fender 9050's on the old P-bass.
Nickle Roto's on the V63.

I like having 2 Ricks and 2 P's. One each with flats and rounds.

Actually had a small "acoustic" gig a couple weekends ago and it was the first time I used a bass with flats at one! I took the '62 P-bass and it was absolutely perfect. We played everything from Cash through to Soundgarden.
A little tweak of the tone control or change in finger/pick placement and it was like having a different guitar.

Going to try the same thing with the '69 this weekend.

No, I like the DAddario ECB-84's. I like them a lot. very similar to their EXL170's.

I have a set of low tension labellas on order and a fresh set of deep talkin flats for my p, i'll report back post-shootout

I have LaBella 43-104 gauge strings on my JMJ Mustang. It sounds so good with these I am tempted to try DTFs again on one (or more?) of my Rics. I thought I had finally settled in as a Chromes guy... but there is a really perfect mid-range character to the LaBellas compared to the Chromes with almost sound choked or compressed by comparison.

Anybody have experience re: 39-96 vs 43-104 gauges for a Ric bass? I am not worried about the bass handling the tension, more about getting that nice midrange character. The Mustang is short scale so I am thinking smaller gauges might be needed to get the same effect.

cassius987 wrote:I have LaBella 43-104 gauge strings on my JMJ Mustang. It sounds so good with these I am tempted to try DTFs again on one (or more?) of my Rics. I thought I had finally settled in as a Chromes guy... but there is a really perfect mid-range character to the LaBellas compared to the Chromes with almost sound choked or compressed by comparison.

Anybody have experience re: 39-96 vs 43-104 gauges for a Ric bass? I am not worried about the bass handling the tension, more about getting that nice midrange character. The Mustang is short scale so I am thinking smaller gauges might be needed to get the same effect.

I currently have the 96 set on my 4003s, I had the fender 9050L for a while before that and I also had TI flats and have also tried the 43-104 DTF set. I liked all sets but the 96 is the best feel and sound for me, I liked the TIs a lot but they just a tiny bit too floppy for my liking. The fender set was a little bit to tight so the 96 labella is the perfect tension/feel for me. Sound wise there are plenty of mids with them, played aggressively with a pick, the sound can almost be round wound like.

I had a set of LaBella DTF's on my C64S for a long while, and then decided to move to Roto flats.
The one thing I remember having to "deal with" was an oily residue that I had to wipe off before loading the strings up. Anyone else run across that same issue?
Anyway, seeing this discussion, and listening to this old clip of the DTF's on my bass has me thinking that maybe I should give 'em another shot!
https://soundcloud.com/bigbajoman/4001c ... flats-edit

bigbajo60 wrote:The one thing I remember having to "deal with" was an oily residue that I had to wipe off before loading the strings up. Anyone else run across that same issue?

That's fairly common, from my experience. Before installing any new set of flatwounds, I wipe them down a few times with isopropyl alcohol until there is no more residue coming off of the strings.

Jeff, check your stacknob email!

bigbajo60 wrote:Anyway, seeing this discussion, and listening to this old clip of the DTF's on my bass has me thinking that maybe I should give 'em another shot!
https://soundcloud.com/bigbajoman/4001c ... flats-edit

Excellent soundclip demo, that. Nice one.