Finally Considering Flats

[berth]

It's more "ploink" and less sustain which makes me like this different (more sixties and more upright bass like) sound.

That's why I like flats, and Hofners for that matter.

Still the Rick with flats has a quite different sound than my Klira 162-3 (which is pretty near Hofner).

[1965]

I've got flats on my Fender Jazz (closer to a Rick than a Hofner obviously) and I like em better there too.

[tennis_nick]

Flats on a bass are quite literally the bee's knees. That's right. Everytime I play, I have to take bee knees off of my fretboard.

I absolutely love the sound and the feel of them. I have them on an Epiphone EB-3. It's the SG bass with a long scale neck (34") instead of the short.

as far as basses go, not a showstopper, but man... flats + a touch of compression and I am in Bass tone heaven! I didn't think bass tone heaven would have so many chairs... I guess that means a lot of people aren't hear yet... we have punch and cake though, so don't be tardy and get those flats.

All I need now is a jazz bass with rounds and I'll be all set! and a Hofner... and a Rick...

[4stringnosing]

To me, the first and last word on high-tension flats is Fender. I've tried over a dozen different brands and those are by far the stiffest--the opposite of TI's. Almost painful to try bending a note!

Further to comments on the difference between flats and rounds, I prefer flats mostly because of the feel and the fact that I can set the action as low as I want without any annoying finger-noise. The sound is, as others have mentioned, no more 'bassy' than rounds, but they give you a way-cool 'woody' type of sound. Close your eyes and you're back in the '60s, man! Can't think of a better way of describing it at the moment! Stay away from Chromes though if you are determined to go with true flats--they are so bright as to be almost an interim step between flats and rounds.

Another huge advantage of flats is they tend to sound even better with age--years later they're just fine--while rounds sound dead to me after a couple of weeks and need to be replaced. Saves me a fortune!

BTW, I only use Dean Markley Medium Flats now--so smooth you can't even see the windings, it just looks and feels like a continuous, smooth, nickel wire, and the sound is the best I've ever heard. Only $27 Canadian now as well--price has dropped recently. Was using LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass flats and they were very rough and way too bright for me.

[mdeayton]

To me, the first and last word on high-tension flats is Fender. I've tried over a dozen different brands and those are by far the stiffest

The Rotosound Steve Harris set are like railway tracks and even outdo Fender for tension.

[teb]

Don't automatically assume that you're going to lose much sustain by switching to flats. The lack of sustain with a Hofner in not due to the strings, it's the body. I have a Hofner 500/1V63 and I still haven't figured out how it gets that woody, dead plunk sound. I can take the strings off and stick them on my Gibson or Hagstrom and suddenly they have plenty of sustain. That "I get by with a little help from my friends" thumpy sound is built into the bass. I had TI jazz flats on my Ric 2030 for a while and they were a bit floppy for my taste, so I eventually switched them to half-rounds for a bit more tension and to add a different sound to the arsenel, but sustain was not a problem - at least in terms of the notes played in a typical song and it was nothing like playing a Hofner. I switch my Pedulla buzz back and forth between tape-wound Boomers and coated round-wound Black Beauties, depending on how much twang and buzz I want, but either string will sustain a long time. Flats do seem to age a little bit and dull down some when new, but then they seem to stabilize, especially the tape-wound variety. You don't get the twang that you may get with rounds, but you can still get crisp. clean attack. I played a gig last month with my old band mates and most of the time used my old fretless Frankenstein Gibson. It sounded great and the strings (tape-wound Guild flats) were the same ones that were on it the last time I stepped of of a stage....in 1975! Sound sample: http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/M ... %20God.mp3

[atomic_punk]

Wow, thank you everyone for the information!! Lots to try out...

Yes, you're right, with a Music Man I have all the bass I can handle....but when I use this particular bass, I have the treble EQ all the way off, mids at just over half, and on the "neck" pickup (it doesn't really have one, I know, but it is the closest thing to describe it). There are so many tonal options to play with on this thing and the D'Addarios I have on it now are still sounding SUPER bright, even with those EQ settings and the amp set flat. So that led me to thinking about flats.

I appreciate everyone's input on the topic! I think Brian and I play very similar types of music, so I might try the D'Addario Chromes first. It seems to be the most mentioned string. And Ken, I'm sorry we never hooked up so I could take you up on your very generous offer. If you wanna drop them in the mail to me, let me know and I can Paypal you and send an address to you.

I have a very strong left hand (probably from playing the 12ver all those years) and a lot of strings just feel like rubber bands to me, and I use a pick, so that also adds to the problem, also adding a certain brightness from the pick attack. Not to mention that as much as I am playing now, I am tearing up the callouses on my left hand from all the slides and things I do while I play, might be easier on my fingers.

[atomic_punk]

Tod, great song, by the way!

[jwr2]

A big part of tone is in the players hands. Steve I have seen you play and sometimes you get so much treble bite that it is harsh and unpleasant. You used to play the 73 4001 that I sold you and you would toggle to just the bridge pickup and pick back by the bridge. Perhaps you should learn more fingerstyle ways of playing. Try Geddy or Entwistle techniques. Or perhaps chage your picking style. Try a thick derelin pick. You will get a softer more pleasant picking sound. The Derelin picks last forever and have a nice sound.

[incubus2432]

.... I am tearing up the callouses on my left hand from all the slides and things I do while I play, might be easier on my fingers.

There's more to the story but my MID 4003 did happen to have rounds on it when this happened.......



(sorry, I haven't posted the pic for some time and it was the first thing I thought of when I read the end of your post)

[nattiep]

To me, the first and last word on high-tension flats is Fender. I've tried over a dozen different brands and those are by far the stiffest

The Rotosound Steve Harris set are like railway tracks and even outdo Fender for tension.

So that's why Steve never bends notes.

[sloop_john_b]

So that's why Steve never bends notes.

Maybe he just has good taste.

[VRICKY63]

Flats ? LaBella !

[atomic_punk]

Jeff, you're right, and that is something that has changed over the years. I'm going after a different sound now than when you saw me with the '73.
I have been working a lot on the fingerstyle playing but am not good enough yet to go that way 100% on stage, I need to make all of my notes more consistent, which is why I was using a pick.
I'm actually a lot faster with my fingers but the consistency over a 4-hour show is just not there yet.

And Brian, when I am done with 3 shows in 3 nights, my left hand FEELS Like that picture!

[jwr2]

Steve ... If you were a little older you could have been playing bass at the time when all basses had flats. That's the way it was in the 60s. Then in the early 70s rounds took over.