Jonathan, I'd say you were pretty much "right there" at the resurgence of flats. I, on the other hand, kinda never left them although I did quit playing bass for a few years somewhere in the '90's. When I got my first Rick in '78 I loved the factory flats. In fact. I remember buying them in the red box from my local music store but I was in a cover band and only had my 4001 so I used GHS Brite Flats for a little more snap on the high end. All the other bass players at the time though I was crazy or missing the boat because rounds were where it was at but I saw first hand what the Rotosounds where doing to other basses frets and I didn't want that to happen to my Rick.
Now that I have the luxury of two basses I use GHS Pressure Wounds (fantastic string!) on my Yamaha BB and GHS flats on the Rick. There is nothing I love more than to surprise other musicians (with a pre-conceived notion of how a Rick is "supposed" to sound) with the fat, warm tone from the flats. Everyone expects the Chris Squire/Geddy Lee tone (not that there is anything wrong with that!) but are shocked when I get a thump and punch that is better than a Jazz! IMHO. I just had this experience the other day with my guitar teacher(yeah, I'm trying 6 string again). He gives lessons locally but his full time job is teaching at Berklee. So when he was raving about my bass
before I plugged it in I thought that was cool but he couldn't get over the tone. I told him, "It's all about the flats!" We then had a long conversation about Jamerson....
