Flats versus Roundwounds, again.

ken_swearingen · Post by **ken_swearingen** » Wed May 18, 2005 9:07 am

Jeff, i hate to say it but the seventh sound byte almost sounds like you've got flats with a lot of treble on the bridge pickup ,neck pickup sounds pretty bassy i like your sound not as trebled as i thought i think a lot of guys here would be surprised."It ain't me" has to be the song without the pod.

ken_swearingen · Post by **ken_swearingen** » Wed May 18, 2005 9:21 am

I guess im trying to say I thought your sound would be a little more harsh not as full sorta like squire or getty it kinda sounds like getty but much more full[more bass],does this make any sense?

admin · Post by **admin** » Wed May 18, 2005 10:04 am

Yes

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed May 18, 2005 10:21 am

number 7 is recorded with my 2020-5 ... it has very hot and thick pickups ... it has copley nickel round wound strings ... I ran it into my bass pod and then into a fostex cassette recorder with an alesis drum machine play the drum track ... very low tech and analog ... that bass gets a cool tone ... part 4003 part p-bass and all 2020 ric bass ... I removed the toggle and rewired it with 2 1000k ohm volume pots and one 500k ohm tone pot ... that bass kicks major butt ... and it goes with the red stapeler ...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed May 18, 2005 10:30 am

actually number 6 is the one without the pod ... it was recorded 1980 with a '68 4001 and a peavey head and an acoustic 1x18 folded horn cabinet with a cerwyn vega 18" speaker ... and it was recorded with 2 mikes into a little cassette recorder ...

The Creedence song "Fortunate Son" was recorded in 2001 with BeoWulf at a local studio where they had a lot of equipment and didn't know how to use it and it was a 1973 4001 minus the capaciter and it was into a bass pod and then into an SWR with a 2x10 and a 1x15 cabs ...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed May 18, 2005 3:52 pm

Hey Beavis, flats are cool, heh heh heh. I know Butthead, let's go boil those roundwounds and feed them to Mr Anderson's dog, heh hee heh, or bury them or something. I know, maybe we can blow them up. Yeah, that'd be really cool, heh heh heh.

nattiep · Post by **nattiep** » Wed May 18, 2005 3:53 pm

What the hell? Lol.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed May 18, 2005 3:58 pm

I have stuff recorded onto CD but don't know how to put in online. I have a bunch of tracks done in Lima a couple of years ago with a 78 4001 with Fender med.light flats played through an SVT head with a B-15 cab mic'ed, no DB. Everyone that hears it thinks it's a P bass. It sounds better than a P bass actually. Most of my stuff lately has been upright that's been recorded anyway. The new 4003 with Pyramids has a much more refined sound.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:49 pm

you know Bob ... we may actually have similar bass sounds ... we just arrived there from the opposite direction ...

ken_swearingen · Post by **ken_swearingen** » Wed May 18, 2005 5:41 pm

Bob, listen to Jeff's sound bytes your going to find his sound really isn't that far from yours.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed May 18, 2005 5:52 pm

ok, I'll check them out tomorrow, I can't now I'll wake up the wife. I remember hearing a couple of clips of Jeffs a few years ago, one in which he played lead, bass and rhythm on one track, haha! The wildman of the forum. Another was a bluesy type of thing, it sounded pretty good. With my rics I like a nice big bottom and a little clicky twang at the top, midrange depends on the room, but I like a very solid sound, foundation type sound.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed May 18, 2005 6:49 pm

here is an example of me simulating flat wound strings with palm muting and a pick ...

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/brown.mp3

That is my 2020-5 bass again with rounds through the bass pod into an analog cassette recorder ...

The reason I use a bass with 5 strings, and round wound strings, and a bridge that can be palm muted and the reason I use fingers, picks and thumbs is to generate the sounds needed to cover all the different songs that I do ...

nattiep · Post by **nattiep** » Wed May 18, 2005 6:52 pm

Nice....

BTW have you checked your mail Rath?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed May 18, 2005 7:19 pm

yep ... thanks for the Rush pics ... I think those were posted here a while ago ... but the ones you sent me are higher quality ... anyway it was cool to see Geddy playing a 3001 bass ...

dean712 · Post by **dean712** » Wed May 18, 2005 7:36 pm

Jeff, I like your sound bytes. I like the tone on the 3DD song, it fits that tune quite well.

Okay - I got my set of flatwounds and put them on my '03 blue 4003 tonight. I'm using D'Addario XL Chromes 45-65-80-100. Remember, this is my first time ever with flats, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

I couldn't play real loud tonight because my daughters were already in bed, but I did noodle around for a half hour or so to get some initial impressions. The biggest difference I noted was feel - the flats are so much smoother than the RW's. I'm not sure to what extent it is better or worse for my playing style (I've played rounds exclusively for 15 years now). For some things like slides, it is smooth as glass, like waterskiing on a dead calm lake. For others, like fast runs across strings, I am missing having the 'traction' that the RW's friction drag gives - like using sneakers instead of cleats on grass. (Sorry if my analogies get lame later at night!).

Remember, this is all based on just an initial trial. I will crank up the volume tomorrow and get a couple of hours in, and also do an A/B test with my '00 mapleglo with RW's to note differences.

Oh, and (again, at low volumes) my impression of the tone... I was surprised that the difference was not more drastic. The flats are cleaner, without the high sizzle. But it's not a night/day difference on tone, at least not at the volume I was playing. Cleaner & clearer, less sizzle is my initial impression.

I will log more hours and post a better review. Overall first impression is that I like the flats and want to crank em up and log more hours to really check em out. I can see leaving one bass with flats for sure - we do one bluegrass song and a couple of classic country covers that would justify it right there. If they grow on me, who knows.... Also, I want to see how they sound recorded.

Oh, and Bob asked about posting recordings. There are probably easier ways, but my method is to get the song to a CD, load it into my computer, then use MusicMatch program (it came free with something or other we got) to convert it into a MP3. Then I create a web page and use the MP3 as background music. Here is an example from our demo CD (a 4003 recorded direct with just a little sansamp):

http://home.earthlink.net/~hasmina/songclips_002.htm

Sorry for the long post. I hope this is the counterpoint test you had in mind, Peter!