"silly love songs" bass tone

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:03 am

Only 13 years? My mid 1971 Musicmaster Bass has had the same set of flatwound strings on it for exactly 21 years, and it still plays great.

johnashfield · Post by **johnashfield** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 8:13 am

So what would be a good set of flats to get? The pyramids are a bit on the pricey side, though I know a lot of people think they are totally worth it.

Any cheaper sets I could try out that are good?

Or I suppose I could just leave the black nylons on and see what happens.

jps · Post by **jps** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 3:10 pm

Well I guess if you are only going to buy one set of strings to last a lifetime, are the Pyramids really too expensive?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 9:40 pm

just let your round wounds get 13 years old and they will sound the same as your 13 year old flat wound strings ...

ilan · Post by **ilan** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:17 pm

Not quite, Jeff - old roundwounds don't intonate well. Old flats don't have this problem.

johnashfield · Post by **johnashfield** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:15 pm

OK, I got a set of fender flatwounds, and they are closer to the tone I was looking for. It's odd but the black nylons sounded like they had too many overtones, maybe thats the wrong way to describe it, but the fundamental wasn't clear.

The fenders were pretty close to the sizes of the original rick strings so I puit the old nut back on and put the new strings on. Now the action is pretty high. Is that bad for the neck?

The higher action keeps the strings from growling on the frets as much and the fundamental note is super clear. I just wanna make sure I am not going damage the bass.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:00 am

The Fender flatwounds have MAJOR tension. I had a set on my P bass for a short while, the truss rod had to be set dangerously tight.

The rotosound Flats are nice, tho their output is a bit low.

I have a set of "picato" stainless steel flatwounds on a jazz bass - high output and nice managable tension,, very well made too , they are super smooth.

They are a small UK company tho im sure you could get hold of some- they are very cheap.

beefandbones · Post by **beefandbones** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:16 am

I always thought flats has LESS tension than rounds. Isn't that why older 4001s couldn't accommodate roundwound strings very well? Didn't that lead to the creation of the extra-tough truss rod on the 4003?

ilan · Post by **ilan** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:30 am

In the old days Ric basses were factory fitted with low-tension light-gauge flatwound strings, that the relatively delicate necks on the 4000 series could handle. Roto roundwounds had more pull and could cause the Ric neck to warp. Post-'84 4003's have different neck construction that can take all modern string types and gauges. The post-'84 truss rods are not tougher, they are just adjusted differently.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:52 am

This topic has been talked to death

! Flatwound strings available now vary a lot. Some , like TI's are very flexible low tension strings. Some, the Rotosound jazz 77's , are similar in tension to an average roundwound set...Some, like Fender 9050's ( i think thats the correct number) are VERY stiff-high tension strings.

Tension can vary greatly between several brands of standard 45-105 roundwound sets IMHO. For example- ernie ball slinkys, and Rotosound swing bass 66's have a nice tension to them, wheras GHS B52 boomers and Elites strings (sorry they are a UK brand, do you get them abroad?) have a higher tension to them. Even before they are even on an instrument, you can tell they have stiffer bits of wire for the core. There are of course countless makes i have never tried.

beefandbones · Post by **beefandbones** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:15 pm

OH! Thanks for the info!

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:28 am

Yep, I bought a set of Fender flats ONCE. I never will again. The tension was so high as to be unusable.

henry5 · Post by **henry5** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:04 am

On the subject of string tension I just changed up to 45 gauge Roto roundwounds on my V63, CS and 4000; I've been using 40s and thought I'd try 'em out again after a 20 year break. The CS and V63 were recently set up with 38-98 Overwater strings (not really my choice;I usually use 40-95 Rotos), which I thought were pretty low tension; when I put the 45 gauge Rotos on they didn't move the CS neck at all, and the V63 neck actually needed slackening off! I always thought Rotos felt nice and supple; never liked Elites (which was annoying for quite a while some years back cause they were all I could get). With regards to flats, I've used original Rick flats on my first bass which weren't too bad tension wise, and I believe I've used Fender and La Bella which I thought were horrible. These days the flats sound isn't really my thing, but I'd be interested to try some TIs from what's been said, although I still think they wouldn't stay on long!

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:51 am

Shaun - i tried the TI's and IMHO (because i know this will annoy many people here

) i thought they were junk. They are SO slack. This wasnt a problem playability wise- you just raise your bridge- they are so loose that the added height is unnoticable. They are very high quality strings but i thought they sounded like mush. They sounded like really really old roundwounds because they are so slack. They dont have the nice thump that other flatwounds have because they are too slack. I gave up when the G string broke. And yes, there was no problem with the Ricky itself.

Elites strings are awful. The bass centre in London tried to tell me there were better than Rotosounds (obviously their make competitor) but they sound so lifeless in comparision and put way more tension on a neck.

henry5 · Post by **henry5** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:08 am

Owen, how are you doing? Thought you were bang on about the Rotos (but then when it comes to string tension you are the man as we've already discussed!). As we seem to have similar taste in strings (like Rotos, hate Elites) I'll take your word for it for now on the TIs. Maybe I'll try them one day, but it's a lot of money to find out I don't like them!

BTW Don't know about you but in the mid-80s to mid-90s I couldn't get Rotos at all, all anybody seemed to stock in the UK was Elites, so I was forced to use them. I think they feel horribly stiff and are really brittle sounding; give me Rotos anyday, they're way more musical IMHO.