"silly love songs" bass tone

johnashfield · Post by **johnashfield** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:22 am

The tension on the fender flats is high, but I am not finding it unplayable or anything. I lowered the action a tad, but still kept it high so I get little fret buzz.

The sound is punchy and clear, and when I play above the 12th fret I get that cool "kerplunk" kinda thing happening.

Since I like this sound, I'll just have to get used to the action I guess.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 11:56 am

John- seeing as they are so stiff, you should be able to get a super low action with no buzzing. I could with mine when i tried them.

Shaun....LOL i was a mere child back then....im only 20.

Its funny - how you look at the Rotosound website and the list of endorsess has a lot of the classic (mostly British) bass players........whereas Elites seem aimed at "studio pros" I worked at the bass centre briefly stuffing elites brochures into envelopes to post off to poor souls who should have know how bad these elites strings are LOL!!!

henry5 · Post by **henry5** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:20 pm

Only 20; ah, so no problems '85-'95 then LOL! (You were lucky!

)

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 8:16 pm

Yeah Fenders are high in Tension but they do sound good, I've never had problems with them on 4003's, I even had them on a 78 4001 (I've used med. lights which are anything but) but this one had an exceptional neck. I'm not positive about this but I think Rotosound made the first roundwound at Entwistles urging (he wanted a bass to sound like a piano), so I don't think My Generation was played with RW's, it certainly doesn't sound like it either. If you set your tones right flatwounds actually cut through a mix much better than roundwounds because they don't intrude upon the guitar's frequency range as much, they aren't as mushy, IMHO anyway.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:35 pm

Bob, yeah the Rotosound Swing bass strings were developed with Entwistle in one afternoon at Rotosounds factory- turns out he just sat there and ordered them about until they got them right!

Theres a big article here : http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/bass/equip-entwistlegear.html

I thought it was a really interesting read. It also says that My Generation was on a Jazz bass with LaBella flatwounds.

henry5 · Post by **henry5** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:21 am

The original takes of the My Generation solo were done on Danelectro basses with thin roundwound strings, but John kept breaking the strings (the strings were only available on the basses so every time he broke a string he had to go out and buy a new bass!). Eventually he got fed up and played it on the Jazz bass with LaBella flats; got to say I like La Bella roundwounds possibly even less than Elites...