Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I think Piccolo strings come in silver only.

I started on flats. Labella flats. Then my first Rick came with flats. Those were quite nice flats too! Then I heard Yes and started using Rotosound RW. Then in the 80's I went back to flats.

Now I mostly use D'Addario XL's, but I like to have at least one bass with flats. Labella Deep Talking bass Stainless Steel flats are great!

I have to try those, I want to try the Jamerson set. I started on Fender flats, they came with my shiny new 71 P bass.
I have heard that TI flats are similar to the original Ric flats which were Maxima maybe? I forget, JH said it somewhere but I think it's in the long lost archives.

The Labella set I started with is probably what they sell as the Jamerson set now. I have also used Fender flats, which I always suspected were made by Labella. I bet in '71 they were the Jamerson set.

The Deep Talking bass set is more like the Rick strings... or Pyramids. They are not dead sounding... have quite a nice top end, and you can actually slap them if you want. I had the same set on my Rick for three years, until I broke one of them! Wish round wounds lasted that long.

I've been wanting to try the Thomastic strings. The only thing that might put me off of them is they are low tension. I'd have to get used to that.

Yeah I raise my action quite a bit with TI's which offsets the low tension and actually makes them sound bigger too, nice bending strings, very trebly for a few months then very round sounding, they are not your normal flatwound string either, not as much bottom or thud which I really like also. The Jamerson set has a .110 E string and builds muscles I guess but so do Fenders.

You know, Jeff Rath's comments not withstanding, I can get just about any tone I want out of my 4003 with Pyramid flats on there....these strings are the perfect tension and feeling and are MADE for a Rickenbacker, IMHO. I love mine. Your amp is your friend, flats can sound just as good as rounds, just tweak your rig. FLATS rule!!!

Sorry Jeff. I play everything from Yes, Rush, Green Day, Robert Cray, The Smithereens, U2, Macca, Beatles, Hoodoo Gurus, The Call, Julian Cope, Stevie Ray Vaughan.....and so on. I can get any tone necessary out of my 4003 with flats.

The Smithereens... I used to know those guys. We used to play in the same clubs all the time back in the 80's.

Scott ... you can't get the distinctive round wound fret buzz sound out of flats ... I still say play the bass unplugged with flats and rounds ... which sounds better ... that is the fundamental sound you are reproducing through your amp ... flats have a cool fretless jazz sound ... but I like all the extra fret buzz, overtones, finger noise, sustain and other noise they make ... if there were no round wound strings I'd give up playing bass ... and with palm muting I can get a flatwound sound any time I want ...

Or you could do what so many people do and have at least one bass strung with each. I've got DR Hi-Beams on the Ric (the RS55s died just recently), and Chromes on my 5-string Tobias. Completely different basses with completely different strings for completely different situations.

my band goes through songs too fast ... no dead air between songs ... I don't have time to switch basses ... I need the bass I am playing to be able to do it all ... 4 string, 5 string, round, flat, pick, finger, slap, etc ... I demand a lot from my bass ... I could not make it through a set with a 4 string bass and flats ... I could do a couple of the old songs and that would be it ...