Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

What's the consensus?

A great bassist working with Davy Knowles came through Denver via the 2009 Mile High Music Festival wielded a SR5 with flats. I asked what they were after their set and he said they were high gauge LaBella DTFs. Sounded pretty great. Unfortunately the bassist's name escapes me.

Haven't tried it,but i bet it would sound great. Maple fretboard,i presume? The one i had was an early edition,with the 2-band EQ,and it was a funk monster with rotosound swing bass strings.

Nice dark rosewood with 3 band EQ.

My guess is that it'd work fine. Since these basses are chameleon's it probably would only shift the tone window only slightly towards thump.

I'm sure I have heard an SR with flats but they are known for that growly RW sound.
Now you got me thinking of flats on my SR.

I love the tone with the treble rolled all the way off, and a bit of mid and bass boost. I found a set of Chromes that I had on the 4005WB; I checked the lengths of each string and I am good to go, so having a broken-in set of flats on the SR may be really nice as I already have a few basses with rounds on them; I, currently, only have flats on the BX-1 (Chromes) and Ruby 4004L (Jazz Flats).

I gigged with nothing but a Stingray for about two years, and it always wore flats. Besides a few days when I had some LaBella's on it, the best flatwounds for it were broken-in Chromes.

I would highly recommend it.

Here is another vid, with Chromes that someone posted on TB. It's nice to have another flavor to grab when needed.



I don't get where the guy came up with his numbers for the tone control settings, though.

The SR sound much better (to me) with the Chromes on it.

jps wrote:The SR sound much better (to me) with the Chromes on it.

Well, they sound really good anyway. That video was and was not a revelation.

The bass boosted sound of the SR with chromes is pretty close to my cheap Ibanez GSR-200 with old Fender 9050 ML's...planning to replace a balky pot with a push/pull and wire it for push (or pull) parallel V-V-T, and the other way series V-T.

I mean mine sounds better with the Chromes on it than the round wounds that were on it. I don't use YT videos as a true representation of tone.

No doubt. But it is cool to live in a world where we can at least get an idea.

edski wrote: No doubt. But it is cool to live in a world where we can at least get an idea.

Have you ever tried video dating?

Don't need to Jeff. I can get a date with a Sting Ray anytime!