I haven’t mentioned it lately but my Mike D’Antonio MDB5 signature bass is shipping just around the corner. This is the bass I ordered in case my Surveyor never showed, which it hasn’t.
Anyway, I have a set of DiMarzio pickups for it which shipped today, a Sixties P for the neck and Area J for the bridge.
Now for a set of strings. I had planned to try LaBella Low Tension Flats, but my life has changed since I started with DiMarzio.
So my short list is staying with the LTF, or going with Rotosound 77 Monel Flats. I have these on my Charvel and really like the feel and mid/high tones.
I am considering the Billy Sheehan’s or Steve Harris. I am concerned with the high tension of a .110 E string but I thought I would throw it out there and see what you think
The bass comes tuned in Drop C so the nut is all set for a heavier gauge. But Drop C too low for this wombat
Hey @Wombat-metal . Great choice of strings, at least I think so.
I have both the Steve Harris and Billy Sheehan sets. The Sheehan ones are very smooth round wounds. I absolutely love the .110 E in both sets. They’re both really bright, but have tons of depth too.
I have the Roto 77s on my Charvel like I said, and the brightness really surprised me for a flat. I would expect the SH strings to be more of the same, with the deeper thump.
If you were to choose between SH and BS, which would you pick?
Well, as a Steve Harris fanboy, I’d say the SH flats, but for versatility the BS rounds. I have them on very different basses right now, but the BS set is easier to play. Could be due to the neck profile - Peavey Patriot with BS rounds and Donner P-clone with SH flats.
What type flats would be bright and highlight the treble and mids on my Ibanez SR300? I love the feel of flats but don’t want to lose the Ibanez’s growly goodness.
So, I am selling my house in two weeks and moving in two months, so unfortunately the only projects I’m working on are pre-sale renos and packing. This unfortunately means that any bass mods will have to wait until I have my new workshop. Her Majesty MOE SWMBO has categorically stated so. This means that my planned mod/transplantation of my Steve Harris goodies into the Peavey Fury P-Bass are off the immediate to-do list.
As a small consolation prize, I changed the strings on it from the dead rounds it had to Thomastik Infeld jazz flats. Thank you, @John_E for the gear it forward. They sound heavenly. Lots of bite, very warm low end, all in a skinny 0.95 E package.
I just installed a 130-43 5 on my Tobias 5 string. It has candy bar J at the neck an MM at the bridge. It had DR red/white/blue, and it’s pretty dull for a round wound. I usually don’t slap on 5 string and was looking for a nice tight crisp sound.
Wow! The 130 is massive. It sounds great I can get plenty of clean crisp tone just by blending more bridge pickup. It’s not as smooth feeling as other flats I’ve tried but I know once I break them in, they’ll be pretty slick. I love the tone not at all dull and clacky like Fenders or Ernie Ball. As I suspected, it a great combo to the mid leaning Bartolini.
Tomorrow I’ll be installing the 4 string on my MusicMan Caprice. I’m expecting, more or less the same excellent results.
I had a set of Fender flats. Outstanding for the money. Really settle in after 2-3 months of playing and feel really good, sound great and stay in tune for days and days.
Nice to hear that. The same thing happened to me when I heard and asked Ian what brand of flats he has on that bass. They are Fender flatwounds. I haven’t owned a set but I’m curious. I have GHS flats on my Mustang PJ and I love them. I also like Rotosound on a 34" bass but that’s a whole different story.
I can’t remember what bass I had them on but I’ve tried two sets of flats so far with mixed feelings.
The first set I tried were the Labella’s Low Tension Flats. They felt pretty good but after a while the tone started sounding too muddy to my ears.
I replaced them with Earnie Ball Cobalt Slinky Flats chasing a brighter sound. They brought more focus but they started oxidizing on me (dark spots everywhere).
I eventually tossed them and went back to rounds. What I noticed right away was that my string muting technique was really bad. Pops and squeals all over the place when moving around. I realized that the flats were masking my poor declined technique.
I really like the sound of flats on a P watching others on YouTube, but for now I plan on sticking with rounds to help me improve my technique.
That being said I do want to have a bass setup with flats at some point, but not my main bass. I think I want to try the Fender 9050L or 9050ML next. Not sure exactly which gauge yet.
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