I decided I’d like to try flatwounds for a change and the cheapest ones in stock at my local music store (and perhaps some of the cheapest ones out there) are the Fender 9050 55-105 gauge. Perhaps a silly question, but would the nut be able to accommodate the heavier gauge just fine? Also, is the tension going to be unbelievably high? Am I completely overthinking things?
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Flatwounds have higher tension than rounds. Part of that is they tend to be hex core, which has higher tension than round core.
LaBella Low Tension Flats are round core, and are off the top of my head 42-100, sound great, and are not high tension. For $10 more than 9050s might be a good option
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The question on the nut I can’t say as I don’t know what strings the nut is setup for.
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Thanks for the input @Wombat-metal!!! For some peculiar reason, the LaBella strings seem unavailable locally and I guess I could order from Amazon or something, but I’m going to my music store to pick up an online order and thought I’d ask here about the Fender strings before making an impulse buy I’d regret.
Regarding the nut, I’m not too sure either. I currently have it strung with 45-105 Rotosounds and everything seems fine, no string binding or anything weird going on anyway. It’s a Yamaha BB234 BTW
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45-105 changed to 50-105 is not a big jump, should be fine
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Yes thats fine. I did break the nut on my 604 when I went to 65-105 though.
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Thanks guys, I might pull the trigger then!
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For anyone interested, I did end up buying them last night and put them on when I got home, didn’t have time to play though. This morning I tuned the bass again, which had held on quite well overnight honestly, and then proceeded to do a couple B2B lessons.
What can I say, I think I am already a flats convert. I’ll reserve final judgment until after I’ve played for a while and they lose that “new string” sound, see how they hold up, but I loved the feel!
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For quality of string, I feel the Fender 9050s are underrated. To me they have a good sound and feel, and are at a good price as far as flats go. They’ll really come into their own in a year or so.
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Those flats will set ya free won’t they!
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Until they decide they need TI Jazz flats! 
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Ha, for the price of those, I think I’d rather get a Behringer pedal of some sort instead 
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For feel, and tension, and sound, TIs are worth the money. But the price is definitely a deterrent.
You might be 100% right, but if I’m honest, I doubt I could completely appreciate the difference in the admittedly beginner(ish) stage I’m still at right now. Maybe a future consideration though
It also depends on the tone you want. I had a telecaster bass and wanted a vintage tone, so put 9050s on it. Last week I put on a set of TIs on my Offbeat. There’s a place for each.
Strings are seldom black and white. It’s about tone and feel. But just saying to keep an open mind on them.
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Um, I’m also not sure what tone I “want”, maybe it’s too early for that in my bass journey…I’m only going with things that sound good to me for now and I must say, out of the 4 sets of strings I’ve tried, the 9050s have sounded the best (to me).
It also depends on where you live. They are cheaper in Europe!
I live in Canada, the Fender 9050s set me back 59.50CAD + tax (12% in BC where I live). The TIs on the other hand would be 98.99$ + tax. That’s quite the difference, given this was a test to see whether I’d like flats or not
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9050s are fine, an underrated string as I said
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I ended up with d’addario Chromes (similar to but brighter than the 9050) because that’s all my local store had, also in BC. I liked them so I ordered Labella flats from L&M 
GHS also has great flats, the company was formed by 3 people from VC Squier, the company that made the original fender flats.
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