Amen!
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Here ya go Toby, @T_dub,
this is what I reckon about flats, and I think Pam, @PamPurrs
feels the same way.
Cheers Brian
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Ah Black Sabbathā¦ I loved them. And just listen to that awesome bass!
Thanks Brian @TNKA36
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Hey Pam, @PamPurrs
I thought you would get a laugh out of it.
I Did. 
Tony Martin out front of Black sabbath was an amazing time in the bands journey.
Cheers Brian
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Yeah this is absolutely a personal feeling and tone preference thing. Iād never try and convince Pam that rounds were right for her, and vice versa Iām sure. Thereās tons of artists that love both in more or less all genres.
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When UPS dropped off my new Squier P bass several months ago I was like a little kid at Christmas. After all, it had been nearly a half century since I had handled a bass.
I pulled it out of the box, plugged it into my Fender Rumble amp (which had arrived the previous day) and . . .
WTF??
I had never seen a bass with round wound strings. Back in the day, basses had flat wound strings. Period.
After a couple of anxious days the mailman delivered a set of DāAddario XL Chromes (ECB81). Now it felt like a bass, and I could actually play - a little.
A couple of months later I decided that I might do better with a short scale bass and ordered a Gretsch Junior Jet - and at the same time a set of La Bella Deep Talkinā Bass (760FL-S) strings.
The DāAddarios are good but the La Bellas are so slick that playing is downright sensuous. 
Iām playing mostly classic rock, classic r&b and blues, so that fat flatwound thump works well for me, especially on the P bass.
All that being said, Iām looking at a Sterling Music Man for my next bass (Iāve developed a severe case of GAS) and with its active preamp Iām thinking I might try some round wounds on it for a more modern sound, or maybe the Ernie Ball cobalt flat wounds which claim to sound like round wounds and play like flat wounds (as mentioned earlier in this thread).
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I really want to buy a set of black and white Deep talkin La Bellas for my six string and alternate the colors ( as well as have a backup alternated color set!) but Iāve spent way to much money on fixing up the peavey this month. maybe next month. cant wait to hear how they sound and feel how they play.
The round wounds on a six string work but the B string just feels so wrong to me. its like a needle file thatās been used to the point of no return. Plus I feel like that deeper tone will really fit in on the 6ār for some more melodic playing or chording. and maybe even make that C string a lot less twangy sounding! then I will have an excuse to pluck it from time to time. 
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Well, I am a HUGE Stingray fan, I have 3 Sterling Stingrayās.
My main rig is a Ray4, the cheapo $299, but I LOVE it. It has only ever had one set of strings, the Ernie Ball Slinkyās that it came with, and I love those strings.
My 2nd rig, is my Sterling Ray34, the top line Sterling makes. Mine is from 2012, and the strings that were on it were old and had sat for at least 10 months in a pawn shop, and before that, I am sure it sat most of the time since it was first bought in 2012, or thereafter. I put a set of Ernie Ball Super Slinkyās (med gage that I was not super fond of) and set it up and played it for a bit until I decided it needed to get some fret work, cuz there was a range of Frets that I could not get the buzz out of. it didnāt transfer to to the amp, but I could hear it and it bugged the crap out of me, and I can deal with fret buzz when playing aggressive in the first few frets, but this was mid neck, so I just got it back after taking it to get a PLEK job.
Now it plays AWESOME, and I have slammed the action about as low as you can get action.
Problem
I left it at the shop with a set of Cobalt Slinky Flats.
Like you are talking about above, Tone wise, they sound pretty good, not far off the mark, but feel wise, I just am not really liking them. And I am 2 days into it, and it is not getting much better.
I just got a set of Ernie Ball Regular Slinkyās, the same ones that come with the bassās when you get them, the same ones on my Ray4, and I really do like these strings best of probably any I have played.
I canāt say that I have played a huge range, but I have played GHS, and DR and whatever comes on the Ibanezās and some other basses that I am not sure what strings were, but when it comes down to buying strings, my choice so far is the Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Bass (50-70-85-105)
Should be on the Sterling Stringray you may be looking to get.
If you donāt like rounds so far, I would get a set of these Cobalt Slinky flats.
might get you the tone you are looking for, and will give you the feel you are looking for if you like that silky smooth.
I prefer gravel and sandpaper apparently, cuz Rounds feel right to me.
Heck, if you get a Sterling Stingray, I will send you these flats, they are already fit perfect for a stingray.
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I have the cobalt flats on my Epiphone Thunderbird and my Warwick Rockbass and really like them. They definitely have more top end than Labellas.
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Certainly sounded that way in videos.
A warwick with flats is an interesting idea, since they are naturally bright and growly basses already. maybe flats wouldnāt kill their tone too much.
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I really like what they did for the tone. The rounds that came on it were way brighter than I like. When I play rounds I usually go with nickel, like DR Sunbeams. Stainless rounds are just not my preferred tone. I guess thatās why all my basses are strung with flats. 
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I really dislike Warwickās stock strings. They feel to me, for lack of a better term, āchalkyā. Good nickel rounds like DāAddarios feel and sound much better.
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Thatās the thing I love most of those LaBella Deep Talking Bass flatsā¦ smooth as silk.
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Iāve been playing on the LaBella 045 .065 .085 .105 .128 flats for quite awhile and love themā¦
ā¦ but, Iām going to give these heavy gauge strings a try. I think I will like the fuller and deeper sounding bass tone. These strings were widely used on Motown recordings during the 60ās by people like Donald āDuckā Dunn and many others.
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Nice illustration of the tonal differences on basses that are already bright, mids-heavy and naturally growly.
To me, rounds just sound way better across all styles on both of those, except maybe fingetstyle on the Jazz, but especially on the Stingray. The flats were just dead on it in comparison.
Now, a P-bass is another story.
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Nobody asked for my two cents but I have a little experience with the whole rounds vs. flats thing and I made a few observations that may or may not matter to anyone.
I had an Ibanez SR1805 that was EXTREMELY bright to say the very least so I tried all the amp and bass tweeking possible, then put flats on it. The flats toned down the brightness and naturally produced a āwoodierā tone. Reset the EQ and played it. It sounded really goodā¦when the strings were fresh. After they got some miles on them I found myself wishing the high mids knob on my amp would go up to 11 or 12. It did take out the high end harshness thoughā¦which made me lazy as far as technique goes. I discovered (not intentionally) that I could let my fingers drag the strings here and there and they would forgive me instead of making the horrible raking noise. With out knowing it I adjusted my playing accordingly. When I picked up my other bass, I discovered just how sloppy I had gotten.
Another issue I discovered is that sound guys in general hate flats because they arenāt easy to mix. Sound guys are an eccentric bunch anyway. I get it. They donāt like anything but a P bass with rounds because they know what to do with that. But they really HATE flats.
I played a lot of live music at the time in different venues and had the same issues every time. They would try to be gracious most of the time but it was obvious that they werenāt pleased. Some were down right indignant.
For these two reasons, I gave up on flats. Instead, I jacked an idea from Victor Wooten"s brother that I saw on a video. I took one of my wifeās hair ties and put it on the neck of my bass down near the nut where it doesnāt get in the way. It muffles the strings just a tad but every move I make still registered with the pick ups (good or bad). The high end harshness is attenuated, I could set my EQ in a normal human range, sound guys werenāt secretly plotting my sudden mysterious disappearance, and I had to pay attention to technique again.
Thatās just my experience. As Iāve said in other threads, tone is what matters. Sound like you want to sound. If you do, you will play more and enjoy it more. On the other hand, if you are experimenting with flats for a similar reason as mentioned above, try a cheap bag of elastic hair ties from walgreens. It may just do the trick.
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Totally agree @Gorchā¦ Iāve tried a set of flats for the first time ever on one of my bassās and after 4 days I took them off and put the rounds back onā¦ I do use āHalf-Roundsā at times - especially when Iām learning a new song and Iām focused more on learning the notes and the flow - not necessarily the tones. Once the song is learned, I switch to one of my other bassās to practice with before recording. I have to admit that there are some times when Half Rounds serve the song much better than rounds, but half rounds are not as flat as flats, and are basically round wounds ground down so theyāre not as smooth as flats.
I guess bottom line is āTo each their ownāā¦ Play what ever strings you want that excite you to playā¦ Hell, I got a damn āGut Bucket Bassā (Tub) that I have strung with a 1/8" braided steel cableā¦ Sounds really great too - especially after a few slugs on the moonshine jug!
Keep on Thumpinā!
Lanny
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Thereās nothing you can say that will steer me away from flats. Thatās what I play, and thatās what I will always play. The covers Iāve posted are on flats, and I havenāt heard any complaints about the tone.
To each is own. I play flatwoundsā¦ PERIOD! If you want to play round wounds because you think they sound better, then play round wounds.
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Woha @PamPurrs - Pamā¦ Aināt nobody tryin to steer you away from anythingā¦ We all play what ever we like, and what ever puts a smile on our face when we do itā¦ No one has ever said that you should be playing on anything different than what you are satisfied using. Everyone has different likes when it comes to music, instruments, āstringsā, etcā¦ I believe everyone on the forum here pretty much knows how you feel about your beloved flats, but please remember that there are also many here with those same feelings about roundsā¦ How ābout we just have a beer (or in my case a Single Malt) and bury this dead horse before it starts stinkingā up the place??.. Love Ya! Lanny!
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Sorry @Lanny, I just got a bit agitatedā¦ Iām okay now. This thread has been going for a long time and it seems like the same people commenting over and over how much flat wounds suck. I have nothing against round wounds, other than I hate the texture of them and how they feel on my skin. I have played tape wounds and half rounds also, just happen to prefer flats. They sound good to me, slide easily, and overall feel good under my fingers.
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