Flat wound vs round wound strings

Well, @John_E gear-forwarded me some Thomastic Jazz Flats. They’re light (45-90 AFAIR). I haven’t yet put them on their destination bass, because I haven’t built it yet, but I did put them on my P-clone and Peavey just for shits 'n giggles, and they sounded wonderful. Quite trebly, but not zingy like rounds. I do like playing flats… (my P-clone has GHS Precision Flats on it). However, the uncoated SS Rotosound rounds on the Peavey are amazing.

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Thanks, I’ll give it a try. I do like the no finger noise trait of the strings. In general I like gassy strings that burbs and farts. Lol

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Thats the whole point of a jazz bass and a Jaco vibe: the burpy/farty twang from the bridge single-coil jazz pup.

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I’m really enjoying the La Bella 760FM flats I put on my P-bass. They’re still fairly new, so have some of the brightness I like about roundwounds without the string squeak.
Turns out you can slap on them if you smack it hard enough, which, apparently, I do :sunglasses:
The luthier who set up my bass was (again) amazed/appalled at how high I like my action.

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I’ve actually been thinking about taking them off and trying the regular flats on the 61 P to see how they sound. I’ve only had the M’s on since I got it. They are great but I feel like they put the bass in one very specifc genere of tone.

Whatever works for you is what’s good for you. I’ve been moving my action down of late across basses and like it much better, but would not have said that a year ago.

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I would consider mine on the high side of medium.
When I got my Collings guitar it was set up with what they called “real world” action, not as low as it could go. I like that idea.
If any of us is lucky enough to play a gig these days, even your neighborhood block party goes the same way. You do sound check. The guitar is at reasonable levels, the drummer is playing at neighborhood volumes. Bass is sounding good.
Then the evening progresses. Drinks flow, conversations get louder, the guitar player turns up a little, the drummer starts hitting a little harder. I like to be able to dig in without rattling too much.
I play a little hard anyway. Not Geddy Lee hard, but we’re in the same ballpark.
Back to the topic at hand, the higher tension of the La Bella flats is great for the way I play. I’m enjoying them. It’ll be interesting to see how I feel about the sound once they start losing brightness.

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After some playing with the Rotosound RD45s I’ve decided I like the Labella RX nickels a lot more. Not as bright, feel better under my fingers.

Haven’t compared the Labella RX stainless to the Rotosound swing 66SS yet but that’s next.

Maybe the Rotosounds are just a tad to “sparkly” for me.

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That’s what I use too. I have them on my Precision and my Yamaha 5 string. Love them!

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Stainless will probably make that more acute. There’s some shockingly bright stainless rounds out there. The Bass Centre Elites I had… those took some wearing in.

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It sure does on the rotos. But the 45 nickels are also too much for me. The Labellas are like a tame version

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I have two Squier Classic Vibe basses, one Precision, one Jazz, and I wanted to try out flatwounds (I went for La Bella Deep Talkin’ Bass, mostly thanks to this forum :slight_smile: ). So I put them on the P bass, as that seemed the slightly more classic combination.

I like the sound on the P, but now I find myself wondering how they’d sound on the J (I’d also swap the D’Addario EXLs - again, thanks BassBuzz - from the J to the P). My question is, does removing and replacing strings a few times have any impact on their tone or longevity? Is it OK to keep swapping them over?

Incidentally, on the subject of string noise - I agree that flats are quieter on the strings you’re fretting, but I’m fairly sure I’m getting noisier sympathetic vibrations from strings I’m not playing and not muting correctly. Anyone else found this? Not that it’s an issue, as it’s highlighting an area I need to work on, just curious.

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You can take them off an swap them numerous times. In fact I know at least one person who keeps a spare set of old strings in his gig bag so that if he breaks one he can swap out the old set and carry on with no change in his tone.

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Not at all as long as you don’t kink them. You should check setup after swapping strings as it will usually change.

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What do you mean by kinking them? I kinked the very end (headstock end obviously :)) of the flats before cutting them to the right length, but there’s plenty of slack (i.e. enough for several winds around the peg), so the kink is buried within the tuning peg.

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Meaning so you don’t accidentally bend them taking them out of the bridge and storing them to the point where a permanent bend “kink” is somewhere along it

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Ah right, that makes sense, thanks.

I know there’s no right or wrong answer, but does anyone have an opinion on flats on a J / rounds on a P, versus the reverse? I play alternative rock / indie mostly.

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Just store them like this in a zip lock bag and you’re gold.

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Rounds on a P sound fantastic, especially for the styles you like. In fact they will sound much more at home than flats on a P, for those styles.

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