Hah. Yes.
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Well, after loads of experimentation over the last two years, I have come to a point where I âknow thyselfâ and âknow thystringsâ.
I simply dislike bright round strings.
XL
NYXL
RotoSounds
Ernie Balls
SITs
You name it, I donât dig them, they are just not me.
The rounds I keep gravitating to are LaBellaâs RX Nickels.
Why? - They are the least bright rounds out there.
I am a huge fan of Labella flats (and black nylons).
And really love DâAddario nylons too.
But cannot dig bright rounds no sirree Bob.
So why fight it?
I will keep the sets I have to use on the MM for slapping things and all other rounds are going the way of the LaBella RXs.
If you are a flats lover and want to give the âflattest roundsâ a try, try the RX nickels.
Still get some punch but not all the harshness on top that I apparently dislike, but give me more of the round tone when needed. I am happy with the compromise.
Have also learned I really dislike the LaBella âwhite nylonsâ as well as their copper core white nylons. These are not like the black nylons at all. More of a rubbery tube over core vs. the thinner nylons tape. They just feel floppy when played.
String journey over.
Time to shuffle some strings around.
Know thyself
Know thystrings
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Even though Iâve just gotten started a little while back (currently on the diatonic chord progression B2B lesson), my dear wife got me a Guitar Center gift card for Valentines and they had a set of DâAddario ECB81 XL Chromes in stock at our local one. I decided to give flats a go (our youngest son is a fan of flats) and to also try my hand at doing my first ever setup.
The John Carruthers series of videos was so very useful, made the whole process go smoothly plus provided a nice new level of confidence to continue to check/adjust setup in the future. I needed a quarter turn of neck relief and lowered height at the bridge, but thankfully didnât end up having to mess with the nut.
I donât know how Iâll feel about these strings after they break in or months down the road, but so far Iâm quite happy that I could change out the originals that Yamaha put on the BB234 with the ECB81s and learned some new basic guitar tech along the way.
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Flats should sound the same for a very long time. Iâve seen reports of flats players basically never changing their strings. I some on a bass that are several years old and still sound great.
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James Jameson still hasnât changed his 
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So the girl brought over the Danelectro for me to play, and hook up to my amps to get the feel for it⌠After playing for a few short minutes. I asked Flats?
She replied yes, she wants the deep flat wound tone.
I told her that Would be the first thing going, also considering I am looking for that write Fat Mike NOFX Tone
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I have those flats on my TRBX174, theyâre one of the brightest flats out there. When they were new, they sounded similar to the worn rounds I took off, now theyâre about 6 or 7 mos old maybe? I donât play it much now since I got my pbass, I think they sound more dead than when they were new but I think the more significance is how they feel. Iâm still playing the original rounds on my pbass, theyâre 4 or 5 months old? Iâm happy with them for now, sometimes I like something a bit brighter and I prefer the feel. They also make you work harder on your technique when youâre recording and want to reduce string noise.
If I put flats on my pbass, it wonât be the dâaddario chromes, itâll be something more traditional like labella jamerson flats.
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Man, I donât for the life of me understand the vehement abhorrence for corduroy, but whatever. Different strokes, etc.
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I swapped emails with Tom at Stringjoy today, asking if now that they had coated guitar strings they were looking at coated bass strings. Nothing on that front.
But they will be doing flatwound bass strings this year. Just need to perfect the manufacture so no dates promised. Iâm pretty stoked at that.
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I tried Rotosound 77 flats and I kinda like them. Theyâre not as flat as La Bellas, thayâre not as sticky, but they do have more treble in them. If you want the old Motown sound La Bellas still are the ticket, but these are more versatile IMO
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that is one hell of a URL
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I always use bitly unless I want to annoy the person Iâm sending the link to
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I just tried the Thomasik TI jazz flats on my SB2, they are quite impressive. much less finger noise than your traditional flats. They are not cheap( I looked it up), i was going to order another set but since itâs backordered, Iâll hold off on that for now.
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Not sure if the price is competitive, or the particular set is exclusive, but Carol Kaye offers Thomastic-Infield JF 344 jazz flats on her website. The set shown is .043/.056/070/.100, unlike any of the T-I brand sets I could find on Amazon, for example.
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$100 shipped if you live in the same state as Carol (SoCal) Thatâs steep!
That said them German really know how to make strings.
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They were not my thing, but I may have tried them too early on.
I gave both sets away to Buzzers.
Maybe one day I will give them a go again.
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Hmm. . . I tried it for a couple of more distant U.S. states, and it was less ($15 shipping only), then tried with delivery to CA, and she does add $5+ for state tax. She uses USPS to ship.
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Yep, thatâs the US shipping rate $15+$6 tax. One C note, thatâs pretty steep., lol.
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