I found I was spending a lot of time with the treble rolled full down on either or both my SR300e &/or Rumble 40, both of which have quite powerful tone controls. This was with as delivered round wounds (new bass in January), D’Addario as far as I know. I decided I was a good candidate for flats, so I bought a set of LaBella Low Tension Flats. And the EA&D string are just what I had in mind, I get a more useful range of tones, I looooove the lack of finger noise, all good. However, the danged G string is a whole different animal. I decided the one in the pack was so loosely wound it was possibly defective. Sent LaBella a picture they sent me another G in a day or two. Nice customer support. And this G is not quite as loosely wound, but still distinctly different than the EA&D, which are essentially wrapped tight, flush, smooth. And both the G strings sound like round wounds on a twangy country tele, not flats on a bass, and certainly not belonging on the same bass as the other three strings they are supposed to play with. So I am so far pretty underwhelmed. I will likely write LaBella again soon and inquire politely if this was expected behavior. Perhaps I’d be happier with the DTBs. Or maybe they are having trouble wrapping Gs correctly and that’s the root problem. Sheer speculation.
The tension on the LTFs is really, seriously low. Lower than the D’Addario rounds. Had to adjust the truss rod about 1/4 turn.
The guide on the website is pretty easy to follow as far as installation. No string through… get the right length for your bass, they tell you exactly how to measure. Installation very straight forward.
I am actually considering putting flats on my Stingray Special. It has Ernie Ball rounds on it from the factory and they are okay, I just prefer the feel of flats. I have some Rotosound 77’s and some D’Addario Chromes and some Fenders that aren’t on a bass at the moment. Should I leave the rounds on the Stingray and if not, which flats of the ones I have would you put on it?
Not trying to step on @EddieJones’s questions above, but for what it’s worth, the GHS Pressurewounds are also “meh”. At least they were for me, on the Aerodyne.
I have a set of EB Super Slinky Flatwounds on the way. They were the least expensive I could find, with the quickest Amazon shipping. They should be here tomorrow.
Playing my Aerodyne with flats is a… revelation. I just put the EB Super Slinky flats on it, and it is amazing. I wish I’d have put them on before I did my shootout… but then again, flats vs. rounds wouldn’t make for an apples-to-apples comparison.
But oh my gosh, what a smooth tone. So nice. And there’s still significant top-end as well.
I’m blown away.
But from this point forward, the Aerodyne will remain on flats, and the San Dimas will remain on rounds. No more rounds on the Aerodyne.
If you ever do try flats on the Charvel, I highly recommend the Rotosound 77 Monel flats. They pair with that pickup combination extremely well. The DiMarzio Model P & J
For what it’s worth @JustTim (and that’s probably not much)
All my covers (40+ so far) starting out on my old Ibanez Talman short scale and then my Fender P and Jazz basses have been done using GHS Precision Flats (Light set 45-95). Super smooth and at no point have I thought I can’t get the tone I want for this song. YMMV.
I got flatwound curious myself, so I put a set of Fender 9050L’s on my MIM Precision bass. At €34, they were the least expensive flatwounds I could find. I do like how they feel, but I’m still not sure about how they sound. For some reason, they sound brighter than I expected. Maybe they need some more time to get broken in.
GT I got to try.
