I had stainless rounds on my 604 for a while. The 604 is already brighter than the 504, and those took it to 11.
I have a set of Ernie Ball Super Slinkies were meant for the P bass cos I’m not feelin the flats on it, might find their way onto the yamaha instead 
When I got my brand new Ray5, I didn’t care much at all for the tone. I replaced the strings with D’addario EXLs straight away. I rarely played that bass before putting it up for sale, so whoever buys it is getting a bonus.
Yes indeed, LaBella Deep Talkin Bass flats for the win on my Yamaha BB734. I love these strings and tried a set of Rotowounds on my Yamaha TRBX 304 when I discovered the LaBella G string wouldn’t work on my Yamaha TRBX304. Out of desperation I ditched the roto’s and found a way to make the LaBella work on my 304 by stacking about a half-inch of little tiny flat washers on the G string before sliding it through the bridge. It moves the string back far enough to engage the inner silk core so only the core itself and not the flat wound portion engages the machine head. Never going back to round wounds.
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Yeah, good fit. I had a set of DTB flats on my BB735 for quite awhile before switching to the GHS Bass Boomers. I’d go back to the LaBellas in a heartbeat if I ever go back to flats.
Yes they are, thanks for the tip.
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I’m playing through a Fender Rumble 40 practice amp. I hear changes when making adjustments on the amp. Although I normally practice with a set of Audio-Technica headphones plugged into the amp but they were recommended by the folks at my local music store so assumed they were meant for bass tones.
Interesting pickup question here.
My local FB Marketplace has this Phantom bass listed:
Im not buying, buy I’m curious about the config. It’s listed as having an SD SCPB-3 pup. That’s a single coil '54 P. But the picture shows an eight pole pup in a housing like a Peavey superferrite. Does anybody know what this is all about?
Listing error or scam.
A lot of FB scams have BS specs etc on them.
Ok. That’s interesting. Some of the pictures in the listing show this bass with what is definitely an SCPB-3. But those are manufacturer pics. The real ones show this gold doubled up pup.
I’m confushed 
The only bass I really regret having sold was the Squier CV 50s. No matter if flats or rounds, it was great. I can’t imagine what a beast it could have been with a better pickup although the one it came with was really good. It was even better than the CV 60s I had.
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Has anyone ever tried the Dogal Hellborg strings??
They might be the most expensive strings I have seen so far (well, about as expensive as those Optima 24K gold strings )
They’re $41 USD so not that expensive here
Sorry, $78USD, same ballpark as Thomastik-Enfeld (which are great strings)
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Gregor has.
They look very interesting, good holiday ask.
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They do indeed - let’s start saving up (or wait for an appropriate holiday…)
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Gold hardware… 
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Yeah, gold hardware, it’s an acquired taste like gold teeth 
I was more interested in the pickup configuration.
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So, some more thoughts on the EB Cobalt flats. It’s not I didn’t like the sound in isolation or the feel of the NYXL that I had on previously. But I somehow didn’t get the tone I wanted to hear in the mix with the band. Maybe they are a bit too piano-like (or guitar-like) for my tastes? Great flexibility, I’m sure with some more eq or effects I should have got the results I wanted, but I couldn’t. It seems that the EBs are a slightly better starting point in that I can tell the bass more easily from the guitar. They also feel much more flexible than classic flats, but the B string possibly has a bit more tension than the NYXL, which is a plus in this case.
On a similar note, I still don’t quite get the active eq on my TRBX. But from playing only passive, I switched to active mode with a little (low-)mid boost. The bass boost/cut sounds weird to me, and the changes in highs are barely perceptible only when playing with a pick. I rather faff around with the pick-up balance. One knob at a time, I guess.
I might be trying to get a P-Bass tone out of this 
It took me a while to realize that the tone I like on my bass when I am at home practicing is NOT the tone that will work in the “mix” ( mix here most often just means the less-than-perfect acoustics of a rehearsal space with drums banging away and a guitar player using three different amps).
In fact, the tone that works nice in the “mix” (i.e., the tone where I can hear myself play and get heard by the others) is quite unpleasant/quacky/extreme when heard in isolation.
My point: you need to find several “tones”, potentially one for each scenario and venue you play in
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You got exactly the point
That’s why a 3-band eq seemed a good idea, being able to change stuff on the fly without having to move to the amp. Same with the 4 (or more) similar presets in the zoom pedal, I could test “live” what would work 
But “hearing the tone I wanted” was really more “wanting to hear myself” without cranking the amp to 11. And after a few months of experimentations, I decided different strings might help - more for my lack of experience than anything else. And after the first rehearsal I’m quite pleased with the choice. I’ve kept the nyxl, they could come back on the bass at some point.
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