I prefer a warmer tone - is that a crime?
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If you wind and unwind / straighten strings they can break easily…
So if you hate what makes rounds good, just buy flats and you never have to change your strings again, or bother with cleaning them.
That bright tone is why people buy rounds in the first place, along with the feel.
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I have labella flats. Really love the tone, but not for everything.
For usual stuff, I need a wide frequency range that I can EQ the way I like.
That’s rounds…
Those are not particularly bright flats and would not be my choice for flats with a more broad sound spectrum coverage; I’d look to D’Addario or others for that. A lot of people seem to recommend EBMM Cobalts for this.
If you want brighter tone capability in general you could also change out your pots and tone capacitor too of course.
Or go with a long scale bass as short scale is already sacrificing significant higher harmonic tone; they are thumpier and less bright in general.
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No, I got them to enjoy the flat tone … and I like it a lot. It’s very good for some use cases.
For this I use round wounds. For me there is a difference between a metallic tone, which sounds cheap (like many stock strings and also the EXL170S) and a brigher tone, which is an extended frequency spectrum.
The tone is better with the EXL160S, but it still has some metallic tone to it … that goes away after some playing.
Not possible cause of shoulder issues. We always come back to this point sooner or later in our discussions 
SHOULDER ISSUES!
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As much as I cannot believe that I, of all people, am trying to talk someone away from rounds and into flats, I honestly think that based on what you have shared you would be better served with a set of good bright flats. They would last years at minimum and give you what you want.
That said, if you want to stick with rounds (which I definitely prefer), then you might really like Elixir Nanowebs. They last a lot longer than the EXL’s even without cleaning.
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Don’t exist as shortscale, as fas as I know.
Also: I find the EXL170S terrible, the EXL160S are ok after some time … and I use the EXL220S for my fretless (undecided about those).
I found the La Bella 760FS-S surprisingly good - again, for certain styles. They are not “thumpy” at all (or maybe I don’t know what thumpy is). They sound so very smooth … I thoroughly enjoy them.
I can live with the EXL160S for now - it takes a frew hours of playing to get them where I want: aggressive if necessary, without the metallic/robotic sound!
And there is always the tone knob to kill the robot
So just cut them to length, winding the string instead of the taper is fine.
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I have a déjà vu!
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This^^^
I cut longer rounds to the length I need. I don’t need no stinkin’ taper.
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You’re wrong again?
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I will test this as soon as I have cleaned my current strings to death.
No need to replace them now.
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Hahaha, @howard I’m always wrong. Will never be as infallible as you
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Oh I am wrong all the time too. Maybe not as wrong, but no one else should take my advice seriously.
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I wish I knew as much as you!
How did that happen, I mean, without trying out and experimenting (= learning)?
Did you have some kind of a Sensei that told you what is right and wrong and you just accepted everything, no questions asked?
Will you be my Sensei?
trial and error, hypothesize experiment and iterate - i.e. the hard way
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I do not necessarily recommend this
