But what if you haven’t discovered your favorites yet? That’s the problem I have. I don’t know what I haven’t heard and experienced. Give me one of each pack of strings out there and then I can try to find my favorite. Unfortunately, bass strings are super expensive. Damn those lucky guitar players…
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As of this morning (March 21, 2021) .
If you add the Nickel rounds to the SS rounds and coated rounds, and then add half the “undecided” the finding is 60% for rounds.
If you add the other half of the undecided to the Flatwound results, the finding is 36%.
I’m not surprised there are more round wound users out there, but to be fair, most basses come with rounds, and many people just go with it without a desire to seek something different.
Flat wound users, on the other hand, have chosen to use them.
All in all, I think it’s a pretty fair poll, although I think it would be more accurate if we included a choice for “both”.
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Understandable and relatable! It can take several (expensive) trial and error approaches to find strings that one will stick with for longer…
For those undecided, I added the “not sure/haven’t made up my mind yet” category 
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I’m used to buying guitar strings at $15 a pack. So when I bought my first set of flat wounds last week at over $50. I had to call the bank manager to see if he was OK with that lol. However my guess is that Bass strings last longer?
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First, this poll was never intended as a race or competition. I really don’t care either way what people play with, and more widely used certainly doesn’t mean “better” or even necessarily “more popular” (that is all up for interpretation).
It was more to collect a bit more data to see whether some general assumptions regarding this topic were holding up or not. At this point, it is just data - interpreting that data can again be tricky (see above), but I will leave that up to the individual.
Thanks!
This is very tricky! First, what is “both” exactly encompassing? I know you mean it to encompass “flats” and “rounds”, but we didn’t really only have these two categories. Some people might feel “both” means “nickels” and “steels”, “flats” and “tapes” and so on. Had I allowed multiple choices, then the data we would have gotten would be much more muddied and, potentially, of much less usefulness, IMHO.
Like every poll, it might have shortcomings, subconscious bias, missing categories etc., but I think we know a little more than we did before, and that is always nice! Be sure to take all of it with a grain of salt 
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Yes! And flats (for whatever reason) are known to last even longer than rounds.
P.S. the above comment is based on other people’s opinions, not my own findings.
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Video from Mark above explains the differences very well. Basically the “grooves” in rounds collect dirt/oil more easily over time and their sound starts to become duller more quickly…on the other hand they are usually much less expensive…lol.
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I found this guy on Youtube, and the reason I watched this video was not because of the content, but because of his name Ironically.
However, after just watching Mark’s video above and recalling this one (and I love and fully respect Mark, however, some of what he said did seem to be the normal fluff things you most often hear about the difference between rounds and flats, then I remembered this video which contradicted a couple of Marks points. Again, I love Mark, but I do think that a couple of the things he said about the differences between flats and rounds are just the same Myths that most people say negative about rounds and positive about Flats.) I thought about some of the Myths this video seems to debunk, and they are ones Mark just mentioned.
Not to be argumentative in any way, just offering some other viewpoint, you decide what. you think.
BTW, I was drawn to this YouTuber for his name, it is exactly my first and last name turned around.
Oliver Tobyn, I am Tobin Oliver
I left him a comment and we both had a couple laughs about it.
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I’m really surprised how many people here are using flats. I knew there were quite a few but I sure didn’t expect it to be anywhere close to a third.
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Yeah I was gonna guess much less.
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It’s my fault 
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It’s not a fault. It’s a feature.
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Nickel roundwounds; came with the bass new.
Have a pair of Ernie Ball roundwounds and Fender Flatwounds. Likely good for the next 200 years or so.
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Love pressurewounds. I guess that falls under half-rounds.
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Now that I’m back, I’m going to change the heavier gauge LaBella flats on my Hofner to the light gauge set that I ordered while I was away.
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So just a note on changing string gauges (and you may know this, it’s general information and unfortunately I didn’t know it) you will want to do another setup on your bass. The only issue is it may take time as it changes the tension against the truss rod…
My Luthier says if you have a proper setup and use the same gauge the one setup will last you the whole life of the bass!
On that…the last setup I had they didn’t do correctly…there was a slight bow in the neck, and a little twist. This guy adjusted that for me…and then there is a slight twist in it too. He says next string change/cleaning he will hopefully be able to adjust it after the wood has set to the new adjustments.
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You need to fire your luthier 
Heat and humidity changes will generally require a truss rod adjustment at least seasonally, if you live in a place with actual seasons anyway.
I have to adjust mine roughly monthly, and this is with basses with very strong 5-ply necks.
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Live in CA and bass is indoors in AC space, so the temperature is constant where I am.
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I was about to post that I miss the Bay Area for that 
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He is really good though. Only charges $45, has about 45 years of experience and has a constant supply of instruments he is working on. Also he went through everything he did even showing me on the measuring tools they use.
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