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On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:03 pm
by Toonster
Since I now have 2 basses I play a lot, I wanted to try out some Flatwounds, but my question is: on which bass shall I put them, on my my Gibson Grabber G1 or on my Fender Precision with some weird bridge pickup..

And maybe some tips for good flats, but there are already a lot of threads about that of course ;)

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:39 pm
by nad
ALL OF THEM. No seriously.

P-bass and flats is a great place to start if you just want to experiment for the time being. I like D'Addario Chromes because they are cheap, but Thomastik flats, the opposite of cheap, rule fucking face. They might not be the best place to start with, or they might CHANGE YOUR LIFE like they did mine.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:48 pm
by Bellyheart
Grabber. Old bass player did it. TiTS

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:39 pm
by Mudfuzz
nad wrote:ALL OF THEM. No seriously.

P-bass and flats is a great place to start if you just want to experiment for the time being. I like D'Addario Chromes because they are cheap, but Thomastik flats, the opposite of cheap, rule fucking face. They might not be the best place to start with, or they might CHANGE YOUR LIFE like they did mine.

This is so. I wouldn't worry about a bass with rounds in till you have over ten basses really.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:44 pm
by sev
Either one would be great with flats. The P-bass is maybe more versatile in general, so I might keep rounds on that one to maintain its versatility.
Once you put the flats on, don't judge the tone right away.....flats really start to get sweet after you've had them on a month or two (or longer)....especially Chromes, which start out brighter than most other flats.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:02 pm
by SVE
Flats on the P! Keep rounds on the grabber and play some DFA1979.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:14 pm
by alexa.
I saw the title.

FIrst thought:
nad wrote:ALL OF THEM. No seriously.


Second thought:
SVE wrote:Flats on the P! Keep rounds on the grabber and play some DFA1979.


Also, use thomastiks only if you don't mind the flabby tension.
Chromes are cool and Labellas are awesome.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:27 pm
by rfurtkamp
I'm wrong in the head, I use stainless flats on my Jazz.

They stay bright but have no finger noise to speak of.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:37 pm
by Chankgeez
Yeah, both.

Yeah, Thomastik.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:44 pm
by Achtane
For a while I was all "Flats go on J! Rounds on P!".
But now I just like flats on everything. I even like flats with mudbuckers. I have too many basses at this point so I can start putting rounds on the extra ones.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 4:55 pm
by bigchiefbc
Man, am I the only bassist in the world who hates flats? They just sound so dead and lifeless to me. :idk:

granted, I haven't dropped a shitload of money on the insanely expensive sets yet, but the couple sets I've tried just sound so dull.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:01 pm
by alexa.
^also depends on the music and the band you play in.
if the role of the bass is allaround like in Tool for example, rounds are the way to go.
but in a "sonically normal" band, flats are the cat's paws.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:33 pm
by coldbrightsunlight
bigchiefbc wrote:Man, am I the only bassist in the world who hates flats? They just sound so dead and lifeless to me. :idk:

granted, I haven't dropped a shitload of money on the insanely expensive sets yet, but the couple sets I've tried just sound so dull.

I think they sound kinda nice, basically like an upright but worse. Had a set on my jazz for a while but I couldn't live without the bite and angry sharpness of rounds. YMMV :idk: When I have more than one bass I'll probably have flats on one because it is a cool sound, just not all the time.

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:40 pm
by alexa.
I found that the d'addario half-rounds have gobs of bite.
Also, flats+piezo=sex

Re: On which bass shall I put flats?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:54 pm
by MSUsousaphone
Man....my first thought was NONE!!!

I found flats made my attack deader than a guy throws away a half eaten Blizzard at a fat camp. To each his own, I guess.