Round or Flat for Bass

therage!

Wicked Machine
I'm a guitar player who is laying down my own Bass tracks on my solo recording project. I have a G&L ASAT Bass with round wounds on it right now. I seem to experience a fair amount of fret noise and a Bass playing friend was telling me to change to flat wound strings because that would help would help reduce that kind of noise. Can any of you Bass players recommend that?

Thanks

Derek
 
Flatwounds will indeed helps with fretnoise, fingernoise and will feel smoother. They sound completely different too, so if you like the tone you have, get ready for something totally different.

I always have one bass that's set up with flatwounds, super high action for that motown-fat sound.


Herwig
 
just a small thing but I thought i`d metion it. With roundwound strings the steel winding is only in contact directly with the skin for a fraction of a second when moving the fingers along the string while applying pressure before the contact point passes the adjacent windings, the friction created is instantly cooled as the fingers travel over the crevasses that have air in them. With a flatwound string these crevasses dont occur as frequently and friction can continue to build to extreme temperature in a small area. Next stage is called blistering which can be light, or burn tissue deep into the pads of the fingers, thru the callouses as well. The effect is the same as rubbing your finger really fast on a piece of sheet metal. With plastic covered flatwounds it is much worse.
Id use something to lubricate the finger tips or be very aware of the playing technique. If it happens you`ll know very soon.
 
Toki987 said:
Id use something to lubricate the finger tips or be very aware of the playing technique. If it happens you`ll know very soon.


:eek: :eek: Talk about an in-debt study of flatwound-playing technique!

Never thought of that possibility that that could happen. thanks for the info. Next time I'm playing the flatwound bass I'll look into it.


Herwig
 
DeadPoet said:
:eek: :eek: Talk about an in-debt study of flatwound-playing technique!

Never thought of that possibility that that could happen. thanks for the info. Next time I'm playing the flatwound bass I'll look into it.
Herwig

You dont have to wait, just get a big piece of smooth surface wire and run your fingers down it really fast while applying pressure. :)
 
therage! said:
I'm a guitar player who is laying down my own Bass tracks on my solo recording project. I have a G&L ASAT Bass with round wounds on it right now. I seem to experience a fair amount of fret noise and a Bass playing friend was telling me to change to flat wound strings because that would help would help reduce that kind of noise. Can any of you Bass players recommend that?

Flats will help - particularly with the noise of your fingers sliding on the string, but like DeadPoet says, they sound very different.

Flats have a much deader sound, they don't have that 'growl'. What kind of sound do you want? Flats may or may not be appropriate. You may find that you prefer the sound of the rounds.
 
Re: Re: Round or Flat for Bass

moley said:
Flats will help - particularly with the noise of your fingers sliding on the string, but like DeadPoet says, they sound very different.

Flats have a much deader sound, they don't have that 'growl'. What kind of sound do you want? Flats may or may not be appropriate. You may find that you prefer the sound of the rounds.

Don't want a deader sound for sure. I may try the flats just to hear them.

Thanks for the post's guys!
 
I thought you could also get roundwounds that have been ground (groundroundwounds?) to have the feel of the flats and the sound of the round (the groundroundwoundsound)?
 
Garry Sharp said:
I thought you could also get roundwounds that have been ground (groundroundwounds?) to have the feel of the flats and the sound of the round (the groundroundwoundsound)?

Haha! Yes you can.

They're called ground-wounds or half-wounds. In fact, I've got a set on my fretless at the moment. They're a good halfway house - I find they give the edge of roundwounds, but not the zingy-ness of them, if you see what I mean. They're particularly good for fretless, I've found.
 
It also bears pointing out that flats are not only much easier on your fingers, but are also much easier on your frets, which is one reason that I use them on my main basses. I hate roundwounds.

If you want a brighter true flatwound with less string tension, try TIs.

Not cheap, but highly regarded.
 
I read about the bass player in Steely Dan on recording the bass. The engineer said that when the bass player was playing there was al sorts of buzz and fret slap etc. But when the bass was put into the mix it sounded great. Ive had this problem myself when I had a noisy buzzy bass take, but in the mix it was fine. It actually gave it more presence in the mix. Most good bass players buzz and slap all over the place. Kind of adds character. If you like the roundwounds, then take them all the way to a final mix and then decide if its a problem.

Scott Tansley
www.feel-rock.com
 
Scott Tansley said:
I read about the bass player in Steely Dan on recording the bass. The engineer said that when the bass player was playing there was al sorts of buzz and fret slap etc. But when the bass was put into the mix it sounded great. Ive had this problem myself when I had a noisy buzzy bass take, but in the mix it was fine. It actually gave it more presence in the mix. Most good bass players buzz and slap all over the place. Kind of adds character. If you like the roundwounds, then take them all the way to a final mix and then decide if its a problem.

That'll be Chuck Rainey you're talking about there, one of the greatest session bass players :)

RE the buzzing/slapping - not all good players do this. Ever listened to Jaco? He had a very clean sound.

And, the buzzing/slapping is a fretted issue, really. You don't tend to get these to anything like the same extent on a fretless.
 
I'm way late but.... I think your bass set up and your playing technique have more to do with slapping and buzzing than your strings. Ya the flat wounds will decrease the zipper sound sliding up the neck but the sacrifiece in tone don't make up for it from my point of view. If it's slap and buzz that are getting to you, you might want to try to find some suggestions on bass set up. Playing a bass set up with no or little buzz is harder than one set up with the speed and ease in mind but, That is the way I would rather have it. Some basses become very hard to play when you get rid of the sounds/buzz, some only become slightly more difficult to play (this is good).

With bass contoll is every thing. playing at half of the volume you could achive if you really struck the strings (I play with fingers) to me is pretty standard. It takes a while to become smooth at it but it helps alot. Another usefull technique (at least if you play with your fingers) is to try to strike the strings at as close to a 90 deg. angle from the body of the bass as possible. this not only lets the string disapate much of its energy vibrating paralell to the body and neck before it cycles around but if you really practice it can make you much faster because you aren't slapping into strings you don't need to be touching that only serve to drag you down.

This is just my two cents but being a guitar player forced to play bass for about 10 years I thought I'd pass along the things I never thought of before I played bass:D

It's not as easy as everyone thinks:eek: :D ;) :p


Later

F.S.
 
I've been playing bass sense about the mid 70's and I hate flat wound strings. I don't like the way flat wound strings feel or sound. I use to love RotoSound strings, but they chewed the hell out of my frets. I've been using D'Addario EXL160 strings for about the last 8 years or so now and I love them.
 
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My dead buddy loved round wounds. I couldn't stand them...I started playing bass in '67. I'm not sure of the name, but I've had bass strings that were real limp. You could set them down on a table in the same manner a chain would not have any rigidity when you set it down.
 
Freudian Slip said:


It's not as easy as everyone thinks:eek: :D ;) :p

F.S.

Your absolutely right about that.

A problem I'm having too is string and fret noise picking up on the recording. I know in the end mix it can sound better but I an recording Bass direct through a preamp into my HD recording system. But when I'm tracking I can't hear that much noise problem through my monitors, in fact it sounds good. But the recorded track has all kinds of noise. And I;m talking about a very basic bass line here. I will take my Bass in and have someone look at it as I've never done a bass setup. Everyone talks about recording Bass direct but would I get less noise micing a cabinet?


Another thing I've noticed about playing bass is the low e on this tune I'm doing right now will start making sound...when I don't want it to! Just playing the a string will start the e to vibrate and it will cause some unwanted results. On this tune I don't play the low e at all so I try to keep a finger on it to keep it from vibrating, but that's not always easy! I have new respect for Bass players...believe me!

What do you guys thing about Bass amp modelers like POD? Waste of time and money or should I get a real bass amp and record with that?
 
I always run my bass direct and sometimes add a miked speaker cab feed. Take the E string off the bass for that tune if you have to, but I'd take the bass to the shop and have it fixed, or is it your playing? Mute the string with your hand. Also, if your hearing something different than whats being recorded over your studio monitors, I'd say you have another problem that's going to have to be fixed.
 
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Rage

You're not the only one - I also get sympathetic vibration on the bottom string. I just rest my pinky on it. There was a thread about this recently, as a pic of somebody famous (sorry, forget who) was posted with a chunk of foam or something under the bridge. It was there to stop exactly that problem.

Freudian - great post:)
 
Yes - lower strings ringing in sympathy really is a problem with the bass - particularly the E. Generally, I rest my thumb on it to put a stop to it - or if I'm playing on the top string maybe I'll rest my thumb on the A string. This "floating thumb" technique is possibly not ideal, as you have to keep moving your thumb, but at the moment it seems to me to be the best way.

As regards recording the bass, I've never managed to get a satisfactory sound from micing up the amp - I've tried it out several times, but I've always just gone back to going straight into the desk.
 
moley said:
Yes - lower strings ringing in sympathy really is a problem with the bass - particularly the E.
yep, since we produce so much low content. Right and left hand muting techniques is something I try to learn students very early. (that plus using all 4 fingers of the left hand and 'walking' nicely with index and middle finger of right hand)


Generally, I rest my thumb on it to put a stop to it - or if I'm playing on the top string maybe I'll rest my thumb on the A string.
Yep. Same here, even on the six string.
Pinky and 3rd finger aren't used for playing by me, so they're used for muting too.

This "floating thumb" technique is possibly not ideal, as you have to keep moving your thumb, but at the moment it seems to me to be the best way.
;) 'floating thumb' ... what's the STC on that :D

I've seen people like Pattittuci do that, but it doesn't give me stability, you don't have an anchor...


Herwig
 
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