Recommendation on Bass Guitar Strings

[TalismanRich]

My Peavey bass has roundwounds on it. They've been on there forever, but still sound pretty good and snappy, but as with any roundwound, you get finger squeaks. My bass playing buddy had flatwounds on his bass and they are nice and smooth, really quiet, but I think they just sound too dark and dull.

I was reading about half rounds, basically a roundwound that has been ground down to give a smooth surface on the top. Has anyone given them a try? Is the sound more or less like a round, or dark like a flatwound? It's on a 34" Jazz type bass, so we're talking the normal long scale. I know D'Addario makes them, as well as GHS. I don't see any from DR or Ernie Ball.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

 

[Track Rat]

I tried these Fender Tapewounds. I kinda like them so far. Not flabby but not as brash as rounds can be. And on a Rick, that's saying something.

 

[rob aylestone]

I’ve got 6 basses From my first in 1976. I put a set of coloured ones on one of my stage basses for effect. They wore out and the coloured top coat wore off where my fingers plucked and the frets hit. I bought a new set. They are the only bass strings I have ever bought. The 76 bass is on its original set still and it sounds dull, which is its characteristic tone. All the others sound as I want. If I broke a string, and needed one quick it would be my local guitar shop, and whatever he suggested.

 

[skwee]

I use those tapewounds, and find them a lot more zingy than than flats.

 

[TalismanRich]

I ordered a set of GHS Brite Flats. Start with a roundwound, and grind them smooth. I ordered from JustStrings.Com. I'll do a comparison before changing the strings. The new set ordered is the same gauge, 49-108s. I'm curious to see how they sound.

My buddy is ordering a set of D'Addario flats for his Carvin 5 string. His is set up for high C tuning, but D'Addario doesn't normally have a 5 string set with high C. He talked to a rep and they are doing him a set. I'll try to get him to bring that one over before he changes the strings for a comparison as well.

 

[notCardio]

I ordered a set of GHS Brite Flats. Start with a roundwound, and grind them smooth. I ordered from JustStrings.Com. I'll do a comparison before changing the strings. The new set ordered is the same gauge, 49-108s. I'm curious to see how they sound.

My buddy is ordering a set of D'Addario flats for his Carvin 5 string. His is set up for high C tuning, but D'Addario doesn't normally have a 5 string set with high C. He talked to a rep and they are doing him a set. I'll try to get him to bring that one over before he changes the strings for a comparison as well.

I tried Brite Flats years ago for the same reason you are. I can't remember what I thought of them. I was into a diferent kind of music then, so I reallly wanted to keep my super bright stainless steel sound, and I think theey weren't bright enough for me. I HATED the sound of flats back then (no presence), and despised tapewounds. Country players were using tapewounds at the time, and I didn't want to be associated with anything country.

So, how did you like the Brite Flats?

 

[TalismanRich]

They came in last Saturday, but I haven't put them on yet. I want to hook up the bass, do some recording, and then swap strings to get a good comparison. It will probably happen this coming week.

 

[notCardio]

As I recall, they were more like rounds than flats. The tone of rounds with some of the edge taken off, as you would suspect, but still had a fair amount of string noise if you weren't careful (I'm not). I need to get some true flats just for the heck of it.

 

[notCardio]

What Peavey bass?

 

[TalismanRich]

Its just a Millennium BX4. Got it cheap many years ago just so I had a bass. It has come in handy on a lot of occasions.

 

[TalismanRich]

I have swapped out the original roundwounds on my bass for the GHS Brite Flats. Same approximate gauge, 49-108. I set a quick recording and did 3 takes of each string, using the neck, bridge and both pickups (it's like a Jazz bass).

Attached are the 6 files. I only printed the drum and bass track (and a little bleed of the vocal in the background). I didn't change anything in terms of EQ, volume or compression, just an e935 in front of my Marshall DSL401 and the bass plugged into that.

I can definitely say that the new strings are easier on the fingers. When I was playing in the jam sessions a few years ago, I often ended up playing bass for an hour or so. My fingers were really killing me by the end of the night. These things are much smoother. Tone is a little darker than the roundwounds, and much quieter when I slide to notes. Its still not as dark and dull as my buddy's flatwounds.

 

[spantini]

My ears think the Brite Flats sound pretty good on all three, Rich, The roundwounds came across a little thin in comparison on the bridge and combo settings, IMO. The Flats could be in my future at some point, for sure. Thanks for the shootout

 

[CoolCat]

The Brite Flats remove a lot of the screechy slides, and also the fret-rings...
the dual pup samples shows it well. That alone seems to be worth it. on the Brite Flats..imo.

The rounds have the slide noise and also theres more "clacking" fret noise.

Thats a great bass sound too you have, huge and fat, and w/ clarity , no fret buzzing heard either...nice setup, is the action high? bow .008~.010?

Brite Flats seems a perfect middle point between the round and flat. It removes just a tiny bit of the "new round string buzzing/fret clacking".

thanks for the samples thats a good sound clip set.

 

[TalismanRich]

I haven't measured the action, it's not terribly high. When my buddy was doing a bass track on that song, he kept getting fret noise because of the way he slaps the strings. Totally messed up the take. I was trying to figure out where the confounded clicking was coming from!!! It took me a bit to figure it out. When he hit the string, it would hit the top fret by the pickups. I checked to make sure it wasnt hitting the pickup itself.

The strangest part is that I'm using a Marshal guitar combo amp with an extra Carvin 2x12 cabinet. The mic was on the combo speaker. On stage, I would never do that, but in the basement, you don't need a lot of volume, so you limit the speaker travel. I didn't want my buddy to have to haul his 15" bass combo amp up and down the steps.