Choosing Bass Guitar Strings - Flatwound/Round Wound & More?

I have flatwounds on my 30" scale bass and one of my 34" scale. They are both great IMO. Some feel flats make the tone too mellow, but I don't see why a good equalizer or exciter/enhancer can't counter the "mellow" sound. My bass amp has pretty good EQ and I like the sounds I get, so at this point, I am on the flatwound side. I have roundwounds on my other 34" scale.
Yes, the flats are easier on the fingers, or using a fretboard oil can make fretting easier (I'd suggest the oil only on a rosewood or ebony neck, not maple).

Yes, you should get flats or rounds or 1/2-rounds or ... :wink:

I have Rotosound black nylon tapewounds on my still-not-quite-finished pink Johnson. Weird feeling at first, but man do they thump!

Fender 45-105 nickel rounds are on the Bongo. It has previously had D'addario and Ernie Ball nickels and DR Hi-Beams stainless rounds. All the nickel rounds are similar but I get along nicely with the cheap Fenders.

The Cortobass, when it arrives, will have 45-105 Curt Mangan strings, but I'm going to try some SIT Silencers (pressure-wound) on her. I played another brand of pressure-wounds (GHS? maybe) on a friend's Stingray, and they had most of the comfort of flats with most of the zing of rounds.

Generally speaking, stainless rounds are much harder on the fingers than nickel rounds. But I think the initial coarseness wears off quickly.

DR Sunbeams (nickel) are nice too; they have a round core wire which makes them slightly more flexible than the more common hex-core strings. Might be a good choice.

So there you have it! Glad I could narrow it down for you! :mrgreen:

So there you have it! Glad I could narrow it down for you!Yeah, thanks! :mrgreen: Just like when I go the store for headache pills, only to find 35 different choices! :lol:

The Rotosound black nylon tapewounds sound cool; do you find that these type of strings have a "sticky" feel at all? I thought I heard that can be the case with Nylon or "coated" strings...

Maybe a little sticky feeling at first, but that's gone after a week or so. More an odd feeling of plastic, rather than cold hard metal. Plus they are rather low-tension, so it takes some adjustment.

Keep in mind two things: they are as thick as aircraft cables and you'll need to widen your nut slots if you use these strings, and some people complain that they don't achieve a good ground since the metal doesn't contact the bridge directly. I would not recommend these on a first bass, but on a fretless or especially a hollow-body they are killer.

I'd suggest you go with plain old nickel rounds, maybe in a lighter gauge (40-100s), for your friend. Those will be light enough for easy play, and any coarseness will wear off soon enough.

Oh, I also wanted to ask; Are the would strings hard on the frets? Do they gouge they faster than a smooth string would? I know the obvious answer is "yes", but I guess what I am asking is would it occur much faster, or would a fellow be safe for a few years? I am asking because the style of playing this guy does would be incorporating vibrato & bending to an extent.

The frets should be okay for more than a few years.

In general, flat wounds are not as bright as round-wound. Tape-wounds are even duller. I have some silk-wound strings (black silk instead of tape) on my fretless J, which are somewhere in between. In general, I feel that it's easier to reduce the high-end from a round-wound than it is to try to add it back to a flat-wound. I really like ground-wound or half-round, as they are almost as bright as full rounds, and are much easier on the fingers - these are on my fretted P.

But as noted above, there is no universal answer, there is a universe of answers.

Hi,

I just recieved my new Ibanez and it came with a set of Elixer mids (45-105) on it. I gotta tell you I really like these strings. Supposedly the "nanoweb" coating prevents finger gunk from building up and dulling the strings, thus longer life. I just know they feel great and sound awsome. They are pretty pricy though ($89) but musicians friend has them on sale for $39 add some stuff and your order over $49 ships free.
hope this helps.

Joe

I like flatwound bass strings. You can slide all over the place without that "sssssssssssssss" noise you get with roundwound. Also, the darker tone (I think is cool).

I gave him the instrument (early Christmas present). The bass came w/ rounds on it & I left them on. He is complaining to high heaven about his sore fingers. :oops: Guess we are going to be switching to flatwounds. This is a long scale bass (Rondo SX SJB-62 BK). I see there are quite a few choices for flats in stainless stell, but not alot of choices in nickel, unless I am not looking in the right place. :roll:

We're looking at GHS Stainless Steel precision, Fender 9050L Stainless, a couple others...

He is going to buy the strings at his local Guitar Center & have them string it, as the bridge/intonation will have to be set up as well, & he can't do that on his own.

Bass guitar strings consist of four strings made of metal coils. They are tuned to the key of E, A, D, and G. The fundamental currency of the E string is set at 41.2 Hz. Other electric bass guitars can have five strings or more, but these types are highly specialized.

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It's been a couple years now, have you tried the flatwound strings yet?

I have been a flatwound only player since I started playing, mostly because of the comfort and tone. I got some coated rounds (DR Black Beauties) for my fretless and really like them. I had bought some flats for my 5 string, but had issues getting the wrapped part through the bridge. So I was playing it with the stock rounds that came on it and got to liking the tone. So I recently put some round Ernie Ball Slinkies on there and really like the tone. Flats are still more comfortable and my P-bass will never have anything but La Bella flats on it.

In my opinion, round-wound strings are far superior to flat-wound strings. Round-wound are steel/titanium core strings that are wrapped with an additional round, metal string. Round-wound strings are capable of an incredible range of tones ranging thick, meaty low end to bright, popping, tiny plucks. Flat-wound strings pretty much have one use… making an electric Bass sound like an upright Bass. Luckily for us, the same thing can be accomplished using the tone knobs on the Bass without installing flat-wound strings. That way you can always go back to the bright funky sound of new round-wound strings to play those blistering Chili Peppers riffs.