Elite Groundwounds 45-105

Has anyone used these?

I've ordered a set for my fretless which is coming tomorrow as they seemed to get quite good recommendations.

And there was a free t-shirt with them

anything thing that comes with something free has my vote XD

I believe that they are very similar to half-wound strings. I've got some D'addario half-wounds on my 4 string and I quite like the sound of them. They eliminate a great deal of the string noise when navigating up and down the fretboard yet they are not as muddy as flat-wound strings.

I must admit that they do feel a bit odd on the fingers at first but you soon get used to them.

Upon first installation they are quite bright but within a few days they calm down leaving a warm sound but still packed with lots of clarity.

They're like partial flatwounds (yea, I think that's the same as halfwound):
http://www.lordofthestrings.com/lots/mcsmambo.p?M5NextUrl=RNEWS&asn_id=2003051401

Look at the pictures and it'll give you an idea of what's going on. A smoother surface means there's less friction on that side, but a more mellow tone.

Yeah - they start off life as roundwounds and then are ground semi flat and polished to a mirror finish. Apparently they almost have the feel of flats but are a little bit brighter in tone.

It was either those or GHS Bright Flats - which are actually groundwounds too.

I'll admit - the freebie swung my decision lol.

Strings are strings, all they do is convey your playing, so if they are both rated well, there shouldn't be too much trouble. The only thing you should take into consideration is how long they last. Expensive strings last and each set has it's own unique characteristic, but generally they give off similar sounds. Cheaper strings can have as good of a sound, but their lifespan might be considerably shorter.

If the strings fail, at least the shirt will last

Well they're on and despite being the Bass Center's own brand of strings (I didn't know that DOH!) they beat the strings that came with the bass by a mile and a half.

The response from them volume and tone wise was huge compared to the horrid things that Vintage strung the instrument with.

As Stryfer says even if they don't last there's always the T-shirt and I'll try the GHS ones next.

Elites are very good strings, an industry standard if there is one for strings for sure...and the free t-shirt, im going to order a set of the stadium series very soon to get a fr33 one!

It's bizarre really, I'm used to brand named strings so it never occurred to me that the Elites were anything but that til I read the back of the packaging where it said they were manufactured to the "demanding specifications of The Bass Centre London" or something very similar.
They certainly do the job and as groundwounds they're nice and flexible with a bit of bite to them as well as a lovely deep thumping bottom end. I've had flatwounds on a number of my guitars and they always felt more like metal rods than strings as they were so tight and inflexible.

I was looking at buying some flatwounds, but maybe i'll try some of these first

I played my uncle's p bass with some fender flat's on them. Although they were smooth as silk, and really brought out that growl everyone likes I was kinda blah about them. They didn't have the brightness of rounds and kinda sounded....well flat to me.
After discussing this with my Uncle, he said that the flatwounds will give move of a upright bass tone. It did but not my style. But damn they are smooth, I cant get over that.

The groundwounds retain some of that brightness tho they aren't as smooth as the flats, they're oddly "sticky" in a way but cut out the string noise of roundwounds.