Flatwound strings

Just bought myself a set of Rotosound flatwound strings to try... Going to put them on my Precision bass first, then move them on to my acoustic to give them a try. Anyone else used flatwound strings before?

To those not in the know: 'Standard' strings are generally roundwound, which means that the wrap around the core wire is a round shape. Flatwound means that the outer wrap is flattened, and is generally considered to give the bass a more upright bass sound. For more information, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strings_(music)

I've played with them before on a fretless J-bass in a music shop, and an old Japanese knock off J that belonged to a friend of mine. They sound cool if you let them get really old.

apparently (i do NOT know this from my own experience) they are meant to be good for reggae type music

but as i said apparently

Well flats can be preferred for reggae, soul/R&B, gospel, styles of music like that because they have a warmer tone to them, which makes the notes sound a little thicker in attack(not overall volume). Notes played on roundwound strings have a sharper definition in tone and they ring out longer, so if you're going for a "fat" bass sound, then flatwounds are better. They're also generally preferred on fretlesses because they don't wear the fingerboard out nearly as fast as rounds can(especially with string bending). I've still never bought a set of flats for my own bass, but I have played them on fretlesses in stores and they certainly do sound and feel rather different.

I've always used rounds
Heres a good vid comparing some flatwound strings..
I really like the LaBellas

what part of missouri are you from Iga?

@Dropthelines: I'm way up in northwest Missouri in college right now. I'm like a half-hour south of Iowa, pretty much.

@Smaz: By the way, I'd like to know your opinion on those Rotosound flats and how they sound after you've played them for awhile, because I'm planning on getting myself a fretless pretty soon and I haven't decided on what brand of flats I want to string it with yet.

Played in lots of reggae bands and yes they all preferred flats but with the new ragga fusion/electrodub rounds rule lots more tonal variation

By the way new here looks like a cool place

reuben wrote:Played in lots of reggae bands and yes they all preferred flats but with the new ragga fusion/electrodub rounds rule lots more tonal variation

By the way new here looks like a cool place

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