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Everything posted by dmc79
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Fender Precision Bass guitar USA 2001 American Series, may meet halfway
dmc79 replied to karlfer's topic in Basses For Sale
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Fender 9050L flats are on. I guess this is why it’s worth wiping new flats with alcohol. Only had a little play acoustically and haven’t checked the intonation yet, but these strings feel so nice and smooth. Except the D, which is strangely rough and grabby and almost feels like they put a round in by mistake.
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Thanks. No nitro finish here anyway. I found some 91% alcohol IPA. I guess I can find a cotton cloth / old t-shirt. You wouldn't use a soft paper hand towel even on flats?
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Thanks for your kind offer. I've got the Fender 9050L flats ready to go on, so I'll pass, but thanks anyway. I'll see how the flats go, if I like them I guess I'll keep the Fenders on for a while, then maybe try the Ernie Ball stainless steel Groups.
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Thanks. I’m unfamiliar with cleaning new strings, come to think of it I never clean my strings at all, though I do always wash my hands before playing. Can I pretty much use any isopropyl alcohol (IPA) for this? I may have some in the shed, will check when home. I guess you just apply with a soft paper towel or similar? Also I suppose there are packs of IPA wipes out there too. I see there are actual guitar string wipes such as Ernie Ball Wonder Wipes. Are these worth getting? Thanks
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Thanks. Whilst I don’t feel the need to bend strings much, I guess what you are meaning is this kind of thing. . . ‘My Echo’ by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Cool slice of summer jangle with a fun video. A fair bit of bending going on here, see 2:00 - 2:20. During the solo bass bit, I really like that tone that is slightly gritty yet still smooth, as opposed to abrasive with a ton of finger screech. I’m guessing he’s using flats there, likely the lower tension ones like TI or La Bella. What do you think? My Fender 9050L strings have arrived & will be going on soon. I keep feeling how smooth they are through the packet!
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Here’s my new custom order Heistercamp strap. I haven’t used it yet other than trying it on at home and matching the length to my old strap, but it looks & feels great. Top service from the staff, they contacted me when it was posted with tracking details (sent next day guaranteed by 1pm, though I was out so got it a day later). It came well wrapped with tissue paper, in a lovely box, with a cuddly keyring (which is now on my gear rucksack), strap blocks, picks, business card & handwritten note. In case anyone is curious (most of their straps I’ve seen on here are unpadded), the padding is about 21” long, 2.5” wide, and makes the strap about 8mm thick for the part it covers. The padding is as wide as it can be to allow for the stitching on the 3” strap. The front is most definitely black, it just looks a bit grey as I took the pics outside in the sun. The leather is super soft and the quality is amazing. The option to customize colour & have a differently coloured backing is really cool. This will go well with my Candy Apple Red Precision. I’m impressed.
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Thanks, this is the Fender guide I refer to. I guess I was just curious about them recommending a 3” cut on the E, and 3.5 on the A, D & G. It seems that people generally just go 2 tuners (around 3.5”) up regardless of the string. Cheers all.
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The black silks (top pic) are top loaded, and from memory as I didn’t keep the bass long, the red silks (bottom pic) were thru body strung Maybe GHS Pressurewounds just have a particularly short silk on the E, just done a bit of searching and other photos of them are very similar to mine. Which means I’m most likely overthinking it anyway!
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Interesting stuff. Here’s mine right now, following Fender’s advice of 3” for E, and 3.5” for all others. GHS Pressurewounds. This is what I mean when I say it somehow doesn’t seem quite right not having any ‘spare’ silk on the E once tuned up. Here’s a P bass I received with La Bellas on. Nicely lined up and plenty of silk on the E: I wonder when I restring soon (with Fender 9050 flats), whether to just cut an inch longer on them all (that would be 3.5” for E, and 4” for others). I’d love to get it looking like the La Bella pic, but is it just the case that they have longer silks to begin with, so it’d make little difference?
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Thanks for replies so far. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not obsessed over the silks lining up perfectly, I’d just like them to be close, and for there to be a bit more silk showing on the E once tuned.
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Just wondering what people’s rule of thumb is for where to cut each new string for 4 inline tuners, well specifically for a P bass. For this kind of thing, I use a combination of following a printout of Fenders own setup guide, notes I’ve made over the years & advice from YouTube videos. Fenders setup guide (4 string) says to cut the E string 3 inches past the tuning post, then the A, D & G strings 3 & a half inches past. I’m guessing they say to cut the E shorter simply so because it’s the thickest one and there’s no need to go crazy with too many wraps around the post. But doing this I often end up with barely any silk showing once tuned up, sometimes none at all, which just seems wrong. The A, D & G silks line up reasonably well, but the E just seems a bit off, following Fenders guide. I’ve seen a few videos, some just go 2 tuning pegs up (which is about 3 & a half inches) then cut. Others go around 1 & a half tuning pegs up then cut. Then some leave considerably more string before the cut. Have you found a method of P bass new string cutting that works well and lines up all 4 silks fairly well?
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I’ve always done restringing on a sofa and balanced the neck over the end armrest, but every time I see someone doing a ‘proper’ restringing / setup on YouTube the bass is properly stabilised on a table with the neck on some sort of cradle, so I’m thinking of getting one. Just wondering what type people use, I haven’t looked into this in much depth, but so far I can see the solid block type, a folding Hercules one, and the Fender ‘Arch’ one, which handily comes with its own case and tray for putting bits on whilst working. Can anyone recommend any of these or anything else that’s out there? Thanks
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This is a cheap experiment for now, Dunlop flats are £80 !
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Thanks. Looks sound & has great feedback, should be fine
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My curiosity has got the better of me. Ordered some Fender 9050L flats, cheaper than Pressurewounds at just £35 with postage from a music shop on eBay. Any tips for stringing flats, as I’ve never done them before? I believe it’s worth cleaning them all with an alcohol wipe before first play, does this sound right?
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Thanks for the tip off about the EB Group sets and their prices. I'll add these to the shortlist (3 or 2.5), they are on that shootout video I posted, and sound quite similar to the Fenders. If they are bright and smooth then I imagine I'd like them. It's news to me that some flats are smoother than others, I kind of thought they'd all feel ultra smooth, and that was sort of the point of them. Apparently the Roto 77s are not very smooth at all. In that video I'm a little surprised how dull and dark the (slightly worn in) Chromes sound - I always thought these were meant to be some of the brighter flats. Maybe they are for a while but die off quickly? Actually the Groups sound a bit more well rounded - bright & with some character, but not quite as grindy & middy as the Fenders. May end up trying both.
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Thanks for this detailed summary. I rarely go above the 12th fret, so I doubt that would be an issue really. It's most likely that I will try the Fender 9050L first, based on what I've heard in demos and read about them.
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One last video for now. I keep coming back to this one. This has La Bella DTB but not LTF. Again the Fenders sound good to me (1:06 & 2:47):
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Well I really love the 9050 here. They’re in the blind test results at 1:48 (sorry for revealing!), and with tone wide open with pick at 7:24 where they sound exactly like what I want. He states that these are all slightly worn in flats. This also features La Bella LTF but not DTB.
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Many thanks for the detailed reply. The more videos I watch, the more I like the Fender 9050. I guess this isn’t the cup of tea of many flat users, but the sound of these with tone fully open, with both fingers & pick, is the closest so far to the kind of sound I’m wanting, kind of growly but without the finger noise of rounds. 3:43 (after he removes the foam!) - 5:00
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Hi all, I'm considering my first foray into flats after playing rounds for about 25 years. In the last year or two, I got sick of the zingy break-in period, cheese grater feel & finger noise of nickel plated steel rounds, and have been playing rollerwound GHS Pressurewounds since. I'd say they are the best strings I've played to date - I love the considerably reduced finger squeak, and smoother than NPS rounds feel, but I'm wondering if they will become a gateway into proper flats. My 'E' is rather dead, and I'd like to reduce (well, more remove really!) the string noise even on these and go even smoother. So I figure it's as good a time as any to try some flats. I play a 4 string Precision (top load bridge), through a Tone Hammer DI (AGS on), into IEMs. I play 2/3 pick, 1/3 fingers. I don't gig in the traditional sense, I mainly play in a church worship band. More contemporary than traditional - the usual Hillsong / Bethel / Elevation type stuff for those who are familiar - the bass on which can be quite gritty on many songs. I like to have a touch of grit from the THDI, but minus the finger screech that gets worse with every slight clockwise turn of the gain knob, that is anything past 9 o'clock. I don't bother with effects, I just want a great driving tone with a little grit. I've always liked playing with the tone fully open. This may be sacrilege to some, but any time I roll the tone knob back, I just don't like the muffled sound that comes out. So I like a fairly bright sound. A mellow, motown, dark, dull thump is most certainly not my thing, and I won't be putting foam anywhere near my strings. For this reason the demos with tone at 0% and 50% don't interest me. Fortunately I've been able to see some demos with both pick & finger play with tone wide open. I realise that what I don't like is what a lot of people do like in flats, but I'm sure there will be others (show yourselves!) who also want a bright-ish, grindy, growl yet with smooth feel and no finger noise, if such a thing exists. I'd like a sort of happy medium in terms of stiffness, I certainly don't want anything floppy, I guess I will veer towards the stiffer side, yet without wanting anything too bridge cable like. Tension wise, I guess something down the middle again - I don't want anything too crazy that'll need me adjusting my setup majorly. I've heard of sets of flats lasting years, but honestly I'm not too bothered about longevity, I'm happy to change a set once a year. I'd like them to remain reasonably bright anyway, so if they mellow out too much I'll only want to replace them anyway. I've been reading a bunch of threads and watching demo videos, and will order a set soon, but am hoping to get some opinions on these, especially from those who use flats for similar reasons to what I'm thinking. There are others of course (such as GHS Precision, Dunlop, Ernie Ball Group 2/3, DR Legend), but my research has led me to believe that these seem to be the most popular. I'm most likely to pick from the top 3: Fender 9050 I'm quite impressed with these from various demos. Seems to be a good all rounder, and is a fair bit cheaper than others at £40, where most other flats range from £50-£80. I've read that it has decent low-mid grind/growl and is a bit similar in tone to TI Jazz, but less flappy. They seem fairly bright and less dark than chromes. Right now this is the front runner for me to try, it would be a relatively inexpensive experiment. D'Addario Chrome XL I had some briefly on a used Mustang, I thought they felt pretty good, yet still replaced them with rounds before I even had chance to play it properly with the flats on, then sold the bass soon after anyway. This seems to be a real 'Marmite' string - people either seem to love or hate them. I'm sure I've read more negative comments than positive ones. It seems those who like them really like them. I've read that they have good clarity & punch. They are bright, yet a little dark sounding. I've also read that they have a long break-in period, need some patience, then just die rather quickly. They have a hi-mid metallic clank / zing, and are quite scooped. It seems they are not as smooth as other flats, and can be sticky / grabby. I like some of the demos, but they are little dark compared to the Fenders. Apparently they have a bridge cable stiffness, and for this reason I'm not sure about them. La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass These seem to be perennial faves - smooth and well balanced. I had some very briefly on a bass which I passed on so quickly I'm not even sure I gave the strings a proper go plugged in, but they felt amazing to play acoustically. I'm just not entirely sure they're what I want based on demos. La Bella Low Tension Flats I'm ruling these out based on them not being the sound I'm after at all. Probably too flappy for me as well. TI Jazz I like the sound of these in demos more than some, but not as much as others. The fact they are meant to be very flappy, along with the price, has me pretty much ruling these out. Ernie Ball Slinky Cobalt I've read that these feel like flats, but sound like rounds. This interests me, but I've also read that some have had issues with fret wear, rust, and stickiness. They are at the more expensive end too. Rotosound Jazz Bass 77 These sound quite bright, but reading that they have very high tension, are tiring on the fingers & have low output, puts me off trying them. Thanks in advance for replies.