Dunlop steel or Ernie Ball cobalt flats?

[Painy]

I'm going to be ordering a set of flats this week to go on my Sterling Ray 25CA and I've narrowed it down to 2 options but I'm still a bit undecided which way to go. 

I want something that will tame the aggressive highs of the Stingray a little to allow the lower mids to punch through a bit more but I still don't want to lose all the clarity and note definition so I'm looking at more 'modern' flats (I've used Deep Talking flats on another bass before and they felt nice but seemed to sound a bit too undefined for me). 

There's been a fair bit on here about Cobalts recently and they seem like a natural contender so that's option one. 

On my other basses though I'll be continuing to use Dunlop Superbrights steel roundwounds which are my favourite strings which has me wondering about the Dunlop flats. They would be a couple of quid cheaper and I like the idea of sticking with the same brand but they're seems to be more of a mix of views from what I've read about them - some comparing their brightness to Chromes and Cobalts and others saying they're not quite so bright - more like Fender flats. In any case I'm not 100% how bright ill need them to be to achieve what I want. 

Has anyone used both that can say how they compare or even just give some insight that might help (car also has its Mot this month and flats aren't the cheapest strings so I don't want to waste my money going for the wrong option if I can help it)? 

 

Thanks. 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Painy

[hooky_lowdown]

I think you answered your own queston, when you mentioned Fender flats. These are half the price of many other flats, are modern flats - bright, clarity and can really thump if you dig in.

Dunlop, EB Cobalts, Chromes and Fender flats as you say are the modern sounding flats. The Dunlop flats are the brightest sounding, if you want less highs, then Fender flats would be the way I would go.

[Painy]

I have liked Fender Flats when I've used them in the past but unfortunately it seems they're no longer available in 5 string sets. 

[CameronJ]

Haven’t tried cobalts but I have Dunlop Flats on one of my basses. I like them - the tension isn’t much higher than the Rotosound rounds that came with the bass when I bought it (used) and they can be very bright if you want them to be.

[Wonky2]

Cobalt flats are fantastic... had a set on for 3 years plus and have no need to change them anytime soon.

tension is great, everything is clear yet warm.

play as comfy as a pair of old slippers.

my mm has ddddiadddriioo chromes in it, bout 5 years old, the are nice but feel sluggish 👍🏻

 

[paul_5]

I’ve got Dunlop flats on my fretted bass and cobalts on my fretless. As a direct comparison I’d say the EB Cobalts are a touch brighter and lower tension than the Dunlops, almost identical to round wounds really.

[Painy]

I now have a set of Cobalts on the Ray which have been on the for about half a dozen gigs and I love them!

They were very bright at first but now that they've settled in and been played a bit they've lost a bit of the initial roundwound style zing but there's still a lot more harmonic overtones than you'd normality get from flats so still bright but more a growly high-mid brightness than a trebley zing. It's actually quite piano like. Basically perfect for what I wanted with the Ray. Still definitely that classic Stingray sound but the highs are much smoother and that low mid punch is really accentuated - tighter and more focused than rounds. 

[Delberthot]

If you're using superbright stainless steel strings have you thought about nickel plated strings?

YMMV but I found my usual D'addario Chromes absolutely dreadful on my Sterling so switched to EXL165s a couple of years ago and love them. They're not too bright and retain their sound for a good while before going dead.

Bright s/steel strings to flats might be too big a jump in sound if you're used to the bright zing of them

[Painy]

5 hours ago, Delberthot said:

If you're using superbright stainless steel strings have you thought about nickel plated strings?

YMMV but I found my usual D'addario Chromes absolutely dreadful on my Sterling so switched to EXL165s a couple of years ago and love them. They're not too bright and retain their sound for a good while before going dead.

Bright s/steel strings to flats might be too big a jump in sound if you're used to the bright zing of them

I'm sticking with the steel Superbrights on my precision because they work perfectly for me on that bass. Having flats on the Ray is also to give me more of a contrast in sound between the two basses.

That said I did accidentally order nickel Superbrights a few weeks ago and had already clipped the first string before I noticed so just went ahead and put them on the precision. They weren't too bad in all honesty but nickel has just never been my thing and it just sounded so much better to my ears when I changed back to a steel set.