steve-bbb Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 soooo ..... yesterday i went out and had a totally impulse GAS purchase of something ive never had before but it was so devilishly handsome and a good bargain i couldnt resist i now have a dilemma - having been an avid swingbass 45-105 user since my mispent teens, i now find myself in a position where i need to find a set of ...... FLATS (there i said it, wasnt easy) to bring out the full beastliness of this little cracker suggest away please - ideally would like similar ish guage and similar ish tension thank you muchly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH73 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 (edited) I own two brands. Steve Harris signature flats. Not recommended for any bass other than p basses with chunky, I mean baseball type necks. High tension. Fender flats used on my squier p bass. so nice warm smooth with comfortable tension. Edited March 24, 2019 by SH73 . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH73 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Fender flats are good value=functionality but it's all subjective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Flats are nearly always higher tension than rounds. Rotosound and Fender flats are some of the highest tension flats, so I would not advise these. Without knowing what style(s) of music you will be using flats for and you require fairly low tension, then there's only one set of flats which will suit what you've told us which are Ernie Ball Colbalt flats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 1 hour ago, hooky_lowdown said: Flats are nearly always higher tension than rounds. Rotosound and Fender flats are some of the highest tension flats, so I would not advise these. Without knowing what style(s) of music you will be using flats for and you require fairly low tension, then there's only one set of flats which will suit what you've told us which are Ernie Ball Colbalt flats. im guessing the manufacture for lower tension is the reason for the premium price of labella and thomastik ? using it for anything generally that might need that old school warm soft thump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 12 minutes ago, steve-bbb said: im guessing the manufacture for lower tension is the reason for the premium price of labella and thomastik ? using it for anything generally that might need that old school warm soft thump Scrap the Colbalts (modern sounding flats) than. Going from rounds to old school flats is going to be a very big difference. Anyway, if you want low tension and old school warm thump than Labella 760FS is what you require! Lovely G5440LSB by the way. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 1 minute ago, hooky_lowdown said: Scrap the Colbalts (modern sounding flats) than. Going from rounds to old school flats is going to be a very big difference. Anyway, if you want low tension and old school warm thump than Labella 760FS is what you require! Lovely G5440LSB by the way. thanks - strangely i was just comparing prices on the 760FS sets and reading the reviews on thomann and other sites - think will go for them as a starter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 I was just checking out this vid, bass sounds awesome... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 IMO GHS Precision flatwound strings would be a good place to start looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Those are the ones that Lakland use as their own-brand flats, aren't they? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 I have Status Half-rounds on my Duesenberg, which is a very similar proposition sound-wise. The tension is similar to rounds and the sound is thumpy but retains some definition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 38 minutes ago, chris_b said: IMO GHS Precision flatwound strings would be a good place to start looking. Are GHS flats low tension? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 1 hour ago, hooky_lowdown said: Are GHS flats low tension? I play on the top of the strings and have no idea what high or low tension means in this context. I used GHS flats for about 4 years and they were very good. I only took them off when a set of TI flats came up at a great price. For me there was no difference in feel between TI and GHS strings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walshy Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 I’ve just swapped to La Bella low tension flats. Absolutely brilliant! Love em, on all 3 of my basses ( 2 P basses and a Dingwall ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 9 hours ago, chris_b said: IMO GHS Precision flatwound strings would be a good place to start looking. 8 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said: Are GHS flats low tension? Good call, I found these quite comfortable to play, not as floppy as TIs but not high-tension like Rotosound/Fender/Chromes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoulderpet Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 On 24/03/2019 at 12:11, hooky_lowdown said: Scrap the Colbalts (modern sounding flats) than. Going from rounds to old school flats is going to be a very big difference. Anyway, if you want low tension and old school warm thump than Labella 760FS is what you require! Lovely G5440LSB by the way. I realise this may be subjective but the 760FS have always felt like solid iron bars to me, not sure what the actual physical tension of them is like, I would personally go for 760FX for low tension Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted March 29, 2019 Author Share Posted March 29, 2019 and here she is back from luthier setup at 81guitarworks - nut slots needed filing down to lower the string height which was massive and the whole nut smoothed and rounded off so no longer looking like the factory had just plonked a lego brick on the end of the fretboard, relief adjusted bridge lowered intonationation checked, all frets were good from the factory so nothing needed there - la bella fsr 45-105 and it actually sounds like an acoustic bass now! photo courtesy Simon @81guitarworks 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted March 29, 2019 Author Share Posted March 29, 2019 (edited) On 26/03/2019 at 09:15, shoulderpet said: I realise this may be subjective but the 760FS have always felt like solid iron bars to me, not sure what the actual physical tension of them is like, I would personally go for 760FX for low tension fsr tension feels fine on these and setup has matched the setup on all my other basses and tbh doesnt really feel like a massive difference when you are concentrating on slightly differnt "acousticy" technique compared to playing a solid body with rounds - although he did say that the truss rod is pretty much maxed out because of the increase in tension and too much relief beforehand Edited March 29, 2019 by steve-bbb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoulderpet Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 4 hours ago, steve-bbb said: fsr tension feels fine on these and setup has matched the setup on all my other basses and tbh doesnt really feel like a massive difference when you are concentrating on slightly differnt "acousticy" technique compared to playing a solid body with rounds - although he did say that the truss rod is pretty much maxed out because of the increase in tension and too much relief beforehand Fair enough, I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to string tension, if it feels ok to you then thats what matters 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 22 minutes ago, shoulderpet said: Fair enough, I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to string tension, if it feels ok to you then thats what matters Whatever you do don't use Rotosound flats, the highest tension strings I've ever played. Like playing metal rods, not strings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 6 hours ago, steve-bbb said: fsr tension feels fine on these and setup has matched the setup on all my other basses and tbh doesnt really feel like a massive difference when you are concentrating on slightly differnt "acousticy" technique compared to playing a solid body with rounds - although he did say that the truss rod is pretty much maxed out because of the increase in tension and too much relief beforehand Yeah I would say that La Bella's have a pretty standard tension as far as flats go. You might try the La Bella Low Tension flats if the neck starts to struggle with the FS's. The LTF's feel really nice, but I wasn't keen because they only come in quite a light guage. Si 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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