Flats on a Jazz? (Xotic XJ5 with LaBella LTFs)

[CameronJ]

So I’ve been curious for a while as to how flats sound on a Jazz bass. There are videos online but there’s nothing quite like trying it out for yourself…so I finally but the bullet and ordered a set of LaBella Low Tension Flats to put on my Xotic XJ5 Lite. Long story short, I love em. I’m still in the honeymoon period as they’ve barely been on the bass for 24 hours but I reckon they may actually take the top spot from my beloved Thomastik flats…!

 

The tension is very similar to TIs (perhaps a tiny bit less flexible) but they seem just a bit smoother to the touch out of the packet, which combined with the slightly higher tension makes them a bit easier for me to get on with immediately. Obviously this is down to personal taste.
 

The tone of the LTFs is more of the “flatwound sound in my head” straight out of the packet, compared to the TIs which take a while to break into that thumpy, woody tone we all love.

 

Thought I may as well record a little video to commemorate the occasion - neck pickup solo’d, tone knob at 75%, Bass knob flat, Mids +50%, Treble +25%. No other effects or processing.
 

Excuse the white noise at the beginning, it’s from my Rode Wireless transmitter which I used to beam the audio from my interface’s output to the 1/8” minijack input on my phone!

 

 

[Reggaebass]

Great aren’t they, they have been my string choice for the last few years after sampling a set, nice tension and sound, they mellow slightly over time , but not too much, they also sound good on a precision , nice playing cam 👍

[CameronJ]

Thank you sir! I strongly suspect they’ll be my default flats going forward. Good to hear they don’t mellow out too much, but I do have the delights of the Xotic onboard preamp to bring out any lost “clack” if needed.
 

In case anyone is wondering why I rolled the tone knob back while simultaneously boosting the treble a touch, it’s because of the way the two interact. Upping treble on the pre while rolling off the tone gives me some more poke while taking the edge off of the highest highs. I find the two controls complement each other really well. Honestly, I love the controls on these basses. 
 

I know some folk will see a line of 6 knobs and run for the hills but it’s very intuitively implemented. My other Xotic has 2 mini toggle switches as well as all the knobs.

 

…and a push/pull on the second volume knob to put the pups into series mode