Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Can anyone help me out I'm getting a 5 string bass and I'm thinking about getting some of the smooth strings "maybee flatwound" I'm not even sure what they're called do the flatwound strings have a different sound than the roundwound strings.

The music I will be playing will be a verry wide range from bluegrass&southern gospil to more contemporary/pop style ...well a little of everything realy

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hey they are called flat wound ,they are relly dead sounding ,easy on the fingers,but i dont know if they make them for 5 string, you may have to buy the low one seperate ,the cool thing is they last forever,

Yeah, look around - there's a long discussion about round-wound vs flat-wound.

I realize this is an older thread but I just signed up today and figured I'd chime in.

Also look at half-rounds; they have the feel of a flat round but are round where they contact the core which helps them retain a lot of brightness.

D'Addario makes some that I like quite a bit:

http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemID=39304

i don"t think you will like flat wound go with half round------------- flat sound dead and i mean dead

Just had to post here.
Some people have the whole flat wound thing a bit wrong these days.

They are not as dead as people on here make them out to be.
I've used all kinds and brands of strings..
I like the regular type round wounds but hate what they do to my fingers..
But actually with a bit of effort can get a flat wound string to be quite lively for a great period of time..
I've been using nothing but flat wounds now for years.
I've found the Music Man brand to have the most choice when it comes to string guage. Which also plays a big part in how a flat wound string sounds..
My advice to any one interested would be to try Flat wounds but also try the different guages in this family of string. You will be very glad you took the time to do so.. You may get the benifit of not destroying your finger tips as well.
Cheers
Rich

yeah, the regular round wounds cane away your fingers summat rotten, the flat rounds arent too bad, but that does depend on what style your comfy with, as the guy above said, experiment and find whats right for you as a musician...

i used to use them. i decided to switch back to rounds because the rounds fit what i play more and they're easyier on my picking-hand fingers. roundwounds have alot more drag and sound more fat and, of course, rounded.

hey everyone about flat wound strings , if you play a frettless bass and are into playing jazz there is no substitution , if you are playing anything else half or full rounds will serve you the best ,and like any strings if you play them for a while they will loose that drag feeling and smooth out, good luck keep jammin, later

For Fretless Bass, flatwounds are the very best (only in my humble opinion). I have not tried flatwounds on fretted bass. The one difference I notice, though, is that if you finger play, the string will tend to "slip" out of your pluck easier making you work a little harder.

on my fretless and on my pbass I have tapewound. I like the way they sound... they don't get grungy from finger goo, they last forever. I haven't changed my string in ages. They don't wear down the fret or beat up the fretboard as much either. I like rotosound when I'm going for really slappy popy stuff, but I can't say enough about the tapewound fender strings. I personally love them. I don't think they come in five string tho. Flatwounds themselves are nice for a jazzy sound but I found they don't really sound nice for slap pop, but are great for fingerstyle.
just my 2 cents.
oh, yeah, and the flatwounds are black so on a guit with black hardware they look killer.

Elixers are the best bass strings money can buy, they retain the fresh twang for there 1-2 year lives. maybe not best for bluegrass but if your bass has got plenty of headroom with tone and stuff you should find they are the best strings you can get... still they do cost £55 if your a six stringer like me.

D'Addario Chromes are pretty good. Not as dead sounding as other flats.
I used to use them, now I use D'Addario Nickel Roundwound, ProSteels, and DR FatBeams Stainless.
The Nickel rounds go on my Yamaha 1006 six string,
The ProSteels go on my Fender Jazz V, DR FatBeams on my Ibanez SR 405QM five string.

motorpsycleboy@netzero.co wrote:hey they are called flat wound ,they are relly dead sounding ,easy on the fingers,but i dont know if they make them for 5 string, you may have to buy the low one seperate ,the cool thing is they last forever,

wow that's a kickass standup you got there... you can be in my band anytime... we'll do some rockabilly like rev horton... or wanda jackson!

afa strings... I love tapewound!

they are smooth like flatwound but have much more punch. I tried em once and now i'm sold... for slap pop or fingerstyle... I even have a set on my fretless. try em out... you won't regret it.