P-Bass, Flatwounds, & a decent recording bass pre

[Pinna Head]

Hi,

 

Can someone explain to me what sort of a sound flat wound and half wound(?) strings would produce on a '78 P-Bass? I know there are lots of variables that will figure in on the sound that's produced (amp, fingers, pickup, pick, etc.) but what I'm really wanting to know is whether or not there's a "night and day" difference just between these different strings or if the difference is negligable to a neophite's ears. If you want to use recordings as illustrations that's great.

 

Also, what would be a decent bass amp for recording purposes? I'm not in need of anything with speaker enclosures. Just something that would put out a line level signal for recording to tape/harddisk. Since I'm not familiar with all of the possibilities lets just say I wanted to spend around $500 give or take $100.

 

Thanks.

[Bill C from Nashvegas]

Well I have a 78 P-bass and I've been using flatwounds on it for a long time, in fact I've got flats on all my basses. I don't care for the string squeak of roundwounds, and I'm not into the "trebly" sound of roundwounds.

 

Flats don't have as bright a sound as rounds, to me flats produce the old Motown sound especially on the P bass. Also they're easier on my fingers. (left hand fingers, since I'm contrary and use a pick).

[Tom Capasso]

Lots of years ago, I used some half-rounds. They are meant to have some of the zing of rounds without the round-wound feel or wear on the fretboard. It was a long time ago and I'm sure these strings are better now, but I found they wore out (and started sounding flat) quickly.

 

Tom

[g.]

There are two main varieties of "half-rounds": those made by grinding roundwounds down to a smoother finish, and those made by compressing the outer warp wire into an oval. Pressure-wounds are generally brighter yet smoother and many strings thought of as orundwounds have actually been of this variety, including many DR, Fodera, Alembic products, and the more obvious Smith Compressors, which I can apersonally assure you last a long time while still maintaining appreciable zing.

 

Ground-wounds, like pressure-wounds, exhibit more mass (and thus usually tension) than round-wounds of the saem diameter. There is simply more metal there. But ground-wounds are sonically closer to flat-wounds and in my experience did lose their upper-mids and treble rapidly. Which may be the point... ; }