Flats for Rock & Roll also country music???

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RockerRocker Frets: 4947
I play a Fender Precision through a Markbass combo. Our little band plays mostly country music with some Rock & Roll. My bass is strung with the factory round wounds and I am wondering if flats would be suitable for our music. Thanks guys.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]

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  • bandmaster188bandmaster188 Frets: 390
    edited September 2018
    Love flats on my P bass although i’m Just trying out some NYXL rounds at the moment.
    I’ve been using  Ernie ball cobalt flats and really like them. 
    I’ve got a used set kicking about somewhere, I’ll stick them in the post if you fancy trying them out.


    The Swamp City Shakers
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  • P.s. 
    sorry didn’t answer your question but not really sure if the country boys favour flats or not.
    The Swamp City Shakers
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  • Chromes. Like rounds but mellower with some presence - will do the job nicely!
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  • JezWyndJezWynd Frets: 6021
    Flats will work for everything, except perhaps hard rock and metal but even then with a bit of eq'ing and maybe a pedal they'd be fine. So much easier on the fingers.
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  • RockerRocker Frets: 4947
    Thanks guys, I think I will get a set of chromes......
    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]

    Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

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  • Rocker said:
    I am wondering if flats would be suitable for our music.
    Hell, yeah!
    Be seeing you.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    Flatwounds were standard for bass up to at least the mid 60s, so most of the classic country songs as well as all the original rock’n’roll records would have been done with them. One of the very first to use roundwounds was John Entwistle - the Danelectro Longhorn he had in the early 60s was fitted with them, and when he broke a string, the only way he could find of replacing it was to buy another bass! Apparently he ended up with three of them, all with broken strings.

    Rotosound then started making the Swing Bass roundwound strings for him, and the rest is history... but I would guess most other players didn’t use them until at least the late 60s.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • ICBM said:
    One of the very first to use roundwounds was John Entwistle - the Danelectro Longhorn he had in the early 60s was fitted with them, and when he broke a string, the only way he could find of replacing it was to buy another bass! Apparently he ended up with three of them, all with broken strings.
    The infamous My Generation bass solo.  =)
    Be seeing you.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    Funkfingers said:

    The infamous My Generation bass solo.  =)
    Not quite! Apparently he had broken so many strings by the time they came to record it that he had to use a Jazz with LaBella flatwounds on it instead. It *should* have been the Danelectro though...

    http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/bass/bass6066.html

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • Thanks. Now I'm GASsing for a Longhorn. Sigh.
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  • Now I'm GASsing for a Longhorn. Sigh.
    Is that Polari? ;)
    Be seeing you.
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  • Now I'm GASsing for a Longhorn. Sigh.
    Is that Polari? ;)
    Isn't he bold
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  • As I understand it Monk Montgomery playing with Art Farmer in 1953 generally seems to be regarded as the first recorded electric bass, the soundtrack to Return to the Forbidden Planet in 1956 the first time large numbers of people heard it and then Jailhouse Rock in 1957 is effectively the song that sold the instrument. So for rocknroll or country tracks pre dating 1957 it’s probably not bass guitar you can hear. 
    From then to the late sixties, as has been said, it would have all been flatwounds. 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago that had two Rock & Roll bands. In one band the bass player had a Fender bass and in the other it was an upright bass with mic under the bridge. Both bands were good but the one with the acoustic bass sounded far more authentic 50s R&R to my ear. And of course an electric bass guitar looks pretty boring ;) whereas an upright bass looks the dogs wotsits.
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  • Jimbro66 said:
    I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago that had two Rock & Roll bands. In one band the bass player had a Fender bass and in the other it was an upright bass with mic under the bridge. Both bands were good but the one with the acoustic bass sounded far more authentic 50s R&R to my ear. And of course an electric bass guitar looks pretty boring ;) whereas an upright bass looks the dogs wotsits.
    They are also feckin’ hard to play :)
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    Jimbro66 said:
    I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago that had two Rock & Roll bands. In one band the bass player had a Fender bass and in the other it was an upright bass with mic under the bridge. Both bands were good but the one with the acoustic bass sounded far more authentic 50s R&R to my ear. And of course an electric bass guitar looks pretty boring ;) whereas an upright bass looks the dogs wotsits.
    They are also feckin’ hard to play :)
    Not for a man of your calibre surely :)
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24579
    edited September 2018
    Jimbro66 said:
    Jimbro66 said:
    I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago that had two Rock & Roll bands. In one band the bass player had a Fender bass and in the other it was an upright bass with mic under the bridge. Both bands were good but the one with the acoustic bass sounded far more authentic 50s R&R to my ear. And of course an electric bass guitar looks pretty boring whereas an upright bass looks the dogs wotsits.
    They are also feckin’ hard to play
    Not for a man of your calibre surely
    I’ve just managed to play comfortably numb bass part all the way through with no intonation issues on my fretless - if it then got turned round 90 degrees and was made three times as long I suspect I’d have a nervous breakdown D
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    Jimbro66 said:
    Jimbro66 said:
    I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago that had two Rock & Roll bands. In one band the bass player had a Fender bass and in the other it was an upright bass with mic under the bridge. Both bands were good but the one with the acoustic bass sounded far more authentic 50s R&R to my ear. And of course an electric bass guitar looks pretty boring whereas an upright bass looks the dogs wotsits.
    They are also feckin’ hard to play
    Not for a man of your calibre surely
    I’ve just managed to play comfortably numb bass part all the way through with no intonation issues on my fretless - if it then got turned round 90 degrees and was made three times as long I suspect I’d have a nervous breakdown D
    I played a gig once where the upright bass player didn't turn up but his bass was  already in the van so I volunteered to play it rather than have no bass. Jeez was it hard work and I can tell you that for the next few days my fingers were uncomfortably numb......
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  • Jimbro66 said:
    Jimbro66 said:
    Jimbro66 said:
    I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago that had two Rock & Roll bands. In one band the bass player had a Fender bass and in the other it was an upright bass with mic under the bridge. Both bands were good but the one with the acoustic bass sounded far more authentic 50s R&R to my ear. And of course an electric bass guitar looks pretty boring whereas an upright bass looks the dogs wotsits.
    They are also feckin’ hard to play
    Not for a man of your calibre surely
    I’ve just managed to play comfortably numb bass part all the way through with no intonation issues on my fretless - if it then got turned round 90 degrees and was made three times as long I suspect I’d have a nervous breakdown D
    I played a gig once where the upright bass player didn't turn up but his bass was  already in the van so I volunteered to play it rather than have no bass. Jeez was it hard work and I can tell you that for the next few days my fingers were uncomfortably numb......
    I do know someone who plays Upright - the fingers on their right hand are constantly covered in Elastoplast and look like they shook hands with Edward Scissorhands... 

    Gonna cut up a foam washing up scrubber later and shove it under the fretless strings by the bridge to see if I can fake it :D
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    Jimbro66 said:
    Jimbro66 said:
    Jimbro66 said:
    I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago that had two Rock & Roll bands. In one band the bass player had a Fender bass and in the other it was an upright bass with mic under the bridge. Both bands were good but the one with the acoustic bass sounded far more authentic 50s R&R to my ear. And of course an electric bass guitar looks pretty boring whereas an upright bass looks the dogs wotsits.
    They are also feckin’ hard to play
    Not for a man of your calibre surely
    I’ve just managed to play comfortably numb bass part all the way through with no intonation issues on my fretless - if it then got turned round 90 degrees and was made three times as long I suspect I’d have a nervous breakdown D
    I played a gig once where the upright bass player didn't turn up but his bass was  already in the van so I volunteered to play it rather than have no bass. Jeez was it hard work and I can tell you that for the next few days my fingers were uncomfortably numb......
    I do know someone who plays Upright - the fingers on their right hand are constantly covered in Elastoplast and look like they shook hands with Edward Scissorhands... 

    Gonna cut up a foam washing up scrubber later and shove it under the fretless strings by the bridge to see if I can fake it D
    Don't forget to give her* plenty of slapping. They like that.


    * I'm reliably informed that all upright basses are she, leastways they are in eBay ads.
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