cobalt flats.. WOW!

[MrMusashi]

yesterday i picked up 2 sets of cobalt flats. today it was time to put them on

i have only one word.. WOW

they really made my 30th sr4 fretless come alive.
i had it strung with a set of coated slinkys which i thought sounded good. but this is heavenly!!

the harmonics are excellent. a g chord on d and g string between 2nd and 3rd fret was almost as easy as on my bongo.
the string to string balance is excellent

the 45 to 100 set i put on had nice and low tension. the strings were very flexible, if not on par with ti flats they are not very far behind.
the purple silk winding. well.. i didnt even mind that at all.. hehe

lengthwise they had about 1/2" inch clearance even if this bass has string through body bridge. so plenty of length there.

i also noticed eb inserted a sheet explaining how to properly tie down the fretless strings so they dont slip.
excellent stuff!

they were a bit sticky for a while, but that soon cleared off. slide harmonics that used to burn my fingers off now are a thing of the past

also, they are very magnetic. when i was putting them on they stuck to the pickup magnets and didnt let go until there started to be some tension on the strings.
looking forward to trying it on my amp at home. i bet it will be just as awesome there.

the only thing i noticed is that some of the mwah disappeared, but i think that is down to lower tension that makes the right hand touch slightly different. ill experiment some more with that

so.. if you havent bought a set yet, ill be like the character in every adam sandler movie:
you can DO IT!

you certainly should do it


MrM

ps:
if you dont like them you can donate them to the local music school, where the kids fingertips will thank you forever.
win win win situation really!

 

[Golem]

Wilkomen, Pilgrimme !

 

[mrpackerguy]

Thanks for the report

 

[T-bone]

My 30th is the "go to" bass every time and I started using cobalts when they first came out. Love em! But cobalt flats? On my 30th?? Don't you think that's taking this just a bit too far???

tbone

 

[MrMusashi]

i put the flats on my fretless 30th.. seriously considering to swap on the fretted too

MrM

 

[ivbenaplayin]

I have the cobalt flats on my 20th SR5 and my green Bongo... they're awesome.

 

[nurnay]

I had them on my Bongo for some time, really dug the tone. I just switched over to some Slinky regulars to play with for a while, I will probably revert back to the flats.

 

[stu42]

Gotta agree. I love them on my fretless Bongo. I noticed the initial stickiness as well. I got used to it at first - which just meant that I needed to be more accurate with my fretting - but after several playing sessions they feel pretty much like any other flats. I don't know if they're exactly as slippery as other flats but it's not an issue.

I noticed the reduced mwah as well but thought that was due to the initial stickiness. My feeling was that at this point I've gotten all the mwah back again. But I've had them on my bass for several months now.

 

[Samoht]

On a Bongo 5HH, Cobalt Flats are my favorite bass strings ever. Whenever I go back to playing rounds on my SR5 they feel like hacksaw blades I LOVE the tone of the flats. Even slap. Especially though for fingerstyle emulations of Bernard Edwards and Louis Johnson. I don't know if I can ever go back to rounds full time. Sliding without lots of string noise, more even tone between B and E strings.

Does anyone know if the Cobalt Flats are supposed to last and last like regular flats?

 

[fatillac]

I love em on my Sterling 4H!

Does anyone else find that they yank your arm hairs out?

 

[drTStingray]

Wow indeed - I think they're glorious - have them on my fretless Stingray and they help it sing even more. I like the fundamental sound they have as well and they are nice for some slap (....on a fretless with flatwounds I hear you say??!! Guilty m'lord!)

 

[Golem]

.............
and they are nice for some slap (....on a fretless
with flatwounds I hear you say??!! Guilty m'lord!)

Guilty schmilty. The Great Unwashed are sooooo
freakin toadally clueless about slap bass. Acoarst
I assume you mean SLAP, rather than faux funky
thumb hammering pinky popping "bass" ?

Skyewz me awhile. I gotta go chill my atteetood.

 

[Holdsg]

hello everyone, been a very long time since I've been 'round here.
I am using cobalt flats on about half of my bass collection, they are the flats for me.

 

[Golem]

I love em on my Sterling 4H!

Does anyone else find that they yank your arm hairs out?

Play and practice much more frequently and the problem will go away.

 

[cybersnyder]

I wasn't thrilled with the Cobalt rounds, but tried the Cobalt Flats and was very pleasantly surprised. They rock.

 

[Kong]

I had some problems with a set of Cobalt Flats in .055 - .110, the G-String broke twice while tuning it, standart tuning. They broke just where the blue silk wrap starts. I have to admit that I mounted them on a 1964 Precision. But when the work was done, I was rewardet with a gorgeous sound. Thanks to omann Germany the german EB distributor Musik Meyer for helping me with two single G-Strings after I explained how the strings broke.

So I ordered two 5 - String sets for a custom made Vychodil P5. Ales Vychodil is a luthier from the Czech Republik. He does great work at a reasonable price. Wow, I fell in love with this strings in no time. As I knew about the stickyness, I rubbed them with a cloth, no more sticky at all. Wow, what a sound! Tonal balance great, nice overtones, way enough thump and a great tone.

I have another set of them, waiting for the Elixir Nanoweb Strings on my beloved Ray 5 Classic to get old or break, so I can use this spare set on this bass. I bet the strings sound f*cking great on the SR 5 Classic.

 

[kn38ms]

I just installed mine (100's)

absolutely love the tone, they cut through real nice, and the smoothness... perfect.

the purple looks great also...

good job EB !!!!

 

[Golem]

Interesting about rubbing away the stickiness with a cloth.
When my strings are unstrung, it's time to oily wax the FB,
and the residual stuff must get onto the strings right away,
cuz I never felt the stickiness myself.