Which bass for flatwounds - Stringray H or HH?

[mingsta]

Hi All,

Posted this on a UK bass forum, but thought I'd also put it to the the musicman forum to get your views.

I've got an old '93 ray who's tone has thickened and warmed up rather nicely over the years. Am also about to acquire a brand new HH ray which will be presumably a little zingier while the woods still got a little green left in it!

Its frankly a little silly having two of the same bass, but I have an opportunity to pick up an absolute stunner thats looking too good to miss. If I was being sensible I should really be looking to find a P or a Big Al, but ho-hum!

So anyways, I've always fancied something thicker and thumpier as an alternative to the Stringray tone and would like to chuck some flats (probably LaBella Deep Talkin) on to one of them.

Any one have experience of how flats go with the SR H and HH? Which would be the better combination of the two? I'd imagine that the neck humbucker of the HH is a natural pairing with flats, but my older H ray will probably sound warmer due to its age.

Mingsta

 

[bassmonkeee]

If it were me, I'd put the flats on the HH. Neck pickup soloed with flats is one of my favorite tones.

Of course, I also use flats as my main strings on the majority of my basses.

 

[muggsy]

I love the sound of flats on my 30th Anniversary Stingray, which is a single H. In the interest of full disclosure, though, I also have flats on my fretless Sterling and am seriously considering putting them on the Big Al.

 

[Aussie Mark]

To me this question is a bit like "which car should I put tyres on", but if I had to choose between those two basses I agree that the HH would be a more versatile option.

 

[Golem]

If it were me, I'd put the flats on the HH. Neck pickup
soloed with flats is one of my favorite tones.

Of course, I also use flats as my main strings on the
majority of my basses.

Bassmonk pretty much speaks for me, too. But, OTOH,
those of us who play mainly flats maybe aren't speaking
for YOU ? What I'm thinking is that you're still gonna
play RWs on one of these basses, yes ?

If I had only two basses, H and HH, and if I were gonna
need RWs for some of my music, I'd be kinda cautious ...
given my FW tone preference ... about having no neck
PU on my RW ax. The neck PU helps tame the RWs in a
manner that pleases this FW fan. Playing RWs on an ax
with ONLY a neck PU goes against my grain, unless the
lack of neck PU is accompanied by a lack of frets ;-)

Admitting thaz not exactly decisive thinking, all I can
offer is that I'll also admit thaz why I have more than
two basses. You're gonna play RWs on 50% of your
basses. I play RWs on less than 10% of mine :-/ BTW
I have a '93 myself, with black LaBellas [and no frets].
Hang onto that puppy !


EDIT [for a possibly more decisive thought]:

We never asked HOW you play, and you don't say if
your RW strung ax will be for slapping. In that case
it's a no-brainer. Put them slappy RWs on the '93



`

 

[husky123]

I'm another one for the HH. The neck pup and flats will go together like peanut butter and ladies.

 

[J Romano]

Flats on everything, except cobalts of course!

 

[hoochie]

My penny - five7 is right, but depends what you want to play. I've put thomastik JF344 flats on my SR4H 2 eq while I played just blues and that was it. Simply it was it - beautifull. Now I got back to slinky hybrid 2833 RWs. I did try flats on my SR5 HH but didn't like it at all - don't know why exactly. Or stop fooling around and get another SR and string it with flats.

 

[MrMusashi]

the strings will swap between the 2 easily so it might be a good opportunity to clean the gunk from the fretboard and try the strings on both basses

MrM