Flatwound

These strings have the brightness of a roundwound and the feel of a flatwound. I play many genres, so a versatile string is important to me.On my P bass, I can roll the tone all the way off and get some really articulate low mids in my tone. With a mute, they have an excellent Motown thump.They are also fantastic for slap. I only need to turn the tone knob up to 40 or 50% with a fresh pack; they have plenty of room to mellow out and still maintain their clarity. With the tone wide open, you can absolutely shred some rock or metal tunes.I initially purchased the hybrid set (45-105) and after 5 hours of practice in a day I noticed my fretting hand was getting sore. I bought one gauge lighter (40-95) and these have similar flexibility to the 45-105 set of roundwounds I'm used to.The lighter gauge 40-95 set is much easier on the fretting hand. It has a brighter slap and pop tone, as well as a bit more clarity above the 12th fret. The hybrid set is warmer. Both sound really good, it's mostly just down to personal preference. Any tone difference can be dialed out with some EQ.

. . . these are excellent strings IF you like throaty, meaty, articulate in a good way bass tones -- which is also what TIs provide. These are what I think of when I think bass guitar sound. I play solid, up-tempo, catchy, riff-based, melodic, pop/rock/surf/punk. I am NOT nor will I ever be a slapper.These EB cobalt flats are soft to the touch but not too soft, residing in a Goldilocks zone for me. The TIs are a tad softer, maybe a tad smoother but honestly if you didn't have them side-by-side on identical basses, as I did, you might not be able to tell. Coming from a guitar player's perspective who never before played bass beyond casual noodling, who recently auditioned 14 different bass guitar brands, with mostly different strings on each, and who is 90% of the time using a pick (Dunlop Tortex .60 mm), I would be (and will be) happy to continue to use these as my mains on one of my basses. The TIs are on the other bass, and it was my first time using those too. There, instantly, I understood why most bassists regard TIs in such a high stature. They have a certain je ne sais quoi when playing them -- tone and feel. These EB cobalts are not worse, just different, but they ARE in the same category as the TIs, at $25 less. McLaren vs Ferrari. IDK, personally I think if you can swing it, it's worth it to have both. Knowing what I know now, why anyone would ever want to play the stock Fender rounds after playing these EBs or TIs is a complete and utter mystery to me. Yet that diversity is what makes life interesting.

These are the best bass strings money can buy and a great value at that. They are silky smooth on your fingers, the tone is unbeatable, and they give you everything you need to rock out the low tones. They stay in tine in my bass, even when the bass is on the road- pull it from my case, and they’re in tune (yeah, part of that is my bass). I’ve only had one string snap on me back in 2020, but EB made it right, promptly sending a replacement. Otherwise, these things will last a long time.

I love these strings. I have tried many many flatwound sets and have always been disappointed. For me, flatwounds are always too thumpy and lacking in definition. I miss the upper level harmonics. I've always used roundwounds because I've never found flats I liked. No more. These flats are amazing. Warm with a strong fundamental, but they also have upper register harmonics akin to a roundwound string. Maybe because of the cobalt used in the construction, which is unique.They are truly a modern hybrid flatwound string, not a traditional flat sound. If you are a fan of the traditional flatwound sound you probably will not like these. But if you are like me and are looking for the flatwound sound, but with more definition, these are worth a try. They are reasonably priced and the quality is consistent Ernie Ball. I have never had a bad or defective string in any sets of these I have bought, which is something that I cannot say about other manufacturers.I love them and they have become my go-to string on almost all of my basses. They are even great for slapping/thumbing!

I was very pleasantly surprised by these strings . Lower tension feel but not as low as Tomastik Infields which is a good thing for me . Strong fundamental tone . Slightly tacky feel but not enough to bother me . I had been using the flexible flats by La Bella and was pretty happy with them however these just have a fuller sound . Maybe it’s the cobalt ? With the cost of flats it can be expensive to shop around and try new strings. I’m glad I believe I’ve found my go to flats and they are reasonably priced . Other than that slight tackiness I’m 100% sold on the tension , sound and string life and it’s not so tacky that I don’t find myself sliding on them much more than on say a round wound set .

These are great strings when new. They sound great and feel great. However, they don't age well. Most of us flat wound players like our strings after they age a bit and get settled in to that sweet spot. Unfortunately, these strings get rusty, crusty and really rough feeling after a couple of months. The tone changes, they lose the warmth and bottom and develop an unpleasant high mid clank. I'll go back to Chromes. I can leave those on for a couple of years..

Justo el sonido que buscaba en un precision bass, me encantó el brillo, sonido poderoso si lo que buscas es heavy metal, solo queda esperar cuanto dura el brillo, por ahora la primer semana quedé fascinado, llegaron en perfecto estado.

Put a set of these on a Fender Jazz and I love them and so do y fingers!!

would of gave them 5 star if it weren't for the price

Update: Ernie Ball's customer support is top notch and provided a new pack. Got the strings on my bass and I love the feel and sound of them. Definitely will be my standard strings moving forward.

Voilà de bonnes cordes de basse, qui donne un son bien rond comme je l’aime.Le filet plat permet de ne pas trop s’abîmer les doigts