ECB82 : Nice, smooth, lovely, but consider a gauge down

I recently bought a Fender Precision Bass, which comes with 45-105 strings. Compared to my one other bass it is quite bright, too much for my taste. Research led me to try Flatwounds to mellow out the sound - and it worked!

Not only that, but these are so easy to play - your fingers slide up and down the strings with no effort and no lost flesh. Awesome.

The only thing I wish I had known is how much thicker a flatwound string is compared to the same gauge of roundwound. I don't quite understand this, I thought the gauge represented the total thickness of the string, but there you are.

I like the extra thickness of the string - I play hard and so a thicker string keeps things from buzzing. However, I had to adjust the truss rod quite a lot, the bridge a little, and the intonation a fair amount. If you're not happy to do this yourself, and don't want to pay for a setup to change strings, I suggest trying at least one full gauge down from what you would use with roundwounds.