Fender 9050L

I believe these strings are manufactured by D'Addario but they're not the same as the D'Addario Chromes. I've never liked the Chromes, they're too stiff and metallic/bright for my taste. With this in mind I didn't really expect to like the Fender flats but I wanted to give them a chance.

I actually like them more than I expected. They certainly have a bit of initial metallic brightness but unlike the D'Addario Chromes they slowly mellow out into a nicer, warmer tone (D'Addario Chromes just go completely dead in a really bad way).

These Fender flats will never sound of feel like proper old school flats though. They are brigher, feel stiffer and are lacking the "bouncy" feel of classic flatwound strings. You will never get a Motown thump or a 60s vibe out of these strings. These Fender flats will never get that bouncy feel and thumpy tone. They will also retain a certain midrange "grind" that you won't get with old school flats. Whether this is good or bad will of course depend on what kind of tone/feel you're looking for. Just be aware that these strings will not sound of feel even remotely like old school flats. If you're looking for THAT kind of tone/vibe you will be far better off with LaBella, Pyramid, Optima or any of the other old school flats that are available.

If you're looking for a set of stiffer "modern" flats with a tone that leans a bit towards roundwounds you might like these Fenders.

These are the growliest flats I have found and I love them to bits. They feel and sound like flats but with much more presence and bark. I use them on both fretted and fretless with great pleasure.

I used to play chromes but these are so much better. Whether I slap or play with a pick I always get a full, convincing sound. Chromes lost their clarity after a few weeks/months. I have been using the 9050l for over a year and they still sound great.

They are a a tiny bit more textured than other flats which makes them less slippery but they are very slick nonetheless.

I highly recommend them!

After buying a second hand bass pre-strung with 45-105 flatwound strings, i was pleasantly surprised by the feel of them, and how the smoothness effected the playability of the instrument! This then spurred me to look further into flatwounds (being previously avoidant because of the association with the beatles bass tone) and i subsequently ordered these. Instantly i was i love with the fresh string tone, and have found that the bottom E warms up as the strings settle but still retain a clear high mid punch. Another positive is the variation in tone between finger-style and picked lines, adding an element of versatility in being able to reach dirty punk hooks and clean bluesy lines.

To conclude, the strings are an investment well taken for any bassist looking for strings that span a variety of genres tones, and hold their own under higher action whilst maintaining comfortable tension in jazz standard set ups.

I've just replaced my tuners with light-weight Hipshot tuners to get a better balance, so the cause might be the tuners, although this seems rather unlikely. I stringed the bass without any problems, except for the G-string: for some reason the silk wrapping kept was thorn from the string and the metal core slipped out of the string hole. I've repeated this several times, each time cutting the string a little shorter than the remaining silk wrapping. After five or six attempts the string was simply too short to be used.

I'll report the problem to Thomann and hope they will send me a new G-string with silk wrapping that remains wrapped around the metal core. I gave the sound three stars, as I don't have any idea how the strings sound, but that particular G-string was obviously defective.

At first, i was looking for some new Strings, and decided me for Flatwounds , because i like the good old 60 and 70th sound like Stones or Beatles

The next step was, to find some Strings which fit my budget.

I had tried the D Dario Flats bevore, but i didn t like them.

So i decided me for the Fender one.
(best price/performence ratio)

After I got the Strings, i could test then in my Band, and i was
excited.

The Sound can be called in the best way as "old school".
thight basses and (this Strings are Steelflats) crunchy treble.

these Strings are my favourit ones for classic rocksounds, and in my opinion
they are very good for Classick Rock, Stoner Rock etc....

They lost after same time a bit from their crunchy trebles, but
in my opinion its ok.

I wrote a bad review of the medium version of these strings as I found them hard to play, stiff and cable like compared to regular medium strings. I also had an issue with the silks breaking when I moved them to another bass rendering them unusable. I gave them another chance because to be honest I couldn't afford anything else. This time I went with the lights which are still pretty thick I would say the equivalent of medium gauge regular strings. They actually sound really good on my vintage modified squire jaguar bass and feel nice and smooth. They also sound really good when you play with a pick. I suspect that these will have the same problem with brittle silks so they are staying on the same bass tell they wear out.

I bought these strings to see if I like flatwounds at all.
As they are not so expensive as other 'standard' string sets, I tried them
on an Epi Thunderbird and... that sound was what I wanted it to be.
A rich and full sound, even with that stock/OEM pickups, that makes the 9050L
to be the first choice when I think about getting a new set of strings.

The strings' ends are covered with a green silk-like thread that looks nice but tends to
fall apart when stressed over time due to friction at the machines.
Other than that, the strings are high quality products, don't get rusty or dirty at all
(so you might use them several years... ;-) ).
They don't sound too bright at the beginning and behave like this nearly constantly over time
(nice to know that the string's sound won't change that much from the first hours of playing).

I will recommend this set of strings to everyone who likes flatwounds :-)