Flatwound Strings

[IanHenry]

Has anyone here used Flatwound strings for rock/blues music and if so, how did they do for you and what make/type did you use?

 

 

Thanks,

Ian

[Twang Gang]

I have and I wouldn't say that I'd recommend it.

 

I usually put flatwounds on my 336 (Gibson Flat Wires back in the day when they were available, now D'Addario XL Chromes) semi-hollow body to get a more jazz type sound. Smooth and not real bright sounding (there is also a set on my L-5). I have played the 336 in a rock/blues setting with the flatwounds on, and the guitar sounded fine, but it lacks when you call upon it to give a screaming lead line or anything where you want a real snappy bright sound. Of course you can compensate with effects pedals but I am not a huge pedal user.

 

Overall I think there are a lot of strings more suited for rock and blues than flatwounds. In other words it can be done, but why make things difficult on yourself? If you like flatwounds on a particular guitar and find that you need to use that guitar once in awhile for rock, you don't need to change the strings. But if you are using the guitar primarily for blues/rock I would use something else.

 

Of course the guitar would have an effect on how they sound too, a brighter guitar like a Tele might handle them better. But for mahogany bodies like LPs that are a little mid-range heavy to begin with I don't think flats are such a good fit.

 

Just my ear and one opinion for what it's worth.

[IanHenry]

Thanks Twang,

The reason that I was thinking about Flatwound strings is because I've got a song I need to play, Be=Bop Deluxe's Sister Seagull that needs a lot of sliding down the strings and I was hoping to reduce string "squeal".

 

 

 

Ian

[Twang Gang]

Thanks Twang,

The reason that I was thinking about Flatwound strings is because I've got a song I need to play, Be=Bop Deluxe's Sister Seagull that needs a lot of sliding down the strings and I was hoping to reduce string "squeal".

 

 

 

Ian

Well the flatwounds will help with that, but I'm not sure I'd go to them for one song.

[BigKahune]

.

Half-rounds. D'Addario makes some.

 

 

.

[capmaster]

Most British guitar players played flatwounds until the mid-1960's. I did so on my only semi-solid with P-90 pickups between 1985 and 2000.

 

The biggest advantages of flatwounds are superior note separation in chords due to fast overtone decay, practically zero fretting noise, no leap in tonality between wounds and plains, very low action without buzz, great life expectancy, and extended fret wire life. When used for clean and crunchy tones, they don't collide as much with vocals as roundwounds do. Virtually their only downside is the fast overtone decay of wound strings when more treble sustain is desired, causing especially in case of piezo'd electric guitars an overall "jazzy" tone. These reasons keep me from using them since about 17 years.

 

Anyway, if I played 1960's covers or originals of that style, or heavy metal without the need for occasional string noises achieved with pick and round wrap wire, I would use them again in a heartbeat. In high-gain use they offer the perfect "sound of doom" since a heartbeat after string attack practically only fundamentals remain, creating a thick "wall of tone" this way. They also offer good playing comfort.

[zigzag]

The biggest advantages of flatwounds are superior note separation in chords due to fast overtone decay, practically zero fretting noise, no leap in tonality between wounds and plains, very low action without buzz, great life expectancy, and extended fret wire life. When used for clean and crunchy tones, they don't collide as much with vocals as roundwounds do. Virtually their only downside is the fast overtone decay of wound strings when more treble sustain is desired, causing especially in case of piezo'd electric guitars an overall "jazzy" tone. These reasons keep me from using them since about 17 years.

 

I use them for all of the reasons capmaster cited, plus I like the silky feel. Since I started using them, I'll never go back.

 

I started out using Thomastik-Infeld Swing flatwounds on all hollow and semi-hollow guitars. Now I put them on all of my electrics, which today means six. First string gauges vary from 10s to 12s. I find the T-Is are a little brighter than most other flatwounds, especially the thinner gauges.

 

I put D'Addario Chrome flatwounds on the bass.

[jaxson50]

A few comparisons

 

 

 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2tLIEne3W5E

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LCCnBks7pd0

[jaxson50]

Pyramids were considered the very best flats for ages, they were the choice of the British Invasion of the 60s and still highly thought of among studio players,

 

[kidblast]

Very mellow sounding strings, last a real long time.

 

I'd say they work great on a hollow body (like a Regent, or a Broadway) if playing jazz music and/or jazz based chord melody playing but I don't find much use for them outside of that. just not bright enough for rock for me. But that's just me, they'd probably work fine for you if you stuck em on a second guitar that you could use for songs where you want to kill the string noise.

[Dub-T-123]

They don't work very well for my usual style of guitar, but I gotta have them for bass

[pippy]

...I've got a song I need to play, Be=Bop Deluxe's Sister Seagull...

I like the cut of your jib, Ian!

 

 

I occasionally fitted 'ground-wound' strings back in the day which seem to be a variation on the half-round style and they were nice in feel but not as great, tonally, as regular stuff for my set-up / play-list.

If I'm correct in what I guess is your 'problem' the half-rounds might work OK on 'Sister Seagull' because you'll still get the brightness of the plains for the descending triplet fills and the chording slides should still be bright enough on the wound strings.

 

Must be worth a try?

 

FWIW I always thought 'Love With the Madman' would be a great choice for a pub gig...

 

Pip.

[jaxson50]

1498920287[/url]' post='1865567']

They don't work very well for my usual style of guitar, but I gotta have them for bass

 

That is perhaps the most interesting observation of the debate, not just about flats or round strings, but we hear the same comment when the conversation is about tube vs SS, It's great for bass, but......I think bass players are on to something..

 

.

[IanHenry]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I've followed Pippy's suggestion and ordered some D'Addario EHR310 XL half round strings to try on one of my guitars.

 

 

Thanks,

Ian

[Dub-T-123]

This thread reminded me I want to try some of these

 

[jaxson50]

 

This is about as close to Lennon's original set up, Ricky 325c with Pyramid Gold flatwounds

 

 

 

[Dub-T-123]

My friend had some of those on his Strat. They were heavy for me, I normally like 9s

 

I'm curious about those Thomas Vinci strings. They're about $13 and lighter gauge. I think I'll try some of their flats and the other round wound set that Acid Fuzz sells (about $3.50 for the round wounds)

[jaxson50]

Your friend may have been using a heavy guage string. Here is some background on Pyramid brand, along with a shameless plug...

 

 

 

[jaxson50]

Another opinion

 

 

[jaxson50]

 

I just stumbled across this video, the guy does a good job of breaking down all of the nuances of the construction of strings, he seems oddly obsessed

 

 

 

[surfpup]

They don't work very well for my usual style of guitar, but I gotta have them for bass

 

I've only used them for bass as well. I hear Ry Cooder likes them for slide - that's a good recommendation.

 

 

Another opinion

 

 

 

And anything good enough for Kenny Vaughan is good enough for me! Might have to put some on a Tele to see.

[IanHenry]

I like the cut of your jib, Ian!

 

 

I occasionally fitted 'ground-wound' strings back in the day which seem to be a variation on the half-round style and they were nice in feel but not as great, tonally, as regular stuff for my set-up / play-list.

If I'm correct in what I guess is your 'problem' the half-rounds might work OK on 'Sister Seagull' because you'll still get the brightness of the plains for the descending triplet fills and the chording slides should still be bright enough on the wound strings.

 

Must be worth a try?

 

FWIW I always thought 'Love With the Madman' would be a great choice for a pub gig...

 

Pip.

 

Hi Pippy,

The version of Sister Seagull that I like best is this arrangement Bill did for the Old Grey Whistle Test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXR2YJ6xNf0

 

 

Ian

[pippy]

...The version of Sister Seagull that I like best is this arrangement Bill did for the Old Grey Whistle Test:..

Thanks for posting that, Ian. I'd never seen that clip before.

Very different 'live' version from that on the 1977 'Live in the Air Age' LP + EP which closely follows the studio cut.

 

Best wishes for the strings!

 

 

Pip.

[charlie brown]

I put a set of D'Addario Flatwounds, on my old '66 Gretsch Country Gent, which I loved the sound of,

but decided I still wanted to be able to "bend" strings, like I prefer, so I just moved the A string

down to low E, D to A, and G to D...then filled the top three strings from 9, 11, 13, and it still

sounds "Flat wound" great, but way more bendable! :D

 

CB

[zigzag]

I put a set of D'Addario Flatwounds, on my old '66 Gretsch Country Gent, which I loved the sound of,

but decided I still wanted to be able to "bend" strings, like I prefer, so I just moved the A string

down to low E, D to A, and G to D...then filled the top three strings from 9, 11, 13, and it still

sounds "Flat wound" great, but way more bendable! :D

 

CB

 

That's another thing I like about Thomastik Infeld Jazz Swing flatwound strings. I can bend the third (wound) string on a set of 10s up a whole step without too much sweat. The T-Is string tension correlates pretty well to their D'Addario round wound counterparts. The 11s start to get pretty stout.

 

D'Addario Chromes' tension generally runs about one string gauge set higher than its corresponding roundwound set.

 

http://www.thestringguy.com/tension.html

 

http://www.daddario.com/DADProductDetail.Page?ActiveID=3769&ProductId=13&productname=EXL110_Nickel_Wound__Regular_Light__10_46&sid=432935b4-1bef-4d88-8460-a6068c82c550 Click on family tension chart