Flatwound Strings

[Seven10Ashbury]

What do you guys think of using flatwound strings? I remember my old guitar teacher used them on his strat. The thing was vintage. 50's maybe 60's? And an old, old tube amp. Name was Hal Capen. Anyway, I digress. What do you all think? I remember they sounded real vintagy and jazzish. I also almost bought a 1968 ES345 with the original flatwounds but couldn't swing it.

 

Seven10Ashbury

[CR9]

I love flat wounds. A music teacher suggested that I try them back in the late 60's and I have used them ever since, but not on all guitars or all the time. I like them on my Casino. Sometime I put them on my Les Paul with the Bigsby. Johnny A. uses them a lot too on his Gibson signature Johnny A. guitars. I usually go one or 2 sizes larger with the flat wounds over what I use in a wound string.

[CajunBlues]

I personally only like flatwounds on my full hollow bodied guitars... I just cant make them work on solid bodies or semi-hollowed bodies

[Versatile]

I flirted with flatwounds a few years ago on an ES175 to get a smooth jazz tone

 

It was OK and they felt good under the fingers

 

But I gradually gave up....preferring the (for me) wider dynamic and tonal variety of roundwounds

 

They are superb for slide playing on any type of guitar though...

 

V

 

[L5Larry]

To me it really comes down to style of music you play on the particular guitar. I use flats on the jazzboxes (on which I play JAZZ), and I use roundwounds on the others (on which I play blues and rock).

 

One thing I've done for kind of an "in-between" sound is use roundwounds with a wound third. At one time I had a Strat setup this way for strictly rhythm work. It gave a great even smooth tonal spectrum.

[Blondie&OldBlue]

I tried a set on my Strat once. Hated them. I think mainly because they were too heavy in gage. If I were to mess with them again, I would go with a set that was unwound on the 3rd string. They sounded OK as they reduced the string noise. But going to a heavy gage on the Strat is a pain because it has a floating tremolo and having to reset that and intonation is a pain. As always, try them and see what you think.

[AlanC]

To me it really comes down to style of music you play on the particular guitar. I use flats on the jazzboxes (on which I play JAZZ), and I use roundwounds on the others (on which I play blues and rock).

 

One thing I've done for kind of an "in-between" sound is use roundwounds with a wound third. At one time I had a Strat setup this way for strictly rhythm work. It gave a great even smooth tonal spectrum.

 

I also use flatwounds on my archtops and also on my semi hollows that I use for jazz. For other styles of music such as blues I use round wounds particularly on Les Pauls and my 335. But I really love flatwound strings.