New Flatwound strings!

[Foulds Jazz Guitars]

I'm in the (long) process of getting the spec. together to manufacture some
handmade flatwound strings and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on
suggested spec. I will be trialling the pre production examples of
course and I have some ideas at the moment, one of them is
experimenting with a silk winding in the string as some bass strings
do (and the Martin Silk+Steel). If this goes to plan it should give
the player a 'worn it' sounding string straight from the packet, or it might make them sound awful!
Also I'm going to do a Big Band custom gauge as there's a couple of
guys who've suggested it with a 14 and 18 E&B and then regular 13
gauge G,D,A,E
Thoughts?

[Bill C]

Dan

I'm not a flatwound user but would be interested to try a set of polished/half rounds 12-52 or 12-50, with a wound G, especially if they were from your favourite string maker!


Bill

[Franz 1997]

dan I use 12, 16 and then bottom 4 from chromes 11 set ( same gauges overall as thomastic 12s). Price may be an issue as imported flat sets already cost around £11 each- if there was a decent cheaper set that worked i'd buy them.
Heavier top/lighter bottom a good idea. Don't think duller bottom end a good idea - they get dull after few hours anyway

[oldane]

Originally Posted by Foulds Jazz Guitars

Also I'm going to do a Big Band custom gauge as there's a couple of
guys who've suggested it with a 14 and 18 E&B and then regular 13
gauge G,D,A,E
Thoughts?

Well, if you by "Big Band" mean acoustic 4-to-the-bar like Freddie Green, the two plain top string is not that important, since for that style you typically play 2- or 3-note chords on the G, D and sometimes the low E string. Freddie Green, though mostly fingering three note chords, often played a "one-note-chord" on the D string and muted the other fingered notes more or less by not pressing them fully to the fretboard.

What is more important for this specialized kind of playing is the setup of the instrument: High action (for volume and clarity - 3-5mm at 12'th fret - Freddie Green himself had an incredible action of about 12 mm at the 12'th fret) and medium or heavy strings depending on the particular guitar - heavy strings tend to deaden some guitars without giving more volume while they really bark on other guitars. I have a Bendetto which sound better with 12-52 than with 13-56 or heavier. I also have a Triggs Master 400 which becomes louder and fuller with heavier strings. The high action is hard work, but maybe less so than than the seemingly obvious since one is only fingering two or three notes and never use bar chords. I prefer phosphor bronze, but that may depend on the brightness/darkness of the particular guitar.