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Hey everyone,
I play an Ibanez AF71F that has a floating pickup with no pole pieces. I'm currently using webstrings flat wounds with this guitar and really enjoy them. I stocked up on them last time I was in the US (I live in the EU). I'm looking at my options for flat wounds in Europe and the D'addario chromes that are most similar to the webstrings flats are much more expensive than the Thomastik Infeld flat wounds. I saw the latter are made from pure nickel. Does this cause any issues with string balance where the plain strings are significantly louder than the wounds?
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11-30-2024 11:38 AM
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I use both. The nickel isn't as loud as the stainless both acoustically and amped up. The string balance seems to remain the same, I think that is more about the core which is solid on both. I wouldn't hesitate to give the thomastiks a try. Very good sounding string. In the US really expensive. More of a wound sound when brand new, after the age more thump, stainless more zing.
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I'll give them a try! I am going back home to the US to visit family during Christmas and hopefully the webstrings flat wounds will be in stock around Christmas so I can stock up some more on those strings. Barring that, I could elect to get D'addario Chromes for $20 plus tax while in the states, or get Thomastik's here in the EU for 25 euros. This next trip home will be my last for awhile, so I'm just thinking wayyy down the line for when I run out of my stock of webstring flat wounds. I was able to get 16 months out of the set before I changed them. The intonation was perfectly fine, they just sounded extremely thuddy that day and am regretting having changed them. I want to see how many years I can get out of set of flats while changing the plain strings when need be.
What's the longest folks have been able to get out of their flat wounds?
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Egads, 16 months on a set of strings? Buy ten sets of the strings you like and you're good for 13+ years. Maybe you'll get back to the states to stock up again around year 12.
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I've been getting a year+ out of TIs since I started using them. The guitar I gig with the most (at least 50 gigs a year plus at least 3 practice sessions a week) is my Ibanez AF207. When I first tried TIs on it a few years ago (JS112s), I began to wonder if I was missing subtle signs of worn out strings after a year. So I replaced them with a fresh set of JS113s. You may remember that I posted a blinded comparison of the old and new with a poll to see how many could tell the difference. Half of the respondents (of which there were dozens, as I recall) picked the wrong ones as the fresh ones, and I couldn't hear any clear difference myself. A 50% accuracy rate is no different from a coin toss - it's just random guessing if the sample size is big enough.
Originally Posted by Cunamara
About 8 months ago, curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to bite the bullet and try heavy Benson TI flats (GB114) on it. They really made the heavy laminated box come alive and I love them ("new string day" post here). At 8 months, they're as good as new, so I expect to go past a year with these too.
I've had the same JS113s on both of my carved archtops for far longer than a year, and both are still fine. I also have JS112s on my Raines Tele7, which plays at least one blues gig every week - and they're still fine after about 9 months. In all fairness, I do change the E1 and B on my blues guitars every 6 weeks or so because the bending and heavy finger vibrato result in a broken string every once in a while when I get beyond 3 months. I also replace the plated TI E1 and B on my jazz boxes with 13 and 17 plain steel, and I use 11 and 15 plain steel on the solid bodies I use for blues (the Raines and an early '90s Epi LP 7 string).
The price of TIs has come down a bit on the web. Right now, JS flats are $24.13 a set at Strings and Beyond if you buy 2 or more to get the free shipping. They're also about $26 a set on Amazon. The Bensons are $40, but they really make a positive difference in tone on my laminated box and are worth every penny to me. The fact that TIs go a year+ with stable tone and fine intonation is a bonus. I love 'em!!
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I’ve used TI Benson 0.14’s almost exclusively for over 10 years. And always felt they’re a similar diameter as D’Addario 12’s. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
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They're closest in diameters to the 13-56 Chromes, since TI makes their strings to metric measure and uses a conversion factor. They label them at the closest SAE measurement to the actual metric size. So most TI strings are a few thou smaller in diameter than an identically labeled Chrome. But their tensions are surprising. An 0.053" TI JS tuned to low E puts 26 pounds across the guitar per their chart. An 0.056" Chrome tuned to E is at 21.4 pounds on the D'A chart, and D'A uses a 25.5" scale as their standard for the tension chart. TI doesn't specify scale length, but it can't be over 25.5". So the "softer" feel of TIs is not from lower tension or size diffrences. I assume it's bcause of the nickel, the round core, and/or the width and tightness of the wrap ribbon. Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
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I kept checking the Webstrings site and their flatwounds are still out of stock in the 12 gauge size. I ended up getting two sets of chromes 12s from sweet water. I have 4 sets of Webstrings flats here in Spain, so assuming I can get 18 months out of these strings, these six sets should last for awhile. I don’t play nearly as much as I did back in my gigging days. Their roundwounds are dirt cheap and 12 sets would only be $50 plus shipping. It could be worth to stock up on those incase I ever decided to switch back to rounds.
I hear a lot of folks are getting a lot of mileage out of the Thomastik Strings! I’m surprised because you’d think that they’d have a shorter lifespan and their intonation would degrade quicker with the round core and pure nickel windings. Currently, I only change my wound strings if the intonation really is shot or if there is absolutely zero definition on the low E and A strings. I change the E and B maybe every two months.
If I were to ever start gigging and teaching full time again, I’d be curious to see how much mileage I could get out of these flatwounds. I used roundwounds and at the prime of my career where I was doing multiple gigs a week, teaching a full roster of students, and practicing non-stop in between, I was changing roundwounds every 2 weeks.
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TI’s have very good mileage but a year or more? Not for me. In terms of sound they do last very long but after six months or so I start to notice subtle intonation and tuning issues. Nothing drives me up the wall like a chord that sounds off despite the guitar being in tune and properly intonated.
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I use TI JS 13's on my archtop (10's on my 3 other electrics, currently GHS rollerwounds), and have used Chromes (12's) in the past. Hard to say how long a set of TI's lasts because I use all my guitars to varying degrees. It's also affected by playing conditions -- e.g., I was doing regular summer outdoor gigs using only the archtop at a restaurant for a few years, and that would chew up strings. But I'd guess lifespan is something like 5-6-ish months for TI's, vs 3-4-ish for Chromes. Other people say they get much more than this, but I tend to prefer the sound and feel of somewhat new/just broken-in strings, and I might perceive a need to change strings somewhat earlier than other people do. With my other guitars, the combination of lighter gauges and music that involves a lot more string bending means less life, but I'm spreading the abuse over 3 guitars. In the days when I did more frequent rock gigging and only had one guitar, every couple of weeks was typical, but now it's probably every 2-3 months on each guitar.
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i went to put bebop 13s on my Eastman 403 ce and noticed the low e is a bit fat to seat into the nut.Is it ok for them to sit a little above the nut grove ?Will it eventually widen the nut groove?I really dont want to alter the nut.I have a set off Swing flat 12s n.Thinking about switching out the high B and E, maybe the G with those from my bebop 13s.
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You’d probably be best served using the 52 gauge low E or getting a guitar tech to file down wider slots on the nut. I used 13-56 for roundwounds, but started using 12-52 flatwounds with a 14 for the high E and 17 for the high B 2 years ago mainly because that was the heaviest Webstrings sold. If money wasn’t an issue, I don’t think I’d go up to 14-56s for flats, just because they are heavier and the thicker E string could start to get flubby over time.
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And how long do your other strings last? Point being, TI’s last far longer than any other strings that I’ve owned. I easily get a year or more out of them. But I’m not playing hours every day with them. That would be an unrealistic expectation. Originally Posted by Oscar67
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6 months was the longest on my daily driver...only changed because i wanted to give rounds a go...a week later, the same brand of flats were back on it. never shouldve taken em off to begin with...couldve gotten a year out of em, only changing the treble strings. Originally Posted by JazzerEU
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