I don't like flat wound strings

**mattymel** · 08-28-2010, 03:08 AM

so i used to play ONLY flats back in the day. mainly because guys said that was the jazz sound. years later, the more i researched, the more that seemed to NOT be the actual case. still, recently i tried them again on a new guitar (for me) and i cant believe how bad they sounded. these were the daddario chromes everybody swears by...

complaints:

...intonation
...tone
...clarity
...intonation
...no clarity

in all seriousness, i do alot of different stuff. some classical, fingerpicking, etc...but the flats were just awful. i seriously started to think i didnt like the guitar anymore.

finally put on some john pearse jazz pure nickels. pretty much the perfect string for my guitar (old epi) with its extra long D string for the frequensator. anyway, great string, perfect intonation, warm, and the controls on the amp DO SOMETHING AGAIN.

i strongly urge anybody that is not diggin their sound with flats to forget what you heard jazzers play on...pure nickel round wounds will give you alot more options.

**robertm2000** · 08-28-2010, 07:18 AM

I agree - I don't play flats, never have to any degree. Tried both flat wound and ground wounds a couple of times and they didn't work very well at all. On both Strat and Epiphone Dot. Just hard to play and seemed less responsive in both 11, 12, and 13 sizes. Even played a lot on a Metheny type Ibanez at the music store where I worked. That sounded just as dead as the other types of guitar.

Now I use Curt Mangan Pure Nickel Round Wound 10s and 11s, and they produce very close to the tone I want. Also they are easier to play. Don't know why the difference but just seems to work that way.

**Jake Hanlon** · 08-28-2010, 07:38 AM

i played Flats for about a week when I got my first full size archtop and thought them to be novel and changed them and never went back. I did buy a pack maybe 9 years ago but never put them on.

I have been using Tomastik Roundwounds now for the last 6 or 7 years and have no intention of moving away from them as they are easily the best string I've used, although they are on the more expensive side.

**Tom Karol** · 08-28-2010, 08:08 AM

On a big jazzbox, I do like .013 - .056 flatwounds (but not 'Chromes'), but I don't have one. I use .011 - .048 nickel/steel roundwounds (D'Aquisto #340 - $3.75 a set at JustStrings) on all my electrics.

**SamBooka** · 08-28-2010, 08:11 AM

Good for you!
Not everyone lets their ears be the judge.
There was a post earlier this week with a vid of the guitar player for Jimmy Smith. Sounded great on a strat!

**NSJ** · 08-28-2010, 08:42 AM

Used to play with FLATS when I started out, because that was everyone was SUPPOSED to use, I was told.

Didn't dig it at all, went back to dynamic round wounds-13-56, don't care about the squeaks, I need for the strings to sound alive and resonant and retain whatever sustain the instrument can muster.

No need for the flats at all. Dynamic rounds all the way.

**brian329** · 08-28-2010, 09:35 AM

Way back when I learned to play watching and listening to The Ventures, everybody used flats...even playing surf music.

Over the years that's changed for me on and off. Gibson used to make a Johnny Smith set that was round wound but with a flat wound low E string.

I'm enjoying DR Pure Blues these days. Pure Blues | DR Strings They're warm like flat wounds but seem have a little more harmonic content. My hollow and semi hollow guitars also don't have humbuckers on them and both have ebony fretboards, so that adds to the openness, especially of the low strings in close voiced chords.

They also last a long time and are available in gauges from 9-42 to 12-52.

**BigDaddyLoveHandles** · 08-28-2010, 11:12 AM

I prefer flat-wounds (gasp), but it depends on your ears and the guitar they are on. It would be boring if we all had the same setup!

**JazzVocab** · 08-28-2010, 11:43 AM

Newtone Archtops!!!

Nuff said ;-)

**kamlapati** · 08-28-2010, 06:53 PM

I'm with you guys entirely. Tried 'em once 'cause I was 'sposed to, and I totally hate them. Can't think of any reason to use them on any of my guitars.

**backliner** · 08-28-2010, 07:24 PM

I like them acoustically, on a guitar I wood shed with unplugged. They can sorta de-trash a laminated 16" sound a little, as long as you don't bash on them.

But not when plugged in. I want my trebles strings fluffy and my bass strings snappy: opposite of what happens with flatwounds if you roll any tone off with a pot.

**coolvinny** · 08-29-2010, 06:57 PM

I put them on an all-carved, oval-hole acoustic archtop once and they sounded like crap. I took them off within the hour.

However, I had them on a solid-body guitar designed for jazz, and they sounded great and really did close the gap between the plugged-in sound of that guitar and my archtop with a built-in pickup.

**Meggy** · 08-30-2010, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by Foulds Jazz Guitars

Newtone Archtops!!!

Nuff said ;-)

I second this! A vote for these double roundwounds

from me (sorry, I didn't buy mine from Foulds, but they are a terrific string IMO, and at a very reasonable price also. I find they do need a week or so of playing to settle in and for the tone to round a bit though, so give them a fair trial if you try them folks.

**jbear** · 08-30-2010, 10:19 AM

Music is art...never do anything in art because someone says you're supposed to and you'll stay true. I love flats on the archtop that I play, but I use them because I like them...no other reason. Photography is the same way...folks using gear or techniques because "everyone" says they should. Soliciting opinion is a great way to get ideas, but they are opinions, and your art should be ALL YOU. Well...that's my opinion anyway

.

**ES125er** · 08-30-2010, 10:59 AM

I like both and use both.

**SamBooka** · 08-30-2010, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by Meggy

I second this! A vote for these double roundwounds

from me (sorry, I didn't buy mine from Foulds, but they are a terrific string IMO, and at a very reasonable price also. I find they do need a week or so of playing to settle in and for the tone to round a bit though, so give them a fair trial if you try them folks.

They are worth a try. use them on my EmpReg. Love them.
Tried them on a 165. Too bright. Went for TI Swing 14s.
Like I said. Let your ears be the judge (although i have no qualms recommending them

**Headshot** · 09-02-2010, 11:01 AM

I experimented with Chromes 11's on one of my Teles......love them. Besides giving my Tele a little better feel soundwise for what I was looking for in my jazz, it helped tone down the almost too bright pups that is on that particular guitar. Also, I love how it sounds rockabilly-wise in middle position with a touch of reverb and a slab of slapback......it has already got me doing some arranging for Christmas songs with a jazzy rockabilly tone.

Now you see why my friends call my style of playing as Redneck Surf Jazz.....LOL

**barrymclark** · 09-02-2010, 11:14 AM

I thought about getting flats once... then I heard the guitar with the rounds it came with and I just didn't see the point in changing. Flats sound fine, but if you are already happy, why mess with it. Right?

**skei** · 09-04-2010, 03:57 AM

I've been forcing myself to play flatwounds ever since starting out with jazz guitar, both archtops and solid bodies. I'm getting tired of it. I think it's gonna sound better with round wounds, and I know from all my years in rock guitar they're easier to play. At least for me, so today I'll get a set of 0.10's roundwounds. I'm never going back. Why should I play on strings that don't work the way I want them to, just because someone says 'in jazz you must have flatwounds'. No, no, no. I'll finally let my fingers decide instead of prejudice.
Peace
&
Bop
Skei (the why? one)

**brian329** · 09-04-2010, 09:23 AM

I don't know why anybody would play a type of string, a guitar, an amp or anything because somebody else says to.
I'd guess that if all of us payed less attention to what we think "they" like and listened to our own inner muse, we'd all play better too.

**NSJ** · 09-04-2010, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by brian329

I don't know why anybody would play a type of string, a guitar, an amp or anything because somebody else says to.
I'd guess that if all of us payed less attention to what we think "they" like and listened to our own inner muse, we'd all play better too.

I think that this was this thread is about--people who have heard what "they" think and have decided to think for themselves, instead.

**medblues** · 09-04-2010, 09:50 AM

For me, it was always about how MY fingers feel when I play (not the sound) because I could never listen to a piece of electric guitar music (live or recorded) and be able to differentiate flat wounds from round wounds. I had tried and easily succeeded to get my Strat sound ice-picky bright with flatwounds on a day I was feeling experimental (Bridge pickup, tone open all the way, cream board modded Blues Jr amp with presence and treble full up, bass and mids adjusted to distaste). I could only imagine someone with treble hearing loss wanting more brightness than that.

I intentionally left out my preference: Unless someone sees the strings in my guitar up close or I tell them, they will never be sure about which type of string I am using :-)

**brian329** · 09-04-2010, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by NSJ

I think that this was this thread is about--people who have heard what "they" think and have decided to think for themselves, instead.

Exactly, but so many people, if not then certainly on other forums actually ask how they should set up their gear, what gauge of string to use, what pick to use etc.

I'm just trying to say that if we looked inside ourselves, instead of to what the "accepted standard" is, we'd be more musical because we'd be answering to our internal need instead of trying to be part of the crowd.

And I'd say that while jazz players have shown that they don't want to be part of the crowd simply by virtue of being jazz players, we now sometimes start to be part of another crowd.

The best example I can give of this type of thinking was back in the '60s. People didn't want to have anything to do with "the man" and "the suits" or anything uniform, so what did they do? They all started wearing white t shirts and jeans and became a part of another group.

Then tie dye came along and everybody did it too.

I guess it just all proves that we're basically pack animals at the core.

Damn what a rant for a Saturday morning....Sorry for getting off topic.

**skei** · 09-04-2010, 02:44 PM

I went to the store, got a set of D'addario nickel wounds, round wounds, 011-049. They sound better, or so I think, they are loads easier to play, and if I want to have less treble I just turn a knob, and the sound isn't dead, it's alive. So much easier all over.
In addition I got hold of picks that resemble the Gibson ones, those you have to pay incredible sums for at ebay, just had to round the tip of a bit, now they are exactly the same, .73 thickness, just as they should be.
Peace
Skei (the convert one)

**larry graves** · 09-04-2010, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by skei

I've been forcing myself to play flatwounds ever since starting out with jazz guitar, both archtops and solid bodies. I'm getting tired of it. I think it's gonna sound better with round wounds, and I know from all my years in rock guitar they're easier to play. At least for me, so today I'll get a set of 0.10's roundwounds. I'm never going back. Why should I play on strings that don't work the way I want them to, just because someone says 'in jazz you must have flatwounds'. No, no, no. I'll finally let my fingers decide instead of prejudice.
Peace
&
Bop
Skei (the why? one)

Never heard of anybody saying you must play flatwounds for jazz, everybody I know seems to play them from choice,10s seem light for jazz,perhaps times are a-changin.LG..