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I use flatwounds on all my electrics, including my Hofner Verythin, which is a semi hollow a bit like a 335. I have no need to play rock music so I don't miss roundwounds a bit.
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10-18-2011 07:19 PM
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You don't need rounds to play rock as you don't need flats to play jazz. You can have rounds or flats in any type of guitar so its really a matter of taste. From my experience flats sound too dead and the only good thing is no finger squeak.
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When I got my 335 the previous owner had installed .012 flatwounds on it and cranked the tail piece all the way down, a puzzling set up since he was a fingerpicker. The guitar sounded OK, but a little lifeless. I adjusted the tail piece height and put .012 round wounds, and I liked the sound much better. I love flatwounds on my basses (five basses, five sets of flatwounds) but they are not a good match with my style on guitar.
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What I could have said has been said by many others above, and I too have used flatwounds on my electric guitars, solid bodies included, for more than 40 years. I do believe, though, that the choice of strings is a very personal matter. What one person loves is what another person hates. You can get hints on a forum like this, but your final answer is found only by yourself by trial and error.
So ..... go get a set of flatwounds and put them on your 335 to see if you like them.
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to me the question is this:
flats are warmer than roundwound;
roundwound are more dynamic than flats.
within roundwounds, the pure nickel ones are warmer than nickel plated ones. steel roundwound are still brighter.
so it depends on which tone you are looking for and which is the natural tone of your guitar.
my 175 has a very dark (to me) nature; soI use pure nickel roundwound on it: it becomes more acoustic and dynamic
my acoustic archtop the loar LH-600 is a little too bright (to me): some 012 d'Addario chrome flat smooth it enough. a woody tone.
I believe that it would be not so different for a 335 style guitar...
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I use 11's flat on my ibanez as 80 which is a 335 style semi hollow guitar. I really like the feel of them. I would recommend you give them a shot. It is an inexpensive way to freshen up your sound. I go back and forth with flats and rounds. Makes things interesting.
Enjoy.
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Also give serious consideration to the guage of the strings. As you may have noticed throughout this thread, most players use a heavier guage string when playing flatwounds, that too has an impact on tone and playability.
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Lee Ritenour uses Flatwounds on his 335. That would be reason enough for me to try it!!!! Plus he plays his 335 with a good bit of overdrive too.
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I tried both flat and round on my 335 Ibanez clone but did'nt notice a vast change in tone (52-11).
The big difference I found was the finger feeling, smooth vs rough.
On the other hand, flatwound doesn't blend well with other guitar styles such as rock,pop and blues, hence would hinder versatility.
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+1. Play what you want, use what you want, with the caveats--alive with a dynamic pulse is better than dead as a doorknob sounding.
Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
. And 9-42s will never get it done.
Can't beat TI round wound Bebop strings.
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Yeah, trial and error is the way to go with strings. I have settled on John Pearse Jazz Rounds 13-56 on my archtop and La Bella Jazz Rounds 13-56 on my 335 (after a lot of experiments)
I also have two acoustics where I am going to try John Pearse Nickel Acoustic and La Bella Golden Alloy soon.
I tried Thomastik flats and didn't bound with them. Never tried the rounds but I feel Thomastik strings are a little overpriced...
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You need to be aware that flats will put higher tension on the neck compared to a round set of the same gauge. That is, D'Adarrio .13 flats will put more lbs of of tension that D'Adarrio .13 rounds. Not a huge deal, but it might require a tweak of the truss rod.
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I use D'Addario 11s with a wound 3rd on my 335, and have never put flatwounds on it. I did try D'Addario flatwound 10s on my new Carvin SH550 and did not notice a whole lot of difference over Elixer 10s. I actually switched to nickel coated D'Addario 10s (EXPs) on the 550, which I like a lot more than Elixers, but they are not a "jazz string" either, and they are brighter.
Last edited by zigzag; 12-16-2011 at 05:39 PM.
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Flats on a 335 absolutely works.
I used it on my 335 , the thing for me was that i want a high string tension so i used 13 chromes. The other thing was that i needed to have a kind of high action on it that made it kind of like wrestling with a bear to play at first before u got used to it. But it sounded great.
Miss that guitar!Last edited by Hjalmiz; 12-17-2011 at 03:52 PM.
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"I am curious as to how many of you have tried flatwounds on a 335 (or similar) style guitar and kept them on and/or how many have had tried them and took them off in preference to roundwounds."
I kept flatwounds (Thomastik Swing 13s) on my 335 ('79 Yamaha SA2000S) for several years and really dug the tone. It was really fundamental heavy and thereby great for complex jazz chords. I also loved the feel of the flats and the lack of incidental string noise. Such a pure, focused, dark sound. Then I got into Julian Lage, especially the sound of his 30s pickup-less L5, and missed the edginess of roundwounds. I've since come to accept that incidental string noise is the price you pay for a more overtone-rich sound. You just have to adjust your technique to minimize it. And with an electric it's easy enough to dial back the treble a bit or otherwise hide the string noise with some reverb. Contemporary 335 players I like include Ben Monder, Steve Cardenas, Mikel Ploug and Adam Rogers, all of whom use rounds. Once I developed a taste for their sounds I couldn't go back. Even Metheny went to rounds late in his career, although his tone has never been anything to brag about.
I now use Thomastik Bebops or Sadowsky Alloys, 13s. The Bebops have less tension, more like 12s, but with better overtones.
D'addario half-rounds are also an option. They provide a good amount midrange edginess with less string noise. You just have to get used to the feel. I now use them on my arch top (Eastman 810CE) after years of playing flatwounds.
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I've never put flatwounds on my 335 partially because it was my working guitar and used it for all styles. I will go up in gauge if playing a lot of jazz, or I'm playing a lot and my fingers are strong.
I think flats would sound good just need to set it up for them.
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I use flats on my Heritage Prospect...sort of the 335 family. But the big difference is that I don't use humbucking pickups. The guitar has been refitted with Fralin P-92s. The resulting sound (not dark) and feel (low and comfortable) are what I need. I also use the guitar for everything so I use the D'Addario set with a .010 on the top and just replace it with an .011.
I've found that the dull sound of flatwounds seems to come as much from their interaction with humbucking pickups and from the string itself.
For me.
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I use Thomastik swing 12's on my 335, and since I've tried them I never felt the need to try any other strings. I really like their sound, feel, and tension, they also are very durable which makes up for their relatively high price.
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I strung up my '68 Tele with flatwound .011s. I was playing it in the room where I taught at a local music store. One of the other teachers came in and told me that he'd thought I was playing an archtop until he saw the guitar. Telecasters and flatwound strings work great together and definitely smooths out the back pickup. I found myself using both pickups together more than I had previously with rounds.
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I had TI Swings 11s on my AS73. Sounded great. I find that TI Swings sound a lot better than Daddario chrome Flats. The Daddarios have an artificial sounding cut to the treble where the TIs still have complete treble articulation, just warmer and smoother.
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I wonder why so many of you put 10's and 11's on your tele or strat or which solid you play, but medium gauge on your hollow-guitar. It really sounds fuller with 13's or 12's (flats in this case) and singlecoils. Is it just that you want to have your solidbodies strung up with light gauge so that you can handle other styles or is it against law to strung up your solid with medium or heavey gauges?
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I've had T-I Swing 11s on my 335 for several months now and I love them. I'm considering putting them on my Gretsch G6120 Nashville.
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heheheh i do it cos as a player i prefer lighter strings.... but i agree even tho i'd love to put 9's on my tele the 11's do sound fatter and have a better jazz tone..... for any studio session for for pop/rock or a jingle ect i'd string the tele with 9's (very acoustic sounding/jangly) but definitely not jazzy even if you roll off tone ... and archtops just sound better with thicker strings but most acoustics do........even if they have pickups Originally Posted by hans halmackenreuter
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playabilty is a good reason to go with light strings and playabilty is very subjective thing. but there are people out there who are just using light gauge on their tele or strat because they were told that it is the proper gauge to choose when playing such a guitar and that's a bad reason to use light string gauge, because people do miss aspects of their guitar tone if they avoid experimenting with the gauges. i remeber that on my g&l legacey special it sounded bad with heavey gauge and it was too hevey for the trem system so i went to daddario ej20, which are nice blend of a roundwound 10 and 11 set. but my 50 strat sounds marvelous with 13 flats, altough i have to admit, that i use 11 rounds at the Moment (but just because i need it for funky groovy stuff) and i can still get a nice jazzsound out of it. Originally Posted by Keira Witherkay
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I play flats on many guitars...even a Telecaster. I currently have rounds on my 335. It seems to matter less, to me, than gauge. Thin strings sound junky on a 335. An eternity ago I would have said differently. In '68, I played a 335 with 9-38s. Low action, too. Now, I would NEVER drop below 11-50...12-52 is better.
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