View Poll Results: Do you use roundwound or flatwound strings?
- Voters
- 649. You may not vote on this poll
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Flatwound
370 57.01% -
Roundwound
258 39.75% -
I'm a trombonist
21 3.24%
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been a few years since my last post here, so I need to revise my position and preference... Coated rounds on everything. A jazz guitarist I really respect came into the store while I was working the register, and got a million sets of Elixirs, and I said to him "Wait, no flats?" and he said "I use rounds, and you should too" before he took off. Glad I listened to him, because the sound and feel of rounds are a part of my expression today (or so I hope..!). Slidey legato stuff on the wound strings really capture that "reed"-like feel in a jazz sax player. It just feels a bit more dirty, and I'm into it.
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04-05-2019 05:21 AM
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Ref. above post ^, at around 4 changes a year per guitar, a million sets of Elixirs should last him a while. I had actually ruled out this brand when I tried their Polywebs due to weird fraying going on at the pick attack area. I did like the lowered finger noise until that started happening.
Recently I came across some very positive comments on the Nanowebs and gave them a go. So far they're holding up really well with no fraying, lots of round wound sparkle etc, and squeaks on my archtop are just within tolerable limits for me. I really dislike squeaks
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Yeah, I wasn't a fan either until they released the Optiweb strings in 2016 or 2017. Never looked back!
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Originally Posted by mr quick
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The results correlate with a survey I did a couple of years ago.
The results then where 59% flatwound, 33% roundwound, and 8% halfwound.
The Best Jazz Guitar Strings (Top 30) + Best Gauges/Wound
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Here's an old thread for sure!
I'm sure I commented earlier, but I have no idea what I answered.
These days, my answer would be "YES." I like having a guitar with flats and a guitar with rounds hanging around.
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Mostly preferred roundwounds for the richer harmonics. But I'm considering switching to flatwounds to reduce fret wear and just explore something a little different. If I can keep playing at all with the worsening pain in my left thumb and index finger.
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No option for BOTH? I have more than one guitar. My 5th Avenue has D’Addario Flatwound Chromes and my Hamer has Ernie Ball Pure Nickel Slinkies.
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I went from Thomastik Bebop .013s round to Swing flat .013s and I'm back to rounds and think I like them better for clearness.
Question: Are the B and high E unwound strings the same in Bebops and Swings?
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I would think they are the same string other.manufacturers ask if you want a wound third.
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.013 sets have a wound third.. which I like. The round wound strings (i.e. BeBop) have a better blend with the unwound ones. That's why I prefer them. I was just wondering...
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Well, I can’t vote because I use both.
I use these flats for electric hollowbodies and semi-s, 12 - 48:
I use these round monels for solidbodies, also 12 - 48:
I replace the E and B with .012 and .015
Acoustics get a variety of brands and materials but all roundwound.
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Both; I use TI JS 13 flats on my WesMo, on my solid bodies, I use Dean Markley Signature Series rounds 10-46, with 10-52 on one of my Les Pauls and on my acoustics, I use either Dean Markely or Martin 12 rounds.
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I tend to oscillate between flats and roundwounds on my ES 330. IMHO flats have a punchier tone (more fundamental, less overtones, less sustain) which seems to fit very nicely in our soul-jazz organ trio. They give low notes the needed authority while still sounding mellow. From time to time I try roundwounds thinking they would make the guitar more "versatile". They usually stay no more than a week. ;-)
OTOH the tele will always have roundwounds, they are just made for the twang.
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I like flat wound strings because they make less noise than regular wound. Many years ago I got a set of flat wound strings , the E,A and D strings were coated with Black teflon. I think they were made by DeAdario. They were the best strings. But I never was able to find them again. Has anybody heard of Teflon Coated strings?
Kevin Hagen
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Originally Posted by ikusan
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IME, definitely give the Nanowebs a try if finger noise is your main issue with roundwounds.
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I have been using flat wounds on my 2 Eastman archtops. Yesterday, for the first time in a while, I picked up my Eastman with the Lollar CC pickup, and it just sounded plinky. After some time fiddling with EQ on the Bud, I realized that I had put monels to try them out.
The carved Eastman archtops, IME, have a very good acoustic sound, and with the monels this guitar sounded really good acoustically, but I disliked the sound through the CC pickup pretty intensely. I put on a set of Dogal R40 strings, and... there was the amplified sound I was looking for.
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Considering very seriously to move to tape-wounds if I can find a full set that intonates correctly everywhere on every string.
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It always takes a few hours of playing before roundwounds lose that horrible zingyness they have at first, so I prefer flatwounds.
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Roundwound!
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Rounds won't let you down, the others will leave you flat
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Flatwounds, roundounds? Long hair, short hair? Yes and no to all. Like cropped hair, roundwounds are generally more practical, but that doesn't deter one at times from just letting one's hair grow à la Gandalf and slinging on some fat flatties, not that there's necessarily any correlation. Just because.
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I tried flat wounds a while ago and used them for around a year, but it didn't work for me, so I went back to round wounds.
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I have thomastik flats on my Jazz. They are a real nice combination.
Favorite Jazz guitarist book
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