Flatwound strings on a solid body?

[nick1994]

has anyone tried flatwounds on a solid body like a les paul or prs? I've got flats on my semi-hollow and I was thinking about chucking them on solidbodies. I'm not gonna change the guage, sticking with 11s. I'm trying to go for a darker dead sound. I want to get rid of that harmonic ringing out. Also, is this going to put more tension on the neck?

[vintagelove]

I have flats on a les Paul, pretty convincing jazz tone. Plays really well, too.

[Stringswinger]

In the 50's and early 60's Les Pauls, Strats and Teles CAME with flats, usually 12's. I have been using flats on my solid body guitars for years and love the dark tone...

[jazzbow]

Try to mix up the strings, that works.

A set of flatwound 11's with a plain 3rd for bends. That nails the early R 'n' R sound.

Pure nickel 12's with a roundwound 3rd, once they bed in and dull down you can get a nice sound with tone shaping.

[icr]

Also, is this going to put more tension on the neck?

Good string tension application here: String Tension Pro

[dogletnoir]

i use flatwounds on solidbody guitars quite a bit, either the Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Swing .011-.047 set
or D'Addario Chromes .011-.050. i love the way they sound and feel.
'Treux Bleu

(Strat with TI Jazz Swing strings)

[nickyboy]

I had a Gretsch DuoJet for a while. I strung it with flats and it did a very very convincing jazz tone.
....although it's not strictly solid.

[mr. beaumont]

I use flats on everything pretty much, including my telecaster. Just like nature intended.

[Thecytochromec]

I played flat wounds on my Les Paul for a set. I felt like when I changed back to rounds there was "burst of tone" so to speak. Personally, I like playing jazz on my LP with round wounds using the neck pickup and the tone rolled a good bit off from the higher end.

[Greentone]

Absolutely. As was pointed out, solid body guitars used to come from the factory that way. I know that my Hagstrom guitars (a I and a III) did. I have used flats on the Hagstroms and on a Fender Telecaster. Sounds like original rock and roll AND like jazz.

I like TI Jazz Swing.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Flats make solid body guitars sound jazzier.

I put T-I Swing 13s on my ASAT. It's a top loader and I had to remove the silk from the ball end of the bass E string to thread it though the bridge, but apart from that, works great.

[entresz]

I have flats on my 1975 Gibson L6-S solid body... sounds great, gives the low strings that nice bit thunky goodness.

[neatomic]

at one time flats were pretty much standard on all solid guitars..danelectro and mosrite were notable exceptions..fenders came with heavy flats...a tele sounds great with flats...esp with non staggered bridge polepieces..classic vintage

cheers

[nick1994]

i'm going to chuck some d'addario chromes on my les paul. see how it goes. I don't know about flats on a tele, just seems like a bad combination.

[entresz]

Flats on a Tele sound great. It's a very good combination.

[tonedeaf]

I had some time on my hands while doing some out-of-town work. I spent the time working to see what I could get out of a tele. I was amazed at what a set of GB 14s did to the sound. Very versatile and made some good jazz tones.

[RonD]

+1 I love a Tele with flats!

[Rob MacKillop]

Just today I put TI 12s flatwounds on my Epiphone Les Paul. Sounds a lot better than it should for the price.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I had some time on my hands while doing some out-of-town work. I spent the time working to see what I could get out of a tele. I was amazed at what a set of GB 14s did to the sound. Very versatile and made some good jazz tones.

14s on a Tele, I like it!