Do Flatwound Strings Sound Better with Age? (a back to back comparison)

[McJazzer]

Hi all,

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. In the past I had done similar comparisons of Thomastik Infeld vs. a similar D'Addario set, roundwound vs. halfround strings, and 80/20 vs. Phosphor Bronze on flat tops. It seems to be a popular topic and so I thought I'd revisit it.

The essence of what I've tried to do is this: remove all of the variables (guitar, amp, mic, mic location, the excerpts I'll be performing, and even my right hand picking position) in the hopes that I'll be able to isolate the only remaining variable - string age. I'll be using two identical sets of gauge 12 D'Addario Chromes (a popular flatwound set) - one set is brand new, the other is around a year and a half old. The older set still has plenty of life in it and very much represents the tone that I prefer out of a set of flatwound strings. We'll listen to 3 different types of playing samples - strictly acoustic, strictly a mic'd amp, and then finally a 50/50 mix.

I put these strings on the guitar back in December 2018. Last year in May I cracked the top and didn't play it for awhile. After some poor experiences with repairmen in the Pittsburgh area, I didn't know anyone I could trust to fix it. In September I joined up with the Queen Mary for a 5 month gig and returned in February, just before the pandemic happened and so I never got around to having it properly repaired until July once things started to open back up.

Long story short - the old flatwounds in this video still had plenty of life in them. I'll usually replace the high E and B strings a few times over the 2 year span I tend to get out of flats but other than that, this is a direct comparison of two almost identical sets of D'Addario flatwounds with the only difference being that one is considerably "broken in."

If you've read all that, feel free to skip to 3:28 in the video as the first few minutes just deal with explaining those details.

Here are your relevant timestamps:
3:28 - Acoustic Comparison
4:58 - Electric Comparison
5:57 - Combined, back to back

I'd love to hear your thoughts. If not on this specific video, then of your own experience with flatwound strings - brand, gauge, and if you prefer to replace them often or not. Listening back, I actually prefer the new set just a tad more on the acoustic samples, which is primarily how I play these days. That surprised me.

Have a great weekend everyone.

[WilliamScott]

I like the new ones better. More harmonics. It's most noticeable in the acoustic comparison though and hardly noticeable in the electric. I'm a bit surprised because I've always thought that flat wounds start out sounding old. I didn't notice any intonation differences.

[McJazzer]

Definitely more harmonics, yeah. The string separation seems to be more apparent and you get an overall more clear sound. I'm sure different sets age differently too. After this video, I ended up switching to a set of Thomastik Infeld jazz swing flats and doing another comparison.
The TIs feel way different when they're fresh. I ended up taking this particular set of D'Addario Chromes and putting them on my semihollow Tele.

[John A.]

I thought the acoustic sound was better with the new strings, and the electric was maybe a little better with the older strings. But I have to admit that I'm general not that into the sound of a carved top+floater, and what I like about the older strings is that they mute the brightness of that sound somewhat. BTW, though, nice arrangement of Windows.

John