Flatwounds?

[OM Flyer]

Just did a recording session today that called for a warm & woody jazz tone, so I put some D'Addario Chrome .11 flatwounds on my Casino, and played on the neck pickup almost exclusively. It sounded great, I liked the smooth feel and lack of finger squeak, and the note sustain was better than I anticipated. So now I want to keep them on for awhile and see what they sound like for other kinds of stuff.

What do you flatwound players play on 'em, besides jazz?

[Justin518]

I have some 12 gauge medium round on my casino, so there not quite totally flat but they are nice and thick and they feel and sound great too. I am mostly playing jazz on that beast though.. sounds great in the funk too though!

[DaveG]

I play a little bit of everything (none of it very well!), and I run Chromes 10's on all my guitars (LPs, Strats, Teles, and a 335 clone). They feel better, last longer, intonate well, and I dig the sound of them... I'll never go back to roundwounds. :)

[chervokas]

I use Thomastik-Infeld Jazz flatwounds on my Tele. Best strings I've ever played and that guitar -- which is a bright spanky Tele -- really responds to those strings which manage to be both warm and snappy at the same time. And yeah, once you've started playing flatwounds -- with their smooth, seductive feel -- any other strings seem almost crude by comparison.

[Aran]

I use Thomastik-Infeld Jazz flatwounds on my Tele. Best strings I've ever played and that guitar -- which is a bright spanky Tele -- really responds to those strings which manage to be both warm and snappy at the same time. And yeah, once you've started playing flatwounds -- with their smooth, seductive feel -- any other strings seem almost crude by comparison.

I may have to give em a try just to see. :)

[Doctor Morbius]

I use flats on a couple of my Strats. They're great for Surf guitar.

[ricoh]

I have used D'Addario 1/2 rounds before. They are not as stiff and still retain the flat sound.

[Elias Graves]

I use 11 Chromes on my LP Junior and Rotosound Monel flatwound 12s on my archtop. I play country blues, old school rock n roll and rockabilly stuff with mine.
You can go from a soft smooth sound to megatwang in .02 seconds.
If you want vintage sound, you gotta use vintage strings.

EG

[66Park]

Here's a pretty left field question, but maybe somebody with lots of experience with flatwounds knows the answer. I have D'Addario Chromes 11s on my '62 L5, which has an ebony compensated bridge. The D'Addarios intonate almost perfectly. I tried some Pyramid Flatwound 11s (the ones with the round core) on it, and I love the sound, but the intonation isn't even close. I'm wondering if the Pyramids with the hex core or the Thomastik Infelds would intonate better with my bridge. Does anyone have any advice? They're not cheap! Chervokas, you seem to have a handle on technical stuff like this.

[CharlyG]

Been using them for years on guitar and bass. Seem to work for everything I do (rock and blues), and I love the smoothness. My SG can twang with the best of em, but also get s a nice sweet neck tone.
I wish they were a little cheaper and more available locally, but online prices are great. I use 11s and the bass is a 5 string.

[mark norwine]

I play in a 4 piece jazz group.....although I dearly love my 175 [always strung with flat chrome 12's], fighting feedback was a PITA. Gaffers tape over the F holes fixed that, but.....yuck.

So I started gigging with my 345. Too bright.

Solution: Flat Chrome 12's on the 345, took off the "edge", and I'm really happy with the sound. Sounds great, feels great. I'm all set!

[66Park]

Solution: Flat Chrome 12's on the 345, took off the "edge", and I'm really happy with the sound. Sounds great, feels great. I'm all set!
Yeah, I think the Pyramid flats that didn't work on my L5 are about to go on my 335. I bet it will be pretty cool.

[jbraun002]

I use flatwounds on my archtop, but I just recently put a set of Thomastik-Infield 10s on my tele and am really enjoying them. I use that for jazz, pop, rock and blues.

One thing i have noticed is that the G string is harder to bend than when I had my Ernie Balls on the tele. I'm not really a bending kind of guy, but some of my country licks are currently difficult or impossible for me with the flatwounds.

[OM Flyer]

Thanks for all the responses, guys -- sounds like I stumbled onto something good here!

The only negative I'm experiencing at the moment is my inability to bend the G string more than half a step. I know jazzers seldom bend, but I do, and that .22 is killing me! Anyone got a workaround?

[arthur rotfeld]

One workaround is to have a plain steel for your G.

Thinner wound strings, regardless of type don't bend well.

I'd love to have doubles of some guitars to have flats and wound G's and typcial rock/blues setups. Especially for 175, 335, Tele.

[Derek Q]

I have flats on all my instruments, but yesterday -as irony would have it- I finally decided that my six-string bass/baritone worked and sounded best with a roundwound set, so I strung it that way. This, after trying multiple flatwound sets and gauges on it. Sometimes, the sound is the wound way around.

Otherwise, I'm not a big, bendy type of player, and I'm more involved with jazz than I am rock, so flats are the obvious choice for me. Just sounded especially lifeless on my bari.

[audiodrome]

I use D'Addario flatwound 11s on my Gretsch 6120DSV and in my opinion it is the perfect match. The sound is dead on for that '50s country/rockabilly twang, and in regards to using 11s, I don't think this guitar sounds right without a wound "G" string.

[billyguitar]

I have some Pyramids on my Johnny A right now. They have the wound .22 G. I like a jazz tone but I'm really a blues player. I've just adapted to sliding on the G string instead of bending. I may go back to a plain G but then I dislike the difference in brightness between the plain and the wound strings. I think in the old days some sets actually had a wound B string! But those were thick, thick strings.

[AJ Love]

I use Flatwounds for Traditional Chicago Blues. Cannot imagine trying to get that sound without flatwounds. I do use a plain G string, but flatwound low E, A, & D

[OM Flyer]

Thanks for your input, Billy and AJ. I , too, lean more towards blues, so it's going to be a learning curve for me to not bend that wound G. I'd go to a plain G, but my guitar's intonation is so much better with a wound one, and I like the consistency of tone with the four low strings being the same type.

Anyone else find that a wound G intonates better at the 12th fret than a plain?

[musicofanatic5]

I use Flatwounds for Traditional Chicago Blues. Cannot imagine trying to get that sound without flatwounds.
Difficult to imagine, perhaps, but probably 99% of "Traditonal Chicago Blues"-guys get it without flats. I like flats alright, but haven't used 'em in years. Dead-ass GHS Burnished Nickle get it for me, but it sure pisses me off when I break one and have to put on new strings!!!