Flat wound strings?

Barnezy

Anyone use them? What are your thoughts? What brands are there? 

Funkfingers

All the usual brands offer flatwound guitar strings. Some with a plain steel G, some with a wound one.

Flats are most strongly associated with Jazz tones. They are also popular with some slide players who wish to reduce the noises that roundwounds can produce. 

I have only ever used flats on fully hollow body electric guitars and, of course, bass.

guitars4you

Mainly associated today with jazz based players - I believe Jimmy Vaughan uses them as well - Less lively is an easy term to describe the tone - More dull - Less string noise when you slide your playing hand over them - Generally they cause less fret wear - Last longer than conventional wire wound but considerably more expensive - Generally  a heavier gauge around 11/12 and 13 gauge - Can be nickel or steel as per a regular wire wound string

Very much an acquired taste - I prefer the D'addario 1/2 wound which is effectively a hy-brid of flat and wire wound

Matt_McG

Personally, I quite like the sound. I had some on an LP copy for a while, setup to do more vintage/jazzy tones. But I hated (really hated) the feel under my fingers. I need to feel the windings, and a bit of friction as I move around.

JDE

I’ve tried most of not all of the readily available flats. “Best” is relative and dependent on the tone you’re after, but for overall playing and quality, I preferred Thomastik and Pyramid flats, personally. If you want a very dark/dead/ bebop sound, then my favourites were LaBella, but they’re quite hard to get here. 
Generally the tension of a set of flats is lower on the wound strings because the core of the string under the wrap is smaller, so for most manufacturers, it’s best to assume that the next gauge “up” is relative - basically, if you play a 10-46 gauge roundwound set, go 11-48 or whatever for flats. Thomastik’s have the lightest tension of all flat manufacturers in my experience, so be more aware of this if you try one of their sets. 

If you search online you will no doubt come across LaBella Nylon Tapewound strings. These are great on an archtop but go for the 14 gauge set if you’re going to try them. The low strings are very thick so expect some nut, tuning post and maybe even tailpiece adjustments depending on what guitar you have

Jalapeno

Love them, Thomastik Infeld Jazz or Swing - use 10s on Tele/335, 11s on 125, and 12s on on Archtops.  Got a buddy who uses TI Swing on his Maccaferri acoustic - swears by them (not so sure myself as there isn't enough "thwack" or treble for Django style jazz)

thegummy

Use flats all the time on bass. On guitar, it's only the bottom 3 strings that would change, is that right?

Wouldn't it sound weird to have the bottom 3 strings sounding so different?

billzabozo

I have a set of pyramid 12s on my telecaster at the moment and really like the sound, I'm not using a pick just fingers and have it set up high enough to play some slide on as well. It seems to my ears to give the notes a great fundamental definition at the expense of some of the more subtle overtones. I have also noticed I'm running my amp quite bright to compensate a little.

JezWynd

billzabozo said:

I have a set of pyramid 12s on my telecaster at the moment and really like the sound, I'm not using a pick just fingers and have it set up high enough to play some slide on as well. It seems to my ears to give the notes a great fundamental definition at the expense of some of the more subtle overtones. I have also noticed I'm running my amp quite bright to compensate a little.

That's a good description of my experience too. Since changing from tele to hollow body I use them all the time, though I have a set of half wounds that I will try soon. Could be they bring back some of the harmonic subtleties, while still killing the squeak that full rounds give out on hollow body.

kt66

I'm trying some 11 Flat Wounds for the first time this week on my Gretsch G5435T. So far I'm loving it, feels very different to play, strings are dull in comparison to modern strings, need an eq boost to get it sounding good. 

Jalapeno

thegummy said:

Use flats all the time on bass. On guitar, it's only the bottom 3 strings that would change, is that right?

Wouldn't it sound weird to have the bottom 3 strings sounding so different?

Flats (for guitar) often have a wound 3rd too.

thegummy

Jalapeno said:

thegummy said:

Use flats all the time on bass. On guitar, it's only the bottom 3 strings that would change, is that right?

Wouldn't it sound weird to have the bottom 3 strings sounding so different?

Flats (for guitar) often have a wound 3rd too.

The query would just apply to the top 2 strings then.

Might be different with the much thinner strings on guitar but on bass, roundwounds are quite similar to guitar strings (both roundwound and plain) in that they're bright and have sustain but flatwounds are dull and thumpy - a great sound in its own right, I just think it might be weird going between one and the other.

Maybe they're used mostly for chords where it's always a combination of the two? Or maybe the player always takes the differences in to consideration and only goes to the specific strings when wanting a specific tone?

Winny_Pooh

The guitarist in Khruangbin effectively uses a set of skinny flats (3 plain strings) and gets great twangy tones. I'm curious now to also try this kinda setup on a strat...

Edit: for interest sake, he uses a heavy set, drops the low E (old A string is the new E etc)and adds a high E.

jdgm

Jalapeno said:

Love them, Thomastik Infeld Jazz or Swing - use 10s on Tele/335, 11s on 125, and 12s on on Archtops.  Got a buddy who uses TI Swing on his Maccaferri acoustic - swears by them (not so sure myself as there isn't enough "thwack" or treble for Django style jazz)

Yes.  Have Thomastik Infeld 11 set on one of my semis. The best IMO.

thegummy

Winny_Pooh said:

The guitarist in Khraungbin effectively uses a set of skinny flats (3 plain strings) and gets great twangy tones. I'm curious now to also try this kinda setup on a strat...

Love them so so much, what a great band 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

One interesting thing from the recent Rig Rundown with Gary Clark's guitar tech was that he uses D'Addario Chrome flats on a number of his guitars, although with a plain G string. Surprised me a bit as I'd always imagined flats were just for clean, jazzy players, not really for heavily fuzz-laden tones. 

guitarmangler

Winny_Pooh said:

The guitarist in Khraungbin effectively uses a set of skinny flats (3 plain strings) and gets great twangy tones. I'm curious now to also try this kinda setup on a strat...

I want to try ,this too. The appeal of not changing strings often because the tone doesn’t change sounds like a great idea. 

guitars4you

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

One interesting thing from the recent Rig Rundown with Gary Clark's guitar tech was that he uses D'Addario Chrome flats on a number of his guitars, although with a plain G string. Surprised me a bit as I'd always imagined flats were just for clean, jazzy players, not really for heavily fuzz-laden tones. 

Nice to know - I believe Jimmy Vaughan is a flat wound fan as well

ICBM

thegummy said:

Jalapeno said:

thegummy said:

Use flats all the time on bass. On guitar, it's only the bottom 3 strings that would change, is that right?

Wouldn't it sound weird to have the bottom 3 strings sounding so different?

Flats (for guitar) often have a wound 3rd too.

The query would just apply to the top 2 strings then.

Might be different with the much thinner strings on guitar but on bass, roundwounds are quite similar to guitar strings (both roundwound and plain) in that they're bright and have sustain but flatwounds are dull and thumpy - a great sound in its own right, I just think it might be weird going between one and the other.

Maybe they're used mostly for chords where it's always a combination of the two? Or maybe the player always takes the differences in to consideration and only goes to the specific strings when wanting a specific tone?

Surprisingly, it's the other way round - there's less tone difference between a plain string and a flatwound than a plain string and a roundwound. It's probably just that we're so used to the sound of roundwound lower strings that it doesn't seem odd that the top strings are much smoother-sounding.

Corvus

My first go recently with Thomastik 12s. Feel easier than the roundwound 11s they replaced. More lively than i expected, certainly not dull, but really don't want to bend.. the flat wrap must fight it.

They're on an archtop so ymmv but they made that guitar, that particular pickup sound so much better. I like bending too much to use them on anything else though.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

guitars4you said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

One interesting thing from the recent Rig Rundown with Gary Clark's guitar tech was that he uses D'Addario Chrome flats on a number of his guitars, although with a plain G string. Surprised me a bit as I'd always imagined flats were just for clean, jazzy players, not really for heavily fuzz-laden tones. 

Nice to know - I believe Jimmy Vaughan is a flat wound fan as well

Gary Clark Jr was mentored by Jimmie Vaughan when he was a young 'un in Texas, wonder if that was something he picked up from JV...