HERESY! I tried Galli flatwound brass and liked them

Tannin

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.

I've had a set of Galli flatwound brass 12s sitting here for a very long time. I mean what am I going to do with flatwound strings? I don't play jazz (well, not proper jazz) and I don't have an archtop. 

I haven't played flatwounds for a very long time - not years, decades - apart from a few brief experiments on archtops in shops - archtops usually seem to come equipped with flatwound 10s or 11s, which are too light for me as well as feeling and sounding weird. Of course, a lot of the weird sound is because it is an archtop, not because of the strings. 

But flatwound strings are normally manufactured in a hard metal similar to what you'd make an electric string out of, typically nickel-steel. A brass flatwound, it seemed to me, might offer some of that classic brass string brightness to offset the dullness of a flat winding. 

Well no. That's not how it works.  The Gallii 80/20 brass flats never even try to have the same sort of brightness and life a brass  or bronze roundwound string has. They have a full, rounded tone and a very different attack-decay envelope. And it's a damn good tone - very different, as different as a clarinet is to a flute. You have to adjust to it, change your technique, your expectations, and your repertoire - some tunes work brilliantly, for others it's just the wrong instrument. ("Wrong instrument -  yes I mean exactly that. It is quite different, as different to a standard acoustic as a resonator is.)

But the very first thing you notice is the complete absence of fingering noise. It is downright eerie. Way, way more pronounced than playing Elixirs or semi-flats.  The Gallis don't reduce fingering noise, they totally eliminate it.  It is such a strange sensation - and then just as you are starting to enjoy it you do some other silly thing with your left hand, such as fail to properly mute an unwanted string and it buzzes just like any other string and you get a big surprise 'coz you were starting to feel like a guitar god. 

These cost  a lot - $36 AUD from Strings and Beyond or about £21 a set - but I expect that they will last a very long time. 

I put them on my Cole Clark Angel on the theory that it was a treble-heavy guitar and they might suit it. I think they do, but now I want to try them out on two or three other guitars as well to see which one suits them best. How would they go on the rosewood Messiah for example? (My guess: either very, very good, or very, very bad. Not sure which one. Do I want to punt $36 to find out?) What would happen if I bought a nice acoustic archtop for them? (Ans: divorce.) 

TheMadMick

Couldn't be anyone else. I've found Monel and it reduces the finger squeek considerably - but doesn't eliminate it like these seem to. Good luck.  At least the Monels are about half the price.

Rocker

Wonder how they would work on my near twenty year old Taylor 310.  The Taylor is setup and strung with Elixirs ......

Tannin

One thing I forgot to mention. Don't strum. When you strum a full chord, they go flubb. This guitar has never been a good one for playing big chords on, and with these strings it is more so again. Guitar and strings both are made for single-note work and small, focused chords (say three strings). If you want to knock out a bright and bouncy rhythm part, play something else.

Tannin

They lasted very well in the end. I kept them on for 5 months. They were a bit tired towards the end, probably 4 months is a more reasonable life for them in my hands. (YMMV.) And I was sad to see them go, though as it happened the D'Angellico Prohibition Bronze roundwound 85/15s I replaced them with were absolute humdingers which really made the Angel sing. 

In the meantime, I'd ordered more. In fact, because nothing exceeds like excess, I ordered three new sets, plus one set each of Galli Flats in chrome, Magma Flat Phosphor Bronze, and Dogal Nightclub flat brass (12-46 with an extraordinary wound .16 B string. That sounds crazy and they were mega-expensive too. Oh well, try anything once. 

I put them on my Cole Clark Angel on the theory that it was a treble-heavy guitar and they might suit it. I think they do, but now I want to try them out on two or three other guitars as well to see which one suits them best. How would they go on the rosewood Messiah for example? (My guess: either very, very good, or very, very bad. Not sure which one.

Well, both. I did put a set on the Messiah and they work very well for the most part except that the two plain steel strings are too loud and shrill.

Well, they are actually, of course, exactly the same as any other two plain steel strings. The difference is that the Messiah has a lot of top end which in normal use with standard strings accentuates the plain strings and equally accentuates the upper harmonics of the wound strings, resulting in that classic rosewood sound, and in a good string-to-string balance. With the flats, you have plenty of fundamental tone but less of the higher partials. On this guitar, that results in an odd sound. Yes, I can adjust my playing and more-or-less compensate, but overall I wouldn't call the flats a success with the rosewood. 

Probably, the Myrtle Beech Mineur will be similar - Myrtle Beech has a lot of ring in the top end - but I think I will try it out to be sure as they might just work brilliantly on it. It's both similar to and very different from rosewood. 

ALR

After @Tannin recommendation in the Archtop thread, I tried the Galli Flatwounds on my Epiphone Emperor Deluxe. I really like them, the best strings I've had on the guitar. Been playing a bit of chord melody and they're great, I'll be sticking with them.