In the 60s, professional bass strings were flat wound. Round wounds were regarded as inferior, budget - priced strings. Of course, by 1970 tastes in bass strings were changing.
Flatwound strings take a LONG time to break in but also "last" forever. They tend to get way more flexible over time and I've never actually changed a set of flats because they were worn out or didn't sound fine, years with the same set and very consistent tone whatever the brand or gauge. For certain players, guitars and styles, they are just great.
Curious about fret and board maintenance. I change strings before they wear out just to condition the neck and polish the frets. You just work around them?
Should also mention that imho flat wounds require a different touch and finger pressure. My technique changes quite a bit when playing them to get the best sound and results. Overall, a lighter more careful approach, the tendency is to just grab them or mash them like you would a standard round-wound string, which makes for some potentially inaccurate and uncomfortable playing.
I discovered half rounds when my fingers were hurting from regular round wounds. I tried flats and was uninspired. But the half rounds had a blues/rock bite to them with that low-mid range. The have been on all my guitars ever since. Just comfortable and with a sound I appreciate.
A nice trick to get reasonable tension/gauges from a flat wound set is to get what has been called a "bump set". Take a set of D'Addario Chromes that have a 13 for the high E. Throw the low "E" away and bump all of the strings over one, so the "A" becomes the "E", the "D" becomes the "A", etc. Then you get a plain steel high "E". This has the added benefit of giving you back the plain third string for easier bending.
Thank you very much! I enjoyed this and to my old ears, I really liked the definition of the flatwounds. I'm going to try a set on one of my tele's. Be well ~ My Best ~ Joe
For a while 've been playing .008--.039 ThomastiK-Infeld flats on all of my guitars. I buy them as single strings and yes, they're expensive, but they never seem to wear out or break, so maybe not so expensive after all. Anyway, they sound and play better than anything I've ever used before. When my friends pick up one of my guitars they're amazed at how great they sound and how nice they feel to play . They ask me what my magic set up techniques are, but it's not magic, it's just the strings.
I use Thomastik-Infelds on my acoustic guitar and love those strings. They are definitely mellow and darken in a different way than domestic strings. I haven't played them on electrics yet. While they are expensive they definitely are worth the money and they typically last longer than domestic strings that are not coated.
@@Glicksman1 About half of my electric basses are strung with T.I. flats. Great strings in general, and head and shoulders above any other flats on the market. I've used their mandolin flats as well, so it's no surprise that their flats for electric guitars are so good! 😀
@GshockBeats I have to order mine online from Reverb. The first time I played a set was on my friend's Yamaha acoustic and after that I started using them on my six string acoustic guitars. From European players I have heard they are the reasonably priced strings and the US made strings are more expensive. For electrics I mainly use D'Addario NYXLs and Stringjoys. I also have other strings that I find on sale like GHS and Electro-Harmonix when they are the right gauges. For acoustics its Thomastik-Infelds for my six strings and D'Addario for my 12 string. For bass right now I am playing DR sets, one flat wounds and one round wounds. I also like D'Addario strings for bass too. The only strings I don't really get on with are Ernie Ball Slinkys. It's not that they are bad strings, quite the opposite quality wise. It's that I chord so fast and heavy that the slinky part means that they shoot out from under my fingers. Originally those Slinky part of the sets came from using banjo strings instead of regular electric due to James Burton playing them on TV and with Ricky Nelson.😉👍✨
Fun demonstration Zac, thanks for sharing! In all my years of playing, I've only ever used D'Addario EXL (nickel wound) and have always loved the way they sound so never felt the need to try anything else. You made all three of these options sound great though! Nice to have options 🙂 Rock on!
My dad has told the story many times of getting to visit Marty Stuart and the Superlatives at Studio B while they were recording. They hung out for a bit and Marty said to his tech "go get that thing", he returned with Luther Perkins' Esquire, still with the same old flatwound strings on it. He said when Marty picked it in the room it sounded just like Luther on the record, Marty then recorded a track with it himself. I wasn't in the room, but I'd believe it that Luther liked to flats on his guitars - guess you'll have to go ask Marty, Kenny, Chris , or Harry!
Dear Zac, this is one of the most USEFUL pieces on guitar I have seen in years - the meat of the matter. You inspire understanding.I had no idea about "ground-wound" strings. Cheers! It's late but HAPPY NEW YEAR, sir to you and the Childs Household.
I use a custom set for my Tele jazz light chromes on bottom and 10 13 17 up top. Then I use half rounds on my Junior gives a nice warm bite. I have yet to try pure nickel but that’s now on my to do list for my junior. Sounding good!
I've gone back and forth on flatwounds for years. I love them on offsets, especially Jaguars. Something about the brightness of the Jag pickups and the mellowness of flats mixing together does it for me. They work well on Jazzmasters too. Anything else I've tried them on, they came back off pretty quickly. Bass, however, is flats all day, every day. I have one cheap Squier bass setup with rounds just so I have that sound available to me, but the rest are La Bella flats. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Just put Pyramid Gold flat wound 10s on my TL 52 TX80, and found them stiffer then D,Adddari flats thought for a moment and then tuned to D , problem solved! Thanks for a great demo Zach!
I have to agree with some of the other subscribers. The flats sound head and shoulders best for that vintage country sound. Very much so! The first song I fell in love with as a young boy was Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash. Those flats nailed it!
@@AskZac I agree, they sound awesome. I could swear D'Addario had a set of chromes with a plain 3rd, but maybe not available in the 3-pack? Regardless, I know D'Addario is a sponsor, but I'd be curious to know what you thought about some of the fancier flats like Thomastik-Infeld. Those always felt a lot more supple to me, and they come in 10-44 with a plain 3rd. Pricey, though, and at the end of the day, not what I'd want on an everyday gigging guitar.
A guitar will "tell" you when it wants to cooperate with flats. My fave strat with flats reminds me of 50s Chess records. I recently went C# standard on a jazzmaster and the flats instantly brought out spaghetti western / Tarantino "bury a body in the desert" tones.
100% agree! Also larrychung3190's comment above ("For certain players, guitars and styles, they are great."). I had this 90's Rick 360 w/ the "toaster top" pups I could never quite fully get along with (.010-.046 roundwounds). Then after reading what some other Rick players were saying in forums, and a bit about what the Beatles used early on, I tried a set of Pyramid flatwounds on it (.011-.048). Wow, what a revelation! That guitar just seemed to love those strings & it was way more fun to play. Listen to what your guitars are telling you! 😉🎸
Great comparison! When I switched to (round core) pure nickel strings, I found that (1) the bottom end softened a bit, (2) because of the softer bottom, the guitar sounded more balanced, and (3) maybe because of the round core, they felt slinkier.
I’ve also recently switched to round core nickel strings (DR pure blues) and not sure how I played guitar before them 😂 I used dadarrio 10’s for the 30 years I’ve been playing and still have some set laying around. Use them up on some lesser played guitars and it feels like a struggle going back!
My 1961 Fender BassVI came with flats , now use half(3 high strings) flats and rounds on the bottom. Still have 2 sets of original Fender flats unopened in Fender packaging with both French and English on the packs(Canada?)
Thanks for the demonstration. I do like Chromes on some guitars. Like you, I don't care for the wound 3rd. I buy the 12-52 set, throw away the thickest one and add a number nine or ten to make the custom set. That ends up being really light on the touch. They help getting a smoky Jazz sound on a Tele with a good neck pickup. Flatwounds are all I run on electric bass.
Thanks for this video. I learned so much from it and especially from all the comments so far from those who’ve tried and experimented with these different types of strings. I just bought a used 2015 MIM Tele that I’m installing Certano palm benders on and wondering how flat round string would sound on that.
One of the best tips I’ve picked up is using flatwounds on a 12 strings. There the fact that they don’t have a lot of harmonics is awesome, because otherwise the harmonics compete with the octave strings.
I put Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flatts on all my guitars, including my acoustics. I don't like them fresh out of the package because they are so stiff. It does take at least a few days to a week for them to loosen up and balance out tonally. It took a few attempts with flats until I finally "got" them. They're especially good on goldfoil guitars to help control the brightness and make the sound fuller. I've tried going back to roundwounds but that "recorded" sound in tandem with the smooth feel is unbeatable to me.
I’m mostly a rhythm guy and I love my slinky tens! I put them on everything. I’ve been using them for years and years. They bed in faster. They last way longer. And I love the subtlety of those mellow tones. I also find the smoothness is my easier, faster and less squeaky to play. Tons more fun! Do I miss the brightness? Actually too much brightness makes me reach for the knobs to try to tame things, so no!
I hated flat wound strings forever and about 5 years ago I put some on an archtop and now love them on certain guitars. I currently use two Silvertone 1446’s one has .011 round wounds tuned standard and the other has .012 Flatwounds tuned to D standard.
@@AskZac Archtops! Having a wound G is important to the sound, I think? .012’s are the lightest gauge I use. Maybe .011’s on a Tele, but it still needs a wound G.
There is a trick to get a light set of flats without the wound G I saw in the Khruangbin rig rundown Premier Guitar video. Use the 52-12 chromes set, throw out the 52 and use the 42 for the E string and add a 9 or 10 for the high E.
When I started playing in the 70’s pure nickel were so common. I don’t see them so much now. I have a couple of sets from the 80’s I need to try. Great episode.
I used Chromes 10-48 for years on my Tele, however I also bought a 13, 17 plain so that I could bend as usual. Back to roundwound now, but still use my "cheater" Chromes on my Harmony Rocket.
Those steel half rounds are great but can eat up nickel frets real fast. Great string for slide playing as well. If anyone likes nickel try out Pyramid Pure Nickel Classics.
Dear Zak a great review and comparison, I bought and installed Half round on my ESquire Telecaster but mine are Chromes I love them the 11-50 is perfect for my low open tuning (Open D or Open C) I use them quite a bit for slide guitar playing and I really love them !
I used Chromes on the bottom strings and pure nickel on the top strings on my Les Paul, SG and Strat for many years. The reason is the Chrome G, B and E strings are too stiff. That made string changes expensive. Another thing is with the extra tension from the Chromes, my Les Paul neck developed a slight warp. Now I use D'Addario XS on my guitars which are the best strings I have used in the 56 years I have been playing guitar.
Cool video. I actually like thicker strings (11s on my solid bodies, 12s on my hollow bodies) and I usually play Decade NYXLs and Stringjoys for the most part. I do have half flats on one of my guitars and its fine, it definitely darkens the tone of that Strat style guitar which helps because right now that one is in D Standard. I do have pure nickle steel strings on a few guitars and yeah, it does mellow out the guitar. So if you have more than a few guitars, throwing flatwound (more of a Jazz or old Blues tone) is an inexpensive way (compared to new pickups) to make one guitar sound different. You nail the "Old School" ideal with these string sets. The half wound sounds brighter than flatwounds but mellower than round wounds. Personally I like flat wounds on my bass guitar and round wounds on my guitar. Same with active pickups, on bass they are great, on guitars, no thanks. But yeah, different strings and picks are the least expensive change you can do to look around and see if you want something else out of your guitar. I will say this, if you have a collection under five different guitars, you may not like swapping out different strings. I would also recommend doing this on a hardtail guitar vs a Strat or a tremolo equiped guitar.
On my hollows I use a custom set. Three bass strings are the lightest flats from Ghs and the three treble are just the same as a set of 10s. Best of both worlds.
I used D’Addario half rounds for years back in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s. Not sure why I got away from them. I did a lot of experimenting back then. Even tried nylon tape wound strings once. Lately I’ve been using Slinkys for most of my guitars and Stringjoys for my main coupe of guitars. Just ordered a set of half rounds so we’ll see what happens. Thanks for the video.
Tried Chromes once, and like you, found that the they were too stiff. I often play rhythm guitar and I find the nickel strings give me a balanced tone when I'm playing chords. I can make them sound warm when I need to, and brighter when I need to. BTW, I prefer round core strings. They are easier on my hands than hex core strings.
My favorite string setup starts with a set of daddario Chrome XL ECG 23 10 - 48s. Throw away the .048 6th string, buy a plain 0.008 string for the first string and bump all of the others over, resulting in a super smooth playing and feeling 8- 38 flat wound set.
Many years back, out of curiosity, I tried Thomastik flat wound strings on my Tele. I really didn't like flat wounds at all and I like all kinds of strings. I love the Thomastik flat wound Präzision mandolin strings (Thomastik are beautiful strings in general, by the way). For electric guitar I look for the slinky flexibility of round-wound strings, because even when you"re not bending, you're bending subtly and expressively. The Thomasitik Power-Brights are luxurious, but pricy. These days I am loving D'addario NYXL (uncoated) strings.
I sure hope you go back and do a "blindfold" listen to the audio of this. The flats and pure nickels sound killer. I get that wound G is difficult. I got a guitar recently that had one on it. Took it right off for a plain G. But seriously, between those fundamental frequencies and that Headstrong amp, you got a great thing there. I'd love to hear that old tele with those old fashioned strings through one of your tweeds.
I use flats on my ES-330 (12s) and pure nickel 11s on everything else ( Tele, Strat, ans Les Paul ). The core on flats is a larger diameter for a given outer diameter compared to rounds. Hence the higher tension.
I dunno Zac, you sound pretty freakin good on those flats. If you swapped out the wound G for a .17 or .18 unwound it would probably feel way better! Also if you flattened out the neck relief a wee bit so you didn’t have to work quite so hard… I just read a comment on here from a guy who uses some very light gauge .8 - .39 Thomastik flats that might be neat to try, I bet they don’t feel too stiff! I know this is way off topic, but I wonder what strings Lennon was using on his little 20 3/4” super short scale Ric 325! Maybe like 16s Pyramid flats, seeing as he bought the Ric in Germany, and they spent so much time playing there in the early days… (At least they didn't only have Black Diamond strings to choose from...) I bought a set of ‘ground-round-wound’ strings for my P bass in the mid 70s, I think whenever they first came out, and I loved ‘em. I was playing bass 4 to 6 nights a week and so it was way easier on my frets (and fingers)! It blows my mind that Fender actually shipped their guitars in the 50s-60s with 12 thru 53s, and with a wound G! That’s basically an acoustic set… There was a set that came out, again I think it was in the mid 70s, that they called “light tops, heavy bottoms”, which were 10/13/17/32/42/52, and we favored those for a long time on the strats and teles which we used onstage and in the studio. The one other really oddball string variant which I came to favor for certain things around 20 years ago were the DR Zebras. They use alternate wraps of nickel and PB, (so the strings have like a barber shop pole effect if you look real close). I have an old size 0 parlor with a slightly microphonic 60s Teisco gold foil in the sound hole, and with those Zebra strings it sounds like nothing else, especially with slide. There’s so many choices of different kinds and metal types of strings around now, that if you have a lot of guitars, it becomes very hard to keep track of what you used on any given instrument, especially if they’ve been on there for a while. Around 20 years ago I began sticking a small (like 2”) post-it note with the specific string gauges and set designation, with the install date, on the back of the headstock of each guitar, and it has been very helpful. When someone picks up a random guitar and says, “hey, I love these strings, what are they?” and I can say “just read the post-it on the back of the headstock…” This was an interesting demo you put together, thanks for taking the trouble to restring your Tele so many times. I almost never have two guitars around with the same gauges or types of strings on ‘em, as I tend to dedicate them to particular tunings and then just leave them that way… Question: what’s the main difference you hear/feel between round core and hex core strings?
Zach - i’ve always preferred pure nickel strings on Fender guitars with single coils, however i also decided recently (partially due to your influence) to start using the 9.5-44 size. sure wish D’Addario would make the 9.5 set in pure nickel! please pass on the message if you have a means to provide them the input. really appreciate your you tube videos and interviews! thanks
Zac, get the heaviest DAdarrio flat wound set, ditch their low E, add a single 9 or 9.5 high E. That was an early Page trick, he added a banjo string for high E.
Pure Nickels for me for over 30 years in .11-.48. Chromes on all my electric basses. Their acoustic sets in .12 for all my acoustics (can’t recall if 80/20 or Bronze). D’Addarios sound great and last forever. One thing that always confused me was that I thought Jimmy Bryant used flats but I heard he actually used rounds!! Beautiful axe there! Happy 2025 for you and yours, dear sir!
Great experiment, doing everything the way it should be. Same guitar, through a completely clean amp with no effects, only difference being the strings. Those flatwounds have a nice, warm tone! I do know that Ernie Ball makes a set of .009 flatwound Super Slinky strings, but those D'Addario flatwounds sound good.
Cool video. I use D'Addario 10 13 17 plain and 24 35 45 Chromes. Best of both worlds to me. I think I remember Kenny Vaughn saying that Luther Perkins did use flats.
The advantage with heavier gauge and/or flat wound strings is a faster response and a better articulated fundamental note; which useful for 'jazz' chords (somewhat like a piano). The trade off with light gauge / unwound 3rd strings is: more sustain, more bending, and a more vocal response.
Hey Zac. Now I’m not proselytizing you about what strings to use, but your antipathies for flats may be because the ones you tried were just too damn heavy. The set I’ve settled on is .008, .010, .014 (plain), .023, 031, .039. This set allows full bending, micro-toning (is that a word?), and vibrato with virtually the same facility as rounds. The advantage of flats is, of course, no noise when sliding up and down the neck from one position to another. This is very useful in the studio as you might gather. Also, as you said, flats produce a very strong and focused fundamental. Given that most of the notes that we play are quite momentary, a good, solid fundamental is a plus. Let me tell you how I came to favour flats on the low E, A, and D strings. I’ve always been a big fan of the twelve-string. The first one I heard was an acoustic (“Walk Right In”), actually two of them, and as a young beginner on the guitar that sound just blew me away. It wasn’t long after that that George Harrison began to use an electric twelve and then, by Zeus, The Byrds’ Tambourine Man! I knew that I had to get one of those, and after a while, I got a ’66 Rick 360/12. It had Rickenbacker compressed-wound strings on it which, as you may know, is a type of guitar or bass string where the outer winding wire is compressed into an oval shape before being wrapped around the core. It’s a kind of cross between a round and flat wound string, similar to the ground-wound D’Addarios you demoed. I began to hear that people were using fully flat-wound strings on Rick 12s and that they sounded better with them. Pyramid and Thomastik-Infeld were the favoured ones, so I tried a set of Pyramid Gold .10- 046.5 (which BTW, are pure nickel wound on a hex steel core) on the Rick and, well, you know. All was fine for a while, but I had the thought that a lighter set would help to keep that fragile Rick neck straight. Pyramid did not and does not make a lighter twelve set, nor then, did anyone else, so I had to make up a custom set from single strings (Ernie Ball now makes a Slinky 12-string set similar in gauges to my custom one, but they are round wound). Looking around the net I found that Just Strings and Strings by Mail offered Thomastik-Infeld, single, flat- wounds. Doing some elementary calculating, I came up with a set that used .009s to .046s. The result was that the neck stayed straight, the playing feel was much lighter, and, here’s the kicker, the tone was much improved. That chimey Rick 12 now really chimed. Being a safe distance from genius, but not absolutely stupid either, it eventually dawned on me that those light flats just might sound good on my 6 string guitars, too. After more calculating I came up with the set that I mentioned above that I currently use on all my six strings. Not only do they feel much better with these strings, but they stay in tune better, the strings last a very long time (no little spaces between the winds to gather dirt, sweat, and such like), and, as I had discovered, lighter strings on an electric guitar sound better than heavier ones for all kinds of acoustical reasons (electric guitars produce tones that are primarily in the mid-to-upper mid-range, and lighter strings resonate more strongly in that range). So, bottom line, light-gauge flats are the best guitar strings I have found. I use them on my Strats, Tele, Jazzmaster, LPs, Gretschs, etc. I recently put them on a ‘63 L-5 (Florentine cutaway with PAFs) upon which, like the great Jerry Miller (RIP), I play rock, country, and blues (I can’t play jazz to save my life). As good as that amazing guitar already was, it really came to life. Another perk of lighter strings is that the overall tension on the guitar is reduced, letting the whole machine relax and resonate better. Anyway, sorry for going on so long, but I wanted to let you know about my journey with guitar strings for what it may be worth. Cheers, mate, and thanks for always giving us a great vid.
I’m a D’Addario Pro Steels fan. A number of years ago I was diagnosed with arthritis at the base of my left thumb. As it got worse, I went from .009s to .008s. Something about those Pro Steels and the lighter gauge produced a tone that I found very satisfying. I eventually had successful surgery to treat the arthritis, but decided to stay with the super light Pro Steels. I now use them on all of my electric guitars.
Nice comparison. In the clips at the end the flatwounds sound the best by a wide margin. Fender's staggered pickup pole pieces were due to the relative steel core sizes of a pure nickel set with a wound g. Nickel isn't magnetic. So the wound nickel wrapped g string is actually the thinnest string from the pickup's point of view.
Hey Zac, sorta off topic question here. Question about guitar setups during seasonal changes. I know down in Nashville the climate might not be as dry as where I’m at 30 miles east of Chicago. Our winters are incredibly dry up here. Every season I have to tweak the truss rod on some guitars during these dry seasons, some guitars more than others. On a properly setup guitar what do u think is more likely to happen when it’s very dry does the neck tend to want to back bow more or shrink towards to tension and pull inward creating more relief on the neck? I’m referring to electric guitars.
Take a set of flat wound 11s or 12s toss the low e and add a 10 up top No more wound third If you normally play 10-46 on flats Might want to go lower on the lower on the wound strings As the tension is higher
Lifelong D'Addario 10-46, but bought a few sets of DR Blues which are round core/pure nickel. Sounds and feels good to me on vintage or vintage inspired guitars. Also, nothing wrong with Regular and Super Slinky's once in a while. Have tried both Flats and Ground in the past and just didn't work for me. Might try again. Variety! Thanks Zac!
If you are player who moves all over the neck a lot, flat wounds tend to reduce finger slide noises, which can be desirable during quiet sections and/or jazz tunes. Remember that half and full round wound strings tend to deaden quicker as they pickup and retain oils and dirt from your hands and fingers more so than flat wounds do, while flat wounds can be more thoroughly cleaned given the lack of a ridged surface. But I agree, pick the right tool for the job, I mix and match string types based on the guitars and music I wish to play. Lastly, I've been told, but have no experience or evidence of this, that flat wounds tend to lose intonation quicker, the result of fret and bridge divots on the surface of the string. Nice job, Zac!
Hi Zac (love your channel!) and everyone. I upgraded from a nylon string guitar to a Squier Vibe Telecaster. The previous owner has put seymour duncan silent pickups in it. Even though I played it before buying it, I can't seem to get that "tele" twang that I was hoping for. Through his amp it sounded good, but through my little practice amp, not so good. Do you think it's more likely the pickups or the amp? Thank you for any thoughts you might be able to share.
I like the Flatwound sound , Ernie Ball & GHS makes 9 flatwounds ! flats on a bass are the best , but expensive, $50 or more a set. Flatwounds on acoustic guitars, pretty much eliminate the squeaking sounds you get when you slide up and down the neck . Thanks for the demo , fun stuff.
Cleared that up. I have had the D'addario Pure nickel 12's (wound 3rd) for over 15 years now. Jazz strings for Alt Rock. .:)! HUGE sound and smooth, not too bright. I thought that the "Chromes" were just made of chrome, and therefore brighter than the pure steel ones. Did not know what half rounds meant. Cleared all that shit up.
Its so subjective. For me, flats feel more comfortable and are quieter sliding up/ down the neck...they last longer too. I actually like a wound G. Half my electrics have flats....telecaster included.
The half rounds sound sweet with a rounder and more pronounced low end. I use normally .10 to 46 pure nickel but I might give the half rounds a try. I think Julian Lage probably uses Flat wounds on his blackguard. Thank you Zac for the interesting content.
Just use the A string as your E string on a flat wound set-- you'll get the flatwound sound but the feel you are used to on a lighter gauge modern round wound set
Nice video Zac. I’m using Fender Original 150’s Nickel strings on all my guitars as they feel and sound great. More importantly they are great value too here in the UK when compered to other main stream manufacturers 😎👍
I bought a new Fender Tele in 1965 It had round wound strings on it. New Bass guitars had Flats from Fender.
THANK YOU!!!!
In the 60s, professional bass strings were flat wound. Round wounds were regarded as inferior, budget - priced strings. Of course, by 1970 tastes in bass strings were changing.
Flatwound strings take a LONG time to break in but also "last" forever. They tend to get way more flexible over time and I've never actually changed a set of flats because they were worn out or didn't sound fine, years with the same set and very consistent tone whatever the brand or gauge. For certain players, guitars and styles, they are just great.
Curious about fret and board maintenance. I change strings before they wear out just to condition the neck and polish the frets. You just work around them?
Word!! I also use their Chromes for bass and they last forever.
Yep, they last seemingly forever
.....and be out of tune after 3 months
Should also mention that imho flat wounds require a different touch and finger pressure. My technique changes quite a bit when playing them to get the best sound and results. Overall, a lighter more careful approach, the tendency is to just grab them or mash them like you would a standard round-wound string, which makes for some potentially inaccurate and uncomfortable playing.
I discovered half rounds when my fingers were hurting from regular round wounds. I tried flats and was uninspired. But the half rounds had a blues/rock bite to them with that low-mid range. The have been on all my guitars ever since. Just comfortable and with a sound I appreciate.
A nice trick to get reasonable tension/gauges from a flat wound set is to get what has been called a "bump set". Take a set of D'Addario Chromes that have a 13 for the high E. Throw the low "E" away and bump all of the strings over one, so the "A" becomes the "E", the "D" becomes the "A", etc. Then you get a plain steel high "E". This has the added benefit of giving you back the plain third string for easier bending.
Don't give away the secret
The wound G is the best part of a flatwound set IMO. They sell flats down to 11 gauge so there's really not much to get used to.
Flatwound strings are my all time favorite! I got them on every electric guitar i possess other than one. Nothing imitates their thud
Thank you very much! I enjoyed this and to my old ears, I really liked the definition of the flatwounds. I'm going to try a set on one of my tele's. Be well ~ My Best ~ Joe
Some of us Jazzers love flat wound ... ( Thomastic even on a Tele) ... great video Zac ! 👍👍👍
For a while 've been playing .008--.039 ThomastiK-Infeld flats on all of my guitars. I buy them as single strings and yes, they're expensive, but they never seem to wear out or break, so maybe not so expensive after all. Anyway, they sound and play better than anything I've ever used before. When my friends pick up one of my guitars they're amazed at how great they sound and how nice they feel to play . They ask me what my magic set up techniques are, but it's not magic, it's just the strings.
thomastik is a big step up in quality from chromes imo. worth the extra cash
I use Thomastik-Infelds on my acoustic guitar and love those strings. They are definitely mellow and darken in a different way than domestic strings. I haven't played them on electrics yet. While they are expensive they definitely are worth the money and they typically last longer than domestic strings that are not coated.
@@Glicksman1 About half of my electric basses are strung with T.I. flats. Great strings in general, and head and shoulders above any other flats on the market. I've used their mandolin flats as well, so it's no surprise that their flats for electric guitars are so good! 😀
Thomastik makes some good “modern” electric strings called power brights which are like a mix. Amazing strings just very hard to find in stores.
@GshockBeats
I have to order mine online from Reverb. The first time I played a set was on my friend's Yamaha acoustic and after that I started using them on my six string acoustic guitars. From European players I have heard they are the reasonably priced strings and the US made strings are more expensive.
For electrics I mainly use D'Addario NYXLs and Stringjoys. I also have other strings that I find on sale like GHS and Electro-Harmonix when they are the right gauges. For acoustics its Thomastik-Infelds for my six strings and D'Addario for my 12 string. For bass right now I am playing DR sets, one flat wounds and one round wounds. I also like D'Addario strings for bass too.
The only strings I don't really get on with are Ernie Ball Slinkys. It's not that they are bad strings, quite the opposite quality wise. It's that I chord so fast and heavy that the slinky part means that they shoot out from under my fingers. Originally those Slinky part of the sets came from using banjo strings instead of regular electric due to James Burton playing them on TV and with Ricky Nelson.😉👍✨
unwound 3rd changed the sound of rock and roll
Yes literally so!
I think the pure nickel have my vote. Great tone and playability! I enjoyed the comparison.
Thx Zac! As a Tele guy, I love this type of content.
Thanks for the lesson. Good subject to choose.
Fun demonstration Zac, thanks for sharing! In all my years of playing, I've only ever used D'Addario EXL (nickel wound) and have always loved the way they sound so never felt the need to try anything else. You made all three of these options sound great though! Nice to have options 🙂 Rock on!
Flat rounds are for arch top jazz guitars. There is also one more set D makes that are the brightest.
My dad has told the story many times of getting to visit Marty Stuart and the Superlatives at Studio B while they were recording. They hung out for a bit and Marty said to his tech "go get that thing", he returned with Luther Perkins' Esquire, still with the same old flatwound strings on it. He said when Marty picked it in the room it sounded just like Luther on the record, Marty then recorded a track with it himself. I wasn't in the room, but I'd believe it that Luther liked to flats on his guitars - guess you'll have to go ask Marty, Kenny, Chris , or Harry!
There you have it
Thanks for the compare/contrast portion at the end..
I’m going to try the half rounds on my Tele…
Appreciate every one of your videos
This is wonderful! 💛❤🖤💚💜🤍
Muchas Gracias!
Dear Zac, this is one of the most USEFUL pieces on guitar I have seen in years - the meat of the matter. You inspire understanding.I had no idea about "ground-wound" strings. Cheers! It's late but HAPPY NEW YEAR, sir to you and the Childs Household.
Thanks for watching and Happy New Year!
Oh,man! You hit that E chord, and ‘Wow’, what a sound!!
I use a custom set for my Tele jazz light chromes on bottom and 10 13 17 up top. Then I use half rounds on my Junior gives a nice warm bite. I have yet to try pure nickel but that’s now on my to do list for my junior. Sounding good!
I've gone back and forth on flatwounds for years. I love them on offsets, especially Jaguars. Something about the brightness of the Jag pickups and the mellowness of flats mixing together does it for me. They work well on Jazzmasters too. Anything else I've tried them on, they came back off pretty quickly. Bass, however, is flats all day, every day. I have one cheap Squier bass setup with rounds just so I have that sound available to me, but the rest are La Bella flats. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Wonder if that’s what The Ventures used.
I may have to try flats. I have a custom offset guitar with Lollar Goldfoil pickups, and even with pure nickels it's just insanely bright.
I approve of this message.
Always interesting. I do like flat wounds on bass.
Love flats! ❤
Just put Pyramid Gold flat wound 10s on my TL 52 TX80, and found them stiffer then D,Adddari flats thought for a moment and then tuned to D , problem solved! Thanks for a great demo Zach!
Just bought some Pyramid flats for my ‘66 Ric 360/6.
I have to agree with some of the other subscribers. The flats sound head and shoulders best for that vintage country sound. Very much so! The first song I fell in love with as a young boy was Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash. Those flats nailed it!
You may hate the flatwounds but when you started playing with them they sounded great!
I love the sound
@@AskZac I agree, they sound awesome. I could swear D'Addario had a set of chromes with a plain 3rd, but maybe not available in the 3-pack? Regardless, I know D'Addario is a sponsor, but I'd be curious to know what you thought about some of the fancier flats like Thomastik-Infeld. Those always felt a lot more supple to me, and they come in 10-44 with a plain 3rd. Pricey, though, and at the end of the day, not what I'd want on an everyday gigging guitar.
I thought they sounded great too
I think they sounded best
Thomastik use a round core, at least on their flats and that’s what makes for a more supple feel.
A guitar will "tell" you when it wants to cooperate with flats. My fave strat with flats reminds me of 50s Chess records. I recently went C# standard on a jazzmaster and the flats instantly brought out spaghetti western / Tarantino "bury a body in the desert" tones.
100% agree! Also larrychung3190's comment above ("For certain players, guitars and styles, they are great."). I had this 90's Rick 360 w/ the "toaster top" pups I could never quite fully get along with (.010-.046 roundwounds). Then after reading what some other Rick players were saying in forums, and a bit about what the Beatles used early on, I tried a set of Pyramid flatwounds on it (.011-.048). Wow, what a revelation! That guitar just seemed to love those strings & it was way more fun to play. Listen to what your guitars are telling you! 😉🎸
If you like Tarantino and the desert check out Blood Simple by the Coen Brothers. Great movie imho.
A brave and curious man, our dear host. Thanks, Zac.
Great comparison! When I switched to (round core) pure nickel strings, I found that (1) the bottom end softened a bit, (2) because of the softer bottom, the guitar sounded more balanced, and (3) maybe because of the round core, they felt slinkier.
Curt Mangan strings? I use them on my Telecaster and I love them.
@TeleCaster66 I'm using Stringjoy, buy I've heard Curt's are also good.
I’ve also recently switched to round core nickel strings (DR pure blues) and not sure how I played guitar before them 😂 I used dadarrio 10’s for the 30 years I’ve been playing and still have some set laying around. Use them up on some lesser played guitars and it feels like a struggle going back!
I tried the flat wound a few yrs back after watching Kenny Vaughn when he was using flats. It didn't take me long to realize I'm no Kenny 😅
He is pretty great.
I use the ground wounds on my Gretsches with Bigsbys. They tend to stay in tune a little bit better. I will use the nickels on my hardtail Gretsch.
My 1961 Fender BassVI came with flats , now use half(3 high strings) flats and rounds on the bottom. Still have 2 sets of original Fender flats unopened in Fender packaging with both French and English on the packs(Canada?)
Thanks for the demonstration. I do like Chromes on some guitars. Like you, I don't care for the wound 3rd. I buy the 12-52 set, throw away the thickest one and add a number nine or ten to make the custom set. That ends up being really light on the touch. They help getting a smoky Jazz sound on a Tele with a good neck pickup. Flatwounds are all I run on electric bass.
"SMOKEY"!!! YES!!! That, that, that! That's a lurrrvely tone. ❤
I put headphones on for this one. The flats have a big fat ghost sound behind the note. I think I am gonna try some. Thanks!
Thanks for this video. I learned so much from it and especially from all the comments so far from those who’ve tried and experimented with these different types of strings. I just bought a used 2015 MIM Tele that I’m installing Certano palm benders on and wondering how flat round string would sound on that.
I've been using the.028, .038, and .048 from a light set of flatwounds, with .011, .014 and .018 on top. I works great.
Ernie Ball's New Cobalt Flatwounds are .011 - .048
Try them at least once.
The Jimmy Vaughn trick is the flats on a Strat but tuned down to Eflat. Great on a Strat.
One of the best tips I’ve picked up is using flatwounds on a 12 strings. There the fact that they don’t have a lot of harmonics is awesome, because otherwise the harmonics compete with the octave strings.
I finally put flats on my Rickenbacker 1993 Plus 12-string late last year. 😎🎸
a must on rickenbackers
Pyramid flats on my 360/6.
That Van Halen thing… love it Zac!
I put Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flatts on all my guitars, including my acoustics. I don't like them fresh out of the package because they are so stiff. It does take at least a few days to a week for them to loosen up and balance out tonally. It took a few attempts with flats until I finally "got" them. They're especially good on goldfoil guitars to help control the brightness and make the sound fuller. I've tried going back to roundwounds but that "recorded" sound in tandem with the smooth feel is unbeatable to me.
I’m mostly a rhythm guy and I love my slinky tens! I put them on everything. I’ve been using them for years and years. They bed in faster. They last way longer. And I love the subtlety of those mellow tones. I also find the smoothness is my easier, faster and less squeaky to play. Tons more fun! Do I miss the brightness? Actually too much brightness makes me reach for the knobs to try to tame things, so no!
In my experience, Jazzmasters completely come to like with flatwounds. The higher tension just works with them, especially with very high gain.
I've used GHS flat wounds 9s on some of my guitars. Unwound G, Pretty good. Low tension very bendable. They work good on Gibson scale guitars.
I hated flat wound strings forever and about 5 years ago I put some on an archtop and now love them on certain guitars. I currently use two Silvertone 1446’s one has .011 round wounds tuned standard and the other has .012 Flatwounds tuned to D standard.
I need to try them on the right guitar
@@AskZac Archtops! Having a wound G is important to the sound, I think? .012’s are the lightest gauge I use. Maybe .011’s on a Tele, but it still needs a wound G.
I like a wound G sound and feel but often break them earlier.@@scottbaxendale323
There is a trick to get a light set of flats without the wound G I saw in the Khruangbin rig rundown Premier Guitar video. Use the 52-12 chromes set, throw out the 52 and use the 42 for the E string and add a 9 or 10 for the high E.
Well done! I kinda wish they had a nickel round core string to get your take on that...
When I started playing in the 70’s pure nickel were so common. I don’t see them so much now. I have a couple of sets from the 80’s I need to try. Great episode.
I used Chromes 10-48 for years on my Tele, however I also bought a 13, 17 plain so that I could bend as usual. Back to roundwound now, but still use my "cheater" Chromes on my Harmony Rocket.
I have 10 gauge FW on my ES135 P90. Sounds great.😊
I love this channel just super content thanks Zak
I appreciate that!
Those steel half rounds are great but can eat up nickel frets real fast. Great string for slide playing as well.
If anyone likes nickel try out Pyramid Pure Nickel Classics.
Is that a *_Gonzo Fist?_*
@@Rick_Cleland indeed it is 👊
Thank you Mr Zac....
Dear Zak a great review and comparison, I bought and installed Half round on my ESquire Telecaster but mine are Chromes I love them the 11-50 is perfect for my low open tuning (Open D or Open C) I use them quite a bit for slide guitar playing and I really love them !
I use Galli and Ernie Ball sets with unwound 3rds and they are light gauge as well.
I used Chromes on the bottom strings and pure nickel on the top strings on my Les Paul, SG and Strat for many years. The reason is the Chrome G, B and E strings are too stiff. That made string changes expensive. Another thing is with the extra tension from the Chromes, my Les Paul neck developed a slight warp. Now I use D'Addario XS on my guitars which are the best strings I have used in the 56 years I have been playing guitar.
I replaced some half wounds today that must be more than 5 years old and I was surprised how good they still sounded.
Cool video. I actually like thicker strings (11s on my solid bodies, 12s on my hollow bodies) and I usually play Decade NYXLs and Stringjoys for the most part. I do have half flats on one of my guitars and its fine, it definitely darkens the tone of that Strat style guitar which helps because right now that one is in D Standard.
I do have pure nickle steel strings on a few guitars and yeah, it does mellow out the guitar. So if you have more than a few guitars, throwing flatwound (more of a Jazz or old Blues tone) is an inexpensive way (compared to new pickups) to make one guitar sound different. You nail the "Old School" ideal with these string sets. The half wound sounds brighter than flatwounds but mellower than round wounds.
Personally I like flat wounds on my bass guitar and round wounds on my guitar. Same with active pickups, on bass they are great, on guitars, no thanks.
But yeah, different strings and picks are the least expensive change you can do to look around and see if you want something else out of your guitar. I will say this, if you have a collection under five different guitars, you may not like swapping out different strings. I would also recommend doing this on a hardtail guitar vs a Strat or a tremolo equiped guitar.
Zac if you like the pure nickel be sure to try them with the round core. I love them in tone and feel. String-joy Broadways are great.
On my hollows I use a custom set. Three bass strings are the lightest flats from Ghs and the three treble are just the same as a set of 10s. Best of both worlds.
Love the pure nickel…on a round core
I used D’Addario half rounds for years back in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s. Not sure why I got away from them. I did a lot of experimenting back then. Even tried nylon tape wound strings once. Lately I’ve been using Slinkys for most of my guitars and Stringjoys for my main coupe of guitars. Just ordered a set of half rounds so we’ll see what happens. Thanks for the video.
I tried stainless flatwound strings and really like them.
Tried Chromes once, and like you, found that the they were too stiff. I often play rhythm guitar and I find the nickel strings give me a balanced tone when I'm playing chords. I can make them sound warm when I need to, and brighter when I need to. BTW, I prefer round core strings. They are easier on my hands than hex core strings.
My favorite string setup starts with a set of daddario Chrome XL ECG 23 10 - 48s. Throw away the .048 6th string, buy a plain 0.008 string for the first string and bump all of the others over, resulting in a super smooth playing and feeling 8- 38 flat wound set.
Many years back, out of curiosity, I tried Thomastik flat wound strings on my Tele.
I really didn't like flat wounds at all and I like all kinds of strings. I love the Thomastik flat wound Präzision mandolin strings (Thomastik are beautiful strings in general, by the way).
For electric guitar I look for the slinky flexibility of round-wound strings, because even when you"re not bending, you're bending subtly and expressively. The Thomasitik Power-Brights are luxurious, but pricy. These days I am loving D'addario NYXL (uncoated) strings.
I sure hope you go back and do a "blindfold" listen to the audio of this. The flats and pure nickels sound killer. I get that wound G is difficult. I got a guitar recently that had one on it. Took it right off for a plain G.
But seriously, between those fundamental frequencies and that Headstrong amp, you got a great thing there.
I'd love to hear that old tele with those old fashioned strings through one of your tweeds.
For me those flats are perfect on a tele.
I use flats on my ES-330 (12s) and pure nickel 11s on everything else ( Tele, Strat, ans Les Paul ). The core on flats is a larger diameter for a given outer diameter compared to rounds. Hence the higher tension.
I dunno Zac, you sound pretty freakin good on those flats. If you swapped out the wound G for a .17 or .18 unwound it would probably feel way better! Also if you flattened out the neck relief a wee bit so you didn’t have to work quite so hard… I just read a comment on here from a guy who uses some very light gauge .8 - .39 Thomastik flats that might be neat to try, I bet they don’t feel too stiff!
I know this is way off topic, but I wonder what strings Lennon was using on his little 20 3/4” super short scale Ric 325! Maybe like 16s Pyramid flats, seeing as he bought the Ric in Germany, and they spent so much time playing there in the early days… (At least they didn't only have Black Diamond strings to choose from...)
I bought a set of ‘ground-round-wound’ strings for my P bass in the mid 70s, I think whenever they first came out, and I loved ‘em. I was playing bass 4 to 6 nights a week and so it was way easier on my frets (and fingers)!
It blows my mind that Fender actually shipped their guitars in the 50s-60s with 12 thru 53s, and with a wound G! That’s basically an acoustic set… There was a set that came out, again I think it was in the mid 70s, that they called “light tops, heavy bottoms”, which were 10/13/17/32/42/52, and we favored those for a long time on the strats and teles which we used onstage and in the studio.
The one other really oddball string variant which I came to favor for certain things around 20 years ago were the DR Zebras. They use alternate wraps of nickel and PB, (so the strings have like a barber shop pole effect if you look real close). I have an old size 0 parlor with a slightly microphonic 60s Teisco gold foil in the sound hole, and with those Zebra strings it sounds like nothing else, especially with slide.
There’s so many choices of different kinds and metal types of strings around now, that if you have a lot of guitars, it becomes very hard to keep track of what you used on any given instrument, especially if they’ve been on there for a while. Around 20 years ago I began sticking a small (like 2”) post-it note with the specific string gauges and set designation, with the install date, on the back of the headstock of each guitar, and it has been very helpful. When someone picks up a random guitar and says, “hey, I love these strings, what are they?” and I can say “just read the post-it on the back of the headstock…”
This was an interesting demo you put together, thanks for taking the trouble to restring your Tele so many times. I almost never have two guitars around with the same gauges or types of strings on ‘em, as I tend to dedicate them to particular tunings and then just leave them that way…
Question: what’s the main difference you hear/feel between round core and hex core strings?
Zach - i’ve always preferred pure nickel strings on Fender guitars with single coils, however i also decided recently (partially due to your influence) to start using the 9.5-44 size. sure wish D’Addario would make the 9.5 set in pure nickel! please pass on the message if you have a means to provide them the input. really appreciate your you tube videos and interviews! thanks
Luv me some flats with an unwound G. My Marshall combo does too !!
I really like Thomastik-Infeld Blues Sliders for pure nickel rounds. Expensive, but I get them in bulk. TheirJazz Swing flats are great as well.
Yea Zac, try some Thomastik. They're way more flexible than the SS flats.
Zac, get the heaviest DAdarrio flat wound set, ditch their low E, add a single 9 or 9.5 high E. That was an early Page trick, he added a banjo string for high E.
i used thomasik flats for a long time but i only take the bottom three, and i put string joy for the g b and e string. perfect setup for me
Pure Nickels for me for over 30 years in .11-.48. Chromes on all my electric basses. Their acoustic sets in .12 for all my acoustics (can’t recall if 80/20 or Bronze). D’Addarios sound great and last forever.
One thing that always confused me was that I thought Jimmy Bryant used flats but I heard he actually used rounds!!
Beautiful axe there! Happy 2025 for you and yours, dear sir!
Great experiment, doing everything the way it should be. Same guitar, through a completely clean amp with no effects, only difference being the strings. Those flatwounds have a nice, warm tone! I do know that Ernie Ball makes a set of .009 flatwound Super Slinky strings, but those D'Addario flatwounds sound good.
Cool video. I use D'Addario 10 13 17 plain and 24 35 45 Chromes. Best of both worlds to me. I think I remember Kenny Vaughn saying that Luther Perkins did use flats.
The advantage with heavier gauge and/or flat wound strings is a faster response and a better articulated fundamental note; which useful for 'jazz' chords (somewhat like a piano). The trade off with light gauge / unwound 3rd strings is: more sustain, more bending, and a more vocal response.
Hey Zac. Now I’m not proselytizing you about what strings to use, but your antipathies for flats may be because the ones you tried were just too damn heavy. The set I’ve settled on is .008, .010, .014 (plain), .023, 031, .039. This set allows full bending, micro-toning (is that a word?), and vibrato with virtually the same facility as rounds.
The advantage of flats is, of course, no noise when sliding up and down the neck from one position to another. This is very useful in the studio as you might gather. Also, as you said, flats produce a very strong and focused fundamental. Given that most of the notes that we play are quite momentary, a good, solid fundamental is a plus.
Let me tell you how I came to favour flats on the low E, A, and D strings.
I’ve always been a big fan of the twelve-string. The first one I heard was an acoustic (“Walk Right In”), actually two of them, and as a young beginner on the guitar that sound just blew me away. It wasn’t long after that that George Harrison began to use an electric twelve and then, by Zeus, The Byrds’ Tambourine Man! I knew that I had to get one of those, and after a while, I got a ’66 Rick 360/12. It had Rickenbacker compressed-wound strings on it which, as you may know, is a type of guitar or bass string where the outer winding wire is compressed into an oval shape before being wrapped around the core. It’s a kind of cross between a round and flat wound string, similar to the ground-wound D’Addarios you demoed.
I began to hear that people were using fully flat-wound strings on Rick 12s and that they sounded better with them. Pyramid and Thomastik-Infeld were the favoured ones, so I tried a set of Pyramid Gold .10- 046.5 (which BTW, are pure nickel wound on a hex steel core) on the Rick and, well, you know.
All was fine for a while, but I had the thought that a lighter set would help to keep that fragile Rick neck straight. Pyramid did not and does not make a lighter twelve set, nor then, did anyone else, so I had to make up a custom set from single strings (Ernie Ball now makes a Slinky 12-string set similar in gauges to my custom one, but they are round wound). Looking around the net I found that Just Strings and Strings by Mail offered Thomastik-Infeld, single, flat- wounds. Doing some elementary calculating, I came up with a set that used .009s to .046s. The result was that the neck stayed straight, the playing feel was much lighter, and, here’s the kicker, the tone was much improved. That chimey Rick 12 now really chimed.
Being a safe distance from genius, but not absolutely stupid either, it eventually dawned on me that those light flats just might sound good on my 6 string guitars, too. After more calculating I came up with the set that I mentioned above that I currently use on all my six strings. Not only do they feel much better with these strings, but they stay in tune better, the strings last a very long time (no little spaces between the winds to gather dirt, sweat, and such like), and, as I had discovered, lighter strings on an electric guitar sound better than heavier ones for all kinds of acoustical reasons (electric guitars produce tones that are primarily in the mid-to-upper mid-range, and lighter strings resonate more strongly in that range).
So, bottom line, light-gauge flats are the best guitar strings I have found. I use them on my Strats, Tele, Jazzmaster, LPs, Gretschs, etc. I recently put them on a ‘63 L-5 (Florentine cutaway with PAFs) upon which, like the great Jerry Miller (RIP), I play rock, country, and blues (I can’t play jazz to save my life). As good as that amazing guitar already was, it really came to life.
Another perk of lighter strings is that the overall tension on the guitar is reduced, letting the whole machine relax and resonate better.
Anyway, sorry for going on so long, but I wanted to let you know about my journey with guitar strings for what it may be worth.
Cheers, mate, and thanks for always giving us a great vid.
I’m a D’Addario Pro Steels fan. A number of years ago I was diagnosed with arthritis at the base of my left thumb. As it got worse, I went from .009s to .008s. Something about those Pro Steels and the lighter gauge produced a tone that I found very satisfying. I eventually had successful surgery to treat the arthritis, but decided to stay with the super light Pro Steels. I now use them on all of my electric guitars.
Thanks for the arthritis tip. At 72 both thumbs, various fingers. Will argue with guitar tech to try 9’s on fenders and gibsons❤
How funny, I just changed my strings this morning and was pondering that same scale on the back of the string package. Synchronicity.
Hi Zac! I use flatwounds on my 7-string, but half-rounds on my Tele.
However, I swap the 20 wound 3rd string with a 20 plain on the flatwounds. (Thomastik 13s)
Well done🎯
Nice comparison. In the clips at the end the flatwounds sound the best by a wide margin.
Fender's staggered pickup pole pieces were due to the relative steel core sizes of a pure nickel set with a wound g. Nickel isn't magnetic. So the wound nickel wrapped g string is actually the thinnest string from the pickup's point of view.
Hey Zac, sorta off topic question here. Question about guitar setups during seasonal changes. I know down in Nashville the climate might not be as dry as where I’m at 30 miles east of Chicago. Our winters are incredibly dry up here. Every season I have to tweak the truss rod on some guitars during these dry seasons, some guitars more than others. On a properly setup guitar what do u think is more likely to happen when it’s very dry does the neck tend to want to back bow more or shrink towards to tension and pull inward creating more relief on the neck? I’m referring to electric guitars.
Take a set of flat wound 11s or 12s toss the low e and add a 10 up top
No more wound third
If you normally play 10-46 on flats
Might want to go lower on the lower on the wound strings
As the tension is higher
Yeah or just make a custom set up from stringsbymail or somewhere else.
The chrome 10's are more like what you would find in a 12 gauge set apart from the 10 and the 14 so it makes sense that they wouldn't feel good.
Lifelong D'Addario 10-46, but bought a few sets of DR Blues which are round core/pure nickel. Sounds and feels good to me on vintage or vintage inspired guitars. Also, nothing wrong with Regular and Super Slinky's once in a while. Have tried both Flats and Ground in the past and just didn't work for me. Might try again. Variety! Thanks Zac!
If you have an ES-335 and you haven't tried half-round strings, DO IT. It changes the sound a ton and it's all good change. Sounds great.
If you are player who moves all over the neck a lot, flat wounds tend to reduce finger slide noises, which can be desirable during quiet sections and/or jazz tunes. Remember that half and full round wound strings tend to deaden quicker as they pickup and retain oils and dirt from your hands and fingers more so than flat wounds do, while flat wounds can be more thoroughly cleaned given the lack of a ridged surface. But I agree, pick the right tool for the job, I mix and match string types based on the guitars and music I wish to play. Lastly, I've been told, but have no experience or evidence of this, that flat wounds tend to lose intonation quicker, the result of fret and bridge divots on the surface of the string. Nice job, Zac!
Hi Zac (love your channel!) and everyone. I upgraded from a nylon string guitar to a Squier Vibe Telecaster. The previous owner has put seymour duncan silent pickups in it. Even though I played it before buying it, I can't seem to get that "tele" twang that I was hoping for. Through his amp it sounded good, but through my little practice amp, not so good. Do you think it's more likely the pickups or the amp? Thank you for any thoughts you might be able to share.
Im a big fan of pure nickel. Mellow and broken in feeling/sounding while maintaining twang
I like the Flatwound sound , Ernie Ball & GHS makes 9 flatwounds ! flats on a bass are the best , but expensive, $50 or more a set. Flatwounds on acoustic guitars, pretty much eliminate the squeaking sounds you get when you slide up and down the neck . Thanks for the demo , fun stuff.
Fender 9050 flatwounds for bass are around 35 bucks and will last 10 years or more
Watch through to the ground wound then rewind and compare. I think the flatwounds sound coolest.
Cleared that up. I have had the D'addario Pure nickel 12's (wound 3rd) for over 15 years now. Jazz strings for Alt Rock. .:)! HUGE sound and smooth, not too bright. I thought that the "Chromes" were just made of chrome, and therefore brighter than the pure steel ones. Did not know what half rounds meant. Cleared all that shit up.
Its so subjective. For me, flats feel more comfortable and are quieter sliding up/ down the neck...they last longer too. I actually like a wound G. Half my electrics have flats....telecaster included.
Dang man, you gotta publish that lick book!
My ex-girl loved great licks.
So good!
The half rounds sound sweet with a rounder and more pronounced low end. I use normally .10 to 46 pure nickel but I might give the half rounds a try.
I think Julian Lage probably uses Flat wounds on his blackguard.
Thank you Zac for the interesting content.
Just use the A string as your E string on a flat wound set-- you'll get the flatwound sound but the feel you are used to on a lighter gauge modern round wound set
Nice video Zac.
I’m using Fender Original 150’s Nickel strings on all my guitars as they feel and sound great.
More importantly they are great value too here in the UK when compered to other main stream manufacturers 😎👍