Been a lot of years since I tried flatwounds. My cousin was a jazz guitarist and when I was fourteen or fifteen I used to go round to his house and often used to have a go on his old Hofner jazzbox. The strings were brutally heavy and so ancient they had practically grown onto the guitar. In my hands (used to 9-42 strings on my Strat copy) the guitar sounded atrocious ... but passed to him it erupted into swing and gypsy jazz rhythms and sounded glorious.
Fast forward to my own attempts to convert fully from a rock and electric blues guitarist to a rockabilly, swing and jump blues player. The first stage was acquiring my Gretsch 5420T (I am going to be doing a complete review of that guitar soon) and the second stage ... apart from trying to get my chops right ... was to get my sound bang on. Having read lots of articles about string choice for rockabilly and swing I thought I'd take a punt on flatwounds to replace the D'Addrio 10-46s that came on the guitar.
I didn't want to go too heavy so I thought I'd try the Thomastik Jazz Swing 10-44. I know most flatwounds start at 11 or even 12, but I didn't want to stray to far from a feel I was used to. Can't believe they made a wound third so thin at .018!
All I can say is wow ... absolutely nailed the early rockabilly tone ... add a touch of 'hair' on the amp and I have a grin a mile wide.
Not cheap strings at £13.00 a pack, but if rumours are to believed, they last a long time.
Any other flatwound players here?
Comments
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
I have found that flats are very dependent on the guitar. I first tried them on my Eastman jazz box, and they sound fantastic on that. So then I was quite excited to try them on my Gibson ES330 - on which they turned out to be a disappointment. I have them on a tele as well and they sound good on that, so (for me) it's not a single coil vs humbucker thing. It's very much suck it and see.
I've got some on a jumbo acoustic. It's a very bright and loud guitar so these strings (12s) (can't remember what make) tame the brightness a bit and don't make so much scratchy noises (sometimes a little bit sounds more natural/better imo). I use the guitar mainly for lead stuff on top of my other, much warmer/softer acoustic. Works well I think.
I got them when I was trying a cover of "Oh Me' (Nirvana Unplugged in NY) and couldn't handle all the scratching and didn't really want full flat.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message