Gretsh White Falcon - Flatwound vs Roundwound Strings
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- Опубліковано 23 лют 2023
- A thinly disguised excuse to wind up a wonderful guitar - here is a comparison video of flat wound and round wound strings on a Gretsch white Falcon. Oh yes!
I recorded the guitar through my Cornford Hurricane using a UA OX Box which I have been very impressed with - lovely bit of kit.
You may be surprised at the results - I certainly was!
I hope you enjoy it!
Like what I do? Tip me here michaelwattsguitar.com/tip-ja...
Until next time, stay tuned
Michael
Rounds are brighter but the dark haunting flats wow. I put flats on A LP and it turned the guitar to black from green.
the crispiness of the rounds are A1
As everything associated with Michael Watts your playing on the electric guitar is so tasteful.
Thank you very much Andrew - I try
Nice clean sound from the Gretsch, even when using a bit of overdrive it still sounds distinctive. Gretsch is one of the most understated guitar manufacturers arould. Again Michael's guitar playing is a class act .
Thank you very much Alastair - I’ve found that you can use a falcon anywhere you’d wear a tele - just a giant tele with gold dripping off it…
Within the first minute of listening to you play I hit like and subscribe. Beautiful tones Michael. Thank you. 🤘🎸🤘
Thank you very much David! Welcome!
my appreciation for your playing just soared love it
Thank you Anthony!
Excellent video. I’ve also been loving the current background/ studio set up.
Glad to hear it! Thank you very much!
Wow! Utterly beautiful playing and a gorgeous instrument. “Lo-Fi Soul” just touched a nerve. Also loved the cheeky grin when you got a ‘lil bit raunchy with the Bigsby ... Nice.
Thanks Chris! Glad you enjoyed it!
Michael never disapoints he is great to hear and to listen too, inspiring, after following him for a good while, at 73 i bought a Furch Little Jane to learn more especially n the fingerboard, picking and notation as apart from chords,thought its its time,they are smaller guitars for an older person build with solid woods and very nice..got a very special deal which helped..
Thank you very much John and congratulations on your new guitar!
Nice to hear from another person satisfied with a well built non American guitar. Having been so underwhelmed at the lack of any sound up the neck on the Gibson’s I played, no amount of their history could convince me to choose such a guitar over something that plays and sounds great with a “lesser name” guitar
Well you made me want a White Falcon anyway! Lovely stuff mate 👌
Ha! Thank you Neil - great to hear from you!
Love, love, love that White Falcon. Bling to the max. Never liked flat wounds even for bass. What a fun video!
Thank you very much!
Flats all day. Ive played rounds for the better part of 30 years but in past few have almost completely converted to flats on all my electrics. It's 50% a feel thing and 50% a sound thing. These days when I play rounds I keep thinking of that excess string noise and how hard we work to minimize it. It's like playing a piano where alot of the keys squeak unless you are super attentive.......not really a desirable quality in an instrument.
Thanks for watching Matthew - I know exactly what you mean. I’ve found that Elixirs really do make a difference when it comes to extraneous noise.
What a beautiful guitar
Thank you! I like it!
First time on your channel! Love your playing!!! Going to break out the white falcon again. Also, gonna have to get the back talk... thanks alot!!!
Thank you so much Brian! I hope you’ll stick around!
Great place to start!
I have one of these in Cadillac Green on order. I've got the White Penguin 58 reissue, and it's by far my favorite electric I own. The TV Jones are some of the most distinctive sounding pickups.
I love Cadillac Green! Congratulations Ryan!
For what it's worth, I favored the flat wounds. There is definitely a place for both, as the round wounds sounded cleaner and more direct to me; however, the flat wounds sounded more organic, having more soul and grit--which I much prefer. As always, very tasteful & skillful playing...thanks for sharing!!!
It’s a delicate balance isn’t it Dale? That’s the beauty of the Falcon - it can go from tasteful jazz box to hairy-backed rock machine in a moment - kind of like a good tele just huge and dripping in sparkly gold.
@@MichaelWatts Haha…yes, exactly!
Looks & sounds great. I struggle with anything less than 11’s on mine - bigsby/tuning issues. Those old cornfords sound amazing too
Hope you’re well
Dom!!! Great to hear from you! All good mate
Those flatwounds are my string of choice on all 3 of my archtops.
Thanks for watching Dan - I do have a soft spot for flats
Thanks for being fabulous Michael!-
All you listeners- Have you tried D'Addario Chromes Flat Wound Electric Guitar Strings- Extra Light (ECG23)? Brilliant on a P90 les paul or a 1950's Harmony archtop. No string noise, perfect for recording. Get these now. Thank me later.
Thank you and thank you!
Well Michael I've just found out you a have a Bill Frisellesque [ ;) ] side to your repertoire.
I built a carved archtop with Silky Oak B/S and a Bunya Pine top a while back. It has roundwounds on it at the moment but this A/B of yours has got me thinking I might try a set of flatwounds. As usual thanks for the enlightenment.
High praise Andrew and much appreciated - get some flats out and see what happens!
Really nice playing. I think I'll try flats on my arch-top electrics.
Thank you Lester!
Please educate a flatwound dunce: Why the change in string gauge when you switch from rounds to flats? Are flats lower tension than rounds? Great playing as always!
Well first of all roundwounds of that gauge would need a wound G and would be tough as hell to play. Any claims that this is a scientific exploration are entirely spurious.
Have you ever tried the D'Addario half rounds? ( don't know if anyone else makes half rounds ) Kinda like rounds with the top points shaved down - a touch less bright than rounds but still some of the fat sound of the flats - I used to use them all the time on my old ES-175 ( with unwound 3rd )... nice for jazz ( which is what I played ) but useful for other things as well...
I know people do like those half wounds but I’m a man of extremes - flat as a pancake or coated wound is all that feels right for me
Is that Hendrix kinda thing at the intro a complete tune, or are just riffing? So tasty.
Thank you Russ - just a little something I’ve been working on
Guess I had to find this out for myself MW? So after my visit to Reidys music store the other day to try a USA made Epiphone Texan and a few Gibson dreadnoughts it just gave me a whole new appreciation for how good my Twelve fret Brook Taw (000) guitar is in terms of the build quality of fretboard in particular and the way the trebles sound up the neck. The dreadnoughts had the bass but the trebles were so underwhelming and it was the fretboards that I noticed big time as my Brook has such a beautiful polished black ebony fretboard with no inlays and polished frets. I can only think this must be the difference between a place that makes 80 guitars a year to the USA factory made guitars that I so wanted to buy into. Apologies for being off topic but I totally get it now how superior hand made Luthier built guitars are🤯🤔
There is no substitute for personal experience- in fact I would even rather people ignored what I have to say if they have come to an informed conflicting opinion. But yes. You’re quite right. As am I.
Nice Gretsch White Falcon. What year?
Thank you! It’s from the first year of Japanese production
Recording you can afford to really dial in the nuance you’re looking for, and flats are great if that’s the sound you want. But for gigging, rounds are infinitely more versatile. All the high end is always there - if you don’t want it you can roll your tone knobs. But if you’re stuck with flats in a boomy noisy room… you’ll be buried all night with no way out.
Absolutely right! The mud switch helps too - thanks so much for watching!
Imho the flats sound a bit flatter whereas the rounds sound a bit rounder. Thanks Michael!
Thank you for listening Florian!
Curious that you went from a heavier gauge flats to lighter gauge rounds. I would have thought you’d want to go for heavier rounds to have a similar tension you are used to. Playing 10 rounds must have felt like playing hairs compared to the flat 12s.
Yeah I know what you mean, but I wanted to turn the guitar back into a rock machine not a jazz box.
I'd like to hear it with the 12's but the high E and B strings from the 10's. I like everything about the 12's more but there is brighter crisper high end with the 10's.
I like the idea but I don’t know if my truss rod would!
@@MichaelWatts why not? The tension is lower than the full set of 12's.
The flatwounds sound like ‘old records’ they just have that sound.
The roundwounds seemingly have less character despite playing brighter and faster.
There is a 1950s “thonk” to the note that I love with the flatwounds. They are tougher to play which may explain why I got overexcited by the slippery goodness of the round 10s
Needs a Grunge pedal on it… 😉 Sounding fabulous as ever, I remember you having your Falcon at the shop.
Thank you Will! Yeah, it goes well with a big muff!
.12 for me!!!!
And another vote for the 12s! Thank you for watching Paolo!
@@MichaelWatts I have a 6122-59, year of your Gretsch? Grazie Michael for this video.
Mine is one of the first Japanese models and it’s gone a beautiful shade of cream now!
@@MichaelWatts beautiful
I am not going to say you play 'better' with the round strings, but you do play faster compared to the flat wound strings.
Jerry
Yes I did get a bit excited…
Nice playing but I miss the slick suits and haircut!
Ha ha ha yeah, I know what you mean. Maybe one day!
All the rounds sound like blah..
I love flats