Been running flats on teles for a year and a half for country, rock and blues and I am beyond happy. The big advantage is feel, flats are so smooth and there's practically no string noise. The big trick to extending your string life as well as keeping flats more sounding like round wounds is a string cleaner, keeps them very close in sound to rounds. Legitimately nobody I play with or in front of knows I use flats unless they pick up my guitar or I tell them. Best thing about flats besides the loss of string noise is the stronger fundamental note. The overtones that give you more of a piano note sound die off quicker and that means you can play larger stacked chords and still hear the notes clearer. This really applies with overdrive and distortion as you can hear above. If you want to play a major 7th or a sus/ jazzy chord with drive, it's easier to avoid the gritty noise with less overtones clouding your notes. Overall big game changer and the playing only gets more fun!
Was so surprised and excited when you mentioned Khruangbin! I have fallen in love with their sound and had been wondering about their guitarists. Thank you for the insight into flatwounds and Mark Speers!
Yep! I believe Mark uses a 13 set of flats, ditches the low E and moves the A string from that pack down to the E string. Then he gets an additional .10 for the high E string. So the E, A, and D strings are flats but the G, B, and high E are plain unwound.
@@AlexPriceMusician so you're saying he strings a set of 13 flats, but each string moved one position lower and tosses the low E/high E, and uses a standard 10 for the high E? I just wanna be clear, flats are expensive lol.
I try this combination but good luck to adjust you’re re guitar cause the A string tune in E make it really lose and fret buzz will happen. Same for the D tune in A
The Flats have a more even tone, and a less percussive attack. Clean, and with single note lines, the Flats have a great clear quality. With higher gain, the evenness of the Flats gets a little blurred and the notes become more in distinct than the Rounds. I have never played Flats, but I’d like to try. I’m definitely more of a low gain player, and the Flats have a nice tone.
They've gotten really popular in the last two years. Once you have their sound in your head you might start noticing their music pop up all over the place - There's a Michelob Ultra commercial out right now and the Netflix series The Outer Banks uses their music in at least half of their episodes.
@@AlexPriceMusician Mark Speer is why I am here, btw. In his gear rundown he mentioned using flatwounds which is crazy considering how bright those sounds at the end. Also, he stated that if nut isn't too sharp and the saddles are properly calibrated you can play one set of strings for a half of a year or so.
Congrats for your playing, particularly in the Jazz sequences ! The Flatwounds might fit better on a trebly guitar, as they darken the tone quite a bit !
If there’s one area for each that I preferred: overdriven chords sounded more appealing and dynamic with the rounds, single note lines more “pure” and beautiful on the flats. I tend to use flat wounds because I’m in that Fingerstyle chord melody jazz zone and they mellow out the brittleness that comes from my nails, but I like hearing both sounds.
Yes, I agree that flatwounds can be used for more than jazz. I think that a lot of guitarists don't use them mainly because the heavier gauges make bends more difficult. I think If you want a real deal jazz tone, they are essential.
i love the talmen series, i find them to be very close to the build style of the old 80's blazer series. i played a number of the higher end talman but i never played any of the midline series if i had known they sounded this good i would have scooped one right up. you have a great channel and your playing is very very good you have your own way of approaching the fret bored and it makes my ears very happy. Keep up the great work.
The difference is subtle. But from what I'm hearing the flatwound sound more... expensive I guess. Warmer, and more Pat-Metheny like in any left-hand position-shift or slide, which is good in my book. Definitely worth trying. Thanks for posting this! Incidentally, have you ever tried flatwounds on a non-archtop acoustic, like a dreadnought? I have a set d'Addario flatwounds and still haven't got around to putting them on my acoustic. What I hope to achieve is to reduce the somewhat bluegrass-like tones you get from a dreadnought and nudge it a little towards acoustic L5 territory at a fraction of the cost. Not sure that works, though... :)
@@ghost79ish I am not familiar with resonator guitars, but why not? I guess, in principle there's no harm in trying as long as the gauge is within what the guitar can handle from a sheer mechanical point of view. Then, if you are using it for slide, I don't how the flat-wound finish of the strings resists the bottleneck friction?
Hi Pat - actually, I have tried flats on a flat top in the past. I should say that it was a hybrid set, so some strings were flat and one was roundwound I think - probably the low E. Check out the Thomastik Infeld Plectrum set sometime. It's interesting. I put them on a parlor body guitar and they had a really sweet tone. I did notice a drop in sustain and headroom compared to rounds so in that sense I think they did head in the direction that you're asking for. There are a few demos online of that set, which is specifically a flatwound-hybrid set made for steel string acoustics.
dude, that was awesome! you're very good presenter like you are guitarist, I am big fan of flats (both on bass and guitar), I like flats on jazz so I was suprised how well they sound on OD side of sound
I like both in most cases. Typically I prefer the flat wounds on cleaner toned but not across the board necessarily. My main question, and this is a bit subjective, but do you think the flat wounds are capable of handling high gain lead tones and still cut through a dense mix? Related question, I prefer 10s or even 9s for a few reasons, are there decent flat wounds with lighter guages available that you're aware of?
Thanks for your thoughts! I hadn't considered super high gain applications to be honest. There definitely is a drop in the mid content on the flats when compared to the rounds so what you're saying would probably make sense. I know that D'Addario does make the Chromes flatwound set all the way down to 10 gauge. I bought it by accident once and ended up using it on my Les Paul for awhile. Worked well! www.zzounds.com/a--3971116/item--DADECG23?siid=230280
D 'Adarrio chrome 10s are fabulous. I have them on my Eric Johnson Virginia Sassafras body Stratocaster (54 replica) and they really work well. You really get an even feel of each note. I do prefer roundwounds on my hot rod guitars because of their bending capabilities.
Flats and rounds both have their place and purpose. To say one is better than the other is kind of trying to claim that the leg of a human body is more important than the arm or vise versa. You example clearly demonstrated the point...thank you for this video.
My first electric guitar had flat wounds, I thought they all had flats, what did I know ? It was a Rickenbacker copy no brand on the head-stock, just a blank Ricky plastic truss rod cover.
A have an es175 that had flat wound 12s I put on and ended up not playing much. I switched to roundwound 11s and rediscovered the guitar. Flat wounds lack the dynamics I like, too smooth. Like everything it is a preference
Observation: Not only do the flatwounds warm up the tone with fewer harmonic overtones, they also provide a bit of natural muting. In the past I would've viewed that as a bad thing. But now that I understand that there is more than one path to great guitar tone, I'm digging the possibilities of flats on a solid body axe. Thanks for posting this comparison. Additionally, thanks for mentioning Mark Speer. Never heard of him until now, digging that cat.
@@AlexPriceMusician Welcome. FYI, currently listening to Mark Speer and Khruangbin on your recommendation. I'll definitely be adding some of their records to my collection. Good stuff.
I like the "sparkle" that rounds have, it is - to me at least - a characteristic quality of the electric guitar itself and I think that little bit of natural bright presence makes the guitar sound more "alive" in recordings. Obviously everything is a matter of taste, and sure, you can induce any sort of EQ + top boost to brighten up your flatwound sound when you want it!
Idk I kinda like the jazzy stuff with bit more snap that you get from roundwounds the flatwounds might be good try for some stonery stuff to beef some harsher fuzzes but generally I personally prefer to have little bit of the cutting top end in "my tone".
Amazing video , love your playing ! Also how long do the flatwound strings last compared to roundwounds? Do they really last ages if played regularly ?
Thank you! Yeah I’ve found flatwounds will last 8 months or so or normal use for me. I only change the high e and b strings every now and then but the wound ones sound great until they starting losing intonation. Check out this other video I filmed comparing a new set of flatwounds to an old one: ua-cam.com/video/0AoQ99cUUQU/v-deo.html
@@AlexPriceMusician thanks for the answer. Is it as bad as western guitars of the same gauge or a little easier? Edit: I think we only call them western in German.. I meant acoustic. Sorry
This was such a helpful video, thanks! I have been wondering about this problem for ages because I love using flats and I mostly play jazz. But I've long been worried that flats are lacking a bit of treble and "punch" when some funk /rock /blues OD sound is needed. Listening to this I think that the more OD used, the harder it is to tell the strings sets apart, so I was wrong and should go flats all the way! One question: do you use the same pick for all the samples here? I've found that different pick width makes as much or more difference than string sets (e.g. Thin for funk /rock, fat for jazz), so curious what you do for picks. Thanks again, great videos and playing!
Yep! Same pick. It's the Dunlop 205 - a thicker Jazz III-sized nylon material. Super round tone but still enough of a point to get into more aggressive funk/rock styles. amzn.to/3F9ulnW
Playing without accompaniment, round wound strings have a bit more articulation and attack than flat wound. Both sound good, and on a track it may not be as noticeable . To my ears. Great presentation. Thanks.
Have flats on my bass, not for tone reasons but because they last forever, stay clean, don't give your fingers that metallic stink and being smooth they are easy on the skin. Really tempted to get a set to try on guitar too.
@@AlexPriceMusician Once those two go bad, I guess you could replace them with Elixir's anti-rust plain steels which would probably last longer than other replacements. Hmm...
@@AlexPriceMusician You can even put Flatwound strings on an Acoustic Guitar. I saw a video recently of a friend of mine who did it:ua-cam.com/video/9FddPqxmaF8/v-deo.html
With your amazing playing, I believe you put electric wires in your guitar and still it will sound awesome! Congrats! Now seriously, I think the flatwounds sound better, very nice tones on that guitar.
Im pretty sure Speer's strat is an american standard. I thought thats what he said on the rig rundown. ( watched it twice). maybe im wrong. plus im not arguing one over the other. just trying to remember correctly.
I kinda liked Mark Speer too. He said he throws out the low e on those flat wound strings which I thought was interesting. Have you found them to be difficult to use too?
I think I remember hearing that, yeah. I mentioned in a comment above that the Thomastik Infeld Plectrum flatwound set is matched with a roundwound low E. I want to say that Mark uses 10 gauge strings but don't quote me on that. I have tried 10 gauge flats in the past and although the wound strings have slightly more tension than a roundwound set of the same gauge, it's not something that stands out really. I wouldn't worry about them being difficult. A 10 gauge flatwound set does have a wound G, so keep in mind that'll probably be tough to bend - that would be my only caution.
Are flatwounds pure nickel strings I got a set of nickel core nickel wound vs steel core nickel wounds. Is this what flatwounds are? I havent put the pure nickels on yet.
Can I put D'Addario ECG23 flat-wound strings on an acoustic guitar? I would guess it would be a little less bright and a little lower volume with no finger string squeaks (Yea!). So, will it still sound like a good acoustic?
I don’t see why not. It’ll sound much warmer and with less sustain. Probably not much like you’d expect an acoustic guitar to sound tbh. If you’re interested in trying a hybrid set, check out the Thomastik Infeld Plectrum set
Would love to explore those! I don’t have access to them at the moment though. I have Helix Native as a plugin for my DAW, which I’ve been using lately.
Brilliant video dude. Loved the Khruangbin reference, love the guitar tone. I just bought a Jazzmaster and have been thinking of Flatwounds to take some of the harshness off. The issue is that Khruangbin have very sparse instrumentation, almost Dub Reggae simplicity, and rarely any vocals. His guitar has few other frequencies to compete with and cut through, though in most modern music the guitar has lots (keys, synths, second guitar, multi vocals, busier drums). What’s your view on flatwounds in a normal mix?
That’s actually a really great point that I should’ve addressed. Flat wounds don’t have the same mid content as rounds, and for that reason can easily get swallowed in a live mix without a bit of help from the sound man. Mark Speer in Khruangbin often leaves his wah pedal notched at a certain frequency, which helps to cut through. You can also make up for this with drive and boost pedals that have a useful tone control.
Yeah to a certain degree you can simulate the sound but they still feel different. I just play different things when having those stiffer and smoother flatwounds on. I love both for different situations.
Great musicianship, but really no point in playing anything other than wound strings for comparisons of the windings: flat vs round wound. While perhaps something could be said for some interaction in chords,walking lines, etc., so much of this demo seemed to literally avoid the strings we came here to listen to! Hug!
Some very accomplished guitarists sing the praises of flatwounds on single coil pickup guitars. Jimmie Vaughan and Kenny Vaughan (no relation) come to mind.
Been running flats on teles for a year and a half for country, rock and blues and I am beyond happy.
The big advantage is feel, flats are so smooth and there's practically no string noise.
The big trick to extending your string life as well as keeping flats more sounding like round wounds is a string cleaner, keeps them very close in sound to rounds.
Legitimately nobody I play with or in front of knows I use flats unless they pick up my guitar or I tell them.
Best thing about flats besides the loss of string noise is the stronger fundamental note. The overtones that give you more of a piano note sound die off quicker and that means you can play larger stacked chords and still hear the notes clearer.
This really applies with overdrive and distortion as you can hear above.
If you want to play a major 7th or a sus/ jazzy chord with drive, it's easier to avoid the gritty noise with less overtones clouding your notes.
Overall big game changer and the playing only gets more fun!
switching to flats and everything clicked for me. the tone i had been chasing with EQ was solved with the flats.
Was so surprised and excited when you mentioned Khruangbin! I have fallen in love with their sound and had been wondering about their guitarists. Thank you for the insight into flatwounds and Mark Speers!
Yep! I believe Mark uses a 13 set of flats, ditches the low E and moves the A string from that pack down to the E string. Then he gets an additional .10 for the high E string. So the E, A, and D strings are flats but the G, B, and high E are plain unwound.
@@AlexPriceMusician ooh okay, going to have try that string combination! Thx for additional info!
@@AlexPriceMusician so you're saying he strings a set of 13 flats, but each string moved one position lower and tosses the low E/high E, and uses a standard 10 for the high E? I just wanna be clear, flats are expensive lol.
I try this combination but good luck to adjust you’re re guitar cause the A string tune in E make it really lose and fret buzz will happen. Same for the D tune in A
The Flats have a more even tone, and a less percussive attack. Clean, and with single note lines, the Flats have a great clear quality. With higher gain, the evenness of the Flats gets a little blurred and the notes become more in distinct than the Rounds.
I have never played Flats, but I’d like to try. I’m definitely more of a low gain player, and the Flats have a nice tone.
just want to say thanks for spelling out Khruangbin. never heard them before today. incredible stuff.
They've gotten really popular in the last two years. Once you have their sound in your head you might start noticing their music pop up all over the place - There's a Michelob Ultra commercial out right now and the Netflix series The Outer Banks uses their music in at least half of their episodes.
@@AlexPriceMusician Mark Speer is why I am here, btw. In his gear rundown he mentioned using flatwounds which is crazy considering how bright those sounds at the end. Also, he stated that if nut isn't too sharp and the saddles are properly calibrated you can play one set of strings for a half of a year or so.
Congrats for your playing, particularly in the Jazz sequences ! The Flatwounds might fit better on a trebly guitar, as they darken the tone quite a bit !
Thank you! And thanks for your thoughts on that. I’ve really been digging the flats on this guitar lately. I’m even using the bridge pickup a lot.
just my thoughts, suggesting to my bands guitarist for that reason
If there’s one area for each that I preferred: overdriven chords sounded more appealing and dynamic with the rounds, single note lines more “pure” and beautiful on the flats. I tend to use flat wounds because I’m in that Fingerstyle chord melody jazz zone and they mellow out the brittleness that comes from my nails, but I like hearing both sounds.
Great analysis! Thanks for sharing
Yes, I agree that flatwounds can be used for more than jazz. I think that a lot of guitarists don't use them mainly because the heavier gauges make bends more difficult. I think If you want a real deal jazz tone, they are essential.
Partially agree. You've got guys like Kurt Rosenwinkel who use roundwound 10s.
I prefer flatwounds because of the warm tone and longevity.
A great way for a second guitarist in a band to layer and add contrast to the music and be heard without adding stage volume!
i love the talmen series, i find them to be very close to the build style of the old 80's blazer series. i played a number of the higher end talman but i never played any of the midline series if i had known they sounded this good i would have scooped one right up. you have a great channel and your playing is very very good you have your own way of approaching the fret bored and it makes my ears very happy. Keep up the great work.
The difference is subtle. But from what I'm hearing the flatwound sound more... expensive I guess. Warmer, and more Pat-Metheny like in any left-hand position-shift or slide, which is good in my book. Definitely worth trying. Thanks for posting this!
Incidentally, have you ever tried flatwounds on a non-archtop acoustic, like a dreadnought? I have a set d'Addario flatwounds and still haven't got around to putting them on my acoustic. What I hope to achieve is to reduce the somewhat bluegrass-like tones you get from a dreadnought and nudge it a little towards acoustic L5 territory at a fraction of the cost. Not sure that works, though... :)
Interesting? Now you got me wondering how flats would sound on my resonator... Bad idea?
@@ghost79ish I am not familiar with resonator guitars, but why not? I guess, in principle there's no harm in trying as long as the gauge is within what the guitar can handle from a sheer mechanical point of view. Then, if you are using it for slide, I don't how the flat-wound finish of the strings resists the bottleneck friction?
Hi Pat - actually, I have tried flats on a flat top in the past. I should say that it was a hybrid set, so some strings were flat and one was roundwound I think - probably the low E. Check out the Thomastik Infeld Plectrum set sometime. It's interesting. I put them on a parlor body guitar and they had a really sweet tone. I did notice a drop in sustain and headroom compared to rounds so in that sense I think they did head in the direction that you're asking for. There are a few demos online of that set, which is specifically a flatwound-hybrid set made for steel string acoustics.
dude, that was awesome! you're very good presenter like you are guitarist, I am big fan of flats (both on bass and guitar), I like flats on jazz so I was suprised how well they sound on OD side of sound
Thanks! I appreciate it
I like both in most cases. Typically I prefer the flat wounds on cleaner toned but not across the board necessarily. My main question, and this is a bit subjective, but do you think the flat wounds are capable of handling high gain lead tones and still cut through a dense mix? Related question, I prefer 10s or even 9s for a few reasons, are there decent flat wounds with lighter guages available that you're aware of?
Thanks for your thoughts! I hadn't considered super high gain applications to be honest. There definitely is a drop in the mid content on the flats when compared to the rounds so what you're saying would probably make sense.
I know that D'Addario does make the Chromes flatwound set all the way down to 10 gauge. I bought it by accident once and ended up using it on my Les Paul for awhile. Worked well!
www.zzounds.com/a--3971116/item--DADECG23?siid=230280
D 'Adarrio chrome 10s are fabulous. I have them on my Eric Johnson Virginia Sassafras body Stratocaster (54 replica) and they really work well. You really get an even feel of each note.
I do prefer roundwounds on my hot rod guitars because of their bending capabilities.
I feel like Bass guitar flatwounds and rounds sound VERY different. But on electric guitar it's pretty negligible.
After making this video, I somewhat agree with that statement
Flats and rounds both have their place and purpose. To say one is better than the other is kind of trying to claim that the leg of a human body is more important than the arm or vise versa. You example clearly demonstrated the point...thank you for this video.
My first electric guitar had flat wounds, I thought they all had flats, what did I know ? It was a Rickenbacker copy no brand on the head-stock, just a blank Ricky plastic truss rod cover.
Under higher gain the flatwounds give a fuzz pedal-like sound to my ears
I love roundwound. Especially when overdrive tones are used. Some would call it muddy. I call it smooth and cozy.
From context, it sounds like you meant to say flatwounds? :)
A have an es175 that had flat wound 12s I put on and ended up not playing much. I switched to roundwound 11s and rediscovered the guitar. Flat wounds lack the dynamics I like, too smooth. Like everything it is a preference
To each their own!
Observation: Not only do the flatwounds warm up the tone with fewer harmonic overtones, they also provide a bit of natural muting. In the past I would've viewed that as a bad thing. But now that I understand that there is more than one path to great guitar tone, I'm digging the possibilities of flats on a solid body axe. Thanks for posting this comparison. Additionally, thanks for mentioning Mark Speer. Never heard of him until now, digging that cat.
Fantastic summary! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree completely
@@AlexPriceMusician Welcome. FYI, currently listening to Mark Speer and Khruangbin on your recommendation. I'll definitely be adding some of their records to my collection. Good stuff.
I like the "sparkle" that rounds have, it is - to me at least - a characteristic quality of the electric guitar itself and I think that little bit of natural bright presence makes the guitar sound more "alive" in recordings. Obviously everything is a matter of taste, and sure, you can induce any sort of EQ + top boost to brighten up your flatwound sound when you want it!
Idk I kinda like the jazzy stuff with bit more snap that you get from roundwounds the flatwounds might be good try for some stonery stuff to beef some harsher fuzzes but generally I personally prefer to have little bit of the cutting top end in "my tone".
I kind of agree with that. On this guitar, I think the flats are just a bit too dull. On my archtop they still have plenty of bite.
Amazing video , love your playing ! Also how long do the flatwound strings last compared to roundwounds? Do they really last ages if played regularly ?
Thank you! Yeah I’ve found flatwounds will last 8 months or so or normal use for me. I only change the high e and b strings every now and then but the wound ones sound great until they starting losing intonation.
Check out this other video I filmed comparing a new set of flatwounds to an old one: ua-cam.com/video/0AoQ99cUUQU/v-deo.html
HI, Please do a Flatwound on acoustic guitar test. Thanks!
I'm more interested in your jazz playing ,thats so good :')
Thanks! I appreciate it
increased fret life?
Yeah man Mark Speer is the man !! I needs these flats for some bright 50's CV strat pickups
Is it true, what they say about how hard they are to bend?
They're not impossible, but are a bit harder to bend yes
@@AlexPriceMusician thanks for the answer.
Is it as bad as western guitars of the same gauge or a little easier?
Edit: I think we only call them western in German.. I meant acoustic. Sorry
This was such a helpful video, thanks! I have been wondering about this problem for ages because I love using flats and I mostly play jazz. But I've long been worried that flats are lacking a bit of treble and "punch" when some funk /rock /blues OD sound is needed. Listening to this I think that the more OD used, the harder it is to tell the strings sets apart, so I was wrong and should go flats all the way!
One question: do you use the same pick for all the samples here? I've found that different pick width makes as much or more difference than string sets (e.g. Thin for funk /rock, fat for jazz), so curious what you do for picks.
Thanks again, great videos and playing!
P.s. I found one of the biggest differences was the chord you play at 4:00 which was almost a little bit "muddy" with the flats
Yep! Same pick. It's the Dunlop 205 - a thicker Jazz III-sized nylon material. Super round tone but still enough of a point to get into more aggressive funk/rock styles. amzn.to/3F9ulnW
What pedal are you using for dirt/drive here? Love the tone. Is that one of the Parallel Universe Teles?
Thanks Daniel - it was the overdrive from the Mesa amp you see behind me. The guitar is an Ibanez Talman TM302
Playing without accompaniment, round wound strings have a bit more articulation and attack than flat wound. Both sound good, and on a track it may not be as noticeable . To my ears. Great presentation. Thanks.
Thanks for your thoughts Steve!
Have flats on my bass, not for tone reasons but because they last forever, stay clean, don't give your fingers that metallic stink and being smooth they are easy on the skin. Really tempted to get a set to try on guitar too.
The high e and b strings still go bad like rounds, but the flats last for months
@@AlexPriceMusician Once those two go bad, I guess you could replace them with Elixir's anti-rust plain steels which would probably last longer than other replacements. Hmm...
1) Great playing; 2) I'm getting some flat wounds.
Flatwound Strings are also great for slide playing.
Definitely!
@@AlexPriceMusician You can even put Flatwound strings on an Acoustic Guitar. I saw a video recently of a friend of mine who did it:ua-cam.com/video/9FddPqxmaF8/v-deo.html
Would love to see a comparison of roundwound vs flatwound on a Jazz box.
Especially for the acoustic sound.
One of these days I'll get to it! These string comparisons take the better half of a day. That's been on my list for a while
With your amazing playing, I believe you put electric wires in your guitar and still it will sound awesome! Congrats! Now seriously, I think the flatwounds sound better, very nice tones on that guitar.
Thanks! I appreciate it :)
Im pretty sure Speer's strat is an american standard. I thought thats what he said on the rig rundown. ( watched it twice). maybe im wrong. plus im not arguing one over the other. just trying to remember correctly.
👏👏👏 Bravo! That strings are 0.10?
Thanks! I think they were 12's for both sets demonstrated.
@@AlexPriceMusician for jazz wich is best?
I love flatwound and put it on my archtop guitar. I do not play jazz. Jazzy yes…not jazz
I like your playing on either.
I kinda liked Mark Speer too. He said he throws out the low e on those flat wound strings which I thought was interesting. Have you found them to be difficult to use too?
I think I remember hearing that, yeah. I mentioned in a comment above that the Thomastik Infeld Plectrum flatwound set is matched with a roundwound low E.
I want to say that Mark uses 10 gauge strings but don't quote me on that. I have tried 10 gauge flats in the past and although the wound strings have slightly more tension than a roundwound set of the same gauge, it's not something that stands out really. I wouldn't worry about them being difficult. A 10 gauge flatwound set does have a wound G, so keep in mind that'll probably be tough to bend - that would be my only caution.
@@AlexPriceMusician Oh I know why, he starts with 12 gauge, probably why he said the low e was unusable.
Are flatwounds pure nickel strings I got a set of nickel core nickel wound vs steel core nickel wounds. Is this what flatwounds are? I havent put the pure nickels on yet.
The core of the strings are pretty much always steel, even on flatwounds. What set did you get with a nickel core?
@@AlexPriceMusician GHS pure nickel core and windings
They seems (flatwounds) to be bassy and less bright. Must be great on an amp with a tube screamer with a LP on the edge of breaking.
Can I put D'Addario ECG23 flat-wound strings on an acoustic guitar? I would guess it would be a little less bright and a little lower volume with no finger string squeaks (Yea!). So, will it still sound like a good acoustic?
I don’t see why not. It’ll sound much warmer and with less sustain. Probably not much like you’d expect an acoustic guitar to sound tbh. If you’re interested in trying a hybrid set, check out the Thomastik Infeld Plectrum set
Really enjoyed this
Can you do a video on amp plugins like bias fx and amplitube?
Would love to explore those! I don’t have access to them at the moment though. I have Helix Native as a plugin for my DAW, which I’ve been using lately.
best guitar youtuber
Maybe! Haha thank you
flatwounds not as bright so you do need to adjust the tone on your guitar or treble on your amp. Half-rounds I think would be great on that guitar.
Flatwounds are going on my Gretsch great video….
Brilliant video dude. Loved the Khruangbin reference, love the guitar tone. I just bought a Jazzmaster and have been thinking of Flatwounds to take some of the harshness off. The issue is that Khruangbin have very sparse instrumentation, almost Dub Reggae simplicity, and rarely any vocals. His guitar has few other frequencies to compete with and cut through, though in most modern music the guitar has lots (keys, synths, second guitar, multi vocals, busier drums). What’s your view on flatwounds in a normal mix?
That’s actually a really great point that I should’ve addressed. Flat wounds don’t have the same mid content as rounds, and for that reason can easily get swallowed in a live mix without a bit of help from the sound man. Mark Speer in Khruangbin often leaves his wah pedal notched at a certain frequency, which helps to cut through. You can also make up for this with drive and boost pedals that have a useful tone control.
It's easier to simulate the sound of flatwounds with roundwounds than vice versa.
Yeah to a certain degree you can simulate the sound but they still feel different. I just play different things when having those stiffer and smoother flatwounds on. I love both for different situations.
To a point, yeah. Flatwounds generally have less sustain than rounds though - that bit is impossible to simulate.
Great musicianship, but really no point in playing anything other than wound strings for comparisons of the windings: flat vs round wound. While perhaps something could be said for some interaction in chords,walking lines, etc., so much of this demo seemed to literally avoid the strings we came here to listen to! Hug!
Just tried flats on my tele. To be honest 90% of the difference is in feel and probably 10% in tone. Flats are a lot smoother and easier to play
Some very accomplished guitarists sing the praises of flatwounds on single coil pickup guitars. Jimmie Vaughan and Kenny Vaughan (no relation) come to mind.
I still have these flats on this guitar. It's fantastic.
Now I wanna hear half rounds in a 3 way match.
To be honest you cant hear much a difference unless you're looking for them. I've never played flatwounds but I imagine it all comes down to feel
Feel is a huge part of it. For jazz, aside from the tonal differences, I definitely prefer the feel of flatwounds.
Nice video, interesting content.
The round have a thicker low end. Which I prefer. Feels like you can pull more out of them. More dynamic.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I didn't know morty smith played guitar
Great video, but you keep playing on those unwound strings!!
doesnt sound so harsh than round wounds
Sound the same to me.
Bro,i have to say. I donr know, i think both suck. I gonna try a wireless guitar🤫
I did not enjoy the flats on the rhythm so much. Sounded clunky. But the jazz was good for sure.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I like the sound of flats, but roundwound are unbeatable. They cover every base. Flats lose too much punch for me