The Steel Guitar Forum

Just as square-ridged Ping golf clubs eat up golf balls, wound strings eat up plastic steel guitar bars.

This analogy is for steel guitar players who are golfers.

Aloha,
Don

Kris ...

Chromes description

They do have a more "slippery" feel than the other flats I've tried. ...

The most expensive I've tried were the Thomastik-Infeld ... the least expensive being the Fenders (Just Strings quit carring their singles) ...

I've never tried the D'Aquisto though ...

Personally, I've always gone back to the Chromes ... for whatever thats worth.

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<font size=1>Dustpans LTD.
The Casteels
HSGA </font>

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Rick Aiello on 08 October 2006 at 05:01 AM.]</p></FONT>

I was under the impression round-wound strings were not even widely available until 1967 or so. Steel flats were the main strings even on acoustics.

Am I off base on this?

Jaime

Thanks, Rick. Chromes are the world's most popular flatwound strings and revered for their warm tone and ultra-smooth feel. Stainless steel underwindings on hex cores build a foundation for the delicate outer ribbon winding. After the winding is applied, each string goes through 3 polishing steps.

Jaime - you're correct. Flatwounds were widely used until the mid-60's. I think roundwounds were available, but not used much. We used all flats in surf music - I think it was '66 or '67 when I got roundwounds for the first time.

I actually went back to Flats on my Teles a few years ago, varying between Flatwounds and Fender 150 nickel roundwounds. The D'Addario Chromes are great flats - I hate stainless roundwounds, but in flatwunds they pick up a litttle brightness that would otherwise be lost.

But on my Dobro, I use roundwounds, Tried flats once and couldn't get any tone at all. Same with steels - tried flats on my Ric but it just dosn't work. Weird that I liked them on 6-string but not on steels!

Funny you guys should mention that round wounds were not around until the 60s. When I was a young guy in the 1940s, round wound strings were what we used. The flat wounds in those days seemed dull, with less sustain.

When I was about 9 or 10...gads, that a LONG time ago....my hawaiian guitar teacher, Mr. Russ Waters in Flint, Michigan, had all his students play with flatwounds. He said the regular wound strings made too much string noise when you slid the bar. So I've never questioned it. Besides, we played with a lead-filled plastic bar in those days - is that the same as the Rajah? - and the regular wound strings would chew them up. Mr. Waters knew his steel guitar. Don't judge by me - he was Terry Bethel's teacher, too.

So I just put a pair of SIT C6th strings on my Fender D-8 (.015, .018p, .022p, .024SF, .030SF, .036SF, .042SF, 054SF).

Now I notice a little buzz on the 4th string (.024SF) which is the first of the flat strings. It is visibly lower than the 3rd and 5th strings, so I can understand the contact being weak with the bar.

Is this normal? Do you guys compensate for this on the nut, or bridge, or could I put a pain steel .024p in it's place? or another .022p there to match the 3rd string. Or does my guitar need a little repair/fix-up?

Thanks,

Mark


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Mark Tomlinson
mark@careytomlinson.org
www.careytomlinson.org

<SMALL>Do you guys compensate for this on the nut, or bridge, or could I put a plain steel .024p in it's place? </SMALL>

Mark, I use only plain steel up to 5th string, and generally .024 gauge on the 4th string.

Aloha,
Don

What gauges were you using before you installed the SIT set?

I put together a set of flats from juststrings.com, I noticed they have a little more friction than the roundwounds. I guess this is because the flat string has more area contacting the bar, vs. roundwounds. Kind of the opposite of what happens when fretting with fingers (where the flats seems more slippery).

I like the idea of using a full set of unwound plain steel strings. JustStrings sells D'Addario plain steel strings up to size .026, and I think John Pearse makes a tool for putting your own ball ends on string wire, so you could make your own. Of course a solid .042 or larger might not wrap around a ball end very well. Has anyone tried this?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>I used SIT flat wounds for about five years until this past spring when I tried D'Addario Electric Chromes at Rick Aiello's Steel Guitar Summit.

The D'Addario's are all I use now. You have to assemble the sets individually at JustStrings.com and each set costs about $7 but what-the-hell, steel guitar strings last forever and the $2 or more a set really doesn't matter over time.</SMALL><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmmmmm... these sound most intriguing! I've been using the SIT semi-flats, and have enjoyed them a lot, but I use the Chrome Flats on my Fender Jazz bass for more of that 'old-school' bass tone, and now I think really need to try these Chromes on my Epiphone lap steel. Gotta feeling I'm going to like 'em.

Thanks for the tip, gents!



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Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, A6, B11); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Regal resonator (C6); 1938 Epiphone Electar (A6); assorted ukuleles; upright bass

Mitch. Your idea about large guage unwound wire might just work on a guitar with a keyless headstock. You would not need to try to wrap the string around the machine head post.

Someone mentioned surf music, but did you know all the early Beatles records were recorded using flat wound strings? (I believe they were made by a company called Pyramid in England.)

It would be interesting to know when flat wound strings were introduced. I would be surprised if they were available before WW2.

One thing about flat wound strings is they last longer than round wound. This is probably because the flat covering keeps dirt and oils away from the core. Also, stainless steel and chrome are much more durable than nickle.