The Steel Guitar Forum

In the old (very old) days, everyone used flat-wound strings on their non-pedal steels so that sliding the bar would be smoother - less drag and no buzz - but when pedals came along the flat-wounds went the way of the Edsel. I guess the problem was winding separation as the string was exercised with the constant raises and lowers. I'm wondering - with today's improved manufacturing techniques, quality control, etc., etc....could an improved flatwound be devised?

Probably, but there's really no need. Keep in mind that back "in the old days", we used a much smaller bar, which caused a lot of the string noise in itself. When we went to the large-diameter bars seen today, a lot of the noise caused by the small bar radius striking the windings just "went away".

In addition, the tone of the flat wound, or "ground-wound" strings just wasn't as good, in many people's eyes (or ears ). They have a distinct "dead sound" that only some jazz musicians (and a few Hawaiian players) prefer.

In short...not enough "twang".