The Steel Guitar Forum

I was wondering if anyone out there uses flatwound strings? I've thought about getting some, but the local guitar stores don't sell them as singles. I've been too lazy up until now to order them from some place like Scotty's. So I'm curious to hear everyone's opinions.

Thanks

I use them on all my steels. They are not as bright as wound strings but to ME anyway they produce a certain "moan" that I enjoy. I have been told my vibrato "AIN'T" subtle so I need these "noisless" strings. I get them from www.juststrings.com.

Not a bad question. And how about those half rounds or sometimes called "groundwounds" - anybody tried them? -MJ-

Hi keith, good question, I started using flat wounds on an old solid body I had back in the 60`s to reduce the finger squeek when changing cords. Later I bought a Ephipone
single 6 steel and it had flat wounds on It,now both flat tops,the dobro and my double 6 all wear flat wounds.
There may be some tonal loss, but with my tin ear I can`t tell,but I sure lost the squeek.

Michael. I strung up an old Fender 400 with the half round/ground wound strings and I like very much the way it sounds and feels.

The flatwounds won't work on my 400 because of the sharp angle when you bring the string back through the changer. The low string would break. The half round won't.

I believe Jerry Byrd uses flatwounds.

I use them on my electric, but not on the acoustic, though I do have flats on an acoustic archtop.

I like them because there's a more consistent sound across the strings - they sound more like the plain ones. The low strings don't have enough "twang" on the acoustic for me, though.

The groundwounds are about halfway in sound,
a little brighter sounding but they eliminate most string noise like flats; a nice compromise. I've used them for slide guitar, and always on bass guitar. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Kavanagh on 23 August 2001 at 10:46 AM.]</p></FONT>

Been using D'Addario Chromes with good "moany" results, and great quiet smoooooth slides. Sets in .13/17/26/35/45/56. I'm lkooking for singles in in between sizes so can use on my
Melobro 8 lap. Anybody know of a source for such, or if what flats are availible for other sizes in other brands?
Dave

Scotty's and maybe a couple of other places do individual flatwounds via mail order. I've NEVER found a music store that stocks them individually (and I've tried in England, France, NYC, all over Texas, Nashville, California, and many other states...!).
For Open E I use the D'Addario Chromes and replace the .013 with an .015.
Nick