These can be a bit of an acquired taste. Out of the package, the ground down surface can have a bit of a tacky/sticky feel at first. In terms of tone, I thought they sounded more like nicely broken-in nickel roundwounds than they sounded like flats. Finger noise is reduced a bit but still a bit of that squeak there since they're not totally smooth like flatwounds. If you love the old school sound of traditional flatwounds like I do, these probably will not be your favorite. That said, if you're a player who's on the fence and likes qualities of rounds and flats equally, these may be a good compromise for you. Certainly not bad strings and I know some players who really love them.