Flatwound Acoustic Guitar Strings?

I know flatwounds were the 'go to' strings on electric guitars, back in the 60s and early 70s, which is the last time I've played or owned electrics, but I've never heard of them on acoustics???

Not sure why, but it seems to me they wouldn't have much punch, or am I missing something?

I have them on my arch tops, but because I wanted a jazzy sound, with less sharp high strings. So that's half way to an acoustic.

I've actually had flatwounds on my Guild D65S!! I wondered because I was playing in open tunings and I hated the sound of sliding up and down the fretboard. Strangely enough, with a guitar as amazing as that, it didn't make a huge difference. But it sounds better with acoustic strings of course. Then when you get used to moving around the fretboard and not being sloppy ..... it doesn't matter. My whole point is, try it. What's the worst that could happen?? :courage:

If you want the smooth of flat wound strings and the brighter sound of round wounds, you might want to try a set of D'Addario flat tops. They are round wound strings that are ground so that the crown of the windings is removed. They sound pretty good and they last a long time. Of course the sound is not as bright as round wound acoustic strings but definitely more so than flat wounds.

Hello

When I bought my little Gibson , I tested it with about 4-5 different strings - only to end with Guild Phosphor Bronze Lights. On very first day I put flatwounds on it, because I found this Gibson while I was searching for arch top. And arch tops have flatwounds so my mind was leaning towards them. Disappointedly to my taste the sound was dull and there was nothin inspiring. They were nice not to produce extra sounds when gliding with or without slide. Easy on fingers, too. The bummer of this testing was, that Gibson is short scale so those strings were useless for anything else after testing...

docfishr said:

If you want the smooth of flat wound strings and the brighter sound of round wounds, you might want to try a set of D'Addario flat tops. They are round wound strings that are ground so that the crown of the windings is removed. They sound pretty good and they last a long time. Of course the sound is not as bright as round wound acoustic strings but definitely more so than flat wounds.

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oh i totally got to add this to my SAS list for the Br. My old Guild dread loves dead sounding strings, Neal was totally spot on with that nugget.

My old (c. 1940) Gibson L-50 archtop currently has a set of flatwounds on it. I was looking for a darker Freddie Green kinda sound since I use this guitar as a rhythm instrument. It is darker, but I still can't play like Freddie.

-Dave-

But - what about pick slides?! :biggrin-new:

walrus