mellowgerman
Senior Member
Backstory:
Back in fifth grade I started my musical journey on the trombone. The next year I bought a bass guitar and then also started playing upright bass in the school band. It was bass before guitar for me since I was already reading in bass clef... plus John Deacon's bass on Queen tunes like "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Dragon Attack"!! By seventh grade I had fully transitioned to playing bass in the school band, both upright and electric. Since early on, when I found out about flatwound strings for electric bass, I have almost exclusively used them to get closer to that fat, warm upright tone. Roundwound strings always sounded thin, zingy, and clanky to my ears (on bass). When I started guitar, my least favorite thing was those darn coarse strings! A year or two in, a friend's grandfather let me play his old Gibson archtop which was strung with flatwounds! My mind was blown and I knew I had to try them on my electric guitar. Since then, I would dabble with both flats and rounds on my guitars, but for the last 5 years or so I've played mostly flatwound strings on semi-hollow or hollowbody guitars and my playing style has been built on their feel and response. My hands know to hit the wound strings harder (or the or the unwound trebles softer) because of the inherent volume difference. So now when I play an acoustic with phosphor bronze rounds, my touch is off and I miss the thuddy warmth of the bass-side strings. Additionally I only really play guitar for my solo project, so I don't have to worry about competing with other instruments or cutting through a mix. I could see why somebody in a bluegrass quartet would not want to string up with flatwounds.
The point of the post:
My D-40 is strung with T.I. George Benson flatwounds, gauges 12-53 and I absolutely love the way it sounds. Most of my stuff is soft/mellow these days and my voice doesn't project as loudly as a lot of other singers, so it actually works out beautifully and I still get those super warm and thuddy bass notes from the D-40's big resonant body.
Anybody else out there tried or play flats on an acoustic? Love it? Hate it? I know a good number of LTGers like them on their archtops so I wonder if it translates to flat top acoustics for other players too
Back in fifth grade I started my musical journey on the trombone. The next year I bought a bass guitar and then also started playing upright bass in the school band. It was bass before guitar for me since I was already reading in bass clef... plus John Deacon's bass on Queen tunes like "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Dragon Attack"!! By seventh grade I had fully transitioned to playing bass in the school band, both upright and electric. Since early on, when I found out about flatwound strings for electric bass, I have almost exclusively used them to get closer to that fat, warm upright tone. Roundwound strings always sounded thin, zingy, and clanky to my ears (on bass). When I started guitar, my least favorite thing was those darn coarse strings! A year or two in, a friend's grandfather let me play his old Gibson archtop which was strung with flatwounds! My mind was blown and I knew I had to try them on my electric guitar. Since then, I would dabble with both flats and rounds on my guitars, but for the last 5 years or so I've played mostly flatwound strings on semi-hollow or hollowbody guitars and my playing style has been built on their feel and response. My hands know to hit the wound strings harder (or the or the unwound trebles softer) because of the inherent volume difference. So now when I play an acoustic with phosphor bronze rounds, my touch is off and I miss the thuddy warmth of the bass-side strings. Additionally I only really play guitar for my solo project, so I don't have to worry about competing with other instruments or cutting through a mix. I could see why somebody in a bluegrass quartet would not want to string up with flatwounds.
The point of the post:
My D-40 is strung with T.I. George Benson flatwounds, gauges 12-53 and I absolutely love the way it sounds. Most of my stuff is soft/mellow these days and my voice doesn't project as loudly as a lot of other singers, so it actually works out beautifully and I still get those super warm and thuddy bass notes from the D-40's big resonant body.
Anybody else out there tried or play flats on an acoustic? Love it? Hate it? I know a good number of LTGers like them on their archtops so I wonder if it translates to flat top acoustics for other players too
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