Flatiron A balance string-to-string

[Mike Sayre]

Hi all-
I have a Flatiron A (festival, I think) from the 90's. I have gone from roundwound strings to D'Addario Flattops to help tame the tone a little bit, and they have helped the instrument sound less "ringy". On this set, the G, D and A are wound. The problem is the E string(s) still sound a little harsh, in general, and certainly in comparison to the other strings in the set.
I wonder if I have just outgrown this instrument, if there is something to do to change the voicing to eliminate the harshness, or what. Who has had the same/similar issues with their instrument? What to try?
For perspective, I lean more toward Jethro, other swing and Celtic more so than BG, and I have recently played an A5L, and that one sounded fine to me. I did ditch a Breedlove OF that I had for a time that seemed lacking in the tone department, but played a Breedlove Alpine in a noisy convention hall that, from what I could tell, sounded pretty good.
Thx-
Mike

[Tobin]

Yeah, that's the curse of going to string sets that have wound A strings, especially flattops or other strings that are less bright. The E strings are all by themselves in being plain strings, and they will sound different. They'll always be a bit twangy in comparison. You can try upgrading your E strings to a slightly large gauge, and it will help tame it down some.

[Willie Poole]

I also have a Flatiron Festival and the E string is a little "twangy" also for my taste, what I try to do is not play on it unless there is no other way around doing it, I just move up the neck and play the A string above the 7th fret, it takes a little getting use to doing but it`s not hard after a while....

Willie

[SGraham]

Not meaning to state the obvious, but a poorly shaped nut slot could certainly cause twanginess in the E courses.

[pops1]

I find when my e string is bright that intonation or tuning or both are not right. If it warms up by tuning both strings accurately great, if not i check intonation.

[Tobin]

I find when my e string is bright that intonation or tuning or both are not right.

Very good point! Getting the unwound strings in perfect unison is critical to getting them to sound smooth. The G/D strings are more forgiving in this regard. But unwound A strings can be hell on the ears if they get slightly off from each other. For some reason, wound A strings don't suffer from this issue. But since E strings are always plain strings, they always suffer from it.

My wife is always complaining that I spend too much time twiddling with my A and E strings between tunes. It just bothers the heck out of me if they aren't perfect with each other, because they start to 'sizzle' and get twangy.

[pops1]

I don't find the D to be bothered as much, but the G is as much trouble as the E. When my e's are out of tune they are bright and when in tune warm. When my G strings are in tune they are powerful and when out lack power. It is kind of a pain to keep them in tune, but what other instrument do you not even have to listen to the pitch to know when to tune, but listen to the power or brightness and then take time to listen to pitch. Almost a convenience.