Flatwounds on F5? Is Thile playing these?

[Roadbike61]

who is playing flatwounds and what are the pros and cons? Is Chris Thile still playing these?

[Baron Collins-Hill]

i think thile plays elixers now, but he used to use dadarrio flattop 74's. i have some labella flatwounds )with the wound A) on my campfire and cant wait to try them on my A9.

baron

[violin2233]

Flatwound strings are becoming very popular. I personally wouldn't play with anything else now that I have used them. They give such a fat, rich woody tone. PLUS, I have an acid problem and the Flatwounds save me from trouble due to that. PLUS when i play into the Mic or record there is no finger noise and the pick noise is lower. The tru joy is the sound though. PLUS they are better for your mandolin. less fret, nut and bridge wear. they may not be as loud of a string but the benifits are so great with the response, warmth and playability. I even helped Labella make a flatwound string myself. thomastics are great too but pricey. They make a cheap amndolin sound really good. TRY IT!! These are big with Mandolin Orchestras, Jazz and electric mandolins but getting more popular with acoustic players.

[violin2233]

I really should proof my fingerwork on the keyboard, sorry!

[Stillpicking]

All 4 of my mandos have flatwounds. I recently tried a set of "standard wound" strings and quickly switched back, tone is much more even across all of the strings with the flatwounds and they last longer and stay in tune more. Might be a tad less loud but not by that much. Started with TIs but have recently switched to labella flatwounds the 20s. The only down side to the labella compared with the TIs is the E string on the labella's are rather thin and tend to break real easy when switching out to a new set.

[Scott Schmidt]

I've been using the FT74's for four or five years now. #I really like the feel of them and I especially like the wound A's. #The main reason I switched to them is that the wound A's stay in tune much better for me than plain steel A's. #As an added bonus, they also seem to last at least a couple times longer than a regular set of J74's.

[Avi Ziv]

I'm experimenting with the JM11 strings on my Flation A5 Artist. I used to play J74. So far I find the tone much better with the JM11. It is rounder, fatter, mellower and less "biting". These strings reduced the mandolin volume by a noticeable amount, but that's a known trade off. The other thing that I've noticed is that certain push-offs are harder to do on the flat wound strings. I think that it has to do with the smoothness of the flat wound. The push-off needs some string resistance/roughness - something for the finger to catch on in order to get a nice snap in the sound. However, I may be able to adapt in time so I'm not ready to say that this is a clear limitation.

The sound though....The Sound! It's beautiful

Avi

[Michael Gowell]

I've run across a weird problem with my first set of La Bella medium gauge flatwound strings (MF 20): I tune a pair of strings and then when I fret them up the neck the strings go more and more out of tune. #This is most noticable on the A strings - the pair in tune when open become wildly out of tune when fretted at the octave (12th).

I talked with my luthier (who fitted the Cumberland Acoustics bridge and custom made a pearl nut for my mando) and he said that flat wound strings require a bridge adjustment to get the intomation right, but the business of having a tuned pair go out of tune on the higher frets puzzled him.

Any suggestions?

[Michael Gowell]

Bump.

[SternART]

I hear Chris is playing a special set of Nanowebs with a 16 A string.

[Got8Strings]

Can someone explain what exactly "flatwound" means?

[Michael Gowell]

Flatwound strings have an outer wrapping which is flat rather than round like most strings. #They eliminate finger squeek on slides, and have been used mostly by electric guitar players.

[Dfyngravity]

Thile did use the D'Addario Flat Tops but is now using the Elixir nanowebs. However, the D'Addario Flat Tops are not true flat wound strings. They are round wound and then percision ground so they are "semi flat". Flat wounds are definitely a whole different fell, but in a good way.