Mixing flats and rounds and odd size strings
I wonder if I am a bit crazy, ok, we already know the answer to that... :-)
I got an OM recently, and wanted to tame its harpsichordy (nasally) sound, so I put flatwounds on the G and D, and plain steel on the A. For the D and A courses that was exactly the sound I wanted, but for the G it was too much, killed it, became a gutless wonder.
So I went back on the G, I just put PB rounds back on, and voila, closer to what I was looking for. The G is a little bright for now, should settle in over a few weeks. So I have 11-16-26-40 (PS, PS, Flat, Round). This setup is closest so far to the general sound I am hoping to achieve, and pretty far removed from it's OEM sound.
On my MD604 the D string also stands out as noticeably more nasally than the rest of the courses, thinking of trying flatwounds there too.
Another thing I noticed was that when I changed gauges of strings on the octave, the string balance changed. It went from very dominant D and A to a more balanced sound with the E slightly dominant now. Basically, reducing the gauge made that string less powerful relative to the rest.
I have never futzed with strings like this before, this is kind of a new world for me. I seem to have awakened to string balance issues (both tone and volume), and am happy to find an easy way to fix them. One of my teachers does this too, she has a different brand of string on her E.
People here have noted that different instruments seem to prefer different strings, and I recall posts where people mention that some instruments have different courses that dominate. I am thinking this is an easy fix for some of those issues.
Hopefully it's clear I am having fun here. :-)
Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.
Bookmarks