D'addario fw74

[bluegrassdan]

Just ordered a set of FW74's for my Saga A style kit mandolin. Good little mandolin but always searching for a warmer sound. Hope they are not too light and lose alot of volume.

[Stephen Cagle]

It will certainly "warm your sound" and most likely you will lose some volume. Working at banjo.com I try different set's of strings to see how they play out and I have tried alot. At the end of the day: Bigger price, little bit less volume, nice warm tone. Stephen

[Alyx Hanson]

I have the FW74s on one of my mandolins, and have actually been impressed by the volume I can get out of them. They definitely have a warmer sound. (FWIW, I found that using a thicker pick ended up making up for some of the lost volume, and I actually like the tone a little better with the thicker pick as well.)

[mandobassman]

I have been using FW-74's for a year now (the same set) and I can't speak highly enough of them. I used Thomastik flatwounds for many years before I switched to the FW-74's last year. They are much louder than the Thomastik set. The G string is lighter in tension than bronze J-74's, but the other three pairs are the same. There is not much loss of volume at all. These strings have been on my mandolin since last August and they still sound great. A friend of mine borrowed my mandolin for some studio recording a couple of weeks ago and was astounded when I told him the strings were a year old. I agree with restlessescourage's comments above about a thicker pick. I have been using a Wegen 1.8mm triangle pick and it sounds great with these strings. I used to keep my Thomastik's on for 6 to 8 months, but these FW-74's are a year old and I have no plans to change them anytime soon. They are a little more expensive, but in the end, they will save you tons of money because they last so long. I have spent $11 on strings in the last year.

[dorenac]

I agree with restlesscourage about the sound and thicker pick. I switched to a Dawg pick, and the combination with these strings produces a nice warm, woody tone. These are great strings for all the reasons flatwounds are desirable. Their volume isn't really diminished noticeably from phosphors, and yes the G string is lighter. What I have found is they are "cleaner" sounding. That is, notes seem to be warmer and also more distinct and articulated. PB strings always seemed a little muddy sounding on my mandolin, but not the FW74's. I had been using J73's, my custom mandolin was set up for them even. And I was unsure of the slightly heavier A & E strings. But it turns out that a slightly heavier A works better even if it isn't wound. And the E is a stronger, less tinny, sound.

[bluegrassdan]

I have been using J75 gauge except on the G string which is J74 size. I like the larger size on the A and E strings so will continue to do so that is if the FW74's have these as plain steel. I also use a thick pick, the Jazzmando pro plec 1.5. I wonder why they don't have a heavier G string on the FW's.

[mandroid]

Probably gonna put mine on the magnetic coil electric, guess the pickup will 'see' the windings
since they don't look like bronze.
anyone know if they're ferrous-nickel-alloy, over the steel core?

the "anyone know?" should probably be directed to the company website by
me as well as Dan.

[Ted Eschliman]

When I helped D'addario developed these, everything was based on the existing Chrome Series electric guitar sets. I had already been pulling the balls out to make loop end strings before working with product development. It was then a matter of getting the best gauging. They will work great on a magnetic p/u since that's pretty much the origin.

[mandobassman]

Nice job Ted! This the perfect flatwound string set for me, especially for Bluegrass. Just out of curiosity, what was the reasoning behind the .036 G string, with the rest of the set being the same as the J74? I'm not at all complaining, I think it' s just fine the way it is, I'm just wondering how you came to that decision.

[Ted Eschliman]

Two things. These come from the perspective of the flatwound enthusiast. Because of the closer wrapping, the diameter of the string is smaller for the comparative tension. In other words, you don't need the same thickness in flat to get the same tension of the round. The other thing, my JM11s have a 33 gg G string, same as the TI medium. This means the G on the FW74 at 36 is actually bigger than the established "medium" of flatwound.

The beta team tested the strings with thinner D and G initially, and we determined this was a better balance, and the tone was fuller. We really weren't comparing these to the J74 in development.

Now, if I could just get them to make these for mandola and octave mandolin...

[dorenac]

You and D'Addario hit a home run with these strings. They're great!

[mandobassman]

I'm certainly not suggesting that anything should change, they are fantastic the way they are. I was simply using the J74 as a comparison since the other 3 string sets are the same thickness. I was just wondering why the D is the same as the J74 and not the G. Regardless, they're great strings. One of the things I like is that there are lots of people trying, and learning about the benefits of flatwound strings, that would not have tried them before. Mainly because they're less expensive and because they have a tone more suited to Bluegrass than any other flatwound string I have ever used.

[mandobassman]

Now, if I could just get them to make these for mandola and octave mandolin...

You got that right. I have only been able to use a custom assembled set for octave. There simply are no ready-made sets available for my octave, which is a 22.75' scale.

[bluegrassdan]

New fw's are on. Now time for the break in period.

[mandobassman]

Be sure to give them some time. Be patient. It took me about two weeks of regular playing to get rid of the new sound. After that, they have just sounded great and continue to sound great after a year of playing (I installed them last August).

[Tavy]

Be sure to give them some time. Be patient. It took me about two weeks of regular playing to get rid of the new sound. After that, they have just sounded great and continue to sound great after a year of playing (I installed them last August).

I agree they sound better for playing in, but then I'm not keen on that new string sound

G and D courses continue to sound great almost indefinitely, but the A and E get to sound "broken" somehow after about 6 months, I keep meaning to get some extra plain strings so I can change the A&E more often than the wound's.

Other than that, they're the bee's knees.

[bluegrassdan]

Early on they dont seem as full sounding but I will give them time. I assume the A and E strings are the same as the J75's so I left them on being not very old and meatier with the heavier gauge.

[terzinator]

For jazzy stuff, I really liked them. For bluegrass, not so much. (Same feeling about the T-I's.)

Warm, but not out front or loud enough for a jam. (But that's just one man's opinion.)

If I was doing strictly jazz, I'd use 'em all the time. (Golly, that's almost reason right there to get another mandolin.)

[mandobassman]

I assume the A and E strings are the same as the J75's...

Actually, they are all the same gauge as the J74's except the G course, not J75's

[mandobassman]

For jazzy stuff, I really liked them. For bluegrass, not so much. (Same feeling about the T-I's.)

Warm, but not out front or loud enough for a jam. (But that's just one man's opinion.)

If I was doing strictly jazz, I'd use 'em all the time. (Golly, that's almost reason right there to get another mandolin.)

I can certainly understand that opinion, I think many people share it. However, I play almost nothing but Bluegrass in a fairly high-energy band, and they are perfect for me. Plenty of volume (on a single condenser mic also), along with a beautiful warm tone. I think the FW-74's are the one flatwound set that comes closest to a Bluegrass tone. It all depends on your playing style and your mandolin.

[terzinator]

Yeah, Larry, I might try them again someday. I posted over in the "In search of the best tone" (or whatever it was called) thread about my T-I experience, and listening to two MTs side-by-side. One with T-I's and one with J74s... The T-I's certainly didn't cut it, and my memory's kinda foggy on the FW's, but I feel like they were similar.

It's been jams, rather than performances, lately, so I can't speak to how they'd perform with a microphone.

Again, might be my old ears, too. They just need the added zing I hear with the regular old roundwounds.

[mandobassman]

I do all performances and almost no jams, so I can't speak much about that. Although, when we rehearse, I received many comments about how loud my mandolin is with flatwound strings. In performance, I stand about 2 feet from a MXL 990 condenser mic and sometimes am told the mandolin is too loud. I used T-I's for 14 years before switching over to the FW74's. For me, it was a night and day experience. I used TI's because I have always hated the finger noise from sliding and the short life span of roundwound strings. Seemed like they were just starting to sound like I wanted them to when they would go dead entirely. I used the GHS Silk and Steels for several years before the TI's and they lasted a little longer and weren't quite as bright. The TI's would settle in and then sound exactly the same for 8 or 9 months, sometimes more. I did often long for just a little more "zing" and volume. The FW74's provide that for me. They are much closer to the J74 sound without the finger noise and much, much longer life. I'm not saying they sound like J74's, only that they are much closer to that sound than the TI's.

[mandocaster]

How is the intonation? Will it be similar to j-74's?

[mandobassman]

I have never had J74's on my mandolin so I wouldn't be able to compare, however, I have always found flatwound strings much more forgiving of intonation issues, so if you don't have any intonation issues now, I'm guessing that you won't with Fw74's. I had used GHS Silk and Steel's on a older Kentucky mandolin for several years and always had some intonation problems that I could never get rid of. When I started using flatwound strings, the problems disappeared. My Breedlove came with EXP74's and the intonation was perfect and it is no different with the FW74's.

[mandocaster]

I have never been happy with wound A strings, not because of the tone but because they are flat (pitch) compared to plain A's. I want to try this set because of the plain A.