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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink The String thread

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Rotosound does make .12 flatwounds, but they are sorta hard to find. They are really beefy strings. Dull sounding in a decent flatwound way. I use Roto Reds(roundwound) .11s on my non-Fenders. Great string. I prefer Thomastik rounds or flats for Fenders though.

I put a set of D'Addario flatwound Chromes 13-56 on my CIJ Jag, and I did not like the tight tension of the first 3 strings. I like to do some bending without fear of snapping the neck, or strings. So I replaced the first 3 strings with the 10, 13, and 17 from a set of Ernie Ball regular Slinkys. I like it so far, no problems as of yet. Does anyone see there being a problem later on down the road with this combo? Another thing. How long does it take for that tiney sound to mellow out on the flatwounds?

Bill_Ashton
And those are the LaBella packages...with a guitar that looks almost like a Barney Kessel Gibson...but not quite...

Yes, those bring back memories...

Um.... yas.... rocking chair sfx
Funny how stuff like that can get you going. When I were a lad I remember putting LaBella black nylon-wrapped flats on my bass. I was so proud. They looked so cool.

kontiki
Am I the only one who has tuning problems with D'Addario Chromes, specifically Jazz Mediums? They're going out of whack after about five minutes of continuous playing. This hasn't happened with any other strings, but this is the first time I've used flatwounds with this heavy a gauge. Could it just be the tuners (Standard Tele MIM stock)? I did have to widen the nut.

Oh. I thought I had those on my Strat, but they're actually the "ECG25 - Regular Light" set. Anyway, I've had them on for a couple of months now, and the only problem I've noticed was with the B string. I fixed that with a bit of pencil lead in the nut.

Somewhat related to that ...
I was setting out to lower the action just a bit the other night, and did the whole rigmarole with adjusting the truss rod, lowering the saddles a bit, and adjusting the intonation. In the process, my high E string broke while I was tuning the<u> A string</u> back up to normal pitch. How weird is that? Anywho, after recycling an old string, it was then that I realized that all the wound strings didn't sound as good as I remembered, so I decided to get me a whole new set. (Finally. I don't play in public or record, so I can be quite lackadaisical in my sound quality.)

For another thing, i wasn't able to get the intonation set up half as good as when the strings were new. I'd set up one string, and it would be good at the 15th fret, and at the 5-7th frets, but the 9th to 12th fret would be sharp, or flat. On another string, it would be fine from 9-12th, sharp at 15th, flat at 5th, and so on.

I also found that I had to remove the springs in the low E and A string saddles just to allow me to crank it back far enough to get the intonation even close. The E string saddle is so far back that I'm worried about the end of the screw grinding on the string.

So, does that mean that old/dead strings can mess up the intonation unpredictably?

Duh I discovered that I had set up the truss rod (according to the official Fender user manual) to give a gap of 0.10" between the Low E string and the eighth fret. It should have been 0.010". :rtfm:I thought it seemed somewhat high. Once I corrected that, the rest turned out much better.

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

Only one mention of SIT strings. There was one mention of roundwound 12's.

Any opinions on SIT flatwounds? Anyone ever try them?

https://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=9353f9155b5ff32e14c998495fd00da4&#!/rich.derksen.7

This post has been removed by the author.

Last edited: Sep 23, 2009 21:30:19

Wow. Cool Zak, thanks. Can we finally lock this thread now? Smile

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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Eh? Yes Planish, I try to get my rocking chair creaking in time to the music...

HAH!

In fact, my piggy-back Tremolux is such a pain to get out an play with (basement only, gigs WAY far behind me, that I am considering having
a combo cab made to stick the amp chassis and a 12" C12N into...at least
that will make its way into my living room...

But I digress...Fender ST250R's on my ne CP Jag now...better than either the .009's that came with it or the "Fender Vintage 150's" I tried on it...but have to get rid of the stinkin' bridge buzz before I break out the T/I flats...

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most...

Hey good post Zak!

SSIV

D'Addario Chrome 12s (12-52) on the new 65 Daphne Blue Reissue Mustang. And yes, the nut needed work so a little filing with a set of nut files from Warmouth and a little dressing with properly-sized abrasive cord did the trick. After redoing the nut, the neck was very close to straight so I left the truss rod alone. Now I just have to re-engineer the vibrato system to get a little trem back. Otherwise, it's just screwed down and solid..... Can there be trem happiness with heavy strings?

There are tubes that glow and tubes that flow......

DR Pure Blues .11's on all my electrics.
Used to use D'Addarios Blues/Jazz only, then tried the Pure Blues and I haven't used anything since.

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zak
Unfortunately there aren't many people making pure nickel round core strings for two reasons: they are more costly and labor-intensive to produce, and the general lack of awareness and "strings are strings" mentality keep the demand low. In Europe there is Pyramid, Thomastik, and Newtone, but these are all pretty expensive here and presumably anywhere else in North America. However the New Jersey based DR Strings company makes excellent round core pure nickel strings (the "pure blues" sets) which are quite affordable, and I've heard good things about Snake Oil Brand Strings though I've never tried them myself. An even cheaper option are the Dean Markley "Vintage Electric" series which are nickel-plated, readily available, and seem to sound pretty good.

GHS Burnished Nickel are another roundwound pure nickel string with a round core. They are lightly polished for a smoother feel, only goes to .11. I've been using them for a while without knowing that, Dave Wronski recommended them to me. They are about $5 at juststrings.com, cheaper than DR.

I remember hating the GHS Burnished strings with a passion. Switched to DRs instead.

JakeDobner
I remember hating the GHS Burnished strings with a passion. Switched to DRs instead.

With a passion? Wow. The burnished are a little brighter, almost like the difference between Chromes and regular flats. I'm trying DR Pure Blues now, very nice feel and sound.

Shore, you can find tremolo Nirvana with 12/52 Chrome flats. I do every time I pick up one of my Fender guitars. I use 11/50 Chrome flats on the Hallmark.

Oh Zakky, just remember when you import something from Europe you pay 1.5 times the normal cost as the dollar to Euro is about 1.5 presently......

Luv dem Chrome stringys. When ya hit em, they make a BIG sound.

ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

I've been really happy with the Rotosound purples. I did try the DR Pure Blues briefly and they did sound good, but I do like the sting of the Rotosounds. I've had some problems with string breakage with them, but I think that can be helped by keeping all string-bridge contact points lubricated.

I haven't really put the DRs through its paces yet because it is sort of a pain switching between these two brands. The tension differences require basically a new setup on my strat (tremolo claw, saddle height, pickup height). On a strat those three things have to move together to keep a good setup intact.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Stormtiger
With a passion? Wow. The burnished are a little brighter, almost like the difference between Chromes and regular flats. I'm trying DR Pure Blues now, very nice feel and sound.

I took them off right after I put them on. I've only ever done that with these strings and Fender flats. The GHS sounded dead to me. Very thin.

JakeDobner

Stormtiger
With a passion? Wow. The burnished are a little brighter, almost like the difference between Chromes and regular flats. I'm trying DR Pure Blues now, very nice feel and sound.

I took them off right after I put them on. I've only ever done that with these strings and Fender flats. The GHS sounded dead to me. Very thin.

That's funny. I did the same thing with the DRs. I thought they sounded a little dull and took them off after a day...that was after the e string broke. I later discovered most of my trouble was due to an improper set up (I was learning) so I'm giving the DRs another chance, but only on the Strat.

This post has been removed by the author.

Last edited: Sep 23, 2009 22:09:36

Zack, El Fender Strings es MAS MACHO!!!

I just put on some nickle strings from a company called Curt Mangan strings.... AWESOME!!!!!!!! Check them out.

THe NEpTuNeS

I just tried out a set of the mysterious Snake Oil Brand Strings basically because I wanted to see for myself what all the hype is about. SOB "Vintage" strings are a boutique Pure Nickel over round core string made by seemingly one guy?

First the good: These strings have incredibly strong fundamental tone and sustain for days. I was pretty shocked at the sustain when strumming a chord acoustically. There is a big difference between these strings and the Rotosounds that I normally play. The biggest difference is the lack of any extraneous noise or unwanted overtones in the note. They also lack that "sizzle" that I equate to Rotosounds, which I happen to like. But these are very nice strings and do not sound like any other string I have ever tried. I do like them more than the similarly made DR Pure Blues Strings because they are more brilliant and present, if that makes any sense. They are also a little softer to the touch and have a bit more give at the same guage.

Now the bad: It is not realistic to play these strings on a regular basis because of the huge lag from the time of placing an order until the time you receive them. For example, I ordered two packs in early February and I just received them this weekend (late April). So although they are very nice strings I can't imagine depending on them in any way.

I think I'll stick with the Rotosounds because although they don't last me very long (lots of string breaking) there is something I really love about those strings. Maybe I'm just a steel guy.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
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