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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Wound or unwound G string for surf guitar?

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what do you guys think the best 11 guage round wound strings with a wound third are? I have a hallmark 60C and i like no bigger than 11s on it but can only find d'addarios with a Wound third for 11s..i wish rotos made there 11s with a woud third i hear they are a great round string.

I recently re-strung my 60 Custom with 10-48 Chrome flats and I am using a plain third. So far this seems to be the best string set I've used on it. Kind of light but still has the tight string feel, which I like as opposed to the rubber band string feel. I tried the 11-50's but wasn't real happy with the tremolo action even though I carefully tuned it for the heavier (for Hallmark) strings. I also use a heavy gauge (.022) plain third on my 12-52 Chrome flats on my Jazzmasters as it is much louder and a lot harder to break.

I had not been absolutely happy about the Hallmark's playing feel and finally realized that the relative string heights didn't seem optimal. I pulled off the bridge saddle pieces and carefully machined the bottom of four of them on my lathe to better duplicate the radius of the finger board. That made a hell of a big difference. It's a much more friendly guitar.

One other thing I figured out was that I started using a pedal EQ to both lower the pickups' output to the amp and add a little brilliance that seemed to be missing from the Mosrite pickups I had installed in it.

Pretty nice guitar now. And I looks fabulous.

ed

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

I prefer wound. Unwound Gs always seem to give me intonation trouble, but wound Gs are well-behaved.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thedeadranchhands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZEW74mHjQk

Wound for me.

The Thunderchiefs

I prefer wound (better intonation). But I usually break them, and I have never broken a plain g string. I don't know why Confused

https://lospipelines.es/
Find us on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and all other music platforms.
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i was just going to start this thread....

i'm using 13-56 on a jaguar and the wound g is too hard to bend. i've been trying to get used dto it and if i want to bend a half step i need to REALLY commit to bending the shit out of it. going to try a plain g. i'm pretty new to the surf too and still testing the waters.

-Pierre
The Obsidians! (Ottawa surf)
The Obsidians debut EP

WetBandit wrote:

what do you guys think the best 11 guage round wound
strings with a wound third are? I have a hallmark 60C
and i like no bigger than 11s on it but can only find
d'addarios with a Wound third for 11s..i wish rotos
made there 11s with a woud third i hear they are a
great round string.

I use D'adderio 11s and sometimes 12s and have found both with wound thirds. Here are the links(although one of them does not have the proper package in it's photo representation)

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/D'Addario-EXL115W-Nickel-BluesJazz-Wound-3rd-Electric-Guitar-Strings?sku=100196

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/D'Addario-XL-Chromes-Jazz-Light-Electric-Guitar-Strings-ECG24-Flatwound?sku=100293

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

I change the flat-wound G for plain G string the tone mixt is better and more smooth between the string, thats my opinion. But on accoustic guitar I keep the G wound strings.

If you like to know I use a mosrite 66' with d'addario chrome Flat-wound strings size (10-48) set.(probly like eddie above)
I swap;
Plain High E for a plain 11
Plain B for a plain 15
Flat-wound G for a plain 18
The rest is the ones from the set
well i by the set only for the flat-wound D/A/Low E

Please dont be shy to share your stuff I love new songs!

Both. You'll find great players using both wound and/or plain G strings.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Last edited: Apr 29, 2011 10:29:12

el_camello wrote:

i was just going to start this thread....

i'm using 13-56 on a jaguar and the wound g is too hard
to bend. i've been trying to get used dto it and if i
want to bend a half step i need to REALLY commit to
bending the shit out of it. going to try a plain g. i'm
pretty new to the surf too and still testing the
waters.

Bending is for the blues, there is no bending allowed in surf music.But if you do, you'll probably find that the pitch hardly changes no matter how far you bend with flatwounds.

I've been using D'Addario Faltwounds ("Chromes") 10 guage, and they work real well so far. As far as bending goes, these work ok, but don't forget to use that "whammy bar". After reading Stormtigers "no bends allowed" post, it makes a lot of sense. You can "stretch" the flatwounds somewhat, but they sound GREAT for surf, & provide a lot of "drip". (Probaly should even use 11's).

Unwound for me, I play a 11-49 set. I have found that if you go too big with an "unwound" G string intonation can be problematic.

I play other genres though (Blues instros), so I need to be able to pull off some pretty good bends.

METEOR IV on reverbnation

.

Last edited: Mar 01, 2020 07:11:04

Can't play like myself with a wound G, but my guitar tech says I should use one on my old Silvertone Jupiter with a wooden bridge for better intonation. I have 11-50 Chromes on my Jag, but substitute a plain .22 for G.

http://www.aquatudes.com
http://www.facebook.com/theaquatudes

Stormtiger wrote:

el_camello wrote:

i was just going to start this thread....

i'm using 13-56 on a jaguar and the wound g is too
hard
to bend. i've been trying to get used dto it and if
i
want to bend a half step i need to REALLY commit to
bending the shit out of it. going to try a plain g.
i'm
pretty new to the surf too and still testing the
waters.

Bending is for the blues, there is no bending allowed
in surf music.But if you do, you'll probably find that
the pitch hardly changes no matter how far you bend
with flatwounds.

w3rd

http://www.reverbnation.com/thedeadranchhands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZEW74mHjQk

Ruhar wrote:

Both. You'll find great players using both wound
and/or plain G strings.

I agree with you Ryan. Not that I'm a great player, but, I play a wide variety of stuff in a typical set-everything from Dick Dale to twangy Tele double-stop bends. I just can't use an unwound "G", but I make "half bends" to simulate a wound "G".

I just recently got back into electric guitar. I use 10's on my Tagima TW 530. I am not crazy about the tone of the unwound G. It doesn't seem beefy enough, coming from the lower strings. I am toying with seeking out a wound G. BTW, bending is allowed in surf music.Check out Surf Rider by The Lively Ones. Great bends on that track!

Michael B. Coats

I’ve got set of 12-52 flatwounds with wound G on my Jaguar and just love it. It tames some of the Jaguar shrills but still punchy.

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

New Single is out!

https://waikikimakaki.bandcamp.com/album/rhino-blues-full-contact-surf-single

Waikiki Makaki

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin

-

Last edited: Feb 02, 2024 16:03:51

I use a wound G and B, wish I could find a wound high e. The B is still shrill, but it's much better than a solid string.

Daniel Deathtide

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