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Just for fun I emailed Dick Dale and Paul Johnson and asked them
about the whole round wound vs flat wound thing back in the 60's.
Dick told me that they had both flats and rounds available in the
60's. He tried the flats because he preferred their smooth feel
because his string gauge was 16p 18p 20p 39w 49w 60w. But he did not
like how they sounded and went right back to the round wounds.
Dick said that Fender made their own round wounds back then and he
preferred those over Ernie Ball round wounds (at the time).
Currently he uses Dean Markley blue steels.
Paul told me that he used flats back then, but he doesn't remember
for sure what Eddie used. He did confirm that more people used flats
back then than rounds, but made it seem like rounds were available.
He also said lighter gauge strings did not come until later.
It's kind of cool getting email from two surf guitar legends within
2 minutes of each other...!
BN
