I Tried Flatwound Guitar Strings: You Should Too

After many years of playing roundwound strings exclusively, I finally took the plunge and tried flatwound strings. I admittedly went into it with some skepticism, but I was surprised at what I found. In this post I’ll discuss why I decided to finally try flat wound, and why I think you’ll want to want to slap a set on your guitar.

Flatwound vs. Roundwound Strings

Construction

Roundwound and Flatwound strings share more similarities in their construction than differences. Both types of strings are made by winding a wire around a metal core wire. The top two strings—B and high E—share the same construction. The construction of the wound strings is where the differences lie.

Round Wound: Round wound strings are made by winding a round wire (usually steel) around a core wire. This winding style creates a surface with small ridges between the windings. Another feature of Round strings is they tend to have lower tension than Flatwounds. Roundwound strings are the most popular type of strings today.

Flat Wound: In contrast, Flatwound string construction means that the strings are wound with a flattened wire. This wire is then wrapped around the core wire. Because of the shape, the flatter winding is denser, and has contains less obvious ridges between the windings than round wound strings. Additionally, many Flatwound string sets feature a wound G string, instead of the plain G string typically found in Roundwound sets. Flatwound strings tend to have more string tension than Round strings. This is partly due to the construction, but also because many Flat Wound sets have higher gauge strings to begin with.

Feel

Round Wound

Roundwound strings are created by winding a metal wrap around a core wire. The ridges created by the windings result in a “textured” feel that is very familiar to players. Different brands of strings have a different feel, depending on the metal used on the outer coating of the winding.

Flat Wound

Flatwound strings feel smoother, and more “slippery”. The increased slickness is actually a benefit, because it results in less friction when fretting the string. This in turn results in lower finger noise. Finger noise is the squeaking sound that is often heard when fretting a note, especially on newer strings. The reason for these differences is that the flattened wire results in very little ridge between the individual windings. Note that while the High E and B strings are the same, Flatwound string sets often feature heavier gauges on the top strings.

Tone of Flatwound Strings

First off, I’ll say that I had some preconceptions going in. Players often consider flatwound strings jazz guitar strings for the unique sound that they produce. And rockers play roundwound strings for their increased overtones and sustain. More importantly the slinkiness of round wound strings is great for styles that require a string bending, particularly rock and blues.

To add to the mix, I tried a set of Half Round strings a couple of years ago, and did not care for them (I won’t mention the manufacturer other than to say that they were from one of the Top 5 string brands). Half Round strings are advertised as halfway between Round and Flat. Personally, I found them not drastically different from Round strings. The texture was particularly bad—there was a lot of friction, which made playing smoothly difficult. In retrospect, they may have been corroded.

Because of my experience with the Half Rounds, I doubted that I would really like Flatwounds.

My Impressions of Flatwound Strings

I chose my Hamer Newport Hollowbody to try out Flatwounds. This was a natural choice, since the guitar is a thinline hollowbody with a 24.75″ scale. The nice thing about thinline hollowbody is that they can live in both the rock and jazz camps, and everything in between.

The strings I used for this experiment are arguably the most popular and available Flatwound strings: D’Addario Chromes. I chose the 11-50 gauge, which is considered a jazz light gauge. D’Addario Chromes are known to be one of the best flatwound strings you can get. As soon as I put them on and strung them up, I was struck at how different they looked than Roundwound strings. The D’Addario are very clearly flat, and have a silvery sheen to them.

Flatwound Feel

The first thing I noticed was the tension, which was increased compared to my usual Curt Mangan Pure Nickel strings. Though both sets are 11-gauge, the strings are overall a little bit heavier: This is most noticeable on the low E string, which is .50 on the Chromes, compared with .48 on the Mangans.

Any reservations I had about the increased tension disappeared as soon as I started playing. The vaunted smoothness was there. The strings indeed felt “slick” to the touch. Something felt really “right” about them that is hard to describe. The were firmer in tension but more comfortable under my fingers than typical round strings.

Flatwound Tone

I plugged into my Quilter SuperBlock US with my usual settings. The first thing I thought was: This is the sound I’ve been looking for! As much as I like the Hamer Hollowbody, its thinline construction and solid spruce top ensure that it won’t ever sound like a deep jazzbox with laminate construction. The Chromes didn’t transport it to that zone, but I’ll say this: It got it closer than it’s ever been. The “thunk” sound that many jazz players seek was finally within reach.

Flatwound String Benefits

I had always heard that flatwound strings were darker and less brilliant, and this was indeed the case. But not objectionably so. In fact, I’d characterize the sound of the Chromes as having more of an emphasis on the fundamental note and less on the the overtones. The attack was stronger and more muted than round strings. For sure, the overtones were muted as well. This took some getting used to. Then I remembered that I typically tweak my amp and tone knobs to dial out some of the brightness of my usual strings. With the Chromes, I was happy with both the guitar volume and the tone knobs rolled up to almost maximum.

Bending was more challenging. However, this was to be expected. It’s not as if you can’t bend strings with flats, because you certainly can. But you’re generally not going to want to be doing big, sustaining bending of notes. My sense tells me that if that’s your style, you’re probably not going to be too hot on flatwounds anyway. One more note on string tension: What some players find is that a firm setup, i.e., increased string tension, can give your fingers a firm foundation for fretting more complex chords.

Tim Learch does a great comparison of the tone of Roundwound vs. Flatwound strings, on the same guitar:

Flatwounds Aren’t Just For Jazz

Many of today’s hot jazzers use roundwound strings. However, one of the things I learned about flatwounds recently is that 50’s Telecasters and Strats actually shipped with them from the factory. These vintage flatwound strings are part of the formula for the sought after tones of early rock-n-roll. After playing and enjoying the Chromes for a couple of hours, I asked myself why I waited so long to try them. I suppose it’s because I mistakenly thought that they weren’t going to be for me. And I suppose I thought that because flats have fallen out of favor among many of today’s guitarists who don’t live firmly in the jazz world.

In other words, although you will mostly see flatwound strings for archtop guitars, they can be used in other contexts as well. Flatwound strings for fingerstyle can work due to their lower string noise, as can flatwound strings for recording.

Conclusion

I tried flatwound Guitar Strings, and I believe that flats still occupy a legit niche. You do not need to be playing jazz to enjoy the benefits of flatwound strings. Yes, they have “reduced harmonic content.” Yet, I found that there is something very likable about this sound. And though the price of flatwounds is typically more than their roundwound cousins, many players feel that flatwound strings offer extended string life. This is in part because the more recognizable overtones in roundwound strings aren’t present in the first place.

I highly recommend tryinbg flatwound strings on any guitar. There are low tension flatwound strings They’ll be staying on mine for the foreseeable future. Happy Playing!

Note: You can support Guitarkind by purchasing D’Addario Chromes through this Amazon link.