Don't Let Friends Put Flatwounds On Larrys

[rockstar_not]

Played my friends L-03-RE today; the one he bought after borrowing my L-03-E and loved it.

We both play in the worship team at church - he usually plays electric, I usually play acoustic or electric bass.

Today, he shows up with both his electric and his Larry.  He tells me I can play his Larry.  Woo Hoo, I'm excited to see if his B-band sounds better than the Fishman UST system that came with mine a few years back.  Also excited to see if I can hear the difference between his Rosewood and my mahogany.

I take it out of the case - what's this?  Flatwounds on an acoustic guitar?  I know that he's been searching for a jazz box and he decides he should turn his Larry into that until he finds the right one.

What a mistake.  While easy on the fingers, it sounded terrible, both plugged and unplugged.

It gave the sound guy fits - as the only strings which came through strongly were b and e, everything else was a muted thud - as if you had 2 year old wound strings on the thing.

So, do your friends a favor, don't let them put flatwounds on their acoustic guitars.

-Scott

[flaggerphil]

Back in the '60s we used to put flatwounds on our acoustics (mine was a Gibson LGO) all the time...and thought they sounded just fine.

However, with all the electric we played then, we could have tone-deaf, too...

[pigtown]

So, do your friends a favor, don't let them put flatwounds on their acoustic guitars.

That reminds me of "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys."  Waylon and Willie   B)  

[Philphool]

Hi guys.   My Larrivee won't arrive till Saturday, but I thought I'd jump in on this thread.

I've always hated the loud string sounds that most round wound strings make. (I know, it's just me.)  The flat wounds do lose a little something, so I found some "Flat Tops" by D'Addario.  They are round wound strings that have the top (outer) part of the windings ground off so they are smoother but still retain most of the tone of the roundwounds.   I've really found them to be nice for my purposes.
Your friend might want to try them to get some of the best of both worlds.

I'll be back after my OM-03R gets here.

Phil

[hcole]

Hi guys.   My Larrivee won't arrive till Saturday, but I thought I'd jump in on this thread.

I've always hated the loud string sounds that most round wound strings make. (I know, it's just me.)  The flat wounds do lose a little something, so I found some "Flat Tops" by D'Addario.  They are round wound strings that have the top (outer) part of the windings ground off so they are smoother but still retain most of the tone of the roundwounds.   I've really found them to be nice for my purposes.
Your friend might want to try them to get some of the best of both worlds.

I'll be back after my OM-03R gets here.

Phil

I use the D'Add flattops too.  I was looking for something to calm down the squeekiness of regular strings and didn't like the tone of coated strings.  The flattops were exactly what I was lookin for.