Are flatwounds better if you kind of suck and don't have good dynamic control? Um, asking for a friend here.

I know Matt Sweeney uses flats, and I often think I should because of that recommendation and then I remember that I'm not Matt Sweeney and he's about 1000 times more talented than I am - it's probably not strings standing in the way of me sounding good lol.

Frankie99 wrote: Fri Jun 16, 2023 11:38 am I know Matt Sweeney uses flats, and I often think I should because of that recommendation and then I remember that I'm not Matt Sweeney and he's about 1000 times more talented than I am - it's probably not strings standing in the way of me sounding good lol.

Try flats! Flats are awesome : )

This is only topic-adjacent but wanted to share this as it has always surprised me how few people actually know how to correctly put strings on - even great guitar players who have been playing a long time.



A recent post about slippage came in my memory when the above came up in my yt feed. Been doing this a long time, one of a few bits of correct knowledge I picked up over the years pre-internet.

The correct way to put strings on is to first throw away all non-split shaft tuners and replace them with proper tuners. Then use them like god intended.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: The correct way to put strings on is to first throw away all non-split shaft tuners and replace them with proper tuners. Then use them like god intended.

I didn't even realize how true this was until I started fucking around with the Classic Vibe line some years ago. They all have "vintage style" split shaft tuners and they are a true pleasure. To paraphrase Charles Barkley, anything else seems uncivilized.

twelvepoint wrote: Fri Jun 16, 2023 8:01 am Are flatwounds better if you kind of suck and don't have good dynamic control? Um, asking for a friend here.

Kinda a hard question. I feel like they can sort of balance out general strumming stuff, but you definitely can hit them in a way that they sound weird. I kinda love how wounds sound when you really put some snap into your playing, but I think Flats sound best being chill. Finger picking is a different feel dynamically than wounds as I feel like you kinda gotta give flats a little more zing to get a balanced sound. String brand also makes all the difference in the world with flats IMO. Diadario Chromes fucking break and that is all there is to it. I've tried so many times. They just pop. I've had them break just putting them on the guitar more than once. The cheaper flats also do sound kinda like dead strings. The Tomastic Swing strings have been great every time I've bought them. Kinda spendy but they last forever and sound mellow but not dull. Great tuning stability. They feel better too. They are worth the extra scratch to me. I could use my bar on my jazz master with Tomastics as I normally would and had no issues. Would never even attempt that with diadarios.

Flats are cool and if you have an extra guitar lying around it's worth having flats on one.

Tom Wanderer wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 10:12 am

Dr Tony Balls wrote: The correct way to put strings on is to first throw away all non-split shaft tuners and replace them with proper tuners. Then use them like god intended.

I didn't even realize how true this was until I started fucking around with the Classic Vibe line some years ago. They all have "vintage style" split shaft tuners and they are a true pleasure. To paraphrase Charles Barkley, anything else seems uncivilized.

A friend went down the rabbit hole of fucking with locking tuners like some sort of shredder last summer and put like 3 different sets of tuners on his firebird. I think one even required a hex key to use. It was so annoying to have to fiddle with that shit every time you had to tune the guitar, which because Gibson was all the time. I introduced him to the split shaft tuners on my Jazzmaster and ended that horseshit. I hate locking tuners so much.

Just to play the contrarian, I've been putting these on all my recent builds:

https://hipshotproducts.com/collections ... grade-kits

and they are great. Super easy to string up, and they work, my shit really stays in tune.

That said, between vintage split shaft and whatever the modern non-locking variety are called, split shaft all the way. Much better design, much easier to deal with.

Split shaft all the way. Almost all of my guitars have them. One of my guitars came with Kluson Supremes on it and I’m really, really loving those.