PlayJazzGuitar.com Forum

[Dazzle]

What strings do you use?

I have a Washburn J6 Montgomery which sounded great until I cahnged the strings to Thomasik Jazz Swin!!

Help me get my tone back!

Dazzle

[Chris]

I use Gibson flatwires 12-54. beautiful tone.

[guest]

Gibson flatwires ..are they flatwounds

[PlayJazzGuitar]

Yes they are flatwounds.
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[Guest]

I use DR The "Handmade Strings" on all my guitrars. Though nothing like flatwires, or any other string as well, they sound great, last a long time and are made in a manufaturing process quite unlike anybody else.
The core wire is thicker than usual meaning each string has more actaul mass before it is compression wound.
So when the wrap wire is applied and compressed the result is a string where a .12 E gauges at .11.
They've been my favorites for years and sound killer on acoustic's!

[caveman]

I use LaBella. Great strings for blues!

[khair]

I have a Epiphone Joe Pass model. I'm trying to find my sound, and I find that I like really heavy gauge strings (I'm using .13's but I'm going to special order some .14's). There is a great jazz guitarist here (Detroit) named Robert Lowe who uses .17's (!).

I have a question. I'm trying to work on technique and speed, and I was wondering if you have any thoughts on speed in relation to string gauges.

Kelly

[bluenote908]

I have an Ibanez artstar, which I string up with Tomastik-Infeld Jazz-Swing 14's. They sound unbelievable to my ears; previously, I was convinced that roundwounds were superior, but now that I use a brand of flats that aren't consistently dead, I'll never go back. Here's the thing - if you've never used flats before, the first reaction of any guitarist is how harsh the tone is. You really have to roll back the tone to at most 4 or 5 to make them sound good. If you try to get a bright sound, you're going to be rewarded with a harsh midrange, wicked feedback, and just a crappy wooden scraping sound. If you are convinced that you must use flatwounds, which is a wise choice, I would advise you to stick with the Tomastik-Infelds - they are the best money can buy. Try lowering the prescence on your amp, turning down the tone on your guitar, using a heavier (2 and above) guage pick, or all of the above. Also, the most important thing to remember is that tone is one of the most player-unique aspects - any amount of money spent on good strings, guitars, preamps, etc, is no substitute for consistent picking and fretting technique.

[bluenote908]

also, in regard to the post above, I am continually adding weight to my strings to achieve faster picking technique. The reason is that, the heavier strings you use, the more resistance there is to your picking. With lighter strings, the strings have too much slack, causing fast runs to feel (and sound) sloppy and muddy. On the other hand, if you use bends a lot then lighter strings might be what you are looking for. It all depends on the individual's technique, style, etc. Hope this is of help.

[colin]

I use elixirs. Bought my epiphone joe pass some time ago and started out using electric 10's. I now use 12's as the 10's were a bit sloppy. The 12's give more tension and tone but still allow for a spot of string bending. I like elixirs because they feel great.

colin

[gavin]

I use the Thomastik George Benson's (can be got at a decent price if you trawl enough) seemed a little heavy at first (used to use Thomastik 12's flats) but took around five minutes to kick in - no problems with barres - and you do need heavier strings to get an archtop resonating & attain the speed you need.