Kiwi
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2013
- Messages
- 433
I have an odd gear recommendation. It may be esoteric, but stay with me. It has to do with strings.
Thomastik-Infeld flatwounds.
Okay, if you're still reading ...
The T-I strings tame the problem children in my guitar collection, then send them off to finishing school, where they then get admitted to top colleges.
1) The Gretsch Setzer 6120 is a wildly idiosyncratic beast. Very bright highs, woofy lows, very prone to feedback, often thin, sometimes just screechy, very picky about amps (it marries Marshalls and spurns Matchless). It is an acoustic guitar with two pickups dropped in. I've used everything from 11 gauge nickel wounds to 11 flatwound D'Adds to regular nickel 10s and 12s. They all sounded varying shades of okay. The D'Add flatwounds just sucked the life out that sparkling guitar. Thorazine for tone.
Then I put in a set of T-I jazz flatwound 11s. It smoothed everything out, restored balance across the strings, kept the essential hollowbody sound and smartened things right up. The 6120 is now a lively conversationalist.
2) The PRS Modern Eagle Quatro (MEQ) is another problem child, the one vanity piece in my collection. The solid rosewood neck is a very different ride. It offers piano-like clear lows, brilliant highs, and so much sustain that it became problematic: Sustaining notes (especially the low ones) would all smear into each other.
I tried everything: up to 11s, downtuned to D standard, 10s, 9s.... till I finally settled on the lowest 3 strings from a 9 set and the top 3 from a 10 set, all nickel wound, to try to tame it. Screwy, but it worked.
This weekend I put on a set of 10-44 T-I flatwounds on the MEQ and again it just completely smoothed out and livened up the guitar. Way more livable (and playable - the low 9s were just wet noodles in my ham fists). All while retaining the sound that made it unique.
The rap on flatwounds is that they can dull down any guitar, and that was my experience ... until I tried the T-Is. They keep the guitar's juiciness, and they even it all out and make it behave. I'm not even sure that if you didn't know they were flatwounds that you could tell from the tone.
Who'd a thunk a mere set of strings would be a Swiss governess for the problem children?
There is, however ... ahem ... <cough> a certain cost to this solution.
T-I flats are not just eye-wateringly expensive. They are knee-bucklingly expensive.
But it's your children. Want them to behave? Want to make them presentable to top colleges? You'll pay what it takes, and you will thank me later.
=K
Thomastik-Infeld flatwounds.
Okay, if you're still reading ...
The T-I strings tame the problem children in my guitar collection, then send them off to finishing school, where they then get admitted to top colleges.
1) The Gretsch Setzer 6120 is a wildly idiosyncratic beast. Very bright highs, woofy lows, very prone to feedback, often thin, sometimes just screechy, very picky about amps (it marries Marshalls and spurns Matchless). It is an acoustic guitar with two pickups dropped in. I've used everything from 11 gauge nickel wounds to 11 flatwound D'Adds to regular nickel 10s and 12s. They all sounded varying shades of okay. The D'Add flatwounds just sucked the life out that sparkling guitar. Thorazine for tone.
Then I put in a set of T-I jazz flatwound 11s. It smoothed everything out, restored balance across the strings, kept the essential hollowbody sound and smartened things right up. The 6120 is now a lively conversationalist.
2) The PRS Modern Eagle Quatro (MEQ) is another problem child, the one vanity piece in my collection. The solid rosewood neck is a very different ride. It offers piano-like clear lows, brilliant highs, and so much sustain that it became problematic: Sustaining notes (especially the low ones) would all smear into each other.
I tried everything: up to 11s, downtuned to D standard, 10s, 9s.... till I finally settled on the lowest 3 strings from a 9 set and the top 3 from a 10 set, all nickel wound, to try to tame it. Screwy, but it worked.
This weekend I put on a set of 10-44 T-I flatwounds on the MEQ and again it just completely smoothed out and livened up the guitar. Way more livable (and playable - the low 9s were just wet noodles in my ham fists). All while retaining the sound that made it unique.
The rap on flatwounds is that they can dull down any guitar, and that was my experience ... until I tried the T-Is. They keep the guitar's juiciness, and they even it all out and make it behave. I'm not even sure that if you didn't know they were flatwounds that you could tell from the tone.
Who'd a thunk a mere set of strings would be a Swiss governess for the problem children?
There is, however ... ahem ... <cough> a certain cost to this solution.
T-I flats are not just eye-wateringly expensive. They are knee-bucklingly expensive.
But it's your children. Want them to behave? Want to make them presentable to top colleges? You'll pay what it takes, and you will thank me later.
=K