Flatwound string lover/users:what kind of music do you play?

[Jaguar018]

I like round wounds myself... but I might string up a guitar with flatwounds and give them another shot.

Don't give me all that boring stuff about "I play all kinds of different stuff because I am such a cool dude" answer.

Mostly rhythm? Lead? Both? Lots of effects? No effects?

Lots of individual notes or chords?

I can see getting a real vintage "surf" tone... or twangy country... but what else?

[Bandarra]

i play only in my room
play only my stuff, no covers from no one, and i kind of play indie/alt
mainly with no distortion, but with lots of reverb/delay (i use digiverb and the space echo)
tough i dont play surf that is the kind of tone i look for me (i love the tone of surf guitars)
i play chords and singles notes but i would say that the things i play are mostly the kind of things a rhythm player would do.
i think thats it...
.. no, wait. i love flatwounds. the only thing i miss about rounds is the strange noises we could do in the strings, and if i wanted loads of distortion i wont be using them, but thats all.

[crazyzeke]

I like round wounds myself... but I might string up a guitar with flatwounds and give them another shot.

Don't give me all that boring stuff about "I play all kinds of different stuff because I am such a cool dude" answer.

Mostly rhythm? Lead? Both? Lots of effects? No effects?

Lots of individual notes or chords?

I can see getting a real vintage "surf" tone... or twangy country... but what else?

I play everything because I'm the coolest dude on the planet.

Joking aside, this thread would work equally well for rounds. We could see the differences between those in the two different camps. A statistical execise children! Open up that notebook...

[fuzzking]

"I play all kinds of different stuff because I am such a cool dude"

this

i put them on everything and i like to play chords and single notes, with a plek or fingerpicked, with or without slide, clean,
overdriven or with fuzz. i like to struggle with bendings on the wound G string - as i hate guitars that play themselves (though
i set them up as nicely as can be). in my opinion, i play some kind of kludgy mix of indie, blues & vintage style rock.

i guess this doesn't help at all, no?

[mapofthedead]

I play flatwounds and play nothing that could be described as vintage surf or twangy country

I guess I play mostly rhythm stuff with little lead / riffy type stuff thrown in (but that's more down to my own ability than the guitar or strings ) and I only have one effects pedal at the moment but plan to have many, many more in the future!

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I have flatwounds on a couple of guitars (Tele/Casino). I guess my style of playing is predominantly chordal/rhythmic with the flatwounds. I loved the rhythm sound I got on my last batch of recordings with the flatwound/Tele combination.
Riffs and melodic leads often call for the 12-string (on which I use Pyramid Gold flatwounds). When I finally get my Jazzmaster up and running I'll inaugurate it with a flatwound set too, if only to differentiate it from my current main guitar which still has the roundwoods it came with.
I was definitely moving towards using flatwounds exclusively, but just yesterday I was doing some behind the bridge string-scraping on my Hellcat and now I'm a convert to the power of the roundwound again.
I guess what it boils down to, as with most things in life, is 'whatever works' is the right thing to do.
The strings you put on your guitar are best regarded as tools, and using the right tool for the job is always the best option if it is an option.

[Jaguar018]

Interesting stuff guys.

I am not surprised by the answers. It seems to mostly involve a bit of personal preference to sounds that please the user's ears as opposed to something else, and I think that makes sense.

From other forums and things I have read, I know that some flat-wound users are "tone chasers," which is to say: they are trying to copy, as best they can, the sweet sound of the James Bond theme song or whatever.

[parry]

I play flats (13s) on my Jazzmaster. Our band has a moody, "darkwave" sound (recently reacquainted with that term and it still makes me chuckle ). Use of effects, but mostly a medium-gain distortion set in the lower quarter. Strange hybrid of rhythm/lead and a strange hybrid of notes creating chords (almost always minor)...

[Bill Ashton]

I presently have T/I flats on my CP Jaguar Special, and it is "sound appropriate" for most early to mid Sixties rock and surf. In the past I tried T/I flats on my Gibson J-30 acoustic, and itinstantly became a "Beatles guitar,' great for sound up to about Beatles VI or so...but lost all other acoustic guitar properties...except for maybe jazz rhythm comping...really transformed the guitar into a one trick pony.

I will use flats enough until I decide to try roundwounds again, then I decide I don't like them but hesitate a long time until I get flats on again...