sweet 16 and thomastic flatwounds

[ironmike]

i just installed a set of 13 gauge thomastic flatwounds in my x brace sweet 16..beautiful strings..i had it strung with 14 gauge thomastic roundwounds,which i like, but the flats have a life of there own,quite nice on that guitar..i'm enjoying the entire aproach on the flatwounds,they tell you what to do next . i'm keeping the 14 guage roundwounds on my 575,i like the roundwounds too, there is a vast difference between those two guitars now(both are spruce top)..anyone ever use the thomastic flatwound 14 gauge?

 

[Kuz]

Thomastic George Benson Flatwound 12s on my Golden Eagle, 575, and Aaron Cowels Unity.

 

I never felt the need to go higher and the less tension of the strings puts less stress on the top which can cause issues years later. Most of the more "modern" archtop players are using lighter strings (12s or less).

[ironmike]

these guitars will handle 18 guage, i recon whatever works for you, i can't hardly play jazz on 12's, i use 12's on my blues guitars, 14's on everything else, cept now the sweet 16's got 13's(because they were laying around)i like'm ok, but 14's really have great tone ,sometimes i'll slack to Eb,i love the feel of heavy strings 1/2 step down, but when i play out, sometime an amature listens with his eyes instead of his ears, and they crash out of key.so i alway tune a44o when i'm giggin, unless i'm solo. but the big thick 14 flatwounds i've yet to try..that's what i was asking about.

[Kuz]

Ren, from Heritage told me 5 years ago that all Heritage archtops are shipped with 11s. He said he he does that to help prevent the top from caving. They might be able to handle 14s, but I am not going to take that risk. If Thomastic 12s are good enough for Big George Benson and 11s are good enough for Vince Lewis..... Well, they are good enough for a hack like me.

 

YMMV

[rockabilly69]

For years I used the Thomastik Swing 011 Flatwounds on my old DuoJet and I always got compliments about the tone of that guitar! I love their strings, but they are pretty expensive! I made sure to wipe them down after every set! I would still use them, but I switched to roundwound strings and I can get Pyramid Maximum performance for quite a bit less.

[Larryfeldman]

I called Ren about my Sweet 16 and he told me to get rid of the 13's and go to 12's to avoid the top caving in. I'm also having a tun o matic bridge put in because of intonation issues. Hope you enjoy yours.

 

 

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[ironmike]

i think the thomstics are known to have a lot less tension than other brands, been using them for years, btw, benson uses 14 guage he only uses 12 when he's touring.