In defence of the wound third.....

[Goingdownslow]

In the 1950's guitar strings came in full sets, light, medium and heavy and they weren't 'gauged' in thous of an inch. They came with a wound third....tape or wire wound sets....names that come to mind were Monopole, Cathedral, Black Diamond and Mohawk.

In the 1960's the blues and rock players started 'under stringing' and the plain third came into favour and remains so to this day.

Benefits were easy actions, easy bending, light touch/ feel on the fretboard.

But.....this came at a cost.....string tone, and note definition fidelity wise....

I still use and have always used a wound third.....not a popular stance , but may I suggest that all you plain third men out there give it a go....the guitar feels much better balanced on the board, tuning stability is improved, note and tone definition is far better and chords are improved....

Also I imagine that all Hank's early work would have been on a fairly heavily strung Strat with the wound third....

Tone wise on that one....enough said...

If you are a melody line player....ie you can actually play a 'proper' tune then you will see an improvement....

If you are a shredder, blues bender, or punk then this discussion will be lost on you...

I await the tirade of responses and counter arguments...

[noelford]

It's not just a black and white thing, though, Paul. As someone who plays a great deal of melodic guitar, I also like to let my hair down with a little blues from time to time. And though I share your views on soulless shredding, I do find that the very occasional mindless Mach 2 blast up and down the fretboard can be quite therapeutic! And the he discussion is definitely not lost on me.

I do find that there are occasions when a nice melodic piece can still benefit from some judicious bending, so for this reason I mainly use plain thirds. But I also use a taped third on my jazz guitar, a Peerless Tonemaster JH Special. Similarly, for tonal and playability reasons, I use elevens on most of my guitars but have tens and twelves on a few others.

My point being, I suppose, that string choice doesn't have to be narrow, any more than one's choice of musical genres has to be.

[Goingdownslow]

All fair points Noel....I don't see it as B&W either ...I have 10 different guitars, all used for various roles etc and in my recording work I play all sorts of stuff.....I suppose the point that I am trying to make is specific to Hank's early sound and I've just checked a few pics and indeed he was a heavy string wound third man....current Hank is a different animal as is his material....but when you have people analysing echo settings from the 50s and 60s in search of the ' holy grail' of echo tone then I think It is important to get the strings right as well.
There will be many players out there much younger than us who are probably unaware of wound third use as they were born into the plain third world.....and it is for them that I raise the discussion as they could be in for a rewarding experience....got to be worth around £2 of anyone's money to buy the string and give it a go surely?
Cheers, Paul

[rogera]

I couldn't agree more with the points that you put forward Paul and I've always used string sets with a wound 3rd for those very reasons.

[noelford]

Agreed, Paul. For melodic stuff, a wound third is definitely something to consider putting on at least one guitar. It's good to experiment with strings, anyway – I've tried nines and thirteens in the past but neither were for me - like playing rubber bands and stair rods, respectively!

[Goingdownslow]

Agreed, Paul. For melodic stuff, a wound third is definitely something to consider putting on at least one guitar. It's good to experiment with strings, anyway – I've tried nines and thirteens in the past but neither were for me - like playing rubber bands and stair rods, respectively!

Hi Noel......It is good to try different strings in all their formats ....

Earlier this year I was working with a 12 piece Jazz Orchestra and in addition to my Ibanez Jazzer with flatwounds I tried a couple of gigs going acoustic only on my Loar cello guitar....so I did a Freddie Green and loaded it up with a really heavy set.
Heavy gauge phosphor bronze strings. A typical set has a low E string of .060" diameter and a high E string of .014" diameter.
I have to admit it wasn't a pleasant experience and not something that I intend to repeat.
Fortunately the neck stayed attached to the guitar....
Paul

[roger bayliss]

Obviously the pick-up stagger has to be taken into account. Trying a plain third with vintage stagger PUs does not work well at all and the only way you can adapt the sound is to lower the PUs to reduce the output from 3rd string. So obviously you need a modern stagger with lowered third pole for the plain string 3rd.

I have got two strats set up for plain 3rds and a another for wound 3rds. I can get the right sounds with either IMHO

[Uncle Fiesta]

I've been using 12's on my main Strat for a couple of years now for all the Hank stuff (my other guitars are strung with 10's for Strats and 11's for Les Pauls) and it certainly makes it easier to get THAT sound. This is with a plain third.

A few months ago, though, I bought a set of 12's with a wound third. Am yet to take the plunge and put them on however.

One day ...