Flat Tops

Tannin · January 2022

D'Addario EFT16 Flat Top light ground phosphor bronze

D'Addario Flat Tops aim to eliminate left-hand finger squeal without the dullness of flatwounds or the unpleasant feel and muffled tone of plastic-coated Elixirs. I tried them on my Cole Clark Angel III.

They start with a slightly oversized but otherwise normal round wound string and grind it semi-flat. Flat Tops don't feel quite like standard round wounds but they are pretty close, and the anti-squeal really does work. None of the other guitars here have Elixirs on at present so I can't do a direct comparison, but I think I'm safe in saying that the Flat Tops are at least as good and possibly even better at squeal elimination. (It would be useful to compare to flatwounds but I haven't played any for years and don't really remember them. I do have a fresh, unopened set of Galli brass flatwounds here (yes - brass flatties) to try out, but haven't got to them yet.)

The Flat Tops are surprisingly stiff and heavy under the fingers (which is unusual for a D'Addario product) and although they are standard 12-53s they feel almost like bluegrass strings or mediums. When you think about the way that they are made, perhaps this shouldn't be surprising.

But do Flat Tops sound good? Well, not really. They have a rather odd tone, quite difficult to describe. There is nothing actually wrong with it but they lack roundness and dynamics and subtlety; everything sounds shouty and muffled (yes, both at once). They have settled in and improved over the few days I've had them on, but after the lovely rich and mellow tones produced by the Galli PB and SIT Royal Bronze sets on this guitar, the Flat Tops are very disappointing. ( You know how you sound when you are trying too hard? Over-hitting the strings, not to the point of buzz and distortion but you've lost your tone and the light and shade in your playing? Well these remind me of that.)

Worse, I'm not convinced they intonate properly - the G string in particular plays flat up around the 7th and 9th frets.

But don't eliminate the Flat Tops just yet. Tone is a matter of taste, and in any case it varies enormously from one guitar to another. The Angel is quite fussy about strings and I'd like to give the Flat Tops another go on a bigger guitar (a dreadnought or small jumbo) and maybe on an archtop. There is a lot to like about these strings, and a lot to dislike. If a non-Elixir squeal-free string is what you want, then you really have to see how well Flat Tops work for you. For the right player on the right guitar, they just might be the best strings you ever used.

Anyone else here used them? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

danishbacon · January 2022

I have and they immediately came off. I was looking for the 'flat wounds' of acoustics. Found them to be shockingly bad. Felt awful on the finger, did not get rid of 'squeak' just changed the nature of the sound and and tonally had the same impressions as you.

I like the thomastik plectrums, which are a hybrid of flat wounds and round wound. They sound wonderful but may not fit every single guitar due to gauge/silk wrap at ball end.

https://www.thomastik-infeld.com/en/products/guitar-strings/acoustic-guitar/plectrum

bertie · January 2022

didnt these used to be called "ground wound" yeas ago or something like that - ie round wind, then ground to make em flat ?

Tannin · January 2022

That's the ones, Bertie. Possibly a different brand's trade name. I think I might have had a set of groundround bass strings once, but maybe I just thought about buying a set. It was a long time ago. (Back in those days, a set of strings was big money and a set of bass strings was a week's rent.)

bertie · January 2022

pretty sure it was GHS or Rotosound that did em - yonks ago (20 years probably)

Tannin · January 2022

More I reckon - I switched from guitar and vocals to bass in about 1987, back to guitar in maybe 1991 or so. Rotosound rings a bell in this connection, though they don't seem to have such a product now.

@danishbacon, I'll add the Thomastics to my list of strings to try. However I've got about a year's worth of different sets sitting here waiting for their turn. I've (mostly) given up buying guitars because I ran out of room in the house and also money. Strings are a different matter - every time I see something I haven't tried I buy it.

Winny_Pooh · January 2022

Maybe better for a dobro or national style guitar....

bertie · January 2022

D'addy do a "half round" - are these the same thing as their "Flat Tops" ? just different terminology for different countries ?

BigPaulie · January 2022

Good review. Thanks for that.

Another D'addario product for me to leave on the shelf.

guitarjack66 · January 2022

I'm glad I am still on a guitar forum and not a 'favourite 90s hairstyle forum.'

TheMadMick · January 2022

Tried the flat tops for the same reason and hated them. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Tannin · March 2022

Revisiting this thread to mention and compare the Flat Tops to Pyramid Western Folk hand-polished, which are a round core phosphor bronze string similarly ground back to be semi-flat. The first thing to note is that these are not the same as the ordinary Pyramid Western Folk strings (not "hand polished") - these cost more, feel different, and sound different.

EDIT: that's still not clear. Pyramid make two completely different round core strings, both called "Western Folk". One is a normal round wound string, the other is the ground one. (Someone ought to have a chat to them about branding.)

The Pyramid hand-polished strings have an odd, raspy feel a bit like Flat Tops, but are more similar to a normal string. They aren't ground as deeply and, having started with a more flexible, melodic round core, the result is much more satisfactory. Pyramid recommend these as premium-price strings for recording. They do have a decent sound for a ground string - much better than the Flat Tops - but not nearly as good as the standard (unground and much cheaper) Pyramid Western Folk.

So that's three semi-flat strings I'm familiar with now. The D'Addario Flat Tops are basically pretty awful; the Pyramid hand-polished are much better but still not something I'd recommend to anyone; the SIT Silencers - the least ground of the three - are one of my favourite string sets. Clearly, when it comes to grinding round-wound strings, less is more.

Note that all three - D'Addario, Pyramid, and SIT - still produce plenty of finger squeal. So what is the point of grinding? If you want to get rid of finger squeal, there are only two answers (a) improve your technique, and/or (b) use Elixirs.

(Just to be clear, the normal Pyramid Western Folk round core strings are lovely, very similar to DR Sunbeams.)

Oh, and @bertie - I missed your question of some weeks ago. My apologies. Are "half-round" and "Flat Top" different terms for different countries? No. I bought the Flat Tops in the USA. It turns out that D'Addario use the "half-round" term for their ground round electric guitar and bass strings, but call the same thing "Flat Tops" if it is an acoustic guitar string - which is a bit weird when you think about it, as the only people I can really imagine buying these play arch tops!

Mellish · March 2022

@Tannin ; - I've ordered a couple of sets of Pyramid Western Folk. I like trying new strings, and I've seen these mentioned a few times on here - by you

. I'll try them and let you know.

Tannin · March 2022

Cheers mate, and I hope you enjoy them. I reckon they are quite similar to DR Sunbeams (which I also like). I had a set of PWF on the Mineur and (following the PWF (HP) experiment) have now put Sunbeams on that instrument. Not sure which of the two I prefer yet. (That is a lightly built concert-size instrument designed for fingerstyle.)

On my Maton Messiah (a traditional sweet-voiced spruce and rosewood instrument, strum or fingerstyle as you please) I'm loving the Sunbeams now on it, and am thinking of going back-to-back with a set of PWF just to compare them.

I have four other round core sets (Newtone, Optima, Curt Mangan, Martin) on hand or on order but it will take me a while to get through all of them. (Yes, I've gone a bit mad on round cores lately.)

Mellish · March 2022

@Tannin ; - no worries lad. I did like DR Sunbeams (a LOT) but that was on a Martin D-35. It's gone now and I have an HD-28.All guitars are different, as you know, so it's pretty much a start over. But I have two favourites already (MA-140, Elixir Nano) so if no other strings work on this guitar, it's no big deal

Tannin · March 2022

I'm guessing that the Pyramids will be a bit soft under the fingers, and too gentle sound-wise for you, given your favourites so far, but (as you know) there is nothing like trying stuff yourself, and on particular guitars. (E.g., Silencers on my Maton dred: very nice. Silencers on my Guild: awful.)

Looking over my notes with an eye out for what I reckon you might like, I see Darco 80/20s (exact same great string as the Martin MA-140, plainer package and a pound or two lower price), and John Pierce 80/20s (quite a hard string at the gauge like Elixirs, and a great sound, probably right up your street).

DavidR · March 2022

Never got further than flat wound strings = archtop. Hadn't ever thought of putting them on an acoustic TBH. Maybe I'm the odd one out but I actually quite like the extra noises that can come off acoustics - the scratchy slides, the click of fingerpicks, the occasional buzz etc!

Tannin · March 2022

Ahh ... but you haven't got Mrs Tannin sitting in the same room wincing every time I do a big scratchy slide.

Mellish · March 2022

Cheers buddy, I'll get one set of each and try between gigs. One brand that really stood out (for me, on a Hummingbird I had back then) was La Bella. Really made that guitar sing

Tannin · March 2022

Ahh! I ended up really liking the La Bella 80/20s. Lovely gentle strings. I didn't mention them because they are very soft and light under the fingers, thought they might be a bit light for your big dread.

Mellish · March 2022

I'll get round to trying La Bella on this HD-28. They might not work but...well, we'll see. There are so many strings out there that you could spend half your life just trying different ones

danowens · March 2022

I bought a Yamaha silent guitar and in an attempt to make it sound more like my tele with flats, I put Flat Tops on. Do they become less zingy?

I was expecting a flatwound-type sound but it doesn’t sound much different to before when it had elixirs on it

Tannin · March 2022

The sound does change, @danowens, it settles down a bit and becomes a bit more normal (defining "normal" as "like an orthodox roundwound") but not all that much. In my brief experience with them, they never looked likely to sound at all like flatwounds.

Mellish · April 2022

@Tannin ; - slung on a set of Pyramid Western Folk tonight. First impression: bloody good strings! I hear more volume than I get from MA-140 or Elixir Nanos. Great fingerpicked, too. The tone they give suits me right down to the ground. I wouldn't have found them if I hadn't read a post of yours. Many thanks mate, my HD-28 never sounded so good

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Flat Tops

Comments