Joe Pass rulezzzz and Breau? Hell he never really put anything out. He was to mental and strung out. Ted Greene was the master of chords and feelings.

Thank you for your comment and input! I'll keep the model number in mind next time around.

A friend of mine turned me on to Thomastik .013's for my hollow and semi-hollow axes, and I haven't looked back. Using them in conjunction with the neck pickup and rolling back the guitar's tone knob a little bit gives me such a warm and rich tone.

Great to know this...have to try out those GHS strings... wasn't aware of that Metheny fact...thank you so much for sharing!

SIT strings are better. And tomastick are the best

Thank you for your comment and suggestion. Didn't know that made flatwounds with round 3rd strings...

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you for your suggestion. I'll have to listen to that first album again.

@@rickymolina7390 It’s my personal favorite. His solo album is amazing. There’s live footage of him playing “Up and at it” on KZfaq. Not only is he a world class guitarist, but he’s also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I had the good fortune of getting an online lesson with him.

yes..you're right. Love the Casino album in particular.

Thanks so much.

you're quite welcome

You're very welcome!

Use your thumb. Build up that callus

@@rickberry4477 Never works for me, it's very uncomfortable, and gets tired very fast. Wes Montgomery must have had a bionic thumb installed LOL.

I know, can't get into those heavy strings either. Forget fingerpicking on 'em, or bending strings. Even hammer-ons and pull-offs are tricky on that cable wire. While the sustained sound can be amazing, there are practical disadvantages in terms of playing heavy strings. Meanwhile BB King and Billy Gibbons are at the other extreme!

Early on in his career I guess...

Thanks for your comments. I too much prefer roundwound strings as a fingerpicking guy. I actually never use flats unless I absolutely need that hallmark jazz sound on a home recording.

Woohooo! Thank you so much!!!

Hello! I play blues and some rock. Learning to play Jazz and just bought myself a beautiful Gretchen G2420 (streamlined). Trying to be careful and handling it delicately😊. The factory fitted strings are awful. I am afraid to change to flat wounds as heard they might cause neck tension…..or I will again have to take to a Luthier for neck adjustment 🙁. Would 11’s round wound by addario or Ernie be correct? Thanks for your kind opinion.

@@obhikthepencilsharpeners2482 I use the D'Addario round wound 11's and they work great for me. I tried the flat wounds on my ES-175 and actually like the round wounds better, but that's just my preference, probably because I have played those for years. The 2420's are great to play and really sound nice for jazz. Enjoy!

@@lrmhawk Many thanks for your advise. I will rig up the D’addario 11 ‘s and proceed to Jazz😀. Have a great strumming year

Thank for sharing your experience and insights!

I think you are correct... the Jazz Swing (.011 - .047) are flat wound (according to the packaging). Please tell me, since you have played with these different strings, do you find much difference in playability and tone between the Benson flats and the Jazz Swing flats (11-47)??

Yeah baby!

you're welcome!

Seems a lot

Thanks!

You're welcome!

so called "deadwounds"

You're so welcome!

Thank you for your input and recommendations. I will definitely try out those Labella strings!

Congrats on your new Gretsch G2420. Sweet guitar. Yeah, personally I would stick to round wounds vs flats because I find it really hard to solo with flats (bends are practically impossible). If you're a "fast" guitarist, I'd stick to rounds. Can't go wrong with eith D'Addario or Ernies. Try them each out over time to find which sounds better with your guitar. Cheers.

@@rickymolina7390 Thanks very much for your kind input.! It is a big help. Will try out an Addario 11's round wounds. Wish you Happy riffs.

Thanks!

Typically flat wounds have more tension than round wounds of the same gauge, but I'm not entirely sure why that is. Also consider half rounds - they have more tension because they have a proportionately thicker core. My understanding is they start off as oversized round wounds and are ground down. I've had a Gretsch G2420 for a little while and I'm learning to play jazz as well. When I bought the guitar used from Guitar Center, it had 11-50 gauge round wounds (I had the tech measure them with calipers). Soon I installed 11-50 flat wounds (D'Addario Chromes Jazz Lights) on it. Then a few months later I put 12-52 round wounds (D'Addario Jazz Lights), and most recently, I changed to 12-54 gauge "half-rounds" (GHS Brite Flats). I needed to adjust the intonation each time I changed string gauges, but I haven't noticed any changes in neck relief despite the guitar having significantly more tension on it now. Certainly taking it to a luthier is a good idea if you are uncomfortable doing it yourself, and it may well need a truss rod adjustment if you go from, say 10 gauge round wounds to 13 gauge flat wounds all at once. Additionally, you may want to adjust the height of the pole pieces on the pickups to balance out the volume response of each string, especially if you are changing from a plain G string to a wound G string. I found the transition from a wound G to a plain B and the jump in volume very unpleasant sounding on some of the sets of strings I've tried. Playing feel is important, and I think a wound G (round or flat) is perfect for jazz, especially on a hollow-body which I often use to practice unplugged at night. I don't care about ease of bending on that guitar and the action is fairy low, so it isn't difficult to play unless I try bending or holding down one chord for a long time (and how often do you see one sustaining chord in jazz?). But pickups and amplifiers make the biggest difference - I get a jazz tone more easily from my Epiphone Les Paul and 11 gauge round wounds, lol. Eventually I want to buy some new pickups and potentiometers for my Gretsch.

Thanks for suggesting. I know about Rosenwinkel but not Hekselman (will check him out). Certainly Rosenwinkel is a great jazz guitarist...although honestly he is not one of my all-time favs. Totally subjective.

@@rickymolina7390 totally subjective but these two are paving the way to the future. Great post though.

Thanks for clarifying. I guess I was driving more at the playability and sound of flats vs rounds issue than anything else in that video. No wonder that the best fingerstyle players used rounds while the soloists use flats. That was the key point I was trying to make.

you're welcome!

painful, indeed

Not to my knowledge. The Emperor 2 was produced shortly before his death. As you know, Joe Pass is more known for having played his Gibson ES-175.

He used one on an instructional video.

@@normanholder6072 Which video? I've only seen him use either his ES-175 or his Ibanez signature model, but never the Epiphone in instructional videos.

You're absolutely right - that's Percy Heath and Albert Heath - sorry my bad...

Sco definitely does not use flat wounds regularly. Though he said he did on the tune You Don't Know Me on his Ray Charles dedicated album.

they should be saved for studio recordings!

Great idea. Whatever works for you!

Maybe not all the way down, but pretty darn nearly so...

way!

Yes, I forgot to mention...

I agree. Didn't know the facts About Tuck's strings. He uses single strings because the gage are not bundles as a set. And 50 is wrong. So why include him if you're not going to research his string choices. Dissapointed

One should be very careful whenever using the word "never." Scofield has actually played flats quite a bit; more recently his 3rd string is noted as being unwound. Here's a reference to one of the sources I used when I made the video www.uberproaudio.com/who-plays-what/656-john-scofield-guitar-rig-gear-and-equipment