cockroach wrote:Well, back then, the two most important things to players were the lowest, easiest action (heaven after the cheap things we had to learn on) and as much treble as possible!
Flatwounds don't tend to rattle and buzz as much as roundwounds- I played a three hour gig last night using only a Strat copy with 12-52 Monopole flatwounds with a reasonably low action...no buzzes etc but they are pretty dead sounding however (got another gig tomorrow night too, will be using the same guitar)
Using roundwounds after flats might give rise to some buzzes etc - maybe that's why Hank had a problem which he fixed as best as he could..
Not really knowing exactly what type of strings he used doesn't help- apart from the original strings on 34346, which were probably Fender flatwounds about 13-56, who knows what strings he used as time went by? He must have broken a few strings and restrung with new sets sometime. Sooner or later, he would have used up the OE strings and the spare sets which were ordered and presumably supplied with the guitar.
Also, back then he was young, energetic, and as video clips show, he played pretty hard and used the vibrato arm a lot- he was likely to have broken a few strings!
Who knows what available strings he may have used when the Fender strings were gone- Cathedral, Hofner etc?
I bought an Ibanez Jazz guitar (Artcore) a few months back at a really good price. It was fitted with roundwound strings of a fairly light gauge which I considered to be 10s. I did not like the strings at all as they rattled lots when I dropped the action down. I tried to get some ideas on what George Benson had as a setup by watching some UTube videos of him playing solo so I could hear his guitar sound clearly. There was a noticeable buzzing coming from the low strings when he was playing and I concluded that he must have the neck quite straight and the action set low.
When I put the flat wounds on the Ibanez Artcore I had, I immediately found the rattles from the strings had reduced a lot and I could get the action down much lower. So yes flat wounds do help in respect of low action.
Maybe in the first months of owning the strat with the supplied flat wounds, Hank had dropped the action successfully with the flat wounds and then when he few sets of supplied strings he had with the guitar ran out and he switched strings to roundwound that was when the rattles came ? Possibly.
Here is a video of GB playing solo listen to his low strings and you should hear how low the action is.