The ShadowMusic Web Community

roger bayliss wrote:

Hank2k wrote:with regards strings i do wonder whether Hanks strings were as old as we all believe. In the book "The Shadows By Themselves" from i think 1960 Hank says he changed his strings often (every week or two) as he was so scared of snapping a string when playing after an incident where it snapped and touched something else mid set and gave him an electric shock.

Yes I would think that when the hits started coming and he had a regular job in a band he had some more cash to start doing string changes more often and it was said Bruce changed his strings for him for studio recording so he had fresh strings on to record. I think when he had the Hofner, he must have been short of money till he got established and I think Cathedral strings were fairly cheap back then.

JimN wrote:George Benson uses his own signature custom set of flatwound Thomastik-Infeld strings.

Check whether you think they're worth it at the asking price:

http://tinyurl.com/hufbsuz

Ridiculous price Jim, but it is always the same when artists put their name to something... the price goes higher. He has a few signature Ibanez guitars too, one is quite expensive but they do others sig models cheaper.

Yes the sounds of flatwounds hitting the frets is different to roundwounds and that was the point I was making when I mentioned setting up my Ibanez Artcore.

A few years ago, at a reunion of bands and musicians from the 60s and 70s at a local club, I played a few Shadows pieces, using my Stratocaster with Thomastic-Infeld G. Benson flatwounds, a Zoom with EFTP from Charlie Hall, plugged into the amp at the venue. After I played, several musicians I did not know came to be separately to say that my guitar sounded really good, very different. It was I think simply the strings. They were heavy and flatwound. Everyone there was using very thin-gaugedstrings, as has been the fashion.

Not directly relevant but I use Thomastik-Infeld flats on two of my basses. They are noticeably kinder to the fingers than other flats. They are not cheap but they sound good, they have no star endorsement to jack up the price further and they last for ages.
The T-I guitar string sets without the George Benson name are only half the price of his signature version.

Yes, the TI George Benson flats are $10 more expensive, but have the .012-.053 set I wanted. The “no name” TI flat medium might be good too at .013-.053.

There is the heavy Jazz GB string set at .014-.55, which is close to what Hank probably used in the early days. I wonder how that sounds. And whether I am man enough to try those! Should I?

We use TI goats on our bass guitars. Yes, they are lovely and sound wonderful, especially through a tube (valve) bass amp.

Andy