Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

We all know the many benefits of Thomastik Infeld flatwound strings. But the .10 and .13 gauge strings of the set are plain unwound steel. TI plain steel strings are a gold color. Typical plain steel strings are a silver color. Is there any difference between the two?

I broke a few of my .10s and .13s during a lot of truss rod adjustment and work on my 360/12, so I just replaced them with generic plain steel strings from a different brand so I could continue. Suddenly I'm struck by how bright the replacement plain steel strings sound compared to the flats. It could be that the flats are all a year old and the new plain steels are brand new. Or, could it be that generic plain steel strings are brighter than those found on a set of TI flats? If so, I would want to purchase spare TI flats in .10 and .13 as those tend to be the strings that break by mistake if one is doing a lot of de-tuning and re-tuning during set up.

Anyone know?

For Thomastik, the plating on the plain strings is brass or tin. From my experience I find the brass to be more mellow and the tin brighter. I have never done an A/B comparison to see if I could tell the difference between them while blindfolded.

Not to knock them (if you like them), but I was so underwhelmed by TI Flats on a 12-string. Killed the sustain and tone, and were generally uncomfortable to play. And two of my plain strings broke in the first month.

For a $35 set of strings, I thought they were totally overhyped around here.

YMMV though!

Colin: I am with you in this regard and prefer round wounds on my Rickenbacker 12 string.

collin wrote:Not to knock them (if you like them), but I was so underwhelmed by TI Flats on a 12-string. Killed the sustain and tone, and were generally uncomfortable to play. And two of my plain strings broke in the first month.

For a $35 set of strings, I thought they were totally overhyped around here.

YMMV though!

Yep me also.
They felt very tight and muted.
They last a long time but that's about it for me. I wouldn't buy them again for a 12er.

I love ‘em! I have them on my 360/12c63 as well as a blonde Gretsch 6122-12 Country Gent. I also use the six string sets on most of my other Gretsches and a Ric 350v63. I ditched Pyramids long ago due to the higher tension, especially on 12 string guitars.

I use a custom set of D'Addario singles XL in
9 - 11 1/2 - 18w - 24w - 32w - 42w
9 - 11 1/2 - 8 - 10 - 13 - 22w
Because the cores of the wound strings have a similar diameter to the plain octave strings, they intonate on a six-saddle bridge just fine, except, of course, for the low E, which I purchased a blank saddle from RIC and filed it so the unison low E string intonates off the back of the saddle and the octave E string intonates off the front of the saddle. And yes, D'Addario make the "1/2" gauges in plain strings.

I have TI flats on my 370/12 and 340/12, as well as my Hagstrom 8-string bass and my Hofner 500/1 V63 and I'm quite happy with all of them. I guess it all just depends upon what type of sound/tone you are after.

teb wrote:I have TI flats on my 370/12 and 340/12, as well as my Hagstrom 8-string bass and my Hofner 500/1 V63 and I'm quite happy with all of them. I guess it all just depends upon what type of sound/tone you are after.

This is the key to it all.

One more thought on breaking strings: the saddles may need some burnishing to remove overly sharp edges or burrs, which are usually the culprit for broken strings at the bridge.