5th Avenue strings

[bfloyd6969]

Curious to here what strings you are finding you like best for the 5th Avenue (not Kingpin). Seeing how it is non-electified, ar you still using jazz type flatwounds or are you finding that a more acoustic bronze type string works best? Very close to puling the trigger and finally getting one. Also seen a very cool vid on the Tube of a floating pup being installed on one...

[John_L]

Flat wounds are very anachronistic if you can use them and like the sound then that is one thing, mostly they sound mulchy.
The strings that come with 5th avenue are appalling heavy bit's of cattle wire that chew up fingers and frets. I always recommend that you try DR Rare bronze strings which work well with mid range sounding guitars. Have a look at this website to learn more about strings. http://www.professorstring.com/

[bfloyd6969]

Thanks for the link, John.

[bfloyd6969]

According from the Godin site the 5th Avenue's come strung with their High Def PB strings, which are pretty much the Daddario PB EJ16's - pretty popular strings...

[John_L]

D'Addario strings are very cheap, they are not that good. They use bully boy tactics to get a dominant market position with a very sub standard product. There strings have a lot less windings than most others (there for less metal there for they are cheaper to produce) which makes them rougher they eat through frets very quickly. Especially when you get up to the .52's in the 12 set that is fitted to the 5th avenue. I looked at a Seagul a couple of weeks ago this was a brand new guitar in the store and you could see wear on the frets already. The more winding the less you file the frets and your fingers.

[bfloyd6969]

Interesting information, and I can understand what you mean about the less windings equals a rougher feel. I'd say that Daddario has alot of people snowed because they are probably the leading selling string mfg. Personally, I never liked Daddario myself. When everyone was raving about their electric strings, I always hated them finding them to be too bright and piercing. I've always been a GHS and Ernie Ball user, but never tried the DR's. I'll have to give them a try. Their round core strings (forget the name off hand) look interesting to me as I always like a more flexible string...

[bluesidae]

I am using flat wounds and really like them. Compared the original strings (similar to cable used for suspension bridges!), the flat wounds allow me to smoothly (and quietly) move up and down the neck.

[Charles Obscure]

I've had good results with Martin strings on my other acoustics, so I put a set of M140 Lights (.012-.054) on my 5th Ave. after trying flats and lighter gauge strings. It sounds nice and bright, with good projection. 11's didn't have enough volume, and for the type of playing I do, flats sounded dull to my ears.

[terminal]

Have to +1 the flatwounds - on a CWII they actually seem to have a better "acoustic" sound too, totally notwithstanding the plugged-in tone.

[retroden]

It's nice to read the varying opinions. II still have the original factory strings on my Kingpin II, but will experiment with several variations mentioned here. I've never really been a user of flatwounds, but it will be worth a try it seems.