GIANT BLISTERS AND HOLES ON FLATWOUNDS

[Bassist96]

G'day Bass Friends!

Just a bit of a question, just bought myself a nice hollow body, threw some flat wound strings on and after a 3hr jam session I had a huge red hole in one finger and a big blister on the other. I play extremely frequently for hours everyday and have never had this issue with round wound strings (even had the big calists)... but why with flat wounds does it do this? Has anyone else had this issue? I haven't had much experience with them in the past and this is on my plucking hand, even though my fretting hand did start to feel a bit of a sting at the end of the rehearsal.

Cheers

 

[lz4005]

G'day Bass Friends!

Just a bit of a question, just bought myself a nice hollow body, threw some flat wound strings on and after a 3hr jam session I had a huge red hole in one finger and a big blister on the other. I play extremely frequently for hours everyday and have never had this issue with round wound strings (even had the big calists)... but why with flat wounds does it do this? Has anyone else had this issue? I haven't had much experience with them in the past and this is on my plucking hand, even though my fretting hand did start to feel a bit of a sting at the end of the rehearsal.

Cheers

Flats are less bendy than rounds. Stiffer but not tighter at the same thickness.

Turn your amp up and don't pluck as hard.

Or build up your fingers.

 

[Clef_de_fa]

as you can see, there is no space on the surface of a flatwound increasing the contact to your fingers ... on top of that, there is no air circulating since there is no groove like on a roundwound.

And of course a flatwound have much more tension and well, you work harder with them and since they may sound quite dead because they don't have that much treble you may play harder just to hear.

 

[lz4005]

And of course a flatwound have much more tension and well, you work harder with them and since they may sound quite dead because they don't have that much treble you may play harder just to hear.

Flatwounds don't have more tension than rounds. They have less flexibility. Tension is how hard the tuner has to pull to get to pitch. Flexibility is how difficult they are to bend under zero tension.