STRINGS ON 34346 - THE EARLY YEARS

[Stratpicker]

I know I should know but what strings should have been on 34346 on delivery, did they get changed for something else shortly after or were they used for Apache / Quatermassters as is. At some point they MUST have been changed, but what were the "strings of choice" that Hank used?
Ian

[abstamaria]

Hello, Ian. There was a long and interesting thread on this not too long ago, with many theories vigorously defended. I am the champion of the flat-wound, heavy-gauge school for the early pieces!

Best,

Andy

[Didier]

All the Strats I have seen in France in the very early sixties were fitted with flatwound strings, I don't know if it was also the case in the UK.
Hank always said that the strings were very heavy on the first Strat, something like 13-56, and that bending was nearly impossible, which led him to develop his style using the tremolo bar.
Light guitar strings didn't exist then yet. Some american guitarists used a banjo string (009 or 010) for the high E on their guitar, then shifted the guitar strings down, using the original E string for the B string, the B string for the G string, etc, and just tossing out the big fat E string. So they'd end up with sets in the range of 009 to 042 or so. But at this time, neither Hank or anyone else knew this trick in Europe !

Didier

[ecca]

Downstringing didn't come in until Clapton really.
The strings we had were tapewound invariably until then ( not flatwound, that was in another country ) and heavy.
I just took a set off a Colorama that had been up in a loft for ever and they went up to .054".

[abstamaria]

I think 34346 came from another country.

[ecca]

As soon as it arrived here the strings converted to tapewound whatever they were called in another country.

[Stratpicker]

As soon as it arrived here the strings converted to tapewound whatever they were called in another country.

Ah - is that so? I wondered if they would just use it "as is" (ex-packaging sort of thing) until the strings went off but WHO would decide WHAT went on the guitar then? I would have thought Hank, with all due respect would have been too "green" even then to know what was what in that regard.
Your Colorama story reminded me of my Hofner V3 that had tapewound strings on it. Horrible things!
cheers
ian

[jimuc]

As soon as it arrived here the strings converted to tapewound whatever they were called in another country.

Ah - is that so? I wondered if they would just use it "as is" (ex-packaging sort of thing) until the strings went off but WHO would decide WHAT went on the guitar then? I would have thought Hank, with all due respect would have been too "green" even then to know what was what in that regard.
Your Colorama story reminded me of my Hofner V3 that had tapewound strings on it. Horrible things!
cheers
ian

Yes Ian I think all Hofners had tapewound.....my Galaxie certainly did.
Strings in those days were described as "tapewound" or "wirewound"

[Uncleboko]

Downstringing didn't come in until Clapton really.
The strings we had were tapewound invariably until then ( not flatwound, that was in another country ) and heavy.
I just took a set off a Colorama that had been up in a loft for ever and they went up to .054".

I remember talking to Stu Taylor sometime in late 1963 after a Lord Sutch & the Savages gig in Barnet , and when asked how he was able to bend the strings he told me about the banjo string trick. I think he played either a Gibson 335 or 330.

[abstamaria]

I think all Ecca is saying is that the "flatwounds" (a US term, I think) became "tapewounds" as soon as the guitar crossed the pond.

Andy

PS: English is very much a second language to me. Very confusing language, that.