D'Addario Half Wounds or GHS Pressure Wounds

[Mikhail1]

After playing various nickel and stainless roundwounds, I decided to switch to something different. I had toyed with going to flats but believe a halfwound would be more in keeping with the sound I hear in my head! I'm looking at these two brands and am interested in the light guages, such as .40-.95, mainly to try to hold old age at bay. I need to know which is the smoothest, lowest tension and best sounding and if I will give up anything with the lighter guages. Thanks for the help!

[Toptube]

are you just looking for a general recommendation for something to play with? or are you looking for a specific sound? (more flat or more roundwound sound?)


anyways, for halfrounds, I personally like SIT Silencers (compression wounds) They basically retain the essence of roundwound sound, but are a smoother feel and have less fret/finger noise. Juststrings is one of the few places that I can find them. The tension is nice. A little looser than same size roundwounds, but not so bad that you need to redo your setup. Combined with the smooth feel, it makes for some really easy to use strings.

I have tried other halfround/compession wound strings, but from what I've read it seems that people feel the SIT keep more of the roundwound sound than some of the others, like GHS.

[Mojo-Man]

Try Ken Smith "Compressors"
By far my favorite.

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by Mikhail1

After playing various nickel and stainless roundwounds, I decided to switch to something different. I had toyed with going to flats but believe a halfwound would be more in keeping with the sound I hear in my head! I'm looking at these two brands and am interested in the light guages, such as .40-.95, mainly to try to hold old age at bay. I need to know which is the smoothest, lowest tension and best sounding and if I will give up anything with the lighter guages. Thanks for the help!

I like and use them both! These days I use mostly halfwounds on fretless basses ( I did used to use GHS "brite flats"...ground wounds as my standard string in the old days). Half rounds are about as bright as you can get and still have zero neck chews on a fretless.

Pressure wounds will chew a fretless but not as fast as rounds. So I only use them on fretted basses. I love them because they are quite bright but are smooth enough that you don't get a lot of that zip-zip finger noise. Really, really nice strings on a fretted bass. As someone noted Ken Smith compressors are even better! (Think of GHS as a "standard" string good enough for anything and then the KS as boutique a tad better than that. Same goes for GHS ground wounds and the half rounds)

Beware, though. SOME string makers sell strings they call "compression wound". They are NOT! They are simply round wounds that have been wound under tension. REAL compressors are round wounds run through rollers to flatten them! The GHS and KS are REAL pressure wounds and work properly!

[Mikhail1]

Thanks for the replies. I guess what I'm looking for is something with less zing and more note definition. I do like a little sizzle and thats why I changed strings so infrequently, I really like when a roundwound string has lost most of its zing. I've used foam under the bridge on some older stuff to cop that old style thump. The guage change is just to experiment, I've always used .45-.100/.105's and never really had much of a problem but wonder if lighter guages will help with playability. These two just seem to pop up in threads more often but I have heard good things about Ken Smith's strings as well.

[fretlessguy]

I've used almost all the string sets mentioned above. My favorite would have to be GHS Pressurewound Strings. They have the mwah needed for fretless work and are very kind to your frets on the fretteds. They are a little less brite sounding than wounds, but are a little brighter than the average flat. Fits my various styles of folk music to a tee.

Like you, age and joint issues have made me take a journey into the land of light gauge strings. I have noticed that the lighter gauges when it comes to rounds have a little less bassy-ness than the heavier gauged ones, so I have gone the route of pressurewounds and flats to make up the difference. I really like the sound of GHS and D'Addario groundwound/halfrounds, but have found them just too tension heavy for my likeness even in the lighter gauges.

So, for now, I will stick to the GHS Pressurewounds and Precision Flats for my needs, although I have TIs on my Fenders and Fender light gauge 7250s on my 5 stringers.