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Are these true flats or half flats?
- Thread starter maturanesa
- Start date
I think you should ask Magma.
The description for the Ultra Flats seems to indicate they're groundwound, but
- if they are, they're much more polished than other groundwounds (making them unique in this respect)
- their guitar Ultra Flats have a stylised cross section drawing on their package sleeve that shows their inner workings being indeed those of a groundwound string (the winding is depicted as having a lunette-shaped section),
unlike the bass ones (where the outer wrap looks like a flat, rectangular-shaped ribbon both inside and out).
No idea why the discrepancy.
(Possibly marketing:
- guitar players either know and like true flatwounds, in which case they like want traditional sounding ones, or are curious about trying a string with a flat surface and bright tone. The latter group won't probably care about the inner construction either way;
- bass players may already know and dislike groundwounds, so explaning these Ultra Flats are grounds might discourage them from trying them - it's better to emphasise their outer smoothless, and leave the construction out of the sleeve, and confine it to the text description.)
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Based on your recent posts elsewhere, I know these are Magma "flats", but can you do us all a favor by posting a couple of pics of the strings - one at the headstock and one at the bridge - for future identification purposes? Thanks.
Thank you! Light blue silk at both ends with what looks like brass ball ends... They almost look like Ernie Ball Stainless Steel Flats.
I think you should ask Magma.
The description for the Ultra Flats seems to indicate they're groundwound, but
- if they are, they're much more polished than other groundwounds (making them unique in this respect)
- their guitar Ultra Flats have a stylised cross section drawing on their package sleeve that shows their inner workings being indeed those of a groundwound string (the winding is depicted as having a lunette-shaped section),
unlike the bass ones (where the outer wrap looks like a flat, rectangular-shaped ribbon both inside and out).
No idea why the discrepancy.
(Possibly marketing:
- guitar players either know and like true flatwounds, in which case they like want traditional sounding ones, or are curious about trying a string with a flat surface and bright tone. The latter group won't probably care about the inner construction either way;
- bass players may already know and dislike groundwounds, so explaning these Ultra Flats are grounds might discourage them from trying them - it's better to emphasise their outer smoothless, and leave the construction out of the sleeve, and confine it to the text description.)
Real flats doesnt look like this?
Not all flats are created equally.Real flats doesnt look like this?
Real flats doesnt look like this?
Those look like DR Legend Flats the way they used to be... (or maybe they still are?)
Per this thread
Magma Ultra Flats Impression - Flat that sounds like a Round
including contributions by the present OP, I'd still think these are Magmas.
As some have said, not always.Real flats doesnt look like this?
To clarlfy my earlier post: in order to classify these as flats or semiflats, it's the shape of the outer winding tha counts, not the degree of polishing. If the starting point is a square-section ribbon, then we have true flats (regardless of how smooth to the touch they are); if it's a round wire, then ground down externally, they are groundwounds.
Those are magma ulta-flats and they have said that those are roundwounds flattened to look like flats. That must have been some flattening - because I also have tried GHS Brite-Flats and Pressure wound which are not as smooth as regular flats and these look and feel like true flats except that they are the less supple/bendy when you hang them but on the bass they are bendable just like any other flat and do not require extra work on the tuner post.
Based on these properties plus what Magma explained, these are really not flats. They just have a special process of flattening that GHS or D'Addario do not do with their their brite flats, pressurewounds and have half-rounds. When you get a set, you will notice how springy they are when coiled. This is also leads me to believe they could be using a slightly softer alloy to achieve this flattening or maybe they flatten the round before they are wound, because I can only imagine crushing the hex core to get to that flatness. At any rate such force would definitely lock in the wrap on to the vertices/corners of the hex core.
They sound good. However if you have 35 inch scale or even 34 string through body. these may not work because of the silk and you may have to remove some because they will get past the nut.
I like them so far - more than 2 months on my bass and I think they are getting stiffer but has allowed me to lower my action. They have slightly higher frequency content than other flats. For flats they have a lot of harmonics,
Based on these properties plus what Magma explained, these are really not flats. They just have a special process of flattening that GHS or D'Addario do not do with their their brite flats, pressurewounds and have half-rounds. When you get a set, you will notice how springy they are when coiled. This is also leads me to believe they could be using a slightly softer alloy to achieve this flattening or maybe they flatten the round before they are wound, because I can only imagine crushing the hex core to get to that flatness. At any rate such force would definitely lock in the wrap on to the vertices/corners of the hex core.
They sound good. However if you have 35 inch scale or even 34 string through body. these may not work because of the silk and you may have to remove some because they will get past the nut.
I like them so far - more than 2 months on my bass and I think they are getting stiffer but has allowed me to lower my action. They have slightly higher frequency content than other flats. For flats they have a lot of harmonics,
Based on Magma’s own illustration, it seems to be rectangular during winding.
Wow I wanna try DR Legends right now. I think I might have played them once in a store before I really even knew what flats were.
They have always said that they are roundwound that have been polished (pulidas) but also say soft and flattened surface. Maybe in 3 months I will open up the E string and look at the cross section. I think this is a combo of ground wound as well as rollerwound. They probably roller wound them like pressurewounds and then ground wound then like brite-flats with extra polishing. They are flatter looking the brite-flats and pressurewound and less noise than the 2, heck less noise than cobalt flats
SteC is following/continuing the digression about DR Legends (which are of course true flats), not the main topic about Magmas.
I should have quoted you. But that was on the other thread. Anyway in 3 months , when I open this thing we might get an idea/ I'll also ask Magma. My written Spanish may not be up to par
