Market share of flatwound strings

[md_ger]

Just out of interest: what share of the bass string market do flatwound strings have?

Many flatwound players use their strings for many years, and there are probably much roundwound players that flatwound players, so I estimate the market share of flatwounds to be less than 10%.

 

[Wisebass]

what share of the bass string market do flatwound strings have?

What are flatwounds?

 

[James Hart]

limited sampling of within a 2 acre radius of my computer... Flatwounds are a 28.57% market share. 42.86% if you count Upright basses.

 

[blr2]

My (100 % wild) guess would be something like 5-10 % in volume, and 10-20 % in terms of value. Possibly more for companies like TI that are famous for their flats. Unless some person from the sales dpt. of a string company comments, we may never know.

 

[md_ger]

A salesperson from a music store could also be able to give a estimate, e.g., "I sell about 20 roundwound string sets per week, but a flatwound set I sell once a month".

 

[Bass Motifs]

Distorts the ratio that rounds get replaced every couple of months, and flats... never

 

[md_ger]

Distorts the ratio that rounds get replaced every couple of months, and flats... never

The long life of flatwound strings is probably a major factor in the significantly lower sales figures and also the significantly higher price.

 

[mdogs]

It is a lot less than flat wound guys would like you to believe.

 

[HaphAsSard]

It is a lot less than flat wound guys would like you to believe.

I'm a flatwound guy, and I have no desire, nor have I ever attempted to trick anyone into believing flats represent a larger slice of the market than they actually do.

 

[Jon Moody]

At least for GHS, when I was there and had access to the numbers, the flatwounds we made were probably 1-2% of overall volume of sales. But if you specifically look at bass strings, it got closer to 10% or so.

Roundwounds (specifically, nickel-plated steel rounds) were the king and for us were 85% of volume.

Flatwounds, while a time-honored string, are also a niche item not carried by many brick and mortar stores. You usually need to find them online.

 

[md_ger]

At least for GHS, when I was there and had access to the numbers, the flatwounds we made were probably 1-2% of overall volume of sales. But if you specifically look at bass strings, it got closer to 10% or so.

So the 1-2% is for both guitar and bass flats?

 

[Jon Moody]

So the 1-2% is for both guitar and bass flats?

Correct, that is the overall volume of all strings we made.

Specifically, the bass strings alone had flats at closer to 10%.