Polishing flats

[Ricky Rioli]

La Bellas have a lovely polished finish.

Chromes are a bit more matte.

Firstly, would it be possible to polish by hand a set of Chromes?

Secondly, what effect might it make on the tone?

Yes, this is just dumb curiosity on my part. But I'd love to know the answers

 

[michael_t]

I've used a variety of flats in the past, and never felt a need for extra polishing for any of them.

The funny thing is I actually didn't care for the glassy and glossy surface on the La Bella DTF as they tended to get sticky in high humidity.

I prefer it "silky and satiny" over "glassy and glossy".

 

[Ricky Rioli]

I appreciate that a thread starter does not own a thread, and that any discussion on any internet forum is going to be opinion-rich, but I would like to point out that my questions were about viability and consequences....

 

[Yahboy]

Interesting topic.

You decide to make the ECB string surface look glassy shine or slicky smooth on playing feel ?

 

[Ricky Rioli]

I suppose another version of the question could be:

Is it purely for reasons of feel that La Bella make the effort of polishing the strings to such a glassy smoothness?

I found that Chromes suit my playing better than La Bellas, and am happy with them .... and would be even happier if they too had that lovely slick feel. I'm not the kind of person who tries to do things like that for himself — but there are people on TB who would have the necessary skills and confidence.

 

[superheavyfunk]

I love labella’s but they do have the problem of getting super grippy in the heat and that annoys me.

I have tried in the past to use scotchbrite pads on other flats to achieve the smoothness of labella’s but it never really worked. But then again, I’m the type that likes to fail quickly and move on so maybe I just never put in enough time? I can say that the tone didn’t change in the slightest. I imagine one would have to remove a heck of a lot of material to achieve any audible difference

 

[Ricky Rioli]

my questions were about viability and consequences ....

And here they are, answered ....

I have tried to use scotchbrite pads on other flats but it never really worked

I can say that the tone didn’t change in the slightest

.... thank you very much!

 

[Luckydog]

La Bellas have a lovely polished finish.

Chromes are a bit more matte.

Firstly, would it be possible to polish by hand a set of Chromes?

Secondly, what effect might it make on the tone?

Yes, this is just dumb curiosity on my part. But I'd love to know the answers

I prepare all flats sets before use. I secure ball end of string in vice and tightly grip the string around its entire circumference with 0000 steel wool, and vigorously scrub the string to loosen production grime. After a minute of that, I wipe the string off with microfiber cloth and alcohol. I have not noticed any sound difference, but the feel is greatly improved, IMO.

 

[Killing Floor]

Get new strings and don’t play them. Easy.