in going back thru some of my guitar player magazines, i notice how many payers use a "wound" third string. 2 questions-

what is a wound 3rd?

what are the advantages?

and one more- do you just buy these individually, and replace the 3rd in your set?

thanks all

1. most electric guitars have a plain 1st, 2nd and 3rd string and and wound 4th 5th and 6th strings, the plain ones are just as its says on the tin, plain, the wound ones have other strings or another string wound around a plain string.
2.I'm not sure.
3.You can probably buy sets with wound 3rd strings, especially at the heavier end of the spectrum and you should be able to buy them seperate aswell.

Its also worth noting that acoustic guitars tend to have a wound 3rd string.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

A wound 3rd will give you a more meaty and not as bright a tone as a plain but the trade off is that it's much harder to bend which is why the plain 3rds became popular.D'Addario makes an excellent light 10-46 set with a .018 wound 3rd that is somewhat easier to bend than most other wound 3rds.The stock No. of the set is Regular Light/Wound 3rd EXL 110W.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

i play one on my Guild Starfire II, but that is only because it is a hollow body and the bridge is setup for a wound g. it's more difficult to bend but does has a much thicker tone compared to when I had it strung with a regular g. I couldn't imagine using one on a Tele or Strat though.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Personal preference is for .011s and wound 3rds, usually a .20.

But then, 'am a melodic player, therefore the "rounder" sound of a wound string is more appropriate than bright of a solid for articulate, balanced, or "singing-line" leads.

Buddy Guy uses .010s and a wound 3rd, an .018 if memory serves. 'Use that string gauge on the polka dot Strat to complete satisfaction.

phreddy, i use a wound 3rd on my MIM to correct a stingy intonation problem. works just fine and i bought individual strings at the store and use it with a set of 10's. they didn't carry the set mentioned above. yep, harder to bend but i got used to it.

It's worth noting that though a wound third may have a "thicker" tone than a plain one, it also gives a lower output from the pickup. That is why "vintage staggerd" single coil pickups have the pole beneath the G string higher than any of the others; to make up for the lower flux induced into the coil by the wound third electric guitars originally came with. The use of unwound thirds was a later player innovation.

(I'm getting names like Beck and Page into my head - but I don't know who was actually the first to use an unwound third. Much earlier, I expect.)

And that in turn is why some people complain their top e string sounds thin. It is in fact that an unwound third over that raised pole gives proportionately too much signal. So using a wound third should make the whole thing sound more balanced. Once you get used to it.

Contrawise, some people use a plain third on their acoustic guitar: so that they can do electric style bends more easily. Horses for courses.

Cheers - C