Paul Childs wrote:I can remember back in the 60s the local music shop where I lived only sold strings like Monopole, Red Dragon, Cathedral and I believe they were all tape wound.
If you mentioned Fender to the shop owner he would have probably thought you were talking about fireplaces
Monopole were certainly available in tapewound, but
Red Dragon (a very cheap set from the same maker, costing about 6/6d in the mid-60s) was a roundwound acoustic set in copper-coloured compound bronze of some sort. I can't ever recall seeing any flatwound
Cathedral strings, but can't rule it out. However, if you asked for Cathedral strings in any shop I ever encountered, you definitely got a very silver-looking wirewound strings which actually used to wear through at the positions of the most commonly-used frets. In other words, they were rubbish - but for many players may at one time have been all they could get.
Another easily-available string at the time was the American
Black Diamond brand. Cheaper than Gibson, Fender, etc, they too had that very bright silver tint and may have been woven with a certain amount of silk thread as well as a steel core.
JN