Flamenco Strings

Are special strings used?

No. While various manufacturers offer special flamenco strings, what makes them more “flamenco” than other strings is probably their trade secret. Of course, La Bella’s red treble strings still sound very brilliant, but the development of carbon strings has changed the market somewhat. For a long time, Paco de Lucía played Savarez Red on the bass strings and La Bella Red on the treble strings. Since this was the ultimate insider tip, everyone in the flamenco world played these strings. Later, in the mid-80s, he switched to Luthier*).
So there are no special strings for flamenco. The rattling of the strings—that is, the sound of the strings hitting the frets—is long gone. No serious guitarist today still plays with this sound, which was favored by flamenco guitarists like Ramón Montoya or Manitas de Plate. This was due, on the one hand, to an extremely low string action; on the other hand, Montoya had also tuned his guitar 2–4 semitones lower. He also always played with a cejilla (capo).

*)
I was also present at this event, which took place in Vienna in the 1980s. My Viennese friend, who was good friends with Paco’s brother Ramon de Algeciras at the time, had arranged the whole thing, and Paco tried out the strings and actually played them without receiving a single dollar in advertising fees. The following year, the manufacturer of these strings—the elderly Orozco, who had handed over the Aranjuez string factory to his son years earlier—invited us to his vacation home in Torremolinos. Meeting this elderly, dignified man, who lived in New York, was very impressive.

Playability of the Flamenco Guitar

The playability of a guitar—not just the flamenco guitar—depends essentially on two factors: string action and string tension. To a lesser extent, it also depends on the height of the frets for the left hand and the string action at the bridge for the right hand.

String Tension

String tension can be influenced by a) the string gauge, or the tension of the string; b) the angle at the bridge and nut; and c) the scale length. While you have control over a) by choosing which strings to buy, b) is determined by the luthier. For this very reason, it’s not possible to determine in general which strings—whether low, medium, high, light, normal, or hard—will have the right tension for your specific guitar.
Thicker strings, or strings with higher tension, require more energy to be set in motion, but their amplitude decreases more slowly—or, to put it another way, their sustain is longer. The richness of a thicker string’s tone is far fuller than that of a thinner one.