The Steel Guitar Forum

Maybe someone put the wrong gauge in the wrong package? Sometimes these things happen.

Ernie Ball strings, that explains it.

Ernie

speaking extemporaneously and without any scientific knowledge or facts at my disposal, my guess it's the core gauge more than the material.

just from personal experience I have gone from nickel to stainless to nickel and back yet again in full set string changes on my Zum and it just never occurred to me there was a difference other than tonality.
I've had to make slight pedal stop adjustments, but I have always figured it was whatever old strings were on there had stretched out, not the material the new set of strings were made of.

guess I should pay more attention to minutiae. just what I need... something else to get all OCD about.

thanks Bob

Bob i have been using Jagwire Stainless Steel Strings for some time now and i wouldn't go back to the others . I don't have any problem with them breaking at all . I have them on both of my Sho~Buds and love them ! I don't see any problem with them tuning to pitch at all . Also i must say that Danny Hulihen is a great guy to buy them from and he is the owner of that company as you know . I might add that they have a longer life than other strings that i have used . Best regards , Gary .

Putting on my shop teacher hat I would comment that there are many complex factors at work here. Rockwell numbers being one of them. The other thing to consider is that for any given gauge of material the overall mass and hence the natural resonant freq of any object that oscillates is dependent on mass. The addition of Chromium increases the mass volume ratio meaning that at any tension a higher mass string will produce a lower pitch.

If you take a sheet of any gauge of low carbon steel and compare it to a similar gauge of stainless the stainless is markedly heavier---and breaks a lot more tools in the shop!! VVBG

Brian

Something seems to be missing in this discussion. It
is my understanding that "stainless" only refers to
the wrap on the wound strings. The plain strings
and the core of the wound strings would be identical
to nickel wraps, that is to say, plain steel.
I have used stainless for years, because as been
stated, they stay livelier longer. Other than that,
I can't tell any difference. There is, however, a
difference in certain brands. Take your pick.