The Steel Guitar Forum

Nickel wound string sets are usually considered by most to have a more mellow tone in comparison to stainless wound. What are your opinions and trial conclusions (tone) of many of the new string brands that have come out in recent years for steel guitar. Some maybe too bright, dull, "raspy", "twangy", etc? This may help some players that are a pimple short of the tone they are pursuing.
Possibly a few of you have tested several brands and found one that suits your guitar and right hand the best? Jaguar, SIT, GHS nickel, George L stainless, etc?
I haven't tried many different kinds, but the few that I did try a few years back, I ended up back to my old reliable GHS nickel for the mellow tone of the nickel wound.
Dennis

John Pearse Nickle Wound!!!!

Dennis , My friend Eddy thinks nickle strings give a brighter sound , He was using phos. bronze. Now these give a real mellow sound. I always use the bronze because I like the mellow sound . Eddie uses John Pesrce, nickle . I have never tried Stainless strings . Now we both play accoustic steel, what some call a dobro, Dobro is a brand name , we both play a Benoit.

R. L.

Bronze strings are great for acoustic guitar and I always use them for acoustic. The best choice for PSG is stainless steel. I use only Bobbe Seymour's Cobra Coils and they are very consistent from set to set and sound fantastic. Strings should be changed every week or two, depending on how much you play.

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<small>Fessenden SD10 - Mesa/Boogie amps<small>

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Michael Holland on 09 November 2002 at 09:13 PM.]</p></FONT>

Here's how it sounds to me:

Nickel wounds are real bright when you first put them on, but they mellow quickly.

Stainless wounds are even brighter when you first put them on, and they stay bright.

A stainless string will still sound bright even after it has gone dead (lost its harmonic trueness). Nickel wounds lose all remaining brightness when they go dead. For that reason, it's easier for me to tell when it's time to change nickel wounds.

I prefer Jagwires because they break so rarely. I've used Jagwire stainless strings, but I keep going back to nickel.

In the Forum catalog, nickel outsells stainless by about 3 to 1.

Michael, I thought that Cobra Coils were a cobalt/brass alloy (hence the name). I didn't realize they were stainless steel. I learn something every day. Thanks.

I think that few of us amateur players are up to changing our strings every week or two. I'd like to change mine once a month, but in practice it's more like 6 weeks between changing. I'll change them anytime I have a session coming up, though.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic

I have really come to like Jagwire nickel wounds. They're great sounding dependable strings and like b0b says, when they finally do lose their brightness you can bet they're signalling that it's time to change 'em. Jagwires are also very consistent and uniform from set to set, often requiring no adjustment (seriously) at the endplate following a string change. I've used various brands of strings over the past several years but Jagwire nickel wounds are my favorites by far and I highly recommend them.

Tim R.

I just decided to try Jagwire nickel wound for the first time. On Friday I put a set of Jagwire nickel wound on the C6 neck. They sounded good Friday and Sunday. Today, after 4 days, they are as dead sounding as the old strings were. And those were more than 10 years old! They sound really really bad.

Is is normal for strings to go bad in 4 days? Since I have been using stainless for many years, I don't remember how nickel strings act. Stainless strings are still usable after a month or 2 altho they don't sound as good as new.

Cobra Coils like Mike Holland said.

It's funny, I've tried several types of guaged sets. Used to use GHS half round nickels. They seemed to be the best.

Also there are sets of Ernie Ball guaged sets I've used for embarrassingly long times b4 they went dead.

The two kinds I've used with *bad* luck were a set of BE Bill Laurences about 12 years ago that went dead in two nites. Also recently a full set of Sierras went dead in three days, actually inbetween sets.

I've used a set of Jagwires recently and they've had the crap played out of them for a month of nearly full weeks. I've liked them.

I know it's time when at near level, my bar rolls to a grove in the 3rd, 5th, 9th, and twelfth frets. If I've been playing with a fret mashing guitar player the groove is sometimes to the sharp side.

I think it's got a lot to do with random runs of strings sometimes. I invariably throw a couple Ernie Balls on and they seem to stay bright as long or longer than any. Di Addarios seem to hold longer then most too.

I just ordered 2 full sets of SIT nickel plated E9/C6 and a stainless C6 set.
The price looks hard to beat, and I'm gonna give them a shot.

Funny how I am with things. It took 15 years for me to discover that the thin chord/ends that Sierra sells just can't be beat, studio or live. I'll never use another kind. Same with the Ernie Ball pedal once I replaced the spring/string with a bootlace anchored on a screw on the collar and an AB EJ Extra life pot. You'll never see me with another.

Amps? Peaveys, "except for the sound" will always have me plugged in. Just can't beat 'em.

Stings, on the other hand are just a thing where I've never been "sold" on a single brand. We'll see how the SITs do..

Eric:
I haven't tried all the different brands but I am well satisfied with the SIT strings.
I use the nickel ones as I prefer a fuller, richer sound than what I can get from the stainless. Also, there seems to be less friction on the bar with the nickel strings.
Erv

SIT stainless works for me.

Are you aware of how few strings are manufactured by one manufacturer? There are
"generic" brands out there. D'Addario is by far one of the biggest,,GHS,,Ernie,you can count them on your fingers,,look out,you may be playing a brand that you dont really know
who manufactured it. They stagger production
among various manufacturers,,I have never tried a Jagwire string. I use what sounds best to my ear.

I have app 50 sets of original Fender steel guitar sets "unopened",,VC Squire was the original manufacturer at that time,,then CBS
purchased Squire and the name was Patented by Fender to use on Instruments as well.

The strings on my quad are orginal and still sound great after 50 years,,can you top that?

Thats not saying much for the string quality
today,I dont care who makes em..George L?? good string,,but a D'Addario,,E Ball good but a D'Addario. GHS...they do their own and now are selling under the "Zenith" brand.

Watch for them,,,they are every bit as good as GHS,,and less expensive WHY??? because the name is new,,the strings are identical..

I like this "made to such and such" specifications "yeah right" who specified them??? Marketing Magic. Close your eyes and play different brands,,if you can tell the difference let me know.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 13 November 2002 at 05:36 PM.]</p></FONT>

Jody,
AMEN !!!

I am happy with Franklin strings and use them on all my guitars. I tried a bunch of brands out and they all sure seemed different to me.

Franklins are nickel. If I was into stainless I would go with George L's.

Bob

Jody! I have a couple sets of Paul A Bigsby strings still mounted on my 1956 quad guitar. They were played consistantly for many years, many nights per week. They still sound great to me and required little tuning as the years went by.
I've also used the strings sold by Sierra on my Emmons and they've been on there for at least five years now; except for the G# string.
I would challenge anyone here to tell me that they're "dead" as THEY ARE NOT!
Jody....I was told here on the Forum that strings in packages go dead within just a few months of manufacture. What truth is that as it relates to your 50 pkg'd sets?
The old Gibson Black Diamond strings were always good to me...rich tone and long lasting.

Hmm... Sierra Strings on an Emmons...

Isn't that like running Ford hubcaps on a Chev?

George L Stainless for me.
Tried ~3 other brands, came back to the Ls.

I try for the sound PF gets on Alan's records. Bright and full.

I never liked the sound of Nickle.
(just my 5 cents)

If you switch from SS to Nic or vise-versa you have to do some adjusting on the end plate tuners for the wound strings. I learned the hard way to only carry spares of the same type that's on.

Ray
Thats an old wives tale and completely
FALSE....I just put set of Original Fender stings on my Custom on one neck and it bites
like an alligator....dont beleive that kind
of junk,,I suspect that they will put expiration dates on strings someday,,,,My guitar kicks you know what....did you ever watch your car's fron end being aligned? How do you know its been aligned or not,,that piece of paper they hand you withe "toe in and camber" is bull too,,,one good bump and you are out of line again...

Same deal with strings,,,too much Bull S,,,t
from music dealers and manufacturers,,,,sell more strings....they dont go bad if they are in the pkg,,they do when you perspire and use them...Dont listen to that stuff and you can tell whoever told you that,,,,its BULL.

The set of strings I put on today were from 1955,,what does that tell you.???<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 14 November 2002 at 03:52 PM.]</p></FONT>

Jody...new set of 1955 strings? What does that tell me?...You can only play non pedal tunes and get an old tone from those strings
Dennis