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Educate me on pure nickel strings!


scolfax

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Got it, thanks!


Kinda funny. When people talk about bends being easier, and the strings being easier on the fingers and frets, I somehow imagined this would be a bigger benefit to the unwound strings, where I spend most of my time. So that's pretty much a moot point!

 

 

Bingo.

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http://www.musiccenters.com/strqa.htmlElectric Strings:

 

Nickel Plated - This string consists of nickel plated steel wraps around a steel core. The steel gives you better magnetic pull thus more volume electronically, and the nickel helps keep the steel from corroding. This is the most common type of electric string.

 

Pure Nickel - This string consists of nickel wraps around a steel core. Due to the pure nickel content of the wrap this string is more mellow in tone and has less output electronically. It gives that "vintage sound"

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I dont know if nickle wrapped strings are any easier to bend or more elastic. The wrapping has nothing to do with string tension. Tension is all handled by the core wire. As most know when a wrapped string snaps the outside wrappings just unwinds. Ot provieds inertia to string movement for better bass frequencies and has practically zero effect on string tension. So as far as flexability is concerned, its likey whatever the manufacturer uses for a core wire thats goint to make the string more flexable.

 

Nickle is a softer metal though and when you rub a softer metal against a harder metal the softer metal will wear faster. In the case of strings and frets the softer metal is less likely to scratch the frets so theres less friction caused by those scratches. Most know frets that are highly polished are like butter for bending strings so a softer metal rubbing against a harder metal will actually keep the harder metal polished at the expence of the string wearing out more quickly.

 

This is one reason I quit using stainles steel. If you do alot of bending the wrapped strings will chew the hell out of normal frets. I do my own fret work and refretting and I just got sick of repolishing the frets every string change so i'd maintain that buttery smooth feel with all the bending i do. Even stainless steel frets will scratch up making it more difficult to bend.

 

New nickle wrapped strings do have a brightness though. They are not completely dull like you were using flatwounds or something. Its mostly a shift down in midrange frequency. I find for some of my guitar pickups like P90s, mini Humbuckers and such, they can add some more meat to the tone especially using a good tube amp. Other guitar pups especially hotwound pickups can sound a bit honkey. Alot has to do with your guitar rig though so you just have to try them to know.

 

I used to buy the Dean Markley nickle wrapped in packs of tens maybe 12 years ago. They were pretty good deals and the strings were pretty good too. I also liked the nickle wrapped Fender Bullets a whole lot before thay started making them in Mexico and the quality completely tanked. They were horrible last time I used them. Then I used SIT strings for about three years. They were the best I could find for a long time. I then started getting bad D and A strings. The manufacturer made good on the strings but the replacement werent any better, so they have lost my business for the most part.

 

I cant tell you for sure who makes the best nickle wrapped right now. I buy about 5~10 sets a month to keep all the studio guitars strung. I'll make a point of picking up a set of nickle wrapped strings next month and keep my fingers crossed that I dont get burned again. I hate pissing away a set of strings like that when I know which brands will give me good quality results. I'd rather blow money on sets I've never tried before and get burned then to go back and buy something my instincts tell me is a gamble. Its not as much the money. People blow all kinds of money on lottery tickets. Its more the hassel and efforts wasted stringing up and finding duds.

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