Basic knowledge about strings

[Janelectro]

After thinking about what string would be the best for me I found out some facts about strings.
Okay, perhaps some of you already know this but I wanted to share with you, esp. with those who are still searching their way through the string jungle.

First off a little formula, it is not the final formula as it would be in physics books but it is enough to understand:

string tension
-------------------------- = string frequency
string mass x string length

So one may see that a light (thin) string has less tension than a thicker by having the same length and frequency.

Thickness

In fact the thickness of a string has five main effects on its behaviour:

1. As already said, the thinner the string, the weaker its tension
2. A direct effect from that is that the string feels the softer to the player the thinner it is.
3. Due to its magnetic mass, the thinner the string is, the less output is has. (But this has only a marginal effect)
4. The thinner the string is the sloppier it will be (less tension).
-> Thick string allow a lower action than thin strings.
5. The thicker a string is the bassier is the sound.

Materials:

Stainless Steel: Bright, metallic tone, rich harmonics, long lifetime, no allergic reactions.

Nickel: warm sound, less harmonics than steel, less lifetime than steel due to faster oxidation and hand sweat, less magnetic than steel -> less output, can cause allergic reactions.

Plus there are materials like different nickel alloys or steel core nickel strings in order to have a compromising sound.

Surfaces:

Flatwounds: flat, smooth surface, bassy, not much treble.

Halfrounds: flattened roundwounds, developped to compromise the roundwound sound with the flatwound feel.

Roundwounds: round wire wound around the core, not very smooth feel, more treble than flats... we all know them...

Core:

Round core: used a long time ago, the wire wounds had to be glued to the core in order to hold them in place. Caused problems because of toxics getting from the string to the musician's hand and then to his mouth.

Hex core: common now, the wire is wound around a hexagonic core where it holds without glue due to mechanic effects. Hex cores also feature a lighter string and support better oscillation.

Ends:

Normal: the windings all end direclty at the ballend.

Taperwound: the different windings of the string end in certain different distances from the ballend, thus featuring a more flexible string end. Developped for String-through bridges.

Exposed core: the different windings all end at a certain distance from the ball end, leaving the core exposed.



Hope to have helped clearing things up, Jan (who has now found his favourite strings)

main source: justchords.com

[neatobassman]

very nice sir.

[Linkin_X1.0]

very nice i never knew this

[Larrivée-6-string]

Something else you should know about strings that affects tone, tension & sustain is the diameter of the individual wires in the winding.

Strings are made up of a core wire & 1 or more wrapping wires. Imagine you have 2 strings of the same gauge (let's say an 'E' string of.100 guage(this means it's .1 inches thick)), string 1 could have a core wire of .05, an inner wrap of .025 & an outer wrap of .025 (making a total of .1) while the second string might have a core wire of .034 an inner wrap of .033 & an outer wrap of .033 inches.

The overall gauge of both strings is the same but the difference in the make-up of each string will affect the tone, how they feel to play due to slight tension differences & how long notes will sustain, again partly due to tension.

I hope that adds a bit to your knowledge of strings - have a braowse 'round the web see if you can find any more detail

[Khanzo]

You are right about the reactions that nickel can have, on me they make my fingers crack and bleed if I played with them for a hour (the cracking happens within a week but not immediately, so do take care if you have something such as eczema like myself

[exit]

same here, nickel gives me eczema on the more sensitive parts of the body when in contact. The biggets problem area is around the eyes. everytime i play i have to keep in mind not to rub in my eyes or after a night of sleep i get dark circles around my eyes due to the reaction. And if i keep playing and rubbing my eyes start to look like im a druggy lol

[Khanzo]

downer, the worst effected place for me is my hands, mainly base of fingers and the areas around my nails, it aint fun expecally when it starts to crack, then the skin peels and it bleeds, not very pretty