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All About Guitar Strings

Guitar strings are basically two types

Plain strings
Wound strings

Plain strings are the smallest strings on a guitar are smooth, without windings. Plain strings for electrics are the same as plain strings for acoustics.

Pretty much, all plain steel strings are about the same in their basic tone.

The plain acoustic string must have strong resonant qualities. The plain electric string must have strong magnetic properties. Almost all plain strings are made from an alloy called Swedish steel, which excels in both qualities needed.

Wound Strings: In order to produce low-pitched notes, a string may have metal windings over the core, to increase its mass. The heavier the mass, the lower the note the string can produce at a given tension.

Most electric sets use a plain string for the G-string where acoustic sets require a wound string.

The only difference in the E and B strings of an acoustic and electric set is the size, or gauge, of the string.

However, the wound strings vary very much.

Here is an overview of the different materials used for wound strings...

1. Acoustic Guitar Strings
Acoustic guitar strings, unlike other strings, not only have to sound nice, wear well and look good, but they also have to be loud.

An overview of each kind of acoustic guitar strings:

A. Bronze Wound Acoustic Guitar Strings
In guitar strings, bronze is alloy, which is actually a mixture of copper and tin or copper and zinc.

An 80/20 bronze string is an alloy comprised of 80% copper and 20% tin or 20% zinc. These alloys are sometimes called brass.

Bronze strings, sometimes called plain bronze produce a very brilliant, crisp sound when new but begin to lose their new sound after only a few hours of playing. Performers who change strings a lot typically love them.

And many players like the "played in" sound that bronze strings provide as the brightness begins to fade.

B. Phosphor Bronze Wound Acoustic Guitar Strings

Phosphor bronze (P/B) is second in popularity to the 80/20 bronze strings for acoustic guitar. They produce a bright, but slightly warmer and darker sound than bronze strings.

The small amount of phosphorous in the alloy helps them retain their new sound longer than bronze.

Just as the color difference is subtle, so is the tonal difference between the two. Some players find that one or the other lasts longer before sounding "dead." That's probably due to subtle differences in our skin chemistry, because it's the handling that causes them to deteriorate in sound.

D’Addario introduced the P/B string making in 1974. Most American made acoustic guitars are factory strung with Phosphor Bronze strings.

2. Electric Guitar Strings

Electric guitar strings are different to acoustic strings because they don't have to be acoustically loud; instead they create their signal through magnetism. This requires totally different materials to get the best performance.

A. Pure Nickel Wound Strings

Most strings of the 50's were wound with an alloy called Pure Nickel. It wasn't really "pure" but that's what we call it. Pure Nickel strings have a soft feel and produce that warm, vintage tone.

It's very different in color, and very different in tone. It sounds less "bright" when new, but lasts MUCH longer before corroding and dropping dead, tonewise. In fact, the windings may be pure nickel, "monel" (a nickel steel alloy) or stainless steel. These strings have windings with magnetic properties, and are primarily used on electric instruments with magnetic pickups. Personally, I like them for my acoustic mandolin because of their mellow tonal qualities and super long playing life.

Examples: Fender 3150 Original Bullets

B. Nickel Plated Steel

Nickel-plated steel is the alloy most widely used in string making today. Commonly known as NPS, it is steel winding with a nickel plating applied. The nickel plating enhances the feel and reduces finger noise and fret wear. They are hotter and provide greater sustain and a brighter sound than pure nickel.

C. Stainless Steel

Stainless steel strings are hotter, brighter, and provide more sustain than either pure nickel or NPS. They are more resistant to oils, acids, and sweat and are, hands down, the longest lasting strings. Stainless is a harder material so it feels a little different and can cause more fret wear. Most flat-wound sets and pedal steel guitar sets are made of stainless.

Steel strings have a bright, metallic sound, and are used on acoustic guitars, electric guitars, banjos, mandolins, and a host of other instruments where that strident, strong sound is required.

Examples: Fender 3350 Stainless Bullets.

When you are restringing your guitar, be sure that one will stab you in the end of your left hand's index finger without a second thought.

Silk and Steel String/Compound String has a steel core wrapped with silk filaments, and then wound over with silver plated copper windings.

It has greater flexibility than a regular wound steel string, and operates at a lower tension. That makes it ideal for very delicate instruments or for super light left hand fretting action. Of course, there's a tradeoff. Compound strings are more likely to buzz, and have a much shorter useful playing life than regular wound strings.

Silver plated windings are hardly ever used on regular steel strings, and I really don't know why they are so commonly found on compound ones. It may be a holdover from the classical guitar strings, which are often wound with silver.

Silver Plated Windings on top of a core made of straight, fine nylon filaments.

A Plain Nylon String is just that, nylon "monofilament," much like fishing line

Both plain and wound nylon strings have a soft, mellow tone compared to steel plain and wound strings. They are the choice for classical guitars.

Tarnished Strings are old classical guitar strings, with silver-plated windings.

Regular Acoustic Steel String Guitar has four wound strings, and two plain steel strings

A twelve string mixes 'em up a bit, pairing plain and wound side by side for the middle three pairs. The low E pair has two wound strings, and the high E and B are all plain steel.

A classical guitar may look like it has both metal and nylon strings: But we say it's a nylon-strung instrument, because the three wound bass strings have nylon filament cores.

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