Topic: Strings... OMG !!!!

[Richard]

Well never thought I would ever be asking a question about guitar strings but stranger things happen at sea, or so I told 

It seemed it was about time to change the strings on the ancient Tricone, I knew what size\make etc suited it best and having always used bronze wound I then confused myself by thinking should I try steel wound for a change   Indeed, that was as serious a problem as to Queenies left Nursey dumpling or right Nursey dumpling....

So steel wound it was\is and they do seem to have a bit more oommppphhhh, my question being when and why did bronze wound appear and would I be correct-ish in thinking that prewar steel wound was the only choice? 

[blueshome]

Most pre-war strings were nickel. Always use them on my tricone - give the nicest sound and seem everlasting.

[onewent]

Here's a blurb right out of the Oscar Schmidt catalog, ca 1932:  'LaScala Steel Strings:  "La Scala" strings are made by a secret patented process of fine steel metal of which Monel metal is one of the mportant component parts.  These well-known strings are universally recommended for all flectrum (sic) instruments.  All strings are hand polished and handsomely and conveniently packed.  "La Scala" steel strings are guananteed to give absolute satisfaction in tone and durability.'

And from wikipedia:

"Monel is a trademark of Special Metals Corporation for a series of nickel alloys, primarily composed of nickel (up to 67%) and copper, with some iron and other trace elements. Monel was created by David H. Browne, chief metallurgist for International Nickel Co. Monel alloy 400 is binary alloy of the same proportions of nickel and copper as is found naturally in the nickel ore from the Sudbury (Ontario) mines. Monel was named for company president Ambrose Monel, and patented in 1906 ( U.S. patent 811,239).

Monel is used as the material for valve pistons in some higher quality musical instruments such as trumpets, tubas and french horn rotors. RotoSound introduced the use of Monel for electric bass strings in 1962, and these strings have been used by numerous artists, including The Who, Sting, John Deacon, and John Paul Jones. Monel was in use in the early 1930s by other musical string manufacturers, such as Gibson Guitar Corporation, who continue to offer them for mandolin as the Sam Bush signature set."

And summarizing the listings from the '32 OS catalog:
E, 1st Silvered Steel ....$.40 per doz
B,         "    "
G, 3rd Wound on Steel .$.80 per doz
D,        "    "
A,        "    "
E,        "    "

The banjo strings, wound, are listed as "wound, silver-plated"

The earlier catalogs that I have, teens and twenties, don't even list strings for sale, however, they list all other parts of a guitar, including replacement parts (gears, etc) for tuners!

..Tom

[Richard]

Thanks most intriguing and as I thought-ish! But then to take it on a step why and when were the broze strings introduced, why in particular!

[onewent]

..good question..not sure dates, but bronze give a more bright sound than steel, but the trade off is they tarnish (oxidize) more rapidly and deaden the sound, hence the phospher/bronze, 80/20 combos, which give up a bit of brightness, but don't tarnish as rapidly.  I couldn't find much steel string guitar string history on the web, I'll review some of my books, see what I dig up there..Tom

[blueshome]

Don't forget this discussion:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=128&topic=2754.0

[slidnslim]

 A good friend of mine and I had a discussion about this
a couple of years ago,He's in his 80's plays country blues
bought his  Martin O-15 in the forties and he yold me it
came with brass strings and he used Martin brass(80/20's)
ever since,
 He got a lesson from Brownie Mcgee who used the same strings,
 He also figured if you were a touring musician and visited the appropriate stores you could find them,if you struck to your
 small town alls you could find were Black diamonds
 in nickel that went dead after two songs!

 Kenny,

[Richard]

Could that be why I have couple of new rusty Black Diamonds in packets!

[Lwoodblues]

  My Ron Phillips Tri-cone loves the dreaded gortex covered strings. When I had a single cone, it hated them. Elixers rule on the tri-cone though.