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I was just about to order my usual rotosound reds, (nickel wound) when I noticed not only have Rotosound changed the packaging, but now they are offering 'british steels' (stainless steel strings) and 'pure nickel' (um....all nickel!)

I've only ever used regular nickel wounds, I was thinking about trying one of the others...I have no idea what difference it will make apart from the 'roto blurb' which quite frankley isn't very helpfull, can anyone tell me the advantages/dis-advantages of the different types?

thank you!

Mel

steel is more magnetic than nickel so it makes a difference in volume (and prolly "tone" to a certain degree). I found a good site about this once....

it's basically like you would think, from loudest to not, it goes:

Stainless Steel
Nickel Wound
Pure Nickel

hm, maybe i can be a bit helpful when i answer as a bass player haha

pure steel
sound: metallic, glassy, clear clear feel: rough (esp. rotos !) aside of the gauge strings feel less flexible

nickelwound steel (a standard for guitar, for bass all nickel is more like the standard)

my fav for both bass and guitar, combines best of both.

sound :clear but not annoyingly 'cold' clear (like too percussive/unmusical if that makes any sense)
feel: nothing much to say only that you do tend to lose a lot of the clarity when you play a lot, compared to all steel, all steel stays bright for a longer time

pure nickel

sound: warm sounding, mellow, i find (just like with flatwounds) they go dull pretty quick, some people are after that, others aren't..


anyway, i think what i said can be found on any manufacturer's site but hey...

I'ma nonbeliever in differences. I pay attention to gauge and feel, beyond that, I could care less.

supposedly steel wears down frets quicker too. i learned that from a guy at JS

Ninja Mike 808 wrote:I'ma nonbeliever in differences. I pay attention to gauge and feel, beyond that, I could care less.

um, you realize how the guitar works right? the pickups magnetize the strings and the vibrating of the strings generate electric current in the pickups. so if the strings are larger or made made out of a more magnetic material, it significantly effects the sound and output of the guitar. the strings are pretty important to how the guitar sounds.

yeah, try putting phosphor bronze acoustic strings on your electric.

mage wrote:

Ninja Mike 808 wrote:I'ma nonbeliever in differences. I pay attention to gauge and feel, beyond that, I could care less.

um, you realize how the guitar works right? the pickups magnetize the strings and the vibrating of the strings generate electric current in the pickups. so if the strings are larger or made made out of a more magnetic material, it significantly effects the sound and output of the guitar. the strings are pretty important to how the guitar sounds.

Yea, I get it. But, the differences in tone aren't that noticeable when you're running a series of FX. if you have some very clean pups, and are running clean channel, then yea, you could tell the difference, but if you have lots of FX, then it jus doesn't seem as noticeable. That's me, though.

well, yea sure. I mean, if you are using a ton of effects you could prolly just use a squier bullet and it would sound the same as some USA fender. I think most people want their guitar to sound good with no effects though. even if you want to use effects you don't want to be forced into using effects just to come up with a decent sound. to me, I love having a guitar that sounds great on its own. you can get so many different sounds out of just the guitar. I'm a K.I.S.S. kind of person though.

mage wrote:well, yea sure. I mean, if you are using a ton of effects you could prolly just use a squier bullet and it would sound the same as some USA fender. I think most people want their guitar to sound good with no effects though. even if you want to use effects you don't want to be forced into using effects just to come up with a decent sound. to me, I love having a guitar that sounds great on its own. you can get so many different sounds out of just the guitar. I'm a K.I.S.S. kind of person though.

HOLY SHIT! I thought K.I.S.S. was something my teacher made up... Come to think of it, he was probly quoting somebody. But still, that's awesome. I agree, though, to an extent. I dunno, I just don't care about trings as much as other people, maybe I should experiment more.

yea, I mean, strings are cheap