tonal balance and the unwound G string

[MC5C]

A question for those who put acoustic guitar strings on their acoustic archtops. I've never got on well with wound G strings. To me they are stiff, dead sounding, and create an imbalance in tone between the G string and the unwound B and E strings which I find most annoying in single note playing up the neck. I always like to have an unwound G string, around .020", in a set of .011 - .052 or .012 - .053's. But almost no manufacturer - no one I can buy locally to me anyway - makes such a set in phosphor bronze or 80 - 20 bronze or your typical acoustic guitar set. Now I can't even buy single .020' plain strings locally, neither of the two stores in a 100km radius carries them. So - is it just me who doesn't like the tonal balance of a wound G string? I know for instance that Jim Hall played an .011" - .052" set with a plain .020" G string (or was claimed to have) but that was on an electric instrument so nickle strings. What strings do you use on your acoustic archtops that don't have magnetic pickups to influence your choice?

[Dave Richard]

Well, I do like a wound G, on both my flat-tops and archtop. I have a '38 Epi Broadway, and these days I use Martin PB 'medium-light gauge"- literally halfway between light and medium. I had used PB mediums on it, but backed off at the suggestion of Johnathan Strout, a very good contemporary swing guitar player. I play alot of swing style comping, and the heavier gauges help get that 'sound'.

Dave

[Archtop Guy]

Many archtop jazz players complain that the wound G sounds weak through the pickup, because it's core is thinner than the B string, but I never heard anyone mention the acoustic sound, and I never noticed myself. Some players coming from other styles complain that they can't bend a the wound G.

So... background first. I love my acoustic archtops, I have more guitars with NO pickups then I have with, I play fully acoustic at home and in practice 90% of the time. I use 85/15 and phosphor bronze strings, either 12-54 or 13-56. I change my strings every other week when I play a lot. Wound G of course.

Like a lot of jazz players, I don't bend that G string ever. I don't bend the the E or B often either. It's not really essential to the style. That's for my Strat. So for the G string I look for volume, smoothness and consistent volume up the neck, consistency with neighboring strings. If anything, my problem string would be the high E, which tends to lose volume and mids as you go up the neck, but I have spent a lot of money on guitars getting that problem to go away. And I have spent a lot of time practicing to alter my pick attack to get the sound I want when I'm playing up there.

[Steve DeRosa]

I'm with A.G. on volume, smoothness, and consistency with neighboring strings, especially as you pass through the critical complex-midrange frequencies that to my ear define archtop tone. BTW this is something that was recognized by many players of the '30s-40s, who would often opt for a set with a wound B for the same reasons; at that time Epiphone would set up your instrument from the factory for wound-B as a no-cost option, Martin offered them in their house-brand string lineup, and I'm old enough to remember the local mom-&-pop stores blowing out the very last circa-1955 NOS sets for 25 cents each in the late-60's. Maybe it's my early training as a jazz player but I don't even use a plain G on my electrics, and until very recently (as a grudging concession to age) never used anything lighter than a 12-52 set; by the same token I learned to play as a nine-year-old on some of those wound-B instruments, used the old New Brunswick NJ Black Diamonds on my Harmony Broadway (killed many a neck back in the day ), and still outfit my acoustic archtops with PB 14's - so unless we're talking about my lower back I've got no problems whatsoever with bends...

[Archtop Guy]

OK, Brian, still thinking about your question...

I went back and listened as closely as I could to several of my guitars and I still don't hear hear or understand what you're saying I guess.

Tell us more. Do you think the wound G is too soft, or too loud? By dead do you mean lack of treble? What kind of guitar is it? Exactly what kind of strings do you use? Fingers or pick? What kind of pick? What kind of music do you play? Any clips or videos? Tell us everything!

[mr. beaumont]

I have to honest, my feelings are the exact opposite. Can't stand plain G's.

[campusfive]

I've never tried a plain G string on anything heavier than the set of 11's that's on my Les Paul. But then again, I don't really play the thing almost ever. I've been quite happy with the acoustic sound of a wound G on all of my archtops. Then again, I also swap out the high E and B for 14/18 whether I use 12's or 13's for the rest.

But I'm mostly commenting just to point out that you can quite easily buy single strings from www.stringsandbeyond.com here: http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/singlestrings.html

Or perhaps even better for your particular situation, bulk single strings (10 packs) from www.juststrings.com - looks like the have .020, .022. .024 and even .026, so you should be well covered. Dig: http://www.juststrings.com/plainstee...lkstrings.html