New string technology

[jomaynor]

Interesting article about the creation of ultra-bendable electric guitar strings being developed in Scotland at the University of St. Andrews.

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-revolu...tar-world.html

[Steve DeRosa]

I play 12's/13's on nearly all of my electrics - don't think I'll be seeing any of those in my local GC anytime soon; interesting side note: I've gone to Martin Monels on many of my acoustics, and they feel "slinkier" and easier-playing than the former D'A PB's - at higher listed tension...

[jomaynor]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

I play 12's/13's on nearly all of my electrics - don't think I'll be seeing any of those in my local GC anytime soon; interesting side note: I've gone to Martin Monels on many of my acoustics, and they feel "slinkier" and easier-playing than the former D'A PB's - at higher listed tension...

Yeah, I've been a monel convert for acoustic for over a year now - I love the pure sound, and they do indeed seem a bit easier to manipulate. Monel definitely has less surface tension against the fingertips than bronze to minimize squeak, which I love, since I don't care at all for the Pam-spray feel of the traditional anti-squeak sprays, or Elixirs, which also have that kinda greasy feel.

Re the new electric strings that were mentioned in the article, it's unclear to me if the gauges in the set will be of different size than normal. My interpretation of this very brief outline of them is that maybe they use different composition for different strings to make the tonal shift more uniform when bending two or more strings - i.e., a 6th string is of different construction than a 4th, etc. Kind of like what the drum manufacturers are doing with some high-end kits, using different types of wood for the shells at different dimensions.

[fazool]

I skimmed the article - I still can't figure out what's "new" and deserving of an academic research paper.

Is it a new alloying composition? A new fabrication method? What's new?

[jomaynor]

Originally Posted by fazool

I skimmed the article - I still can't figure out what's "new" and deserving of an academic research paper.

Is it a new alloying composition? A new fabrication method? What's new?

Yeah, the article is quite vague about how the new design achieves the goal, isn't it?

But the supposed benefit, uniform tonal shift when bending either manually or with a bar, is intriguing. A friend sent me the article, so I thought that I'd pass it along.