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Old 01-12-2019, 02:54 PM
Martie Martie is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: UK
Posts: 525
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaden View Post
I think the history of steel string composition is a complex one throughout the past century but just as a general trend, phosphor bronze was introduced in 1974 and it adds a lot of extra colour to a guitar’s tone. I also am a collector of lps and such from the period before 1974 and appreciate the clarity of many of those earlier recordings. Generally speaking I think a rosewood backed guitar is difficult to record and I group PBs together with that for fingerstyle playing: too many sometimes colluding overtones.
I'm sure I read that PB (whatever it is that makes them different from 80/20s) were introduced primarily to increase the longevity of strings (almost like a precursor of coated!), but not sure if that's accurate?

I once heard Taylors Andy Powell describe PB as the 'benchmark' sound for acoustics, but I really don't know enough about it as I've played mainly electric for the past 35 years, and even though I'm not new to acoustic, only really started paying attention to acoustic strings relatively recently (and have yet to find a string I really love, as I have on electric).

My guitar is spruce and rosewood and I've just ordered some Newtone Heritage 13s, as I'm really curious about balanced tension strings. Unfortunately, they only do them in PB, and I'd like to try them in 80/20, but worth a try. If I like the even tension but not the PB, I'll get in touch with them to help me put together a balanced set of 80/20s.
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