Straight Up Strings

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by pax238

I picked up 3 sets of medium SUS. While I love the ease of play, the jury is out for me because of 2 factors:

- They turned my Halcyon into an overtone monster with massive sustain, which is good if you're going for that sound. It made my dry-ish walnut/lutz sound like rosewood on steroids.

- I noticed that they were tarnished within a couple of days (which has never happened with any other strings). It didn't seem to affect the sound much (I actually would have liked it to deaden the strings a bit )

I just got a Lowden with all kinds of sustain - which I obviously like - but it came with Exilirs (which I've never been in love with). So I'm looking for different strings.

I like Martin Retro's and will try them, but the african blackwood/sinker redwood is not naturally bright and I wonder if they will be good for the high end.

I was set on trying SUS (which I suppose I should), but now I'm afraid the sustain might go off the charts.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

[srick]

Originally Posted by musicman1951

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Keith -

Try them - it's an inexpensive experiment - eventually, you'll find what you like. I have found the secret to controlling sustain is rather simple: develop good muting technique.

best,

Rick

[valleyguy]

Originally Posted by Siminoff

Thanks to all for your interest in both Straight Up Strings and Santa Cruz Strings. I don't think it's a secret that I'm the designer behind both products so I thought I'd add my 2 cents here. As a result of work I've done on strings for more than four decades, both sets of strings were the result of a lot of testing and evaluation along a similar path and thought process. While the two brands use similar types of core and wrap wire, the string sets are not the same - a few gauges may coincidentally be the same - but comparing the sets, they are not the same. Bear in mind that there are many ways to prepare a wound string, and while one string may be labeled .054", the core and wrap wire can be made up differently to provide a seemingly similar .054" string that delivers a different tension at the same pitch. Straight Up Strings were engineered based on torque (twisting load) at the bridge whereas Santa Cruz strings are predicated on tensions.* Lastly, Straight Up Strings are gauged in three grades (light, medium, heavy); Santa Cruz are available as light and medium.

These are both very well-conceived string sets, made to strict tolerances, and both represent a paradigm shift in guitar string development. At the end of the day, much of how well you like either of these string sets depends on your attack and playing style, the conditions you hear them in, and the guitar you string up with them. So, of course, the final analysis is up to you. In either case, thanks for trying both.
Roger

* While the torque load at the bridge is the result of the strings' tensions, torque changes with the height of the saddle; the taller the saddle, the greater the torque. And, since most bridges are set with higher action for the lower strings, for Straight Up Strings, we felt that the torque load was the critical things to consider.

Clearly the maker of the strings in Nov. 2105 in post #5 states there are some differences. I interpret his remarks to say that some wound strings have either a thinner or thicker wound wire to dial in the tension he was looking for. That would necessitate a thinner or thicker core wire to compensate and come to the same overall thickness.

[gstring]

How many sets of guitar strings are sold every year in

USA
Europe

d

[Siminoff]

Hi Gstring,
Sorry for delay in responding. There is no hard data on this because most string manufacturers keep their production totals and sales information pretty close to the chest. Best guesstimate is that somewhere between 40M – 60M steel string guitar sets are sold worldwide each year with 50% of those sales being in the U.S. There is less than a dozen prominent musical string manufacturers worldwide - most of who are in the U.S. - but there are thousands of “private labels.” There is only a small handful of steel-wire manufacturing companies that make the semi-elastic nickel steel wire for plain and core wires, some of these companies also make the various types of wrap wire for wound strings.
Roger

[eyesore]

do they make these in round core ? Didn't read all this info ;just curious.

[Siminoff]

Eyesore... Not sure which "these" you are referring to, but all plain (unwound) strings are round wire, and the majority of wound strings have a "hex" core (which is not exactly hexagonal) to get a more secure bite of the wrap wire when it being wound onto the core wire. Some string manufacturers are still using round wire for wound strings.
Roger

[eyesore]

Originally Posted by Siminoff

Eyesore... Not sure which "these" you are referring to, but all plain (unwound) strings are round wire, and the majority of wound strings have a "hex" core (which is not exactly hexagonal) to get a more secure bite of the wrap wire when it being wound onto the core wire. Some string manufacturers are still using round wire for wound strings.
Roger

yes I was referring to the wound strings . Been using GHS thin core[11-52] and like them but I am going to send for some of your light gauge tonight.

[PTL]

Anyone know what are the best 'sales' that SUS has run regularly? Would like to try a few sets but always looking to be fiscally as responsible as possible.

Thanks.

[Jaxon]

not that my opinion matters lol and I've used SUS for acoustic and mandolin before and they're good strings and would use again if they had an option to customize a set. I much prefer a 12 gauge set replacing the E&B with a 13 and 17 taking away any ping and adding a little meat on the bone so 13-17-24-32-42-53 for my OM's