One More Monel/Retros Question

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by ChrisE

I've used Monels as well as PB in an amplified situation and honestly can't remember there being any difference in volume that I could tell. I suppose it may depend on the kind of pickup you use.

When I play somewhere, I set my controls to suit the venue, crowd, etc.

That's what all those little knobs are for anyway, right?

Was that with a Fishman Rare Earth sound hole mag p/u Chris?

[Robin, Wales]

Just to explain a little. I used to have surface mounted mag p/u's made for the reso guitars I sold. We had two versions :PB balanced and nickel balanced. Until we found someone making them with removable neo mag blanking plates for the 1st and second strings that were removable and so could be adjusted for all string types.

A lot of good sound hole p/u's today have adjustable poles. With PB strings fitted the top b and e string poles need to be backed off to get the right volume balance across the strings.

The Fishman Rare Earth does not have adjustable poles so it is likely to have been made with smaller poles or less windings under the top 2 stings. The assumption being that acoustic guitarists would be using PB or 80/20 strings. Hence you'll likely get a bass heavy response if you use monel strings. Although I have not used that p/u myself so could be wrong. .

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

If you'd like a monel string with a little more volume than Martin Retro's try Curt Mangan round-core Monels.

This is a fact.