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Post subject: Pure Nickel Strings
Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:23 am
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does anyone know if in fact Fender's Pure Nickel Strings are all pure nickel thru and thru for all strings?

i've look at fenders website and they are silent on their materials and construction!

so

do the wound strings have a steel core that is wrapped with nickel?

and

what about the unwound strings what are they made of?


thanks

here's what Ernie Ball says;
"Made from pure nickel wire wrapped around tin plated hex shaped steel core wire."
no mention of the unwound have you noticed!


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:45 am
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from my understanding, the core of the wound strings are all the same - steel/nickel alloy. the unwound strings in any set are the same - steel/nickel alloy. the wrappings are the difference. personally, I find the pure nickel strings to take away the snap and twang in my fender guitars, ymmv


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:13 pm
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Johnk24, I think you're right about the lack of snap and twang, especially in my Strat with CS69s-I like the pure nickel in the Jazzmaster and ES335 where I want a more liquidy, jazzy tone, but it does wussify the strat a bit.


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Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:27 pm
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My concerns were answered--I put a set of GHS Boomers on the CS 69'd Strat-the piano tone I loved in the first place returned!! I think the Pure Nickel works well for a warmer, jazzier sound (a happy medium in the Jazzmaster-I never liked flatwounds, even though I play some jazz).


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:53 am
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I use D'Addario Pure nickels now, I bought them at Elderly (they had a 4th of july string sale ) :P
But man those strings are great! That and a set of new tremolo springs in my strat made it feel like new :D .

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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 8:15 am
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Location: On the bank of the West Fork of the Susquehanna River in N. Central Pennsylvania
Aparently "pure nickel" strings are just that: they have nickel round wire cores with nickel wrappings. These strings are sometimes twice as expensive as regular strings and last way longer, bend better, and probably would do good for someone with an "ice picky" tele or strat that wants to tame it down a little. Of course some people like the ice pick sound, like the late Albert Collins.

Nickel wound strings are nickel (or very possibly an alloy) wound around usually a hex core steel wire instead of a round core nickel wire.

Nickel plated steel strings are steel windings around a usually hex core steel wire, then plated with nickel, although DR claims their nickel plated strings are wound around a round wire core. Supposedly the round core and hex core wires when wrapped produce sounds that interact differently with the magnetic field, and this can aparently be explained technically but I'm not sure if my ear could hear the difference.

Evidently during the sixties the cost of nickel sky rocketed and the string makers rolled with the flow, moving to steel with nickel plating to stay competitive. Another group of industry experts insists it was not a profit margin issue but that the players were demanding a higher output, brighter string and that is what motivated the move from the original, traditional pure nickel strings. Some mystery surrounds the actual shift.

But most string mfg's offer a "pure nickel" string; however, they don't advertize them in magazines and so on.

I don't know about pure nickel's but "flatwounds" definitely seem to muffle the sound of the string. But this isn't a bad thing, just different, and many players love flatwounds and the mellow tone, especially some bass players.

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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:04 am
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well finally Ernie Ball has come clean and is somewhat practicing truth in advertising,

they now say in their adverts that the special coatings and special windings are only for their wound strings and the unwound strings are just plain ole steel regardless of what you purchase, so you pay extra extra for only 3 strings !!

hopefully the rest of the string sellers will follow suit and explain better what their selling,

i found out with EB they where threaten with a major a law suit through many states about their deceptive trade practices and misleading advertising/marketing, so this is the reason now
you see the disclaimer on all their string products now,

you can't say "stainless steel strings" if only the wound strings have coatings of stainless wrapped around a steel core and half of the strings have no stainless at all, perhaps the other majors will get wind and change before the attorney generals sue them as well ! !


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