[That is all BS. Nickle plated steel strings far outsell pure nickle wrapped strings. This is the first time I have ever heard such a claim made. Nickle plated strings are brighter sounding than pure nickle. Stainless steel even more so. Personally, I use Fender pure nickle wrapped strings but it is because they give me the sound I prefer, not because there is anything fundamentally wrong with nickle plated strings. In all the years I have used nickle plated strings on my guitars, I have never experienced anything such as windwalker describes and I have never seen anything like it mentioned on any other forum until now.[/quote]

Well Im happy for you, but I HAVE noticed it, and everytime i have to use nickel plated, i can hear it again. NOt everything is mentioned on forums. I repair gutiars for a living, and have had everything come across my bench. String up ernie Balls, play something (unplugged) on the Low E, and A up past the 9th fret, then compare it to the same thing with a pure nickel wrap, there is most certainly a difference, and the plated give strats a metalic ringing noise. Maybe you should try stuff before throwing BS out there.[/quote]

Yeah, I've only been playing the guitar since 1969, I build and modify my own guitars, and rebuild and modify my own amps, so I guess I really don't have any experience in these matters. You on the other hand, seem to have super senses because it always amazes me all of the things that you are able to notice which no one else ever seems to. I sure wish I had your ears and fingers. [/quote]

I'd want them too. SOme people say fretboard material has no impact on tone, yet everyone who does notice it says the same thing; maple is brighter than rosewood. SO if its the resto of the guitar, and not the fretboard, shouldnt the changes intone vary from guitar to guitar? Maybe you dont notice it because you're not looking for it? It's there. I dont have super senss, maybe you're tone deaf???

You just threw out it's BS, but with no answer except "you have bad strings". No explenation on how you came to that except that it doesnt follow your ideas of how things should be. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it; yes, it still makes a noise. Just because you cant hear it, doesnt mean its not there. If you;re not doing an A/B comparison, it something that you may never pick up on, or if you're not looking for it. I noticed it because i was using a vintage neck with small frets. I went to pure nickel to try the tone. it was wamer and everythinge else people say about it. It want until i put nickel plated steel back on that i noticed the difference with that metallic clang they put out. So there was i time i didnt notice it either.

I wish people would let themselves admit that ; maybe just becaue they dont pick up on things, that they can still exist. You never read about it in a forum, ive posted it before, and had people agree, so maybe you just missed it.

Steady guys, the easy way to check this is to try another set of strings. I'll do that and can let you know what happened.

D'Addario nickle-plated strings do have a "krangg" "crashy" "metallic" quality -- some oddly strident harmonics. It's not a "bad" sound per se -- it sounds great with some guitars, not so great with others. DR Pure Blues sound better on some of my guitars but some of them sound better with D'Addarios.

Some other brands of nickel-plated steel don't have that sound. D'Addario's pure nickel wrap strings have a hint of that sound. So it's something about the metals, the hex core, or the wrap methods that D'Addario uses rather than just nickel-plate vs pure nickel.

Yeah, I hear it with boomers,,slinkys, and other plated. Ice never strung with hex cores so I cantattest to them, though just the shape of the core causes me to think bright. I don't mind that steely klang on a warm guitars, like my PRS 22, w/ PAFS, but its too much for me to deal with onstrats, teles. And other already bright guitars. I don't like how the low strings sound up high on tghe fretboard.

All D'Addarios have hex cores. They introduced that technology in the mid '70s and it revolutionized the industry -- most brands switched to hex cores (including Fender). Hex cores bite the wrap wire so the wrap doesn't need to be glued as it's wound on, resulting in more flexible strings that are less prone to having the wrap loosen.

DR is one of the few that definitely still make round core strings (most brands don't specify what they use).

That explains why I thought that the PRS and Dadds were so much more flexible. They seem to actually bounce. On my PRS 24 they seem OK for tone although I still prefer a 'stiffer' string. However, on the Strat they are just too harsh and bright.

I think with the EJ Strat in particular, the middle pickup is very bright and does not have a tone control (the bridge and neck PUs have the tone controls). This means that that very bright tone rings through in the 2 and 4 positions. The mid PU on its own is too harsh to use at all.

I don't know about D'addarios, I have liked their strings for years, but most strings I've used are round cores. Regardless, the plated still make that damn noise on their strings, hex core or otherwise. Like I did its not as noticeable on humbuckers, but single coils, I can't stand it.

Hex core should feel less flexible, and stiffer than round core. Round core lends it to bend easier than the hex
while the hex should have a stronger attack, and make each string more articulated than round. Thats the general rule, but there are always exceptions. I've gone back and forth, I use pure nickel on fender guitars, nickel plated on humbucker; at times I've run out of strings for the Strat and in a pinch, strung them with the plated I use on my other guitars. That noise always presents itself on Strats. Seeing Tet
That most of the time I use the same brand of strings I have to think its the metal wrap more than the core shape.

Also, I tend to use heavier strings: I use the Eric Johnson Nickel rockers for most of my strats, all tuned to standard 440 pitch, 11 Gauge for strats tuned to Eb, 11s on my PRS and Gibsons that are inn standard tuning and 12's on those guitars if they are tuned to Eb.
I find that klangy noise more prevalent on the wound strings from heavier gauge sets, I did a setup hyyesterday at the shop. It was a strat with 9's on them, though the brands of strings makes that moise when I had used the 11 gauge set, its not as moticeable on. The 9s.
This may be one of the reasons that more attention isn't paid on that atonal sound. Like I said, I've setup hundreds of guitars in just the last year. We carry both pure nickel and plated, bu they're not in packs or 'sets' of strings like you buy at a store. They come in long sleaves, each sleave contains(though I've never ordered them for the shop or counted them) appproximately 50 strings, all the same string and gauge. A VAST majority of the guitars that the owner requestes pure-nickel are strung with 10+ gauge sets, the majority being 11's. While the plated gauges runs the gamet of gauge sizes, most are strung with 9s. the sound isn't as noticeable onlighter strings, which may be why its not commeted about that much.

Here's the response I got when he put pure nickel on;
Quote: Hi, thought I would let you know how it went with the string change. Put the GHS EJs on yesterday and things are much better. There is still a bit of ringing from the 3rd string and I am now wondering if I have some problem with the amp. It is not valves as I have had these in and out frequently over the past few weeks. It sounds to me like a ringing reverb spring, but can't work out if I am right.

Thanks for your help

He must be hearing things too huh?

Yep, the pure nickels are far better. The PRS strings are far too bright and were causing most of my problems. They also generate excessive finger noise which when moving across the board builds to an unpleasant harmonic. I am not sure how much better some other plated strings would be as I did not try ordinary D'addarios on the Strat., but I think I'll stick with the GHS strings from now anyway. Maybe heavier plated strings would not be so bad, but I'll leave that one for another year!

I use heavier strings, 11's & 12's depending onv the guitar, and whether or not I'm using standard or Eb tuning. That noise gets worse the heavier you go. Its the same for all plated strings, I've tried then all, Fender, GHS BOOMERS, D'addario, Slinkys, hex and round core. So its the steel wrap, nor the core. It makes me wonder what would happen if you used pure nickel with stainless steel frets. I think the SS frets are a fad. They're far too dificult to work with, you can't really put them o aneck that had neckel frets before, because after a short time, the ends pop out because the steel wants to go back to its normal radius, they're expensive to get them dressed & crowned because they're so hard, it takes forever to do. We'll see if they last.

I have a Carvin DC with SS frets and they were a $@!&* to dress I ended up having them removed and replaced with Nickel frets because the ends were in deed coming up out of the slot. afterwords I did notice a change in tone. not sure how to describe it but it lost the slight brittle kinda sharp clang sound it had. pure nickel strings on the SS frets helped but the only way I got rid of that sound was by using the DR coated strings. the feel of SS frets is amazing but ehhh. its almost like the softer metals do not transfer high frequency vibrations as well. so nickle is like a little high roll off.

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String are strings. I doubt a set of PRS strings will get your strat to sound like a PRS. It will just sound like a strat with fresh strings.

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Strings are most certainly not just strings. i dont think anyone expects Fender strings to make a Les Paul sound like a Fender, but different strings have very different tones; Stainless steel are brighter than pure nickle, as are nickel plated vs pure nickel. Hex core sound different from round core, etc.

I agree with you, I'm just saying don't expect much just because the strings are labeled "PRS"

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