Now that we’ve discussed some general
concepts on adjusting and fine-tuning
humbucking pickups, let’s examine yet
another
huge tonal (and magnetic) variable
– string choice. What you use here
is critical beyond anything else I can tell
you about. Why? This is because strings
fall into four or five categories these days:
nickel-plated steel, pure nickel, stainless
steel, multi-metal alloy combinations and
lastly, cryogenic stainless steel.
Keep in mind that for now we will limit
our type of string to the good old fashioned
standard roundwound types. This
is because the other string types, such
as flatwound or groundwound/burnished
(that is, a roundwound type string that
has been “smoothed out” by some
mechanical means) sound and feel totally
different from the regular roundwound
string, while also having much more tension
and bigger core sizes (the shape of
the core will vary as well). We will be
focusing here on the hex-core type of
construction, because the six-point hexcore
“grabs” the outer wrap and keeps
it from slipping without the use of any
additional adhesives – something that is
pretty much mandatory in the manufacture
of round-core string types. Roundcore
strings sound different as well. Now
that we’re all clear on the various types of
strings available, we can move forward.
One of the biggest problems with the
string/pickup relationship is how much
the string’s magnetic field will affect
the pickup in question. As most of you
already know, the hotter the pickup, the
stronger the magnetic “pull” it will have
on the string – weaker (read: vintage)
pickups tend to affect the string less than
the newer, hotter pickup choices on the
market. The worst of the offending strings
(in terms of sheer magnetism) are basically
in this order: regular and cryogenic
stainless steel, nickel-plated steel, the
multi-metal alloy combinations and lastly
pure nickel.
Nickel has the least amount of inherent
magnetism, and therefore the resulting
tone will be warmer and more pleasing;
this is because the pickup is “listening”
to (mostly) the inner core of wire in this
type of string. Many of the best (that
is, historically speaking) guitar sounds
ever recorded were between 1966-1968,
and these sounds had pure nickel type
strings all over them! This was the common
thread back in that short period
of time. Of course, guitar styles have
changed a lot since then and there are
more tones to be had – say, if you want
a heavier sort of sound. It’s all a matter
of what you’re aiming for. From this bit
of background information, you can see
where all of these magnetism/tone relationships
began.
Let’s look at several pickups and guitars
I’ve personally used for string testing
to see where and how I chose my
final string choices, and naturally, how I
adjusted the pickups to match my string
of choice in each instrument. Way back,
when I really got involved in sonic tweaking,
I had two basic instruments – the
first being a big archtop Gibson Super
400 and the second was an Explorer-style
solidbody. These instruments were completely
on the opposite ends of the sonic
spectrum, to say the least! One was
being used for playing clean jazz chords/
lines, while the other was reserved for
heavier, distorted rock playing.
On the archtop, the strings were quite
heavy (14-18-28-38-48-58), while the
Explorer always used 9-11-16-24-32-42.
Quite an opposition going on there – it
was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The
Explorer had hotter humbucking pickups
(8K neck, 9K bridge) while the archtop
had a stock ‘70s Gibson stock humbucker,
which was weaker (7.6K in the neck). The
archtop had its pickup covers on, while
the Explorer didn’t have pickup covers
on at all. I wanted a lot of “bark” from
the Explorer, so I raised the Lindy Fralin
model pickup screws (and bobbin assembly
height) to where the pinch harmonics
would literally
jump out of the instrument
at will – I really loved the way that
Michael Schenker coaxed those squeals
from his Flying V, so I tweaked my pickups
to mimic his sounds.
As far as the Gibson Super 400 was
concerned, the pickups (and the screw
heights) were lower than in the Explorer’s
case. With the 400, I only had to raise the
D string polepiece to equal the volumes
from the other five strings; as you can
guess, the pinch harmonics were of no
consequence here. I ended up using pure
nickel strings on the archtop and a multimetal
alloy string on the Explorer for optimal
sound in both instruments. FYI, I also
use white nitrocellulose 94mm thick picks
on both guitars – because, as you know
by now, every part of the signal chain has
a tonal effect. Have fun listening for all of
those subtle nuances and we’ll see you
next month with more.
Dean Farley
Dean Farley is the chief designer of "Snake Oil Brand Strings" (
www.sobstrings.net) and has had a profound influence on the trends in the strings of today