When i first strung up i blasted through the VHT (4x12 Celestion cab)
for about an hour, totally clean, mostly strumming chords and doing some
funky-ish stuff. Fender makes a great set of nickel wrap strings,
and these are a perfect match for a stock Strat. Big clean chords
are just more full and warm with pure nickel. The Celestions were
breaking perfectly at half power (60 watts) and the only 'adjustment' i
made was changing pickup combinations (most of my guitars have two
pickups and a two-way selector) - there's no point in backing off
on the volume when your amp is totally clean to begin with!
Of course the difference is in the wound strings; D A & E
- all of the bite from the E B & G is still there!For much of the
five weeks i had the 3150Rs on, i did alot of practicing in front of the
computer through a small practice amp, mostly clean to moderately
distorted, but some saturated shredding too! Originals, covers,
noodling. I love the single coil bite, but taking a slight
break from it for a while is a nice change of pace.
For all of the late-night couch jamming there really was no
difference at all between these strings and either the
EXL110s or the
2221s that i normally use. That
makes sense though because 90-something percent of the time i'm
unplugged (watching TV) on the couch!
A friend came over to jam (drums and guitar) and i put this guitar
through the Vox & a 2x12 Custom cab with Carvin speakers. I used
an Arion Metal Master distortion pedal and Crybaby and MAN did it sound
old school! I don't know that i've ever used this setup
before because i don't usually jam with the Squire (let alone that i
never have pure nickel strings on it), but i was totally digging it.
Of course when you get to the point where you're really loud and
distorted, it's almost impossible to hear a difference between the pure
nickel and the nickel-plated strings (imo). I mean, a single coil
is a single coil - you still have to cut the treble on your amp and
point your cabinet toward the wall! :)
I never take this guitar to practice because the single coil at the
bridge just doesn't cut it for the material we play in any of the
bands. If i did have to play this guitar out somewhere (even
practice), i'd want these strings on it; not necessarily this brand,
but definitely the pure nickel wrap.
I don't understand why these strings can't be cheaper. I don't
know that pure nickel wrap wire is any more expensive to produce than
nickel-plated wrap wire. I know that the quantity of nickel-plated
strings sold is absolutely huge, but i have seen the two priced
very similarly (if not the same price) in the past. |
