The cores are round; not hex. The wrap wire is pure nickel; not
nickel plate. Their claim is that the round/round process is slow
and expensive, but produces lower tones (they don't say "darker", but i
assume it to be what they mean) and increased sustain.I put these
strings on my Telecaster, which has a Carvin AP11 single coil at the
neck, and at the time had a Jackson J80 (alnico) at the bridge.
Some of the difference was exactly what you'd expect from pure nickel
wrap strings: more laid back; mellow and bluesy-sounding. But i
also expected it to sound a little more full when playing clean (on
either pickup) and it didn't, which was kindof weird.
I started out with the Twin Reverb into a Vox 2x12 closed-back (EVs).
I think that saying these strings produce "lower tones" is just bad
sales copy. These are definitely a darker-sounding string than a
nickel-plated set, but the difference isn't so much that you couldn't
adjust it out with EQ (or adjust it in with EQ when using
nickel-plated strings).
I dropped my E to a D and started running through all the same junk i
always run through on the Tele through the Twin! Seagull (Bad
Company) sounded great through either pickup i thought. Toward the
end of jamming on that amp i had cranked it pretty loud and the subdued
bite (that is normally there) was a nice change of pace.
The VHT UL-100 was next, but i decided to use the same cabinet
because i was gonna keep playing clean for a little bit and it's a great
comparison (between the two amps).
While waiting for the tubes to warm up i answered the phone and was
informed that it was my birthday. I think i started blocking this
out when i passed 35...
I tuned my E back up and jumped into some big open chord playing.
There was something missing and it took me about 10 minutes to figure it
out: i had the reverb on (just a teeny bit) with the other amp.
Duhhhh.
Anyway, again with the nice mellow pure nickel tones when playing clean.
Channel two was just as nice. Had the gain on to the point
where there really is a huge difference between hitting the strings hard
and brushing them softly. Try that with a modeler!
When i cranked the amp the warm sound was probably still there, but to
my ear it was kindof leaning toward the "muddy" side of things.
Not necessarily bad tones; just less relative clarity.
The lead channel of the VHT is something to behold with any string
gauge/type. lol
I was already cranked when i went over to it so i just started
shredding, which, isn't really the best thing when trying to identify
subtle differences in tone! But even when i slowed down to the
point of doing blues licks i didn't really hear any difference in tone
between these strings and the EXL110s
i'm used to using.
The other thing that was missing (and i was specifically looking
for it) was any increased sustain compared to the strings i normally
use. I already knew there would be no difference just because of
the pure nickel wrap, but i thought that maybe in combination
with the round core wire (or because of the round core wire), i
could replicate part of their sales copy. It just wasn't there
though - same sustain i always get.
It was about two weeks later that i used this guitar with a band and
at an actual gig. The live rig was V-Amp > Carvin HT400 > 2x10.
I like the way pure nickel wrap strings sound with a Crybaby and single
coil so i was looking forward to that, but it never happened.
After the first song i was out of tune. Ok, no biggie. After
the second song i was out of tune. Hmm...
During the third song i was listening for it and i had to tune during
the song. Not normal; not cool.
Like most of my electrics, i have a Floyd Rose on the Tele. I
tune up and down so much though that i don't usually even have the locks
on the neck, let alone locked down. Thank God i had 'em on!
I cranked 'em down and finished out the set without having any more
problems with drifting out of tune.
But at that point i was already wigged out (my whole setup was different
that night with the mic'd 2x10, but that's another story) and there was
no way i was gonna keep playing that guitar. Not only did i switch
guitars for the second set, i also restrung the tele between the 2nd and
3rd sets (what? paranoid? me? nah).
That guitar doesn't drift out of tune unless i'm beating on it, which i
sometimes do; but i wasn't in that first set so i don't know what was
going on. The strings had been on for a couple of weeks so the
only thing i can think of is that maybe it had to do with the round
core wire (i guess??). I'll have to Google that and see if
anybody else has that problem with that type of string.
I'm gonna try out a set of DR nickel-plated strings (10-46), but it
definitely won't be at a gig - yikes! |
