Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on April 10, 2011 at 8:41am

The bronze strings do have a steel core but there will be less magnetic mass.  I use nickel strings as they are made with nickel plated steel.  For 3 & 4 string CBG's, steel strings will be fine if your going electric.

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Permalink Reply by Pinkie Stanley on April 10, 2011 at 9:45am

Cool, then I will just go ahead and put another set of electric guitar strings on this one. Thank you so much for the info, Don!

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Permalink Reply by Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) on April 10, 2011 at 5:40pm

They also make magnetic pups specifically designed to work with bronze strings to get more pop out of em.

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Permalink Reply by Sharecropper on April 11, 2011 at 1:51am

  I use bronze strings with my pickups.  I"ve never noticed a difference in volume.(I'm sure there must be though!)   I like the wound G string.  Easier on my fingers and fingernails ! (GDg tuning)  I feel the tone of the wound G string matches the other strings better . Also the thickness of the wound G string makes it easier for all my strings to be closer to the same height for slide . Which I like.  ALL of this just MY opinion. Which may change at any time !!   

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Permalink Reply by Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) on April 11, 2011 at 5:36am

You should try comparing nickel vs bronze on one of your guitars some time.  Record yourself so you can play both results side by side.  I think you'd be surprised.

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Permalink Reply by Pinkie Stanley on April 11, 2011 at 11:52am

Thank you for the suggestions, everybody. Josh, I might be interested in trying out those pickups you mentioned that are designed for bronze strings, if they are not too expensive.

 

I'm getting very close to having my current CBG build finished, so I'll probably just take your suggestion and try the different strings and see what I like. One more question I have about using bronze strings, is how is the treble response? When I'm not playing CBG I'm a Tele player, so I sorta got the need for the twang thang. Lack of good treble response was also one of the things I was kinda dissatisfied about with the piezo disc pickup I used in my first CBG build.

 

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Permalink Reply by Mike Bingham on April 11, 2011 at 12:04pm

I recently added a magnetic pickup to an acoustic guitar with bronze wound strings.  It was really weak in the bass department.  A set of medium gauge electric strings woke it up and gave a very strong clean sound.  The piezo will work with any strings, even nylon.  Good Luck!!!

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Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on April 11, 2011 at 12:24pm

I hear you, I have a number of guitars but the one I have the most of is the telecaster including a 3 string.  I have a four string tenor tele about half done.

PinkieStanley said:

 

When I'm not playing CBG I'm a Tele player, so I sorta got the need for the twang thang.

 

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Permalink Reply by Sharecropper on April 11, 2011 at 3:36pm

 Hey, Josh , I was surprised !  Nickel strings are quite a bit louder.                                                                         

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Permalink Reply by Pinkie Stanley on April 14, 2011 at 7:58am

Well, I had time over the last couple of days to finish the build and experiment a bit with different string types. To my ear anyways, the bronze wound strings just didn't sound as rich as the regular electric guitar strings. I ended up using a plain string on the high end instead of a wound string too, as I like having one string that sounds conspicuously different than the others.

All in all I'm really impressed with how cool the Tele p'up sounds in my little CBG, and thanks again to all for your input. I'm looking forward to trying some old humbuckers and P90s in a the near future.

 

I hear you, I have a number of guitars but the one I have the most of is the telecaster including a 3 string.  I have a four string tenor tele about half done.

 

 I've always loved tenor Teles, but a 4-string tenor? That is just pure awesome! I do hope you'll post pics when you get it finished! :)

 

~Shannon

 

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Permalink Reply by colin mcgrath on April 14, 2011 at 10:29am

Just busy talk here, but I had a Gibson Epoch student model with 2 hums a while back. I switched out the strings for copper wound, it was all I had at the time. The sound was what some would call weak, but I liked the softness of the tone. And the guitar had loud acoustic qualities for a solid body. So I guess I just wanted to jump in this conversation with my experience, whether it helps or not ?.

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