banjomike
Member
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2022
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- 190
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Yup. Nickel round wounds never sound as spanky as a set of bronze wound strings when new, but they hold their tone forever.The nickels give a more raw, Piedmont Blues type of vibe?
I switched to nickels after trying a set of D'Aquisto Tony Rice strings. Tony always used them only through his entire career.
The family wasn't related to the famous guitar maker with the same name, but Jimmy D'Aquisto used their strings on the guitars he made.
Mom and Pop, along with some of their kids did all the string winding, the little kids and grandkids did the packaging, and a cousin showed up in the evenings to sweep and clean their little shop. Their company never hired someone who wasn't in their family.
When Mom and Pop grew too old to wind strings anymore and some of their grown kids began to move away, they decided to quit the business and sold their equipment about 10 years ago or so.
I especially miss their banjo strings. They were the perfect gauges for me, and I'm a lot fussier about gauges on my banjos than I am for guitar strings.
There's a similar family connection in Guilds. When Alfred Dronge died, he passed his interest in Guild to his son Alfred Jr., who ran Guild until it was sold to a larger corporation. After the sale, Junior decided to quit making guitars and founded the DR string company, where he makes strings.
I would like to know more about Guild strings; back in the 70s, Guild strings were the only ones I could find that had phosphor bronze wound acoustic strings, and I loved 'em. They were my only acoustic guitar strings for about a decade, and I noticed the strings changed at some point.
I wonder if Guild ever made their own strings in-house. Does someone here know the answer?