Best strings for less wear

Darryl Hattenhauer

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I've heard that nickel (compared to stainless) is easier on the 3 F's: Fingers, fondleboard, and frets.

What about acoustic strings? What's softer, phosphor or bronze?
 

AcornHouse

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I've heard that nickel (compared to stainless) is easier on the 3 F's: Fingers, fondleboard, and frets.

What about acoustic strings? What's softer, phosphor or bronze?
What about silk/steel (and the various other brand name variants)?
 

walrus

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Right, silk/steel would be the best for what you are asking. You will lose a bit of volume, though.

walrus
 

dreadnut

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Yeah, what Walrus said, except you'll lose a LOT of volume.
 

walrus

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So, if a potential loss of volume is not attractive, I guess I would say that next on the list that fulfill your requirements would be any strings that are "coated".

walrus
 

AcornHouse

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You could also try Newtone Heritage strings that are made with low tension.
 

Darryl Hattenhauer

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Silk and steel--that's what I was trying to remember. As I recall, they were a little floppy, but definitely easier on the fingertips.

I'll look up ther New tones.
 

dreadnut

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They're not too loud acoustically but plugged in you can do what you want. Definitely easier to play and stretch!
 

Longhorn Jumbo

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I've heard that nickel (compared to stainless) is easier on the 3 F's: Fingers, fondleboard, and frets.

What about acoustic strings? What's softer, phosphor or bronze?

Darryl - why not try nickel on your acoustic?

I am going to experiment on this myself this week. I've been looking into nickel strings to try on my acoustic for the past few days ever since I read an old Tony Rice interview where he raved about them. I couldn't find any acoustic strings that were actually pure nickel (as opposed to "nickel coated", "pure nickel ... wrapped", nickel alloy"). The one's I'm going to try are are advertised for electric, but the string gauges are like that of medium acoustic guitar strings. Maybe it'll sound awful and I'll take em off after an hour of playing. Who knows. Will be a fun experiment nonetheless.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P21ANK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If I remember, I will post back how they feel and sound.
 

chazmo

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Darryl, you're on the right track. S&S are great, but they will mute your axe.

Do try a set of Elixir Polyweb sometime. These aren't S&S, but they have a coating that I found was easy on the fingers and the coating is unique (feels different from all others). You might hate it, but it's worth a try. Don't bother with the Elixir Nanoweb, though.
 
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