There was a recent thread on another forum (Gear Page, maybe TDPRI?) about strings used on archtops. It morphed into flattops as well. At some point somebody posted that Tony Rice used nickel wound strings on his guitar. Others chimed in also recalling the use of nickel and specifically Gibson Monel strings on flattops and archtops back in the day. Not bronze strings. Somebody said bronze wounds started really being used in WWII when nickel was in short supply for the war effort.
This seems like a huge change to me, that affected the sound of music. Now I want to go back and listen to a lot of those records again to see what I hear.
I vaguely recall when I was taking lessons early on, I had nickel-wound strings on my cheap Harmony archtop. My guitar teacher was an old-school Jersey Italian player, and I'm sure he advised me. He had them on his guitar as well - I think it was an L5 or similar.
Any comments or memories of this? Anyone tried it? What would you put on a modern guitar to get this sound?
This seems like a huge change to me, that affected the sound of music. Now I want to go back and listen to a lot of those records again to see what I hear.
I vaguely recall when I was taking lessons early on, I had nickel-wound strings on my cheap Harmony archtop. My guitar teacher was an old-school Jersey Italian player, and I'm sure he advised me. He had them on his guitar as well - I think it was an L5 or similar.
Any comments or memories of this? Anyone tried it? What would you put on a modern guitar to get this sound?