String theory and quantum symantics.......

[cupric]

This has undoubtedly been covered before. What's best for a Starfire lll, electric or electric acoustic strings? Bound or plain G string? Has anyone used thick and thins? And...... What is the makeup of round core strings? Unwound G?
Thanks all. My guitar currently has a unknown brand, looks like 10s. The person I bought it from was selling due to arthritis in his hands, so a lighter gauge may have worked for that. The G is unwound.

 

[walrus]

I'm hoping you mean an unwound "G"!

I'm in the minority, but every archtop, hollow or semi-hollowbody electric I've ever had, I use a wound G string.

walrus

 

[cupric]

I'm hoping you mean an unwound "G"!

I'm in the minority, but every archtop, hollow or semi-hollowbody electric I've ever had, I use a wound G string.

walrus

Thank you. G is what I meant to say. But,alas, I get a E for that essay! Lol.
and YES! I would think that the wound G would be a better fit!

 

[cupric]

I'm hoping you mean an unwound "G"!

I'm in the minority, but every archtop, hollow or semi-hollowbody electric I've ever had, I use a wound G string.

walrus

Acoustic strings? I'm trying to find a set with the wound G. Id like to try nickel. I'm thinking mediums? And round core sounds intriguing.

 

[Guildedagain]

I'll solve this for you.

Flatwounds, in particular Thomastik Infeld.

Buy a set of Thomastik Jazz flatwounds, in either .10 or .11.

Round cores vibrates better.

The strings last a stupidly long time.

I've never actually tried a set of TI's, but they might be here tomorrow.

I studied what I wanted in strings, round core and nickel wound, and I kept coming back to TI's, over and over and over. TI Jazz flats.

Thomastik JS111 Light Flatwound Jazz Swing Electric Guitar Strings for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Thomastik JS111 Light Flatwound Jazz Swing Electric Guitar Strings at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Or this set in .010 gauge.

Thomastik Js110 Flatwound Extra Light Jazz Swing Guitar Strings for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Thomastik Js110 Flatwound Extra Light Jazz Swing Guitar Strings at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

You should hear these in videos, the balance across the strings is evident.

I'm putting a set JS-110's on the SF-4, and JS-111 on the F4CE, and a set for my old road warrior P Bass that's been ignored for too long.

 

[cupric]

I'll solve this for you.

Flatwounds, in particular Thomastik Infeld.

Buy a set of Thomastik Jazz flatwounds, in either .10 or .11.

Round cores vibrates better.

The strings last a stupidly long time.

I've never actually tried a set of TI's, but they might be here tomorrow.

I studied what I wanted in strings, round core and nickel wound, and I kept coming back to TI's, over and over and over. TI Jazz flats.

Thomastik JS111 Light Flatwound Jazz Swing Electric Guitar Strings for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Thomastik JS111 Light Flatwound Jazz Swing Electric Guitar Strings at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Or this set in .010 gauge.

Thomastik Js110 Flatwound Extra Light Jazz Swing Guitar Strings for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Thomastik Js110 Flatwound Extra Light Jazz Swing Guitar Strings at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

You should hear these in videos, the balance across the strings is evident.

I'm putting a set JS-110's on the SF-4, and JS-111 on the F4CE, and a set for my old road warrior P Bass that's been ignored for too long.

Expensive strings! Sounds like a great set. JS-110s would be my choice.

 

[cupric]

Just bought a set of the js-111s. You only live once!

 

[SFIV1967]

You forgot the most important thing here. If you need a wound or plain G string depends on what bridge shape your Starfire III currently has!

Older guitars were modelled after the acoustic versions which use a would G-string. Such a bridge would look like this:

When players wanted thinner strings on electric guitars they started using plain G strings und that required a differently shaped saddle pattern on the bridge in order for the intonation to be correct. So a more modern bridge looks like those two below, and if your bridge looks like this you should use a plain G string! Obviously with the movable saddle pieces you can adjust it from one to the other.

Used source: https://hazeguitars.com/blog/an-old-g-and-a-new-g

If you use the "wrong" strings with the "wrong" bridge shape will result in an improper intonated guitar that sounds odd.

Ralf

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Nice graphics Ralf!

 

[walrus]

Acoustic strings? I'm trying to find a set with the wound G. Id like to try nickel. I'm thinking mediums? And round core sounds intriguing.

No, electric nickel. And personally, I don't use flatwounds.

D'Addario has at least electric sets with a wound G - 110W, 115W, EJ21, and maybe a few more. The last few years I've been using Ernie Ball Custom Nickel Wound, 10 - 50 with wound G.

walrus

 

[cupric]

No, electric nickel. And personally, I don't use flatwounds.

D'Addario has at least electric sets with a wound G - 110W, 115W, EJ21, and maybe a few more. The last few years I've been using Ernie Ball Custom Nickel Wound, 10 - 50 with wound G.

walrus

Thank you. I ordered a few sets. I got some D'Addario pure nickel round core, and DR Pure Blues. This will give me a chance to try both. I got 11s....

 

[cupric]

You forgot the most important thing here. If you need a wound or plain G string depends on what bridge shape your Starfire III currently has!

Older guitars were modelled after the acoustic versions which use a would G-string. Such a bridge would look like this:

When players wanted thinner strings on electric guitars they started using plain G strings und that required a differently shaped saddle pattern on the bridge in order for the intonation to be correct. So a more modern bridge looks like those two below, and if your bridge looks like this you should use a plain G string! Obviously with the movable saddle pieces you can adjust it from one to the other.

Used source: https://hazeguitars.com/blog/an-old-g-and-a-new-g

If you use the "wrong" strings with the "wrong" bridge shape will result in an improper intonated guitar that sounds odd.

Ralf

I have the modern metal bridge on my SFlll. 1997. I bought a set of both wound and unwound round core to try. I love the acoustic properties of this guitar, so I am hoping to be able to use a thinner wound G. I ordered 11s.
thank you for the great information!

 

[SFIV1967]

I have the modern metal bridge on my SFlll. 1997.

Actually it depends what you mean with "modern". "Modern" would be the version for the plain G string, I looked up pictures of your SF III and see the old style bridge which was made for a wound G string! It's the version 1 in my above drawings.

So using a plain G string creates a slight out of tune on higher frets of the G string on such a bridge. It's just not correctly intonated on such bridge. But some people maybe never notice, it's the theory I'm trying to explain. So let your ears decide!


This is how a plain G string bigsby bridge would look like: (it's a Gretsch one, just for demonstration)

Ralf

 

[cupric]

Actually it depends what you mean with "modern". "Modern" would be the version for the plain G string, I looked up pictures of your SF III and see the old style bridge which was made for a wound G string! It's the version 1 in my above drawings.

So using a plain G string creates a slight out of tune on higher frets of the G string on such a bridge. It's just not correctly intonated on such bridge. But some people maybe never notice, it's the theory I'm trying to explain. So let your ears decide!


This is how a plain G string bigsby bridge would look like: (it's a Gretsch one, just for demonstration)

Ralf

Thank you. It is the older type! That is good.
It's funny, the picture you took from the original eBay posting shows what appears to be a spacer of some sort under the bridge. There was nothing there when I received the guitar. So I'm not sure what that was. I know there was some discussion concerning it in the original post. Here's a snapshot I just took with my tablet.

 

[hearth_man]

Daddario chromes, ECG24 .011 to .050 wound 3rd.

I actually use these on all my electrics, solid and archtop. And flat wounds last a very long time.

 

[Guildedagain]

Here's a nice demo of the JS111 set, he likes "better than chromes", which I believe are hex core.

 

[Guildedagain]

And this;

The Best Acoustic Guitar Strings For A Warm Sound

Which acoustic guitar strings offer the warmest tone? Click here to read our in-depth guide and learn more how your strings contribute to tone.

theacousticguitarist.com

 

[cupric]

Here's a nice demo of the JS111 set, he likes "better than chromes", which I believe are hex core.

These are round core. They call them flats, but they are a round core. Expensive! Cheapest are like 28.00....

 

[Guildedagain]

Here's a nice video, good playing.

Apparently the round cores are easier to play than hex cores, and vibrate better.

In this video, he claims the .012 set feels easy to play.

I'm excited to try mine, but just found out the SF-4 is delayed 2 days, here on Xmas eve ;]

Pondering whether to try them on the F4CE, I kinda want to try something brighter like regular acoustic strings, but at this point, I can't handle the roundwound racket anymore, way too much extra noise.

I may just have to break down and put them on the guitar now!

The F4CE maybe a little funky sounding anyway, being shallow, but it probably is a really good testbed for strings.

The body to string ratio is perfect. Some resonance is how I would describe it.

If you think about it, the sound of your strings is one sound, the acoustic projection is another.

If you get the right blend of two, its stereo.

I like to play F4 with just enough report from the speakers that I can hear both voices. Pretty fantastic actually, if you turn up the slider, you can drown out the guitar, then it's three sounds, the strings, the voice of the guitar, and the speakers.

Almost forgot, here's the video ;]

 

[cupric]

Here's a nice video, good playing.

Apparently the round cores are easier to play than hex cores, and vibrate better.

In this video, he claims the .012 set feels easy to play.

I'm excited to try mine, but just found out the SF-4 is delayed 2 days, here on Xmas eve ;]

Pondering whether to try them on the F4CE, I kinda want to try something brighter like regular acoustic strings, but at this point, I can't handle the roundwound racket anymore, way too much extra noise.

I may just have to break down and put them on the guitar now!

The F4CE maybe a little funky sounding anyway, being shallow, but it probably is a really good testbed for strings.

The body to string ratio is perfect. Some resonance is how I would describe it.

If you think about it, the sound of your strings is one sound, the acoustic projection is another.

If you get the right blend of two, its stereo.

I like to play F4 with just enough report from the speakers that I can hear both voices. Pretty fantastic actually, if you turn up the slider, you can drown out the guitar, then it's three sounds, the strings, the voice of the guitar, and the speakers.

Almost forgot, here's the video ;]

Let me know what you think of them. I thought I'd try them on the GX too. My wife hates the sound of finger slide on the strings. The rounds are supposed to help with that too.