Strings are a fundamentally important element for playing many musical instruments, including the guitar. In fact, they are the ones who determine the quality and richness of the sound. But for some reason sometimes even when choosing good tool, the quality of the strings is the last thing people pay attention to. Receipt perfect sound on acoustic guitar is a combination of excellent equipment, talent, technique and practice. But without good strings and setting them up correctly is unlikely to achieve good sound.

Beginning musicians most often buy strings that are recommended by the seller, choose according to an inexpensive price category, or are guided by the colored packaging of the strings, thinking that the brighter it is, the better the quality of the strings.

But guitar strings are an element of a musician’s equipment that, if chosen correctly, can be the golden mean in finding and creating your own sound.

Become a certain “trick” of a specific performer. There are some fundamental factors to consider when choosing strings. Each of them is equally important.
Therefore, what should you pay attention to when buying strings for an acoustic guitar?

You will need:

String choice: nylon or steel

When buying strings, pay attention to what kind of guitar you have. Because there are two types of guitars - acoustic and classical. Out of ignorance, many people generalize them and believe that they are all the same guitar, but this is not the case. There are special nylon strings for classical guitars, and the neck fastening is different from acoustic guitars, so installing steel strings on a classical guitar will damage the neck, move it and, with intense playing, may even crack at the base.

Therefore, there is a clear rule: for acoustics - steel, for classical - nylon.

Select the thickness (caliber) of the strings

Each musician selects the thickness of the strings to suit his playing style. String thickness is measured in inches. The diameter of the first string, which ranges from 0.008 to 0.013 inches in different sets, determines the subsequent thickness of the entire set. Most professional musicians play and advise starting to learn by installing a set of strings with a diameter of the first string of 0.009 (from nine).

The higher the gauge of the strings, the louder, richer and longer they will sound.

Thick strings have a variety of overtones, they are less bright, but they are much more difficult to play, especially for beginners, since a lot of effort is required to press the strings, and when playing for a long time, this is a big strain on the hands.

Select string winding material

The thicker the string, the thicker the winding on it. Winding is a layer of wire that is wound along the entire length of the string. Depending on the hardness of the material from which the winding is made, the strings will have different stiffness. This affects not only the finger feel, but also the sound of the guitar.

There are several types of winding:

• Copper

Quite a common winding. Often used on acoustic amateur guitars. It is not very expensive, so under good loads it quickly breaks and tears.

• Silver plated

These strings are more practical for concert performances due to their aesthetic qualities. They do not fade over time, do not rust, do not accumulate dirt and dust, and as a result do not leave dark fingerprints on your hands while playing. But the sound qualities of such strings are not much different from copper ones.

• Brass or phosphor bronze

These are considered the best strings; many performers prefer them. Because they have a more colorful and lively sound. Several times more durable than with copper winding.

Select winding type

There are two types of winding on strings: round and flat. 80% of guitar strings installed are round wound. It is very common and popular, since flat is considered more studio-specific and narrowly focused for specific styles and techniques of the guitarist.

Round wound strings have a ringing and colorful sound.

But still, after some time after their installation, it gradually decreases, the strings lose their properties, and sound more natural and monotonous.

Flatwound gives the strings a more stable and slightly muted sound. The sound is unusual with a characteristic matte sound. Good quality flat winding is the absence of whistle when sliding fingers.

Understand the difference between steel and nylon strings. It is important to note that using strings intended for acoustic guitars on a classical guitar will damage the neck. The tension of the strings and the guitar are different, so you cannot use classical strings on an acoustic guitar, and vice versa. Classical guitars typically have nylon strings. Bass strings look like steel, but the guts (core) are made of nylon fibers. In this article we will discuss steel strings.

• If you play a lot (on stage) you may want to stick with 80/20 bronze. Phosphor strings tend to last longer.

Remember that the material you choose will affect the sound. The three most commonly used materials are bronze, phosphor bronze and silk and steel. There are other materials, but these are the main ones.

• Bronze strings are sometimes called 80/20 bronze because they are made of 80% copper and 20% zinc. They can be used for all play styles. They have a bright sound that fades quickly after a few hours of play. Bronze strings are the most commonly used strings.
• Phosphor bronze strings are bronze strings with the addition of phosphorus. They can also be used for all types. They have a warm sound that lasts longer than bronze strings.
• Silk and steel strings produce a soft, rich sound. They have lower tension and come in lighter calibers. They are good for vintage guitars that require special strings. They are quieter and less durable, but are easier to play.

When choosing strings, as indeed when choosing any musical instrument, you need to be aware that in this matter everything is very individual, so you should not rely entirely on the opinions of others, including sellers in music stores. I will not sin against the truth if I say that during his life, any experienced guitarist will try more than a dozen different strings and change his opinion about strings more than once. Therefore, this article is intended not so much to give recommendations on the choice of specific brands of strings, but to introduce readers to their modern types and fundamental design differences. With regard to strings of the same type from different manufacturers, we can safely say that the choice in favor of one model or another can be made by a musician only on the basis of his own experience.

First, a little about what a string is. In principle, any thread or wire, with or without winding, can be considered a string, as long as it does not break or stretch too much when played. Once upon a time, when there were no guitars or violins, our distant ancestors played on unwinding vein (made from animal tendons), intestinal (made from animal intestines), silk, bronze, copper and strings made from plant materials . Gut strings without winding have outlived all the others, surviving to this day, but for a number of reasons now they can only occasionally be found on harps and even ancient instruments in ensembles medieval music. Winding on strings appeared only at the end of the 18th century. early XIX i.v. It made it possible to improve the timbre of bass strings, while simultaneously reducing their tension, which facilitated performance, enriched the technical capabilities and timbre of most musical instruments of that time. At the same time, with the invention of the piano, the first steel-based strings appeared, which later found application for other instruments. The 20th century extremely expanded the range of types of strings, adding many new ones to the existing ones: synthetic, on a steel cable, with multi-layer and profile winding (flat or semicircular), bimetallic (combining two or more materials), combined, etc. Let's try to figure it out. what determines the need for such diversity.

Types of strings

Gut strings- (everywhere incorrectly called “vein”), as noted above, are made from animal intestines (not produced in Russia). Despite the fact that in lately Abroad they have learned to better protect them from external influences; they do not last long on instruments with metal frets. They also have the unpleasant ability to lose their quality in conditions of elevated temperature and humidity, including from finger sweat. And although intestinal strings are brought to Russia privately by lovers of ancient medieval music, they are almost never found on sale.


Synthetic strings- are used only for “classical guitar”. They are also recommended for beginners due to their softness. In the middle of the 20th century, these strings replaced unstable intestinal strings. The top three strings of the guitar set are synthetic nylon line. The other three bass strings are made of polyfilament (consisting of large number threads) on a synthetic base made of the same nylon with a surface wire winding. The traditional winding material for them is round wound wire made of silver-plated copper. A silver coating of a few thousandths of a millimeter not only looks good, but also improves the sound of relatively dull copper, although it wears out quite quickly. At the same time, copper itself, due to its natural softness, breaks through over time at the points of contact with the frets of the guitar. Recently, many companies have successfully used other copper-containing alloys (for example, silver-plated or pure brass and phosphorus bronze) as windings for synthetic strings, which are noticeably superior in durability to silver-plated copper.

High density synthetic strings made from a new synthetic material invented at the end of the 20th century in Japan carbon(or in other words - fluoro-carbon). Since the density of carbon is 30-90% higher than that of nylon (depending on the specific grade of material), at the same tension as nylon, the top strings of a classical guitar made from carbon line have thinner diameters. So, for example, the 3rd G guitar string on carbon will have a diameter of 0.85-0.92mm instead of 1.00mm.


relative comparison of the sections of guitar strings made of carbon and nylon 1st E string carbon - 0.48 mm (for nylon - 0.70 mm); 2nd string "B" carbon - 0.67 mm (for nylon - 0.80 mm); 3rd string "G" carbon - 0.87mm (nylon - 1.00mm).


Carbon strings have an advantage over nylon in better wear resistance, but their most important advantage is their greater ringing. Their only drawback is their noticeably higher cost. Carbon fishing line is 5-7 times more expensive than the best nylon string, which may be due to the fact that the production of these strings has not yet become widespread. Bass strings in sets with carbon line can be made using either carbon fiber or traditional nylon, since the difference in sonority with twisted strings is less noticeable than with fishing line.

Monolithic steel strings are used very widely in pop music, where sonority (“metal”) is more valued in sound. These strings have a higher tension compared to synthetic ones, and are placed on guitars of a different, reinforced design (Western models, “Western”, “Jumbo” or Russian guitars with variable neck height). The basis of these strings is high-carbon steel, which is superior in strength and elasticity to all brands of spring steel, which is used in a “bare form” for the top two or three strings. As a rule, alloys based on copper, less often stainless steel or nickel, are used as windings for steel strings. Most often, various grades of brass are used (in the American tradition called bronze), as well as phosphor bronze. The winding material varies in hardness and elasticity, giving the strings vibrations a different character, which is reflected in the sound of the instrument. The winding profile of “twisted” strings also varies, but the most common is still the so-called “round wound”, which provides the strings with maximum sonority, especially noticeable in the first period after installation. Let us note that today in Russia, domestically produced steel-based strings with silver-plated copper windings are very popular among amateurs, which is largely due to poor awareness among musicians about the shortcomings of such strings. The fact is that the steel base does not allow the twisted string to bend around the guitar fret in the same way as is the case with synthetics, which is why strings with soft silver-plated copper fail several times faster than those with windings made of phosphor bronze, brass, stainless steel, etc. .p., without having any sound advantages. Regarding varieties steel strings with flat or semicircular winding("flat wound", "half-round wound"), lying flat side out, then such strings, when changing positions, do not have the whistling of fingers on the winding turns, characteristic of strings with a "round winding". These strings give a less bright sound, which is especially noticeable in the first period after their installation, but this is why some guitarists like to use them, especially those who have to record in the studio through a microphone. They are also preferred by those performers who are greatly annoyed by the change in the timbre of round-wound strings over time, caused by the gradual flattening of the winding at the points of contact with the frets.

At the turn of the 21st century, two new types were developed in the United States steel strings with synthetic cover bass strings. The first type is distinguished by the fact that a thin tape winding made of synthetic material is placed on top of the traditional metal round winding. It is designed to protect the twisted string from the penetration of sweat and dirt from fingers between the winding turns, and also to slow down the flattening of the string winding turns upon contact with the frets. The second type of string differs from the first in that here the winding wire itself is enclosed in a plastic sheath, which is why the interturn gaps of the winding are less protected from sweat and dirt, but this design protects against breakdown of the turns no worse, and perhaps even better, than the first. Both ideas are quite good, especially for those guitarists who would like to maximize the life of wound strings, and especially for those who have a naturally caustic chemical composition of sweat that can corrode the metal of the winding. However, in addition to a noticeably higher cost, strings in a plastic shell lack that iridescent (“diamond”, as the professionals say) overtone, characteristic of round-wound strings in the first hours of playing, which is so valued by professional guitarists that for this alone they are ready to install a new one. a set of strings for every concert or studio session.

Strings on steel cable They began to bring them to Russia literally in the last 2-3 years. Manufacturers present them as strings for a classical guitar (apparently because of their softness), but rather they are still intermediate strings between nylon and steel, since when installed on an instrument they immediately amaze classical guitarists by the fact that they practically do not stretch and quickly change pitch with minimal rotation of the pegs, which is typical for steel-based strings. So far, even in Moscow, these strings are quite rare due to low demand - they are quite expensive and too unusual/unusual.

About guitar scales

There are many standard sizes for all types of guitar strings, which is determined by the varied requirements of musicians, the design and scale of their instruments. About the latter in a little more detail. Unlike bowed instruments, where the working length of the strings of a full (4/4) instrument is the same, guitars can differ quite significantly in their scale length. There are instruments with a scale length from 610 mm to 674 mm, on which the same set of strings will have different tensions. To get identical string tension, a shorter guitar should use heavier (almost always thicker) strings. Recently, the standard scale length of a guitar is increasingly considered to be 648-650mm, although the author of this article has his own point of view on what the exact scale length of a guitar should be, which can be read in the article Standardization of scale lengths of stringed instruments and methods for calculating them.

About string tension

Guitarists who play “metal” are used to determining string tension by the number of the first string, indicated in thousandths of an inch. For example, a set of steel strings No. 10 is a set in which the first string has a diameter of 0.010 inches = 0.254 mm. However, few people pay attention to the diameters of bass strings, and in vain. American steel-based acoustic guitar strings, which are very widely available in Russia, are usually designed for instruments played with a pick. These sets provide a higher bass string tension than most traditionally prefer Russian performers who often play with their fingers right hand who have instruments of a different design and rather give preference not to the volume of the sound, but to the richness of its timbre and long “sustain”, i.e. duration of sound inherent in strings with lower tension.

The graph shows the tension of two types of steel strings for a six-string guitar. The differences concern only the “bass” strings with winding, starting from the third. The top graph shows the tension of “loud” strings, the bottom - less loud, but with greater “sustain”, and also richer in timbre.

The tension of synthetic guitar strings is also determined based on the cross sections of the strings. It is important to understand that only homogeneous materials can be compared cross-sectionally - for example, nylon with nylon, carbon with carbon. It is inappropriate to compare nylon with carbon in diameter due to the difference in density between these materials. At the same time, we note that the difference in the tension of nylon fishing line of different diameters is negligible - even a difference of 0.002 inches / 0.05 mm is not significant for string tension, because Nylon is almost 8 times lighter than steel. When comparing carbon line, the same difference of 2 thousandths of an inch will be slightly larger - again due to its greater density.

Conclusions

When choosing strings, you mainly need to start from what sound (timbre) you personally like, what instrument you have, and even what kind of music you perform. When choosing strings, a beginning guitarist with no experience at all can be advised the following very roughly:

• If you like the classic sound of a Spanish guitar or for some reason only soft strings suit you, you should opt for synthetic strings (nylon/carbon), but they should only be used on a classical-type guitar, otherwise the sound will be too weak and dull ;
• those who are interested in sound power and ringing, and who have a large, American-type instrument ("Western" / "Jumbo") with lower strings above the fingerboard, should prefer steel-based strings no lower than No. 11 (although this requires strong fingers);
• for those who do not want to have thick calluses on the fingers of their left hand, but who are not satisfied with the somewhat “plastic” sound of synthetic strings, we can advise setting the strings on a cable or on a steel base with low tension No. 9 and 10. In this case, you may have to increase it slightly the height of the strings (mainly bass) above the fingerboard due to the height of the nut, since soft, or rather, light strings have a larger range of vibrations and can touch the frets when playing with forced sound production.

And one more piece of advice for beginning guitarists - always tune the strings using a tuning fork. In addition to the fact that an incorrectly tuned instrument cannot sound fully, when re-stringing you run the risk of ruining it. Strings that are kept tight for a long time may, if not break, then stretch out, and in the correct tuning they will sound worse. Weak tension is also undesirable, since the sound will be less loud and ringing, and the tuning will “float”. Even the most expensive “sophisticated” strings in the wrong tuning will sound worse than simple, but correctly tuned and selected for the instrument and hands of a particular player.