Strings for Catherine

[Brian Evans]

I have been trying so many different strings sets on my recent archtop, redwood on mahogany, and not finding what I wanted. The balance and the tone colour was really close but not quite there, and the feel wasn't quite right. I was trying acoustic sets, so bronze of one sort or another, coated, uncoated, extra light, light, and all of that. I've always read that archtops respond well to the large gauges and a bit more tension, so I put on a set of Martin Bluegrass - medium bottom with a .056", and light top with a .012, and bronze. They just killed the guitar, it was dead, hard to play, no tone colour. Rather than give up on them and the massive $8 investment in the string set, I tuned it down a full step to D. What a difference! It loved it, it was alive, the bass response was astounding, the strings were easy to play and felt good under the fingers. So I thought that maybe it was the tension that was making the difference and I calculated out the tension difference from tuning down a full step with the D'Addario chart. The set tension went from 174 lbs to 138 lbs. I spent a while in the music store a few days ago and found the closest set to the down-tuned Martins was the D'Addario Chromes in .011 - .050, with set tension of 137 lbs and quite balanced through the set. But flat-wound steel strings on an acoustic archtop? I was sceptical. So I tried them. What a difference! They are warm, bright, clear, great tone, decent volume (the Martin Bluegrass tuned down to D was stupid loud, so I know what I need to do if I ever go to an aggressive jam session. It blew my resonator away, volume wise). And they feel great under the fingers. I'll see what I think after a week or two, but for now I may have found the strings for this guitar.

[Mike Conner]

Brian,
You really have given me something to think about. Like most folks I have been focused on the string winding material and not considering the tension.

From string experiments on my Taylor auditorium, I did find that medium or heavier strings changed the tone to a stronger fundamental and some of the sparkle was lost. I concluded at the time that the higher tension "loaded" the top too much and choked off the tone, and I really wasn't getting more volume. Mediums on my dreadnaught, however, really bring out the volume.

So, the design of the arch and bracing of the top (including the material selection) works in conjunction with the string tension. Regular light gage phosphor bronze strings (12-53) work great on my archtops. Mediums (13-56) give a bit more punchier tone but don't really push up the volume.

For my guitars with floating humbuckers I have been using nickel wound Elixir Heavy Nanoweb electric guitar strings, which are actually the same gage as acoustic lights (12-53), but I think they have somewhat less tension at pitch than phosphor bronze. They sound good acoustically and work well with the magnetic pickup, therefore a reasonable compromise.

I guess Catherine was carved to respond to a lighter tension and that's great. I suppose that I could carve and brace a front plate to optimize the response to higher tension medium strings , but I do not have the skill to actually achieve the results in a reliable way!
//mike

[David King]

What about some Thomastik flats? Their bass strings have low tension and the guitar strings might be similarly softer.

[Michael Lewis]

The Tomastik flatwounds are great but rather expensive. Also very nice flatwounds are from La Bella, very similar to the Tomastik and a bit less expensive. Made in USA too.