What's The Deal With Pure Nickel Strings? - ASK ZAC EP-20

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac I hope everyone is
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holding up during these crazy times I
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want to thank everyone for all their
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comments and watching the show you're
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helping me stay sane and I hope I'm
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helping you do the same so today we're
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gonna go down a wonderful rabbit hole
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and it's called guitar strings and we're
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gonna have an experiment together so I
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don't you know when your kid and you
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start buying guitar strings you know you
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kind of by whatever the store has there
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you know of course no I guess you you
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know you have all sorts options buying
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stuff online but I remember it go into
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the local music store in Kingsville
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Texas called The Music Man and I can
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remember buying either fender strings
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which I guess at that point we're being
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made by GHS because you know the fender
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string ads had Battle Creek Michigan on
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there and that's where the GHS Factory
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is or Ernie Ball
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so pretty much used those throughout the
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80s and either 9 or 10 gauge set and
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then you know starting in the in the
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early 90s I was way into James Burton
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and Albert Lee and so I would replicate
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their string sets with Ernie Ball
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strings getting the individual strings
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then later on as I was trying to kind of
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use a little bit bigger strings I
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started using these d'addario XL 120
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plus I started using these in the mid
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90s that's because it's 9.5 through 44
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and it's a nice
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kind of you know right there in the
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middle in between a 10 and a 9 set so
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I've kind of alternated between those or
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you have of course the good ol Ernie
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Ball slinky 10 through 46 so that's kind
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of been you know the strings that I've
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used Callie you you know since the 90s
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you know one of those two sets in being
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kind of a guitar geek guitar nerd
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whatever you want to call it you know
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I've read a lot of you know old guitar
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magazines I've you know I have a huge
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collection of old guitar magazines
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actually you know I don't know if you
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can see in the back but on the floor in
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the past couple episodes you could
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probably see stacks of magazines on the
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floor and that's because I'm going
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through the 15 years of vintage guitar
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magazines and I'm clipping out all the
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articles that I've written you know all
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the columns all of the you know product
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reviews and feature stories that I've
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done so I'm in the process of doing that
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making a scrapbook with it so anyway to
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get back to my point so you start
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looking at old guitar magazines and old
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interviews with guitar players and one
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of the responses that you would get a
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lot when it came to what guitar strings
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do you use was I use you know what
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everyone else uses fender rock-and-roll
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strings well of course and you're like
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well you know they don't make fender
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rock-and-roll strings so what's that
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well you know you do a little digging
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and searching and find some old fender
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you know catalogs and stuff like that or
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maybe you just found out on the Internet
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is that fender rock-and-roll strings was
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fenders first effort at a really you
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know a fairly light gauge set and it was
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for the rock and roll crowd and that set
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was very different than modern guitar
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strings one was the gauges ten which
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okay you think that's pretty normal
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13 that's pretty normal 15
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Wow that's lighter than what that what
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you know is in a nine set okay then you
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had 26 okay
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well that's kind of like a 10 set then
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it was 24 no getting it wrong then it
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was 32 then 38 so 10 13 15 26 32 38 so
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that was the standard string throughout
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the 60s and 70s now of course Ernie Ball
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started making strings or you know
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getting strings done to their specs in
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1962 and they had kind of their their
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way of you know of of which gauge was
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was used but but you got to have to
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remember that fender had much wider
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distribution than Ernie Ball did for a
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long time and so the strings that Duane
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Allman was using Cornell Dupree Eric
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Clapton you know Roy Buchanan Danny
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Gatton I mean pretty much everyone you
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know if they weren't using heavier
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strings they were using Fender rock and
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roll' strings and of course you know
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Ernie Ball you know quickly you know
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started you know getting in there they
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had to you know Jimmy Page and they
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later on got with Clapton and people you
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know of that sort but all these years
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I've been curious about this set so
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because as I said before the gauges are
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very different than what we think of as
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a standard gauge now because it's like a
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weird amalgam of kind of normal unwound
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strings and the wine strings are fairly
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light then also they're pure nickel okay
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so normal guitar strings now like the
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d'addario set you know like this or most
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d'addario sets are they are nickel
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plated steel as far as the wound strings
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same we've got or any ball and the other
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difference is the core on those wound
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strings are hexagonal and by being
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hexagonal it helps hold
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the rap on there however of course the
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old strings like the fender
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rock-and-roll set they were round core
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so all this time I've been curious after
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you know reading all these you know
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guitar magazines and and books and such
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through the years and hearing about
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fender rock-and-roll strings and Jimi
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Hendrix and on and on and on
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I just became incredibly curious so the
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only company that's making this set as
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far as I know I mean maybe there's
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others out there but is its pyramid so I
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bought these strings from strings by
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mail and they call this the Jimi Hendrix
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inspired set and it is round core pure
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nickel and you know ten thirteen fifteen
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twenty six thirty to thirty eight so
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here before our eyes we're gonna we're
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gonna have a little a little taste test
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here so right now i have the the
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d'addario strings on here the 9.5
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through 44 and i'm going to play and
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imma play you know some some patterns on
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the neck pickup both pickups in the
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bridge and then i'm gonna stop the
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camera i'm gonna change the strings to
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the pyramid set and then i'm gonna do it
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again and and we're just gonna you know
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see what happens so here we go these are
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this is the d'addario set starting off
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on the neck pickup
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[Music]
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[Laughter]
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[Music]
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[Laughter]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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all right guys we're gonna take a quick
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break and then we come back with the
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pure nickel strings let's see what
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happens well hey guys and welcome back
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so I wasn't just a matter of changing
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strings I also had to change my pickup
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height because these wound strings have
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less output to them so and to me that's
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actually a good thing
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because I have to crank down the basin
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of my pickups because you know the wound
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strings are always too loud and these
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don't have that issue so that's why I
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have the pickguard off is because I had
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to adjust the neck pickup just the bass
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side up and again on the bridge pickup I
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just took the bass side up to where it's
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it's now it's even instead of being you
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know kind of slanted so we're gonna do
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the same thing again here we start with
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the neck
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Laughter]
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[Music]
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you
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[Music]
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[Laughter]
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[Music]
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the well strings definitely have more
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sustain to them they're not as loud but
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you know again you can you know
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compensate for that by putting it you
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know by raising the pick up some their
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output and stuff seems closer to those
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unwound strings and I really liked that
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yeah I'm again I'm kind of experiencing
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this right with you so this is kind of
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interesting so I'm gonna play a little
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bit more you know of course they're
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really light well the lighter or low E
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and a strings are kind of interesting
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the 15 doesn't bother me the 13 doesn't
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and the 10 doesn't but it's a it's an
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interesting set it's it's very even for
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a lack of you know no that's a good word
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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there you have it
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pure round core nickel wound strings
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rock and roll fender set actually the
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pyramid said will I stick with these I
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don't know I have one other set and I
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will put a link to these in the
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description if you're interesting and
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interested in trying trying out a set
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yeah I'm gonna have to live with these
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for a bit longer and and see what
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happens
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had a phone conversation with JD Simo
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about these strings and he said you got
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to watch out for them you know they're
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expensive and you know you can get to be
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like a heroin wonderful joke
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so thanks JD alright guys well I hope
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you've enjoyed it have fun and we'll
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talk to you later bye-bye