Meeotch
Well-known member
--Article Below--
Ok, the wound 3rd is no secret. If you look at the history of the electric guitar (and acoustic for that matter), it's how it all started...but along the way, it has fallen out of favor (and for certain applications, for good reason). I've just never been all that excited about strumming full barre chords on an electric. In addition, the third string has always caused the most trouble with tuning and intonation.
Enter the wound 3rd. It may not bend easily, but everything else is superior. I get excited about discovering new things in my setup that make a big difference, and this is one of them. If you haven't yet, try an 18w or 20w!
This article has been floating around the web for a while:
Too Err on the G String
The “plain” third string * blues weenie salvation or tonal disaster?
By Stephen White
Vintage Guitar mag
Nov. 2000
Fellow citizens, resident aliens, and alien aliens!
I come before you to address a topic critical to our way of life, of such monumental importance, that really, we should probably all hold our breath until we turn blue; it’s the infamous G string.
As we all know, the third string, i.e. the G string, in most sets for electric guitar produces an abominable tone, and evinces numerous other problems.
Our purpose is to point out the obvious * the reason that the third string has these problems is because it isn’t designed correctly. Under normal circumstances, a guitar string tuned to this pitch would not be a plain/unwound string; it would be wound, like the fourth through sixth strings!
Think about it * any steel-string acoustic guitar, for example, would have a wound third string, which would typically be eight or 10 thousandths of an inch (.008" or .010") smaller in diameter than its fourth (D) string. For example, standard acoustic medium gauges are (first to sixth) .013", .017", .026", .036", .046", and .056", with (of course) a wound third string. The third strings on acoustic guitars do not have any of the typical string problems found on electric guitars.
Let us consider a standard electric light-gauge set; the gauges are .010", .013", .017", .026, .036", and .046", with an unwound third string. The reason the electric guitar’s standard unwound third string has all of these problems is because when tuned to standard G, it is being placed under an insufficient tensile load: it is just too slack for it to perform correctly. When this same .017" string is used as the second string in a standard acoustic medium-gauge set, it’s tuned a major-third higher, up to B; this increased tensile load (tension) is enough to largely overcome the string’s stiffness, allowing it to behave correctly.
The fundamental problem with the unwound third string is that it’s a rather thick, stiff steel wire. If you flex a .017" string when it is not on a guitar, you can feel this stiffness * just try to “gently” flex the string into a semicircle less than 1" in diameter * it’s pretty stiff! When a string is in this completely slack state, the main characteristic affecting its behavior is its stiffness, but when the string is put under tension, the tension begins to affect its behavior. As the string is put under more tension, the tension becomes a more significant factor in determining the string’s behavior. Until just before it breaks from too much tension, the string’s stiffness is having almost no effect on its behavior at all. At this point, the string’s behavior is almost entirely determined by its tension; its pitch is beautifully pure, with a clear, ringing tone. Textbook behavior, and it sounds great! Too bad it’s about to break...
Strings only behave optimally when they are tensed to around 90 percent of their breaking point, and normal string design takes this into account. In a standard set of electric guitar strings (assuming standard tuning), the two strings that typically give the most problems, the third and sixth, are the two that are furthest from their breaking point. Their behavior is most affected by their stiffness. A wound third string has a core wire of about .011", so it’s near ideal tension when tuned to G * this is why it behaves correctly.
But what are the typical problems with which an electric guitar’s standard, unwound G string is plagued? Well, there’s poor tone and intonation when brand-new, the rapid deterioration of both as the string ages, radical volume imbalance, and premature death, to name the most common complaints.
If you find the following technicalities too tedious, skip directly to the “Prescription for Tone” section, this article is not intended as an instrument of torture...
Tonal Disaster Area
The most fundamental problem with the unwound third string is its tone: it just doesn’t sound good. People describe the tone in different ways * “harsh,” “clanky,” “metallic,” “sour,” * but most experienced players agree it’s the “nightmare string.” Technically, the reason an unwound third string sounds “sour” * particularly as it ages * is that the string’s harmonic overtones are out of line with it’s fundamental note; the string is actually out of tune with itself! This can be heard most clearly when playing with heavy overdrive. Instead of producing a smooth, stable note, holding a sustained note will produce a pulsating, or “beating” warble, similar to playing unison pitches on two strings, while tuning one of the strings to the other. This is the sound of the string’s overtones “beating” against the string’s fundamental, and it is nasty!
Minor errors in the manufacturing process * errors that would be acceptable for a string under appropriate tension * will blatantly affect the vibration of an unwound third string, causing a variety of annoying problems. Sometimes the string will go from being blatantly sharp in the first one or two frets, to being flat in the middle register, and then abruptly go sharp again somewhere around the 12th fret: this is a symptom of the magnetic field of one (or more) of the strings, but an unwound third string ages, its behavior deteriorates most quickly, sounding “dead” long before any of the other strings.
When the player has a heavy touch, all the unwound strings on an electric are subject to being “dented” when they’re fretted. It’s common to see worn strings that, when removed from the guitar, have been reshaped into a series of concave arcs between the frets, like phone lines sagging between poles. Whereas this type of damage causes the performance of the other unwound strings to deteriorate gradually, the unwound third string is drastically affected by this type of damage: it sounds much worse, almost immediately.
Finally, when playing a vintage instrument, an unwound third string will frequently sound much too loud because the instrument was designed for a wound third string, since that was standard before 1960. Since a wound third string is the lowest-output string in the set, whereas an unwound third string is the highest-output string in the set, the imbalance is pretty drastic.
Prescription for Tone: Wound Third String
Whew! What a nightmarish litany of problems, huh? Well, the good news is that the solution * switching to a wound third string * has very few real problems, and it’s easy (and inexpensive) to experiment with.
Obviously, the first step is to get some appropriate wound third strings for the set you’re using. As I mentioned, a wound third string has a diameter of .008" to .010" * less than the fourth string in that set. This means that for a .010" to .046" (electric light-gauge) set, the appropriate wound third string would be a .016" or a .018" of the same type. Although these are not widely stocked, most major manufacturers do produce them. For example, GHS makes Boomer single strings (“singles” in the trade) down to .016", D’Addario makes XL singles down to .017", and I’m sure that there are others.
If your “friendly” local retailer isn’t, you can order them directly. Be sure to order a few strings in all of the gauges that might be right for you. If you’re using GHS .010" to .046", get a few .016"s, .018"s, and .020"s); the time and hassle of getting them is more important than the few bucks you might waste, and you should try ’em all, to be sure you’ve got the best one for you.
Once you have the test strings, you may want to readjust the intonation of the third string. Just throw that sucker on there, and see what it sounds like. Check its fit in the slot in the nut, to be sure the wound third won’t bind. If it binds, it won’t tune well, and the friction will eventually damage the string. If the slot in the nut needs widening, I recommend that you have it done by a competent professional repairperson. If you like what you hear, then it’s probably worth it (assuming that the guitar in question has separate intonation adjustment of reach individual string) to tweak the intonation of the third string.
Whereas an unwound third string typically intones correctly when it’s slightly longer than the second and fourth strings, a wound third string typically intones correctly when it’s slightly (.025" to .050") shorter than the second and fourth strings, so you’ll have to readjust the saddle accordingly. Interestingly, most vintage (and vintage-style) bridges that don’t have separate intonation adjustment for each string like the old Gibson “wraparound” S.G. and Les Paul unit) are designed to intone correctly with a wound third string.
Once you have the guitar adjusted, all the problems under “Tonal Disaster Area” should be gone, leaving a couple minor new ones in their wake. The wound third string is somewhat more fragile than an unwound third string, and the wound one must be bent substantially farther than an unwound one to achieve the same change in pitch.
For most players, the problem of fragility is not significant; violent use of the Strat tremolo can cause premature string breakage, but otherwise, it’s generally no big deal. However, the question of bendability is, for most players, rather significant. Many assume a wound third string is out of the question for this reason alone. I’m challenging these players to reevaluate this assumption. Do you really want to put up with the Tonal Disaster that is the unwound third string, just to bend the third string like a blues weenie rattling off an arsenal of recycled cliches? Is it really worth it?
I realize that for many players, an unwound third string will always feel like “home.” That’s fine, but for the rest of us (yes, I use a .018" wound third on my Stratoid thing), the decision to use an unwound third string should not be taken lightly. For example, it is possible to switch to a wound third string for the instrument (or instruments) which you use primarily for rhythm parts, or to switch back to an unwound third string just for solos.
Or, you could just learn to live with a REAL G string.
Stephen White is an independent guitar repairman in the San Francisco Bay area, operating since 1979. His business, Guitar Tech, can be reached at (510) 548-8370 or Fax (510) 232-9948.
Ok, the wound 3rd is no secret. If you look at the history of the electric guitar (and acoustic for that matter), it's how it all started...but along the way, it has fallen out of favor (and for certain applications, for good reason). I've just never been all that excited about strumming full barre chords on an electric. In addition, the third string has always caused the most trouble with tuning and intonation.
Enter the wound 3rd. It may not bend easily, but everything else is superior. I get excited about discovering new things in my setup that make a big difference, and this is one of them. If you haven't yet, try an 18w or 20w!
This article has been floating around the web for a while:
Too Err on the G String
The “plain” third string * blues weenie salvation or tonal disaster?
By Stephen White
Vintage Guitar mag
Nov. 2000
Fellow citizens, resident aliens, and alien aliens!
I come before you to address a topic critical to our way of life, of such monumental importance, that really, we should probably all hold our breath until we turn blue; it’s the infamous G string.
As we all know, the third string, i.e. the G string, in most sets for electric guitar produces an abominable tone, and evinces numerous other problems.
Our purpose is to point out the obvious * the reason that the third string has these problems is because it isn’t designed correctly. Under normal circumstances, a guitar string tuned to this pitch would not be a plain/unwound string; it would be wound, like the fourth through sixth strings!
Think about it * any steel-string acoustic guitar, for example, would have a wound third string, which would typically be eight or 10 thousandths of an inch (.008" or .010") smaller in diameter than its fourth (D) string. For example, standard acoustic medium gauges are (first to sixth) .013", .017", .026", .036", .046", and .056", with (of course) a wound third string. The third strings on acoustic guitars do not have any of the typical string problems found on electric guitars.
Let us consider a standard electric light-gauge set; the gauges are .010", .013", .017", .026, .036", and .046", with an unwound third string. The reason the electric guitar’s standard unwound third string has all of these problems is because when tuned to standard G, it is being placed under an insufficient tensile load: it is just too slack for it to perform correctly. When this same .017" string is used as the second string in a standard acoustic medium-gauge set, it’s tuned a major-third higher, up to B; this increased tensile load (tension) is enough to largely overcome the string’s stiffness, allowing it to behave correctly.
The fundamental problem with the unwound third string is that it’s a rather thick, stiff steel wire. If you flex a .017" string when it is not on a guitar, you can feel this stiffness * just try to “gently” flex the string into a semicircle less than 1" in diameter * it’s pretty stiff! When a string is in this completely slack state, the main characteristic affecting its behavior is its stiffness, but when the string is put under tension, the tension begins to affect its behavior. As the string is put under more tension, the tension becomes a more significant factor in determining the string’s behavior. Until just before it breaks from too much tension, the string’s stiffness is having almost no effect on its behavior at all. At this point, the string’s behavior is almost entirely determined by its tension; its pitch is beautifully pure, with a clear, ringing tone. Textbook behavior, and it sounds great! Too bad it’s about to break...
Strings only behave optimally when they are tensed to around 90 percent of their breaking point, and normal string design takes this into account. In a standard set of electric guitar strings (assuming standard tuning), the two strings that typically give the most problems, the third and sixth, are the two that are furthest from their breaking point. Their behavior is most affected by their stiffness. A wound third string has a core wire of about .011", so it’s near ideal tension when tuned to G * this is why it behaves correctly.
But what are the typical problems with which an electric guitar’s standard, unwound G string is plagued? Well, there’s poor tone and intonation when brand-new, the rapid deterioration of both as the string ages, radical volume imbalance, and premature death, to name the most common complaints.
If you find the following technicalities too tedious, skip directly to the “Prescription for Tone” section, this article is not intended as an instrument of torture...
Tonal Disaster Area
The most fundamental problem with the unwound third string is its tone: it just doesn’t sound good. People describe the tone in different ways * “harsh,” “clanky,” “metallic,” “sour,” * but most experienced players agree it’s the “nightmare string.” Technically, the reason an unwound third string sounds “sour” * particularly as it ages * is that the string’s harmonic overtones are out of line with it’s fundamental note; the string is actually out of tune with itself! This can be heard most clearly when playing with heavy overdrive. Instead of producing a smooth, stable note, holding a sustained note will produce a pulsating, or “beating” warble, similar to playing unison pitches on two strings, while tuning one of the strings to the other. This is the sound of the string’s overtones “beating” against the string’s fundamental, and it is nasty!
Minor errors in the manufacturing process * errors that would be acceptable for a string under appropriate tension * will blatantly affect the vibration of an unwound third string, causing a variety of annoying problems. Sometimes the string will go from being blatantly sharp in the first one or two frets, to being flat in the middle register, and then abruptly go sharp again somewhere around the 12th fret: this is a symptom of the magnetic field of one (or more) of the strings, but an unwound third string ages, its behavior deteriorates most quickly, sounding “dead” long before any of the other strings.
When the player has a heavy touch, all the unwound strings on an electric are subject to being “dented” when they’re fretted. It’s common to see worn strings that, when removed from the guitar, have been reshaped into a series of concave arcs between the frets, like phone lines sagging between poles. Whereas this type of damage causes the performance of the other unwound strings to deteriorate gradually, the unwound third string is drastically affected by this type of damage: it sounds much worse, almost immediately.
Finally, when playing a vintage instrument, an unwound third string will frequently sound much too loud because the instrument was designed for a wound third string, since that was standard before 1960. Since a wound third string is the lowest-output string in the set, whereas an unwound third string is the highest-output string in the set, the imbalance is pretty drastic.
Prescription for Tone: Wound Third String
Whew! What a nightmarish litany of problems, huh? Well, the good news is that the solution * switching to a wound third string * has very few real problems, and it’s easy (and inexpensive) to experiment with.
Obviously, the first step is to get some appropriate wound third strings for the set you’re using. As I mentioned, a wound third string has a diameter of .008" to .010" * less than the fourth string in that set. This means that for a .010" to .046" (electric light-gauge) set, the appropriate wound third string would be a .016" or a .018" of the same type. Although these are not widely stocked, most major manufacturers do produce them. For example, GHS makes Boomer single strings (“singles” in the trade) down to .016", D’Addario makes XL singles down to .017", and I’m sure that there are others.
If your “friendly” local retailer isn’t, you can order them directly. Be sure to order a few strings in all of the gauges that might be right for you. If you’re using GHS .010" to .046", get a few .016"s, .018"s, and .020"s); the time and hassle of getting them is more important than the few bucks you might waste, and you should try ’em all, to be sure you’ve got the best one for you.
Once you have the test strings, you may want to readjust the intonation of the third string. Just throw that sucker on there, and see what it sounds like. Check its fit in the slot in the nut, to be sure the wound third won’t bind. If it binds, it won’t tune well, and the friction will eventually damage the string. If the slot in the nut needs widening, I recommend that you have it done by a competent professional repairperson. If you like what you hear, then it’s probably worth it (assuming that the guitar in question has separate intonation adjustment of reach individual string) to tweak the intonation of the third string.
Whereas an unwound third string typically intones correctly when it’s slightly longer than the second and fourth strings, a wound third string typically intones correctly when it’s slightly (.025" to .050") shorter than the second and fourth strings, so you’ll have to readjust the saddle accordingly. Interestingly, most vintage (and vintage-style) bridges that don’t have separate intonation adjustment for each string like the old Gibson “wraparound” S.G. and Les Paul unit) are designed to intone correctly with a wound third string.
Once you have the guitar adjusted, all the problems under “Tonal Disaster Area” should be gone, leaving a couple minor new ones in their wake. The wound third string is somewhat more fragile than an unwound third string, and the wound one must be bent substantially farther than an unwound one to achieve the same change in pitch.
For most players, the problem of fragility is not significant; violent use of the Strat tremolo can cause premature string breakage, but otherwise, it’s generally no big deal. However, the question of bendability is, for most players, rather significant. Many assume a wound third string is out of the question for this reason alone. I’m challenging these players to reevaluate this assumption. Do you really want to put up with the Tonal Disaster that is the unwound third string, just to bend the third string like a blues weenie rattling off an arsenal of recycled cliches? Is it really worth it?
I realize that for many players, an unwound third string will always feel like “home.” That’s fine, but for the rest of us (yes, I use a .018" wound third on my Stratoid thing), the decision to use an unwound third string should not be taken lightly. For example, it is possible to switch to a wound third string for the instrument (or instruments) which you use primarily for rhythm parts, or to switch back to an unwound third string just for solos.
Or, you could just learn to live with a REAL G string.
Stephen White is an independent guitar repairman in the San Francisco Bay area, operating since 1979. His business, Guitar Tech, can be reached at (510) 548-8370 or Fax (510) 232-9948.
) I first learned some basic open/cowboy chords. Then My teacher had me learn some barre chords. I was pretty excited because I was getting closer to being able to play some songs. Then I realized that bands like Ozzy, ZZTop, Van Halen, Pink Floyd, Hendrix (I guess Foxey Lady could be the exception) weren't rocking out while strumming full barre chords.
