"Coarse" Strings -- What's That All About?

[Bongolation]

I was going through my accumulated pile of new strings trying to find some roundwounds long enough for one of my new basses, and I noticed some strings of the same overall diameter have much larger -- and therefore coarser -- windings from one brand to the next.

What's the point there? Cheaper, brighter, darker, more painful, funnier, what?

Thanks for any education.

[bassistgook]

I could be wrong but I've herd smaller windings give greater flexability and more of a boing sound when you hit them. The feel of the string is noticable too. I belive smaller winding give less finger noise when sliding your hand across the strings as well. Hope this helps.

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by bassistgook

smaller windings give...more of a boing sound when you hit them. The feel of the string is noticable too. I belive smaller winding give less finger noise

Finer windings are certainly more comfortable, though the coarser ones seem at least as boingy.

I'm just wondering why the coarser ones are made. They're not uncommon.

[JTE]

Like everything else in the world, it's about trade-offs. A more coarse winding may affect the sound by making the string more stiff.

jte

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by JTE

A more coarse winding may affect the sound by making the string more stiff.

That seerms unlikely, as if the two strings have the same outer diameter and the windings are coarser on one, then (all other things being equal) the string with the coarser, larger-diameter windings will have a smaller-diameter core, therefore less string tension -- as the string gets its tension from the core, not the windings.

[JTE]

Not necassarily- It's about the ratio of wrap wires to core wire. Hardly any large bass string only have one wrap wire.

tje

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by JTE

Not necassarily- It's about the ratio of wrap wires to core wire. Hardly any large bass string only have one wrap wire.

The G certainly does in this set I'm looking at, and I'm assuming that the core diameters would be proportional in the other three double-wrapped strings...but that's only an assumption.

Anyway...we know arithmetically that the .045" G with the larger-diameter, coarser windings will have a smaller core than the .045" G with smaller-diameter, finer windings. So, all other things being equal, the one with the coarser windings would have less string tension.

[bassistgook]

I haven't found any string sets that have just 1 wrap wire besides dr's jonas hellborg signature sets. The whole set of those is just a single nickle wrap on a steel core though.

[newbold]

Different strings...

There can't be a 'this sounds better' rule out there.