is there a difference between electric and acoustic strings??

[fuzzythecat]

is there really a difference. i bought an acoustic/electric bass just after christmas, and i'm convinced there's electric strings on it. it made me think, is there a difference in tone or feel to them? or should acoustics only be strung with acoustic strings?

[mmbongo]

Acoustics generally come with bronze strings, which won't work on electrics because they are not magnetic. Electric strings should work fine on an acoustic as long as they deliver the sound you're after.

[fuzzythecat]

well these work fine whether or not it's plugged in, but they are silvery, and have the classic fender red stuff around the ends of the strings, so i think they're fender electric roundwounds

[FunkMetalBass]

Acoustic strings incorporate phosphor bronze, which is much more articulate and louder, and both of those are good properties for an instrument that relies on the ability to resonate. They also don't contain steel or any kind of ferrous material that would allow them to work with typical magnetic pickups - this is nearly all of your acoustic instruments have piezo pickups and not magnetic pickups.

Electric strings are just the opposite - quieter and less articulate (also, generally more flexibile), but they are comprised of materials that work with magnetic pickups, so they can be amplified.

It's your call how you want to string it - I actually liked my acoustic guitar with electric strings - but the volume will be very low acoustically, and you may not like the tone at all.

[fuzzythecat]

ok, thanks!

[JTE]

You can use electric strings on an ABG without any problem, but you can't use acoustic strings on an electric bass because of the lack of ferrous (magnetic) material in the acoustic strings. Nickle or steel strings won't be particularly more quiet on an ABG than bronze, if you're using similar tensions. The volume from an flat-top guitar type instrument is from the strings causing the face to pump air. The strings' vibrations are transmitted to the face through the bridge and the braces. More tension means more volume (with obvious trade-offs in ease of playing and having to stay in the structural limits of the specific instrument).

The reason most electric guitar strings (not bass) don't work on acoustic guitars is that they're substantially lighter. A typical acoustic guitar set is 12-53 (light gauge) or 13-56 (mediums) and almost all have a wound 3rd string. Typical electric guitar sets are 9-42 (extra light) or 10-46 (regular light) and even most sets that star with an 11 still have a plain 3rd string. That's a HUGE difference in volume from a flat-top guitar. But an acoustic guitar will work just fine with a set of medium gauged (13, 12, 17w, 26, 36, 46) nickles on it.

The point being, whether the bass you have is strung with phosphor bronze, 80/20 bronze acoustic strings or if it has nickle or stainless round electric bass strings, it's OK. A lot of TB folks have found they prefer various electric bass strings on ABGs- nylon tapewounds, flatwounds, and roundwounds. It kills some of the stringy sounding brigthness you get with the typical bronze rounds those things generally have on them.

John