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Another string question

G

gip111

Nov 13, 2012
587
531
#1
Recently came across an used 2005 Affinity P with rounds, loved the tone and took it home. Cleaned it, set it up and put a set of new Daddario XL 170. Noticed right away the tone went from a snappy growl to a mellow, warmer softer sound, went back to the "originals" that were on the guitar and the snappy, growly sound came back.
I know strings are a matter of taste and I guess my taste is towards the sound of the original strings. That said, the "original" set is of unknown brand but really like the sound of them... gold ball ends, 45-100 no silk.
So other than ID'ing them which would be tough, what would be a set of rounds that would give me that growl more aggressive tone?
 
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#2
gip111 said:
Recently came across an used 2005 Affinity P with rounds, loved the tone and took it home. Cleaned it, set it up and put a set of new Daddario XL 170. Noticed right away the tone went from a snappy growl to a mellow, warmer softer sound, went back to the "originals" that were on the guitar and the snappy, growly sound came back.
Click to expand...

If you find the D'A XL Nickels "mellow, warmer and softer", those "originals" could be stainless steel (vs. nickel-plated steel).

For "snappy growl", try something like DR Hi Beams.

One thing you can do is to measure the length on one of the "originals" from the ball end to where the first taper starts at the tuner end to determine the "winding length". which could possibly tell us which manufacturer.
 
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#3
On the E string... 37" from the top of the ball, in other words, not measuring the ball to the end of the .100 diameter, the next section measures .250" (1/4) length before going to the much smaller diameter to the tuner.
Does that help?
 
#4
gip111 said:
On the E string... 37" from the top of the ball, in other words, not measuring the ball to the end of the .100 diameter, the next section measures .250" (1/4) length before going to the much smaller diameter to the tuner.
Does that help?
Click to expand...

One thing for sure... They're NOT DR's as their "long scale" is 38" in winding length.

Gold-colored ball ends, no silk, 37"-37.25" winding length... There are too many possibilities.

By the way, do all four strings have the same winding length? Or, is the E shorter than the other three?
 
#9
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#10
I know it's hard to id the strings based on pics and honestly, I don't see myself changing them anytime soon but when I do, I'd like to get as close to the sound I described. I don't remember ever buying anything other than the XL-170's for round wounds. Appreciate the help, thanks.
 
#14
D'Addario stainless? More manufacturers are now doing 37 or 37+a fraction for their regular long scale, so unless you can cross-reference a particular make and model with information about which ones have no silk, it is a long shot. But as stated above, the general tone description leans towards stainless steel round wound.
 
#15
iiipopes said:
D'Addario stainless? More manufacturers are now doing 37 or 37+a fraction for their regular long scale, so unless you can cross-reference a particular make and model with information about which ones have no silk, it is a long shot. But as stated above, the general tone description leans towards stainless steel round wound.
Click to expand...
Unless they're quite old, they would have colored ball ends if they were D'addario.
 
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