Sorry for bumpin a 6 year old thread. I haven't seen this one until now. But... no one has posted this at all. I link one to you that hasn't been linked.
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All this mumbo jumbo about hex vs round core from the manufacturers point is part sales pitch, of their uniqueness. First, this one hasn't been established in this thread at all, any time:
1. All tension of any string comes from the CORE only. Do not take into the account of pitch that it changes. All TENSION comes from the core. At least 99-100 %.
2. Do not ever confuse "stiffness" (as in the OP title) with tension. It's completely two different things. And more often than not, mistakenly used interchangeably. That's why confusion arises.
3. The reason hex core has more tension than round core is that the hex "edges" makes dents and nick in the wraps and the wrap (winding core) works as a "stop block" or "speed bump" or "mass block" because the dents, and nicks of the edges "grips" into the wrap and causes sluggishness.
4. The round core has this almost to a nil, and is spread all along the string more evenly. So there's less tension, if all else should be equal. Just due to less
friction. Or .. thanks to.
Friction is an oft forgotten word when talking these matter.
5. The resulting sound or timbre, from a hex core and round core, is somewhat different. If everything else is the same, core to wrap ratio, material, alloy, gauge. I've heard things like "slightly more midrange" and yada yada, on round cores, but everything else plays a role in that, alloy, material, plating whatever.
6. The round core will oscillate a tad more at its inertia (initial attack of the string), due or thanks to lesser tension. For good or bad.
If you don't believe that all tension comes from the core only, why have plain strings on a guitar? And look at the ball end of any bass string:
At the ball end, it's JUST the core of the strings that wraps around it. Period. I have yet to see any string that has the wrap going around the ball end too. The wrap and oute and total gauge is what determine the pitch it should have, together with scale length, but still: TENSION comes only, and solely from the inner core. Because it's the ball end that determines the inner core "stretching" when tuning up at the other end.
STIFFNESS? It's a whole different ball game, and all, and too many factors involved to produce any kind of "final" stiffness. You can't measure "stiffness". Pure Stainless Steel strings can have abrasivness and more stiffness, than any "pure nickel" strings, and there's too many factors involved in stiffness, among them - surely - is tension, but inner core gauge, outer gauge, alloys, hex or round core, PLATING as well as coating may produce different stiffness, as well as scale length and open string pitch. There's no unit for stiffness as it is on tension, because stiffness depends on the interpretation of the players hands and fingers. What's stiff for me ain't that stiff for you.
Friction is a word that is often forgotten about when talking these matters. Which is entirely different from either stiffness, or tension. See, friction only occurs when something is set in motion, from material to material, i e one surface of material is moving on top of the surface of antoher material, or the same. It can be as well when a string is set into motion when playing it. Stiffness, tension, are things that occurs even when the material isn't moving at all, when it's all in a steady state.
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FWIW I would love to that any string manufacturer comes out with a hybrid hex core and round core string (!?)
. It would turn out incredibly expensive though. That within a given scale - say 34" - there's round core, and it starts to get into hex core OUTSIDE the nut and bridge saddle range, just for keeping those wraps together. That a string core changes from round core to hex ALONG its length. Would be quite a feat, and gives us the advantage of both things, while the drawbacks of none. You have to be wary of the scale though.
