What Guitar Strings Should I Use? Pure Nickel Or Nickel-Plated Steel?
What Guitar Strings Should I Use? Pure Nickel Or Nickel-Plated Steel?
Today we're talking about the differences between Pure Nickel and Nickel-Plated Steel. Pure Nickel was one of the most popular alloys to use on electric guitars in the 1950s and most of the 1960s. The industry changed to Nickel-Plated Steel in the late 1960s. The reasons are many from what I hear, but I think a lot of it was that in 1968 / 1969 we had a huge guitar boom with players like Clapton, Hendrix, Beck and Page. Pure Nickel is more expensive. Nickel-Plated Steel is more affordable but still a great sounding product, so the industry changed to that. The differences in tone are subtle but they are different. Players say that Pure Nickel has a little warmer sound, still a lot of twang, has a little smoother feel and great for blues players and more traditional type players. Nickel-Plated Steel has a really balanced tone to it, nice highs nice lows and nice mids. It also has more magnetic qualities to it so it has a little more output and tons of rock players have used it over the years. It is a really great product. If you want to go to our YouTube Channel we have sound clips for both of them, with both Humbuckers and single coil. If you have any questions please just shoot us an email here: ASK CURT