"Contact Core" strings

[marsguitars]

A question for you string gurus: does Ernie Ball make any 'contact core' strings? i.e. where the winding stops short of the ball end.

I understand that Rotosound (a British company ) introduced Contact Core in the 70's, the theory being that you get better contact between the string and the bridge of the guitar as only the core is in contact, and this gives better tone & sustain. Intuitively this seems like a good idea, especially for bass strings where the wrapping is so much thicker.

So why didn't it catch on? I think Rotosound still do them, and GHS, but they don't seem that common.

What are the downsides? All I can think is that
1) they're technically more dificult to manufacture (= more expensive?)
2) the string mass isn't consistant along the entire length of the string. Could this cause intonation problems on the higher frets, as the length of unwound string, although still small, becomes a greater proportion of the vibrating string?

[Big Poppa]

maybe because I think it is marketing and bs.....

[Bass Control]

I don't like the idea of this "contact core" or "tapered" strings. I play ACME Two Letters before with the taper core and when I switched to D'Acme I swore never to go back to tapered strings because of how tight my new strings felt. I thought that the tapers were too loose and flappy because of the lack of string girth in the saddle.

I'm starting to switch to EB strings because they are a lot more accessible to me and it's a little cheaper to get my custom gauges with these strings...

[DrKev]

The only parts of a string that will affect tone and sustain are the parts that vibrate, i.e. between the saddles on the bridge and the nut. You can do what you want anywhere else along the remaining length of string and it will make no difference whatsoever to tone or sustain or tension or anything else in the universe.


Love from DrK in paris, who has a PhD in Physics and often very very pissed off at the marketing and BS that people are subjected to.

[Jimmyb]

The doctor is 'in'

[DrKev]

Yeah, he comes out to 'play' every now and then.


K