marsguitars
Well-known member
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?
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?
