Difference in tone between a 26W and a 26P (F#)

Tom Rhodes · From: Missouri, USA

Quick question for the group: What is the difference in tone between a 26W and a 26P (F#)string? Some builders recommend a 26W (I know that Doug at Stage One recommends it) but I just had to know...
Thanks as always!

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

I don't think I've ever seen a plain string, .026 or anything else, on string 7 F#.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Nor have I ever seen a plain string on string 7 F#. And IMO, for good reason - really heavy plain strings sound bad to me. I sometimes get these Ernie Ball "Not Even Slinky" guitar sets that have a plain .024 3rd string G. Terrible. Plinky, harsh, hard to intonate. I generally replace with a .022 wound or .024 wound. I can't even imagine using a .026 plain for anything. Might work on a cheese slicer.

I generally use a .020 plain on string 6 G# and sometimes for 3rd string G on guitar. My primary chicken pickin' Teles are set up like that - 12-52/54 with .020 plain, equal tension across the strings. I have occasionally used a .022 plain, and it's a bit plinky to my tastes also. But sometimes it works in certain situations where I want more tension but still be able to do a large raise/drop on steel or bend more easily on guitar.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

My response does not answer the question (although maybe it renders it sort of moot).

Wire that heavy pushes the limits of tonal stability. The 6th string is already playing in the area -- some odd overtones with a plain string. But some negatives with a wound one too. The 6th string straddles the line between plain & wound and what's optimal.

I can't imagine that the .026 on the 7th string is going to be anything except more pronounced with the negative overtones. Unbalanced volume, too, I would expect.

Andrew Frost · From: Toronto, Ontario

I've tried 24p and 26p for G on the back neck.
Works, but not so good tonally.
Plain strings that heavy are not dissimilar to bailing wire.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Just to clarify for the OP-
Doug recommends a wound 6th (.022, I believe) for his Stage One. He says it stabilizes the tuning with the pull-release changer configuration.

Tom Rhodes · From: Missouri, USA

Greetings guys that responded to my post about the difference in tone between a 26W and a 26P. I must have had a momentary lapse in judgement or just simply lost my mind. What I trying to convey was, what is the difference between a 22W and a 22P.
For some reason I looked at String 7 instead of 6. I know that 7 (F#) is always a wound string but simply missed it by one line on the tuning chart. I'm very sorry for the confusion and much thanks to the guys that replied to this "bogus" post. For the record this is my corrected question: What is the difference in tone (or difference) between a 22W and a 22P (G#).

Many thanks to Jon Light, Richard Sinkler, Dave Mudgett, Andrew Frost and Fred Treece and always Doug Earnest

Tom Rhodes

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Ha.
Ok. The sound (and only the sound -- there are a lot of other things that can be discussed about the choice of wound or plain 6th strings).

I've used a wound 6th for years, entirely for tuning stability on guitars that had significant cabinet drop. But on my Emmons which has very little drop I use a plain. And my brand new Sierra has very similar specs to the Emmons and it has a plain string.

The wound string has a softer overall sound. Both in terms of volume and in terms of 'cut', attack, presence. It is soft vs. 'hard'. It is a very even sound. If you pick the plain string hard it has a different harmonic 'chemistry' than if you pick it lightly. And if you watch the tuner, it peaks sharp and fades flatter. The wound string sounds a lot more the same, picked hard or picked soft.

My preference is for the plain string. It's just a bolder, rounder sound. But I have zero reluctance to use the wound string on guitars that need the tuning stability.

Note that the wound string requires significantly more changer movement. If you lower 6 a whole step, that can be a seriously long lever throw. You will also probably need to rerod raises to stay in sync with string 3.
For the lever throw reason, I have gone back to plain strings on the guitars I had converted to wound. And then gone back to wound because how significantly better the tuning stability is.

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