Re: what strings brand for strat
to give woody tone 'unplugged'? I currently use elixir nano 11's and when I noodle with it unplugged, it sounds so bad like 'tenk' and the scale length makes it worse. when plugged I can get enough wood (thanks to the tone knob). I want to get "uung" like sound again unplugged. uncoated strings is alright I slap in some elixirs because I don't use the strat much..
To me it sounds like you may have a problem with the tone of roundwound strings in general... I would recommend trying a set of Half-rounds, and if that gets you in the right direction but not far enough then a set of flatwound strings. They´re actually quite common in jazz circles
There is little to no difference between most string brands. Daddario, Ernie Ball, GHS are all going to sound and feel the same. I've been using coated strings for about two years now. I've tried elixirs, daddario, EB, and GHS and they all sound and play similar if not the same. They're all made the same, steel wrapped in nickel. There are some that are all nickel and they have their own sound too, less bright.
There are some makers who do things a little different. DR's are supposed to wound a little differently, but I would guess that they don't feel our sound entirely different. Dunlop strings are cool, they're wound to tension so they take practically no time to stretch which ultimately makes them last longer.
I work at GC and for a long time I worked behind the Accessories counter selling LOTS of guitar strings. What it comes down to is blind brand loyalty. Or something like that...
With all due respect, this post tells me that you don`t know very much about strings.
While there ARE AFAIK only about 5 plants
in the USA (there are another 10-15 in the rest of the world IIRC) that manufacture strings, there are literally dozens of different alloys, each with their own tone, for both wrap and core. Steel is not = steel, Stainless steel is not = stainless steel, and NIckel plated steel is not = nickel plated steel. S235JR, P460N and 13CrMo4-5 are all "steel", with
very different properties, the came holds true in stainless for X6CrNiTi18-10 and X21CrNiSi15-12. And of course the thickness of nickel plating also makes a difference.
There are 3 common profiles of core (Round, hexagonal, octagonal), each with their own tonal and tensile properties. There are dozens of ways to wind a string, both under tension and slacked, each with their own tonal and tensile properties.
Then we have all this modern cryogenic smack and whatnot....
While what you say holds true to a certain extent, as some strings are simply relabeled and others share construction materials and /or methods, basic physics and metallurgy easily invalidates a blanket statement like that. There is a very good reason that books like "Die Gitarre und ihr Bau" by Franz Jahnel (the German Luthier`s Bible) have huge sections just on string construction, calculations, and tonal properties.
