Almost as important as the builder's choice of bracing, woods and materials used in a guitar, strings make up the next layer of a guitar's voice.

There have been countless times that I have sent a guitar with an extra set of strings based on the buyer's sound preferences.

On occasion, I have failed to do this, either being out of the string or having the guitar shipped from my other residence, I have suffered the consequences of having to ship back.

String material varies from maker to maker, type to type. Nylon has been the mainstay of classical guitar strings and the D'Addario Pro-Arte string has been the bench-string for many a maker.

Being a very neutral string it suffices to test a guitar's voice regardless that there is a plethora of nylon types, both hard and soft nylon.

Seemingly, the softer the nylon, the more mellow the sound is. Some Italian string makers, like Galli, use the softest of nylon. Argentinean string makers are known to use a very hard nylon. The harder the material the more clear the sound is.

To me, nylon has less clarity than carbon. Savarez Alliance trebles have the best clarity of any string except the Thomastik-Infeld carbon, now discontinued due to an article I wrote about faulty material.

What exactly is clarity? It would seem to have an obvious answer, but lets look at this term.

As Pythagoras noted, a string vibrates in various lengths and there are called overtones, partials or nodes. Each partial vibrates at an exact ratio, which are a product of our sonic world and a matter of science.

The most prominent partials on the guitar are the octave and the fifth. The most prominent of these seems to be on the fifth string open and the fourth string at the fourth fret where there is a very cloudy overtone. The open "a" produces an "e" and when the note decays the "e" is left vibrating longer in some cases. It is probably due to the energy it takes to produce the fundamental being absent.

This is sometimes the reason someone calls a guitar sweet. Cedar is a wood that produces more of these harmonics. Spruce seems to reject more of the overtones.

Carbon is like spruce in that it rejects the overtones more than nylon. Hard nylon seems to be akin to carbon but it is not as selective of the fundamental.

Fundamental is what the note is named and in the sonic world is differentiated from the overtones. Fundamental is what is written in the music, and the harmonic/overtone is designated by a diamond shaped note head.

So clarity is imbued with fundamental, and when someone asks for a guitar of clarity, no matter what the woods of the guitar are, I place a carbon string, usually Savarez Alliance, on the instrument and then send it out.

Carbon came from Air Bus technology, that joint project between the French and English to produce a passenger airplane to compete with North American plane producers.

Soon afterwards it was discovered that this material could be used when something light and strong is needed in manufacturing. Tennis racket strings and the strings for the classical guitar need the same.

Being stronger than nylon, and in order to accomplish the gage/tension required, the diameter of the carbon is smaller than that of nylon. This has been the principal complaint of guitarists when switching to carbon, but the benefits of clarity, for me superceded the smaller diameter. I got used to it.

Carbon is like high-test gas for an ailing car, and for a guitar that is weak, in volume and clarity, carbon is the ticket. Many guitars that have passed through my hands came in with nylon strings and left my hands with carbon when they were weak and small voiced. The difference is sometimes so pronounced that it is like instantly having a new guitar.

I have gotten to the point of calling nylon strings "fishing line" as the material is the same except not extruded as carefully as guitar string.

Sometimes the milky and rough string that you may buy, called "rectified," has not been polished again. This string usually has a bit more clarity than the polished nylon.

Gage as you can imagine is also important for sound as the harder the tension on the guitar the more fundamental is achieved. As well and in the same fashion, a 12-hole bridge offers more down bearing and thus achieves more clarity. Consequently a lower tension may have the characteristic of more overtones.

In conclusion the importance of strings are underestimated. A change of strings is sometimes actually a change of guitars. On an acoustic guitar it is far more important than on an electric guitar. Sweetness is not necessarily the opposite of clarity but you might look at these parameters as two ends of a sonic spectrum.

A couple of years ago, a dentist friend of mine bought a brand new Gibson Le Grande archtop guitar to add to his collection. If you are familiar with this guitar, then you know it retails somewhere north of $12,000, and there is often a wait (at least a year) for a specific color. It was a longtime dream of my friend to own one of these rare production pieces of art.

I caught up with him a couple of days after buying the guitar and asked him how it was. He did not seem as excited as I had expected. After further discussion, he finally opened up to the fact that the guitar had several "dead spots" in the neck and sounded partially muted. I asked him if he had changed strings. He said "Yes." He said the original set from the factory on the guitar were too light in gauge size and sounded lifeless. He had a "spare" set of strings that he put on to replace the originals.

There was hardly any improvement. So, at that point he had played the guitar with two different sets of strings and had similar results. He took the guitar back to the shop, and they could not figure out what was going on. They offered to send it back. However, it would be close to a year before another would arrive. My friend declined the offer as he could not bare wait at least another year to get the guitar.

Was his dream guitar a lemon? No. There was still a string issue happening with this guitar. After further questioning, I asked him about the "spare" set he put on the Le Grande. Here is what happened:

Me: How old was the set of spare strings?
Friend: They were brand new.
Me: What brand?
Friend: [We will not reveal the name he said, but the strings were a major brand name.]
Me: When did you buy them?
Friend: It was a spare set I bought about a year ago.
Me: Did the set ever leave the house?
Friend: They were in a case with my gig guitar.
Me: Was the string package air tight?
Friend: I don't know.
Me: Houston, we have a problem.

The Silent String Menace
In the days of yester year and still today, virtually all individual strings came in little white paper envelopes. The paper envelopes were usually stuffed into a clear little plastic jacket with a flap. These little packages kept the strings clean, untangled, and clearly marked with the proper gauge information. Again, many string manufacturers continue to use this style of packaging. This style of packaging has an Achilles heal in its design.

The humidity barrier is fairly low and the strings are susceptible to oxidation damage over time. The paper can actually work as a double edged sword when it is exposed to high humidity. The paper will provide some protection, but if the humidity exposure is high enough on a given day, the paper turns into a sponge. Once the moisture works its way into the paper, uncoated strings will start to oxidize. When the moisture has soaked into the packaging, it may never completely leave.

Remember that clear little plastic jacket mentioned earlier? It becomes a micro greenhouse when moisture is trapped inside. The strings gradually tarnish, and their ability to generate crisp clean frequency is degraded.

Seal The Deal!
More and more string manufacturers have converted their packaging towards air tight designs. The strings are often placed in a sealed plastic bag within the outside jacket or box. As long as the bag is not opened, the strings are safe from oxidation and their shelf life is greatly extended. Some companies do not use a sealed plastic bag, but shrink wrap the outside of the box. This also provides some protection. Shrink wrapping does not always provide a hermetic style of seal, but can be very effective in preventing moisture damage to a new set of strings.

At this point, we should note that there is an exception to string corrosion. Strings with polymer coatings are not as susceptible to moisture damage. You still have to be careful with polymer string sets as the plain strings included in the set are usually not coated. As a result, they can still oxidize and degrade in tone.

A Happy Ending?
So what happened to my dentist friend trying to get his Gibson Le Grande to play like the one in his dream? As it turns out, the "spare" set of strings had issues. He lived in Florida on some beach front property. So, not only did he have high moisture, but possibly a higher probability of sea salt mist in the air. He played at a couple of lounges down the road. The "spare" set was with him every time he went out to play. It is difficult to say what that set of strings had been exposed to.

Once a fresh set of strings were strung up, the Le Grande started singing. Here is a good rule of thumb: Your spare set of strings should be used for emergency breakage, not as a replacement set for restringing. Also, whenever possible, try to get strings that have hermetically sealed packaging to ensure reliability when it comes time to use them.

About The Author

Professor String^TM, Crystal Lake, IL 60039. Brad Beiermann, Ph.D. is a leading expert in the musical string business. Professor String^TM is a research group that specializes in guitar and bass string research for musicians. You can visit their site at www.professorstring.com.

Copyright 2006, new millennium Guitar Publishing Co., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED