Nickel Plated Vs Stainless Steel Bass Strings

Also nickel strings are softer and are easier on your frets.

Nickel plated vs stainless steel bass strings.

Plenty of products advertised as nickel strings however aren t entirely golden era formulations using steel wraps plated with nickel rather than wraps made entirely of nickel. In pure nickel guitar strings the wrap wire is well pure nickel. An all round option for the bassist who plays a bit. In nickel wound nickel plated steel strings the wrap wire is steel plated with nickel typically about 8 of the finished wrap wire is nickel and 92 is steel.

They are round wound and are available in 4 or 5 string sets. Nickel plated steel no surprises nickel plated steel offers a compromise between pure nickel or stainless steel. Pure nickel is what guitarists used in the 50s so if you like that early rock and roll sound you might like pure nickel. If i do a stainless set can last a month of 2 3 gigs wk.

Stainless steel tonally speaking the opposite of nickel strings stainless steel is clear and bright with clarity throughout the frequency range great for modern sounds. As others have mentioned stainless steel is harder than nickel steel and often has burrs from the manufacturing wrapping process. Country and rock players might choose nickel plated. The confusion arises from the fact that some manufacturers don t include the word plated on the labels for their nickel strings.

The majority of so called nickel strings are actually made of steel and coated with an 8 nickel wash that acts as protection and softens the touch. Nickel strings and stainless steel strings. Both terms are referring to the wrap wire of the wound strings in the set. Steel strings are made from a highly magnetic alloy and usually produce a brighter sound and a rougher feel under the fingers.

How is the core wire different. This is getting complicated. I always wipe the strings down after playing either with a clean cloth or preferably a blitz cloth. As far as material is concerned we can divide strings into two main categories.