Quote:
Originally Posted by simonv  Good evening everyone,
Today I put d'Addario Chromes strings on my acoustic guitar.
And I just kept saying all afternoon how my acoustic has never played and sounded that good in ages, just to realize that those strings were made for electric guitars...
So, it made me think... what's the difference between electric and acoustic guitar strings? |
Well, the D'Addario Chromes are flatwound strings. i.e. the wound strings are wound with a ribbon of metal over the core, as opposed to a wire. These are a specialty string. You usually use these only for Jazz on archtops, although I once met someone who liked them on his Les Paul. I think Ed Bickert puts them on his Telecaster, but I've never heard of anyone else doing that. For about 20 years I used nothing else on my ES-175, although now I will occasionally put roundwounds on.
As far as the difference between electric and acoustic strings goes, it's the material of the winding on the wound strings. Acoustic strings are usually wound with bronze, whereas electrics are usually wound with steel. There are also different standards for sizing. A light acoustic set might range from .012 - .052. This would be heavy for an electric set, which can go down to .008 - .038. The flatwounds are usually spec'd similarly to acoustics, with .012 - .052 being light, and .013 - .056 being medium.