Flatwound strings on fretless bass guitar

A string is the vibrating element that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. A fretless guitar is a Guitar without Frets It operates in the same manner as most other Stringed instruments and traditional Guitars but does A Vibration in a string is a Wave. Usually a vibrating string produces a Sound whose Frequency in most cases is constant A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a Musical instrument that produces Sound by means of Vibrating strings In the Hornbostel-Sachs The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles The harp is a Stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers The Violin family of Musical instruments was developed in Italy in the Sixteenth century. They are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may freely vibrate. In Physics String Tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string cable chain or similar object on another object Strings may be "plain" (consisting only of a single material, like steel, nylon, or gut) or they may have a core of one material with an overwinding of other materials to add mass so the string sounds the desired pitch, while keeping the string thin and flexible enough to play. Such strings are called "wound strings. "

String construction

Depending on the construction of the instrument on which they are used, strings will usually have either a ball or loop at one end to attach the string to the instrument. Strings for some instruments may be wrapped with silk at their ends to protect the string. The color and pattern of the silk can be used to identify the string.

Winding

There are several varieties of wound strings.

Roundwound

The simplest ones are the roundwound strings. They have a round core inside and round-winding wire, wound in a tight spiral around it. Such strings are usually simple to manufacture and thus are usually the least expensive. There are several drawbacks, however:

• Roundwound strings have a surface profile (the "bumps" of the winding) that causes "squeaking" sounds when the player's fingers slide over the strings. Whereas some artists use this sound creatively on purpose, this sound is, in general, unwanted.
• Non-flat surface profile also hastens fingerboard and fret wire wear. The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments is a part of most Stringed instruments It is a thin long strip of Wood that is A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a Stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck
• The winding is not secured to the core and can rotate freely around it, especially if the winding is damaged after use. It makes it harder to push down and hold the strings with the fingers, and thus impairs the general playing experience.
  
  

Flatwound

Flatwound strings also have a round core, but the winding wire has a rounded square cross-section. When tightly wound, such strings have a much shallower profile (in cross-section), thus making them more comfortable to play, less damaging for frets / fretboard and producing quieter squeak sounds from fingers sliding along the string. However, players frequently cite that the sound of flatwound strings differs considerably from the sound of roundwound, with less brightness. ^[1][2]

Halfwound, ground wound, pressure wound

Halfwound strings, ground wound strings or pressure wound strings are a cross between roundwound and flatwound, providing both the tonal characteristics of roundwound and the lack of squeaking and the playing feel of flatwound. Such strings are usually made by winding round wire around a round core first, then polishing, grinding (thus the name, ground wound) or pressing the exterior part of the winding until it is practically flat.

Note that polishing process removes almost half of winding wire mass, thus, to compensate for it, manufacturers have to use heavier gauge winding wire. In its turn, thicker winding wire lowers frequency of slide squeaking. Pitch represents the perceived Fundamental frequency of a sound Depending on sound processing, it can be a good thing (as squeaking becomes less accented and it will be masked out by performed music) or a bad thing (high-pitched squeaks are much easier to detect and filter out when recording). An audio filter is a type of filter used for processing Sound signals.

Hexwound

Hexwound strings are composed of regular hexagonal core and a tight (usually round) winding that closely fits a hexagonal shape. Regular hexagon The internal Angles of a regular hexagon (one where all sides and all angles are equal are all 120 ° and the hexagon has 720 degrees It solves the second problem: it secures the winding around the core, so it cannot rotate and slip under the fingers. Sometimes it is cited that hexagonal core improves tones due to closer bond between the core and the winding^[3] The drawback is that relatively sharp hexagonal corners are less comfortable for fingers and wear down the fingerboard and fret wire even faster than roundwound strings. Hexwound strings are more commonly used on bass instruments (such as bass guitars). The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the

Gauge

A wound acoustic guitar string (phosphor bronze wound around steel) with a ball end, 0. Phosphor bronze is an Alloy of Copper with 35 to 10% of Tin and a significant Phosphorus content of up to 1% 044" gauge

The tone of a string depends on its weight, and, therefore, on its diameter or so-called gauge. Traditionally, diameter is measured in thousandths of an inch. Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. The larger the diameter, the heavier the string is. Heavier strings require more tension for the same pitch and are, as a consequence, harder to press down to the fingerboard. The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments is a part of most Stringed instruments It is a thin long strip of Wood that is Heavier strings will also produce a louder and thicker tone. (If a fretted instrument is restrung with different string gauges, it may be necessary to adjust the height of the string above the frets, called the "action," in order to make the instrument easier to play or to avoid the strings buzzing against the frets. A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a Stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck The action of a stringed instrument is the distance between the Fingerboard and the string, which determines how easy it is to sound Notes The action height of fretless instruments may also be adjusted to suit the string gauge or material, as well as the intended playing style. )

Steel strings for 6-string guitar usually come in the sets of matched strings. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles Sets are usually referenced either by the gauge of the first string (e. g. , 9), or by pair of first and last (e. g. , 9-42). Some manufacturers may have slightly different gauge sequences; the sample data below comes from D'Addario string charts for regular, round-wound, nickel-plated strings. D'Addario is a manufacturer of musical instrument strings primarily Guitar strings currently headquartered in Farmingdale, Long Island New York

(Note: strings in gray boxes are wound. All others are plain. )

Typical bass guitar strings come in the following gauges. The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the Note that additional strings (5th and 6th) are usually sold separately. Bass guitar strings are sometimes made for a particular scale length and come in short, medium and long scale.

Note that some manufacturers of strings produce other sets of strings too; the figure above merely lists the most commonly used combinations.

Strings for violin family instruments are often sold in 3 gauges simply labeled heavy, medium, and light, which do not have a standard size associated with them. The Violin family of Musical instruments was developed in Italy in the Sixteenth century. (These gauges are sometimes called by their German names, stark, mittel, and weich. )

Materials

Core

Steel forms the core for almost all^[4] metal strings; other natural materials such as silk or gut, or synthetics such as nylon and kevlar are also used for string cores. Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 Silk is a natural Protein Fiber, some forms of which can be woven into Textiles The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons Catgut is the name applied to cord of great toughness and tenacity prepared from the Intestines of the Sheep or Goat, or occasionally from those of the Overview Nylon is a Thermoplastic silky material first used commercially in a nylon- Bristled Toothbrush (1938 followed more famously by Kevlar is the registered Trademark for a light strong para-aramid Synthetic fiber, related to other Aramids such as Nomex and (Steel used for strings, called music wire, is hardened and tempered. Piano wire is a specialized type of Wire made for use in Piano and other musical instrument strings as well as many other purposes ) Some violin E strings are gold-plated in order to improve the tone quality.

Sheep and bull gut (called catgut, even though cats were never used for this purpose) were the original materials used as cores for strings for violin family instruments. The Violin family of Musical instruments was developed in Italy in the Sixteenth century. Gut strings are subject to changes in humidity, which cause them go out of tune, and they also break more easily than other core materials. However, even after the introduction of metal and synthetic core materials, gut strings remain in widespread use because their warmer tone is preferable to some players. Modern gut strings are usually wrapped in metal.

At the present time, one of the most popular materials for the cores of violin, viola, cello, and bass strings is stranded nylon, often sold under the trade name of Perlon. These were first introduced by Thomastik in the 1970s and 80s,. Thomastik-Infeld is an Austrian company founded in 1919 located in Vienna developing and producing strings and Rosins for bowed and fretted String

Today, most jazz and folk string players prefer steel-core strings for their faster response, low cost, and tuning stability, whereas most classical string players prefer synthetic-core strings (Perlon etc. ) for their richer overtones and "warmer" tone. Most baroque string players still prefer gut-core stings.

By far the most popular string combination for a modern concert violinist is synthetic-core G, D, and A strings, with a steel E string.

Winding

Aluminum is the most common for bowed instruments like violin and viola, whereas guitar and piano strings are usually wound with bronze. WikipediaNaming Bronze is any of a broad range of Copper alloys, usually with Tin as the main additive but sometimes with other elements such as Phosphorus Copper, nickel, gold, silver, and tungsten are also used. Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 Nickel (ˈnɪkəl is a metallic Chemical element with the symbol Ni and Atomic number 28 Gold (ˈɡoʊld is a Chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and Atomic number 79 Silver (ˈsɪlvɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol " Ag " (argentum from the Ancient Greek: ἀργήντος - argēntos gen Tungsten (ˈtʌŋstən also known as wolfram (/ˈwʊlfrəm/ is a Chemical element that has the symbol W and Atomic number 74 Silver and gold are more expensive, and are used for their resistance to corrosion and hypoallergenicity. Hypoallergenic is a term coined by advertisers (based on the Greek prefix Hypo meaning "below normal" or "slightly" and first used in a cosmetics

Some "historically-informed" strings use an open metal winding with a "barber pole" appearance. The historically informed performance, period performance, or authentic performance movement is an approach by musicians and scholars to research and perform works

"Silk and steel" guitar strings are overwound steel strings with silk filaments running under the winding.

String vibration

Main article: Vibrating string

A string vibrates in a complex harmonic pattern. A Vibration in a string is a Wave. Usually a vibrating string produces a Sound whose Frequency in most cases is constant Every time a string is set into motion, a specific set of frequencies resonate based on the harmonic series. See Harmonic series (mathematics for the (related mathematical concept The fundamental frequency is the lowest (and loudest), and it is determined by the density, length and tension of the string. The fundamental tone, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated fo, is the lowest frequency in a harmonic series. The density of a material is defined as its Mass per unit Volume: \rho = \frac{m}{V} Different materials usually have different Length is the long Dimension of any object The length of a thing is the distance between its ends its linear extent as measured from end to end In Physics String Tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string cable chain or similar object on another object This is the frequency that we identify as the pitch of the string. Pitch represents the perceived Fundamental frequency of a sound Above that frequency, overtones (or harmonics) are heard, each one getting quieter the higher it is. For example, if the fundamental pitch is 440 Hz (A above middle C), then the overtones for a string tuned to that pitch will be 880 Hz, 1320 Hz, 1760 Hz, 2200 Hz, etc. The note names for those pitches would be A, A, E, A, C#, etc. Due to the mass of the strings, however, the higher up the overtones go, the more out of tune (or "false") they are to the fundamental. This is an important consideration for piano tuners, who try to stretch the tuning across the piano to keep overtones more in tune as they go up the keyboard. Piano tuning is the act of making minute adjustments to the tensions of the strings of a Piano to properly align the intervals between their tones so that the instrument is

String corrosion

Metal strings offer a unique problem, as they are susceptible to oxidation and corrosion. Redox (shorthand for reduction-oxidation reaction describes all Chemical reactions in which atoms have their Oxidation number ( Oxidation state Corrosion means the breaking down of essential properties in a material due to Chemical reactions with its surroundings Wound strings that use metals such as brass or bronze in their winding will eventually corrode, as moisture and salts from the player's fingers build up oxides on the string. An oxide is a Chemical compound containing at least one Oxygen atom as well as at least one other element As a result, the string will lose its brilliance over time. ^[5] To help solve this problem, string manufacturers apply a metal plating or polymer coating to protect the string from corrosion. Plating describes surface-covering where a Metal is deposited on a conductive surface A polymer is a large Molecule ( Macromolecule) composed of repeating Structural units typically connected by Covalent Chemical bonds

See also

• Violin construction and mechanics
• String squeak

References

External links

• Identify strings by their silk patterns
• The vibrations of strings with both ends fixed
• Guitar Strings From The Nineteenth Century To The Advent Of Nylon
• Historical types of string
• String Calculation; String Measurement; Mass Per Unit Length
• Custom String Gauge Design Terry Downs
• String Tension - technical information on string tension, with tension calculator