Nickel strings on Rosewood B&S Guilds anyone?

krugjr

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Most seem to prefer nickel strings on mahogany guitars, and stick to phosphor bronze on rosewoods.....I found that to be somewhat true on my Orph Ds (Hog and RW) but I was wondering if anyone has tried nickel on their D55 or their F50R? Thanks in advance for opinions.....
 

Westerly Wood

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Not a fan of nickel at all. PBs are great on hog backs too.
 
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Never found a nickel string of any flavor that I would keep on an acoustic instrument--dead-sounding from the start and downhill from there. For a mag-pickup instrument that's only going to played through an amp, it's a different matter--though neither the Monels nor the nickel-bronze I've tried have aged gracefully. But then, my ear is tuned to phosphor bronze and has been for decades now--anything else is either too bright or too dull.

But those are just my ears.
 

Westerly Wood

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Oh and slight veer as too lazy today to start own thread. Gave Santa Cruz strings a whirl. Very responsive but coated. Just don't like coated strings. Alas.
 

txbumper57

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I originally tried the Nickel Bronze on my 000 12 fret Hog Orpheum and didn't like them at all. I had purchased 3 sets to experiment with when they first came out. Just to see if I had a bad set of strings I ran another set on My F50R for a Baseline as my F50R is my Watermark for RW tone. I tried to play them in for a few days but they never would completely intonate right on either guitar which was strange as they were the exact same size string I had been running. I don't know if it is possible for a string to sound tinny and Harsh at the same time but these did. They didn't perform well for finger picking or flat picking on the F50R. It was almost as if they Choked the tone down on the guitar. After 3 days of torture I took them off. I run PB on most of my Guitars now but If I had to choose between Nickel Bronze and the Martin Monel strings for my F50R or any Rosewood Guild I own I would have to go with the Monels as at least they sounded great Finger picked and seem to be more Transparent in tone.

Recently I put the last set of Nickel Bronze I purchased on My Orpheum 12 fret slope (Hog but Deep Bodied) as it is becoming an inherently Dark sounding guitar and I wanted to try and brighten it up a bit. I also in theory thought that maybe the Nickel Bronze and the 12 fret would be a good match. Once again they sound OK but nothing to write home about. I will probably change them soon as I love playing that guitar and I find with the Nickel Bronze on it I just don't pick it up as often as I did before. Hope this helps and have a great weekend Krug!

TX
 
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krugjr

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thanks, TX, and thanks again for bringing the conversation back to "nickel" strings, like the Monels and JPs.....Monels have been my choice for nickel.....didn't seem to work on my 14 fret slope RW, but they were perfect for the 14 fret slope hog burst (that now resides in Hong Kong) very good match for my rhythm style...beautiful sound (and I will stop talking about it now before the "selling remorse" sets in.... I asked this nickel and RW question to see if anyone has used, or is currently using, nickel on their D55 or F50R.....the Orphs are gone, and I used a friend's J200 maple for a few days (decided not to buy), thought about the J200 Rosewood (haven't played one yet), but after some good advice from a friend, I can see an F50R coming back into my life again, so the string question came to mind.....as always, I appreciate all the responses!
 
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