Martin Monel Retro strings on archtop with floater?

[stringmann]

A buddy discouraged me using monel retro on archtop with floater, said this: "The wrapped strings don’t pickup with magnetic pickup only the E&B will." Is this true?

[ThatRhythmMan]

Monel is at least 52% nickel and nickel is ferromagnetic. Strings using this for a wrap will definitely work but will have less output than some other wraps (pure nickel or nickel-plated steel). Some won’t like that, but they definitely “work”.


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[John A.]

A buddy discouraged me using monel retro on archtop with floater, said this: "The wrapped strings don’t pickup with magnetic pickup only the E&B will." Is this true?

Not true. Martin Retros (and any other company's Monel wrapped strings) work fine with magnetic pickups (as well as any pure nickel, nickel plated, nickel-alloy or steel wrapped strings).

[58flame]

They absolutely work.

[jim232777]

Judge for yourself. Here is a quick and dirty demo I did when selling this Godin 5th Avenue. The guitar had both a K&K transducer pickup and a Kent Armstrong floater, both wired TRS through the usual endpin connection. I split the signal and recorded these simultaneously, then put the video together by selecting audio channels. The magnetic pickup sounds start at about 0:56. I was actually surprised at how good it sounded. (Sorry for the bad cell phone audio at the beginning.)

[andrew]

I think monel strings are the best compromise (or “best of both worlds” if you wanna look at it that way) for an acoustic archtop with a floating pickup. They give both a good acoustic and a good electric sound.

[Cunamara]

I used Martin Retro Monels on my archtop with a floater (CC style) and they worked fine. With regular strings it was too bassy, but with the Mone;s that was better balanced. They are not as loud as nickel or stainless strings, but they can work very well. FWIW Charllie Christian probably used Monel strings.

[omphalopsychos]

Sorry to mythbust. They do work, but they work about as well as other acoustic strings. Yes the wrap material has more nickel but the retro monels have pretty thin inner cores. I’d rather get a good set of 8020 with thicker cores and play that. Philippe Bosset and GHS vintage bronze have stronger ferromagnetic properties than Martin monel and they sound subjectively better to my ear.


To those who say that retro work well with magnetic pickups, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying that the pole piece adjustment you’re applying will balance other acoustic strings too.

[RomanS]

I tried Martin Retro Monels (which I like on acoustic flattops, as well as for acoustic playing on my Loar LH300) through magnetic pickups, and for me they did NOT work!

Both on my Godin 5th Ave (with P90 pickup) as well as on the Loar (with a Baytone floating CC-style pickup) the high E and B strings were noticeably louder than the other 4 strings - you can also clearly hear that in @jim232777's video linked above (especially comparing to how balanced all the strings sound through the K&K pickup)!
With the Godin I needed to completely remove the P90 pole screw for the B string, and lower that of the high E as deep as possible, and they still were slightly louder than EADG.

I settled on GHS White Bronze strings, which don't sound as good as Martin Retros when played unplugged, but are a lot better balanced when playing through a magnetic pickup, with all 6 strings at the same volume level.

[GuyBoden]

Sorry to mythbust. They do work, but they work about as well as other acoustic strings. Yes the wrap material has more nickel but the retro monels have pretty thin inner cores. I’d rather get a good set of 8020 with thicker cores and play that. Philippe Bosset and GHS vintage bronze have stronger ferromagnetic properties than Martin monel and they sound subjectively better to my ear.


To those who say that retro work well with magnetic pickups, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying that the pole piece adjustment you’re applying will balance other acoustic strings too.

This ^

[garybaldy]

My Loar 700 with mini HB is always strung with MMs (13s)

[Cunamara]

Sorry to mythbust. They do work, but they work about as well as other acoustic strings. Yes the wrap material has more nickel but the retro monels have pretty thin inner cores. I’d rather get a good set of 8020 with thicker cores and play that. Philippe Bosset and GHS vintage bronze have stronger ferromagnetic properties than Martin monel and they sound subjectively better to my ear.

To those who say that retro work well with magnetic pickups, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying that the pole piece adjustment you’re applying will balance other acoustic strings too.

I wasn't able to do any polepiece adjustment because it was a Pete Biltoft CC floater- only the one polepiece, you see. Due to low string clearance, not really able to tip the pickup to lower the bass side. I got better balance with the Monels with that pickup than with "electric" guitar strings, reducing the boominess of the bass strings. I didn't try any other acoustic strings, so I don't have any comparison with those.

Same guitar, different Biltoft pickup (PAF humbucker) and regular strings work fine. There is some polepiece adjustment there, but I think it is just different qualities of the two pickups.

[Chazmo]

Martin Retro strings work fine on my Godin 5th Avenue acoustic with DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1000 (no polepieces) pickup.

[jim232777]

Something I had completely forgotten until last night when I picked up my guitar to play. I had my Eastman AR805ce, that has a Lollar Johnny Smith and flatwound TI Jazz Swings. When I first got that guitar it seemed a bit unbalanced, so I lowered the pole pieces on the B and high E strings--and I'm still playing it adjusted that way. Not sure why the imbalance with traditional electric strings, but there you go. I am due to change the strings, so I'll have to see how it sounds when I get around to it.