Monel strings on a carved archtop?

[John A.]

... You’ll probably get a pretty weak bass string response?

That hasn't been my experience.

John

[Hammertone]

Monel strings work well with magnetic pickups. Bear in mind that "Monel" is a trade name for a nickel/copper alloy (technically a range of allowy). Metallurgically, it's the same thing as the "pure nickel" wound strings offered by various companies. Unless your pickup is specifically designed for bronze or PB acoustic strings, any monel or "pure nickel" string will work fine. I've tried a bunch of 'em (TI, Martin Monels, D'Addario, GHS). The basic electric sound of all of them is the same, though the Martin Monels have the best acoustic sound of the bunch. John

"Monel is a group of nickel alloys, primarily composed of nickel (from 52 to 67%) and copper, with small amounts of iron, manganese, carbon, and silicon."

"Pure nickel" wrap is ??% nickel.

[sgosnell]

Strings sold as "pure nickel" are not pure nickel. They're alloys. Pure elemental nickel is not a good choice for very many applications. It would be interesting to see the exact alloy Martin uses, but AFAIK they don't make that information available.

[Hammertone]

Strings sold as "pure nickel" are not pure nickel. They're alloys. Pure elemental nickel is not a good choice for very many applications. It would be interesting to see the exact alloy Martin uses, but AFAIK they don't make that information available.

I dropped the last part of my previous post (added back) and think it should not be too hard to sort out the answers for different string brands. My guess is over 95% nickel. Time to dig!

[christianm77]

Monel strings work well with magnetic pickups. Bear in mind that "Monel" is a trade name for a nickel/copper alloy (technically a range of allowy). Metallurgically, it's the same thing as the "pure nickel" wound strings offered by various companies. Unless your pickup is specifically designed for bronze or PB acoustic strings, any monel or "pure nickel" string will work fine. I've tried a bunch of 'em (TI, Martin Monels, D'Addario, GHS). The basic electric sound of all of them is the same, though the Martin Monels have the best acoustic sound of the bunch.

John

Worth knowing!

[broturtel]

I wanted to try Martin Retro Monel strings on my Eastman AR805CE. It has a floating pickup but the polepieces are not adjustable. Should i bother?

I have an Eastman AR810CE with a non adjustable humbucker and these strings work great on them! I don't play roundwound strings much, but I was in need of a new set and had these for backup so I string them up. I have some audio above of this set up that I recorded and put up on soundcloud. Check it out if you're curious. Happy string hunting, friend.

[Spook410]

Using D'Addario balanced tension nickel bronze strings on my acoustic archtops. Like the acoustic sound. Makes magnetic pickups happy.

[nickyboy]

I always found Rotosound strings to feel quite coarse.

[sgosnell]

Well, I needed more items to get my tuner shipped for free, and I always need more strings, so I bought a couple of sets of the Martin Monel Retro strings. I've used them before, and I mostly like them. They'll go on my Wu, maybe on both. I've been using nickel-plated steel, because they're cheap and sound good, but a change won't hurt.

[oldane]

I have a set of Martin Monels on my Triggs 19" "Stromberg". They work fine for me - better than bronze. Bronze tends to get a bit too twangy and the bass can easily get boomy with such a big guitar body, but with the Monels, the guitar is mellow and warm with preserved depth but without the twanginess and bass boominess. I have no experiences with them on electric guitars where I use flatwounds.

[dr_Primus]

I have an Eastman AR810CE with a non adjustable humbucker and these strings work great on them! I don't play roundwound strings much, but I was in need of a new set and had these for backup so I string them up. I have some audio above of this set up that I recorded and put up on soundcloud. Check it out if you're curious. Happy string hunting, friend.

Thanks... That’s what I needed to hear

[Hammertone]

rotosound is the only string company with a monel flat...only gauge they offer is 12-52 tho
aside from martins recent entry into monel strings, pyramid also now makes a monel roundwound string..pyramid monel classics
btw-Monel Steel (67% pure nickel, 23% copper & 10% iron) cheers

Just an update to this for those reading it for the first time.
Rotosound Top Tapes ARE NO LONGER MADE WITH MONEL.
They switched to a steel wrap a few years ago, and never changed their packaging, which continues to state "Monel Flatwound."

[garybaldy]

Old thread I know!
Recently changed the TI Swing 12s for Martin Monel 12s on my Loar 700.
I love the slightly higher tension and the sound is gorgeous both acoustic and plugged in (the guitar has retro fitted mini HB - A non handwound KA I think).

[RJVB]

I had Pyramid make me a set of Monel silk-and-steel strings (they offered to polish them, which I declined). My idea was to try them on my Loar but I have yet to get around to that. Meanwhile, they have been on my mini jumbo, which is at least a similarly sized spruce+maple guitar (that actually has a slight curve to top and back).

I'm not certain what to think of them, and don't really feel like trying them on the archtop anymore. The reason is that they make the jumbo sound a bit like a (very resonant) archtop. Playing the guitar I still think she has lots (possibly too much) bass, but when I listen to recordings the impression is very different from the Plectrums I had on before. The bass is there, but like on an archtop long bass notes will disappear amidst the mid and treble notes being played. I'm undecided because I don't play that guitar much ATM but if this is what those strings do to a big boomy guitar I probably don't want to know how they'll make my archtop sound.

Interestingly, those Pyramid strings have the same coarse feel to it as the Martin and Newtone Monels I tried. Not sure why a round Monel wire would feel coarser than a round brass wire of the same gauge, but it makes me regret not having accepted the polishing.

They do sound very neutral in the sense that identical notes played on the G and (plain wire) B string sound more similar than with a brass or bronze G.

[Cunamara]

I have been using the Martin Monels on my carved archtop for months and I am really digging them. A few folks mentioned diminished bass response electrically; for me this is a benefit because my archtop is always a little too bassy through the amp, which in turn results in higher susceptibility to feedback. The guitar sounds much more natural through an amp with these strings; I think they're keepers.

I also really like them on my flat top. Apparently Tony Rice knew what he was on about when he chose those as his main strings.

[va3ux]

GHS Bright Flats are Monel. "Monel 52".

[Hammertone]

"Monel is a group of nickel alloys, primarily composed of nickel (from 52 to 67%) and copper, with small amounts of iron, manganese, carbon, and silicon." ...

GHS Brite Flats are cool groundwounds, but Alloy 52 is not Monel, which is sort of 2/3 nickel and sort of 1/3 copper.
Rather, it is sort of 1/2 nickel and sort of 1/2 iron.
If it is actually Alloy 52, it has this general composition:
-@ 51.5% nickel
-@ 47.8% iron
-plus a bunch of other elements, but no copper.

[charleyrich99]

I tried the Martin Retro Monels on my 51 Gibson Super 300 acoustic carved top archtop. They were the first strings I tried thinking they could be a great match. They lasted an afternoon I found them thin ,tinny, overly metallic sounding and lacking bass definition all of which was exactly what I did not want. If you look on acoustic forums it seems different guitars ( or guitarists)rs seem to respond to them quite differently. For what its worth I settled on DR Rare 13-56 as my strings of choice for that guitar.

Will

The Martin retros sound terrific on an OM flattop as they are very even sounding in volume across strings, and work well with fingerstyle guitar.

[va3ux]

Yes, my mistake. I saw "alloy 52" and thought 'Monel 52'. Its actually one of the Pyramid string sets I was thinking of that is Monel.