Vintage/period strings

[RJVB]

Can someone point me to an overview of the evolution of strings used for the various guitar (incl. archtop) repertoires starting at around 1900 - winding alloys, round vs flat vs polished etc?

I'm also interested in the plain wire trebles. I've always understood that the steel violin E string became the standard only after technological progress made during WW2 because before they were (or or more of) too expensive and/or too unreliable in terms of longevity and/or justness. Supposing there's truth in that it should also have been true for the (so much longer) guitar trebles.

[Webby]

Well, I guess the swing guitar blog by forum member Jonathan Stout would be a great starting point:
Guitar String Composition and Swing Guitar — Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five featuring Hilary Alexander

Also besides scientifical analysis about period correct strings that blog is a great ressource!

Paul

[Litterick]

This looks useful: String history – what did guitar players use in the pre-war era?

[RJVB]

Thanks for the answers! I'd already seen Jonathan's blog (but forgotten about it). The 2nd article confirms what I suspected, that the "silver" strings mentioned by Jonathan are indeed probably wound with silver-plated copper - like classical strings usually are. (There are strings that indeed use silver winding though.)

I'm not surprised to see that silk-and-steel strings were common so early, not in a period that is still a bit of a transition period to the acoustic guitar with steel strings as we know it today. IIRC wound silk strings were still used on classical guitar in the early 20th century.

Metal stringed instruments from before the steel-string guitar often (typically?) used copper or bronze wire so it's not surprising to find those for early acoustic guitar. I'd be curious to try those for the B and high E!

I wonder what exactly is meant with "spanish style guitar". Any flattop, or what we now call the classical guitar? The 30s set of monel-wound silk with gut trebles must have been for classical guitar; there's no way these would work on a guitar built for steel strings (or even at 440Hz). FWIW, Pyramid can custom-make monel-on-nylon bass strings; I'll order me a set or two next time.

[Webby]

I wonder what exactly is meant with "spanish style guitar". Any flattop, or what we now call the classical guitar?

If I'm not mistakin', by that time period the term "spanish guitar" was mainly used to distinguish between lapsteels and "regular" guitars. Regular guitars meaning any kind of guitar that's not a lapsteel, so classic als, flattops and archtops fall into that category.

That nomenclature is also present in Gibsons model numbers. The ES as in ES-150, ES-175 etc. stands for "electric spanish", whereas the prefix EH was reserved for the lapsteels, meaning "electric hawaiian".

At least that's what I've been told.

Paul

[RJVB]

Kudos for Americans not being patriotic for once ... and for once it would have been appropriate to call archtops and acoustic/steel-string flattops "American guitars"

IIUC the term "Spanish guitar" has a very specific meaning in classical guitar circles, probably referring to the flamenco guitar. Which looks like a classical but is slightly different (apparently).

[sgosnell]

In Gibson ES series guitars, the ES stands for Electric Spanish. The term Spanish Guitar refers to any guitar of the general shape, whether the top is arched or flat. It's just a general term to separate the steel guitar from the 'standard' guitar, which was another term in use back in the day. Bob Wills used to refer to Eldon Shamblin playing 'standard guitar', as opposed to the steel guitar. The terms are somewhat interchangeable and nebulous.

[RJVB]

The term Spanish Guitar refers to any guitar of the general shape, whether the top is arched or flat. It's just a general term to separate the steel guitar from the 'standard' guitar

And exactly how is it supposed to do that?

[RJVB]

The 30s set of monel-wound silk with gut trebles must have been for classical guitar; there's no way these would work on a guitar built for steel strings (or even at 440Hz).

Does anyone here have an idea if the above assumption is correct, and for what repertoire those strings might have been used? I'd expect them to have a very different sound signature than the usual silverplated-copper wounds.

[pcjazz]

And exactly how is it supposed to do that?

Steel guitar meaning lap steel (or pedal steel).

[RJVB]

Steel guitar meaning lap steel (or pedal steel).

Of course