Phosphor Bronze Strings with Boomy floating pickup

[jjang1993]

Deleted for privacy and safety reasons

[Cunamara]

Well, it's a cheap experiment to try phosphor bronze or 80/20 bronze. Most guitar amps are not designed with archtop guitars in mind; they are designed with Telecasters, Stratocasters and maybe Les Pauls in mind– especially the Fender tone stack. That tends to make amplified archtops boomy in the bass and leads to feedback problems.

I put Martin Retro Monel strings on my 17 inch carved archtop with floating pickup and found that to be a very good set up. There is somewhat more magnetic signal than with PB or 80/20 strings, but much less response than pure nickel or nickel plated strings. I'm really quite delighted with it. The boom has been cut tremendously. I also like those strings on my flattop.

[sgosnell]

IME bronze strings are boomier than most other types. I agree with the monel recommendation, I use them on all my carved top archtops. I've tried brass, phosphor bronze, nickel coated bronze, and almost everything else, and I've pretty much settled on monel for acoustic guitars, amplified or not. They have a different bass response, which I prefer. But yes, it's not a hugely expensive experiment to see if the bronze strings work for you.

[Christian Miller]

Daddario nickel bronzes?

PB’s are too bright for archtops IME

[JohanAbrandt]

Parametric equaliser

[garybaldy]

Yeah. Monels on my loar carved. Very nice

[sgosnell]

I still have a couple of sets of D'Addario Nickel Bronze strings lying around. I bought a few, and didn't like them. The worst of both worlds, IMO. But they make a wide variety of strings for a reason.

Another monel string that I think I like are American Roots by SIT. Martin seems to no longer sell .012 sets of Retro strings, and I prefer the lighter wound strings on amplified guitars. JustStrings.com offered them when the Martins were out of stock, and I haven't seen them in stock since. I only recently installed them, and I'm liking the sound, perhaps a little more acoustic than the Martin Retros, and still without the boominess of the usual acoustic strings.
SIT AR1253 American Roots Monel Acoustic Strings Pro Light 12-53

[pcjazz]

Or you can use a preamp with a hi-pass or low-cut filter,e.g. the Polytone-in-a-pedal offered by a forum member. Or an amp like the Schertler Unico or Acoustic Image Clarus with a built-in filter.

[bluejaybill]

A good parametric or graphic eq is a godsend for jazz guitars, especially with Fender tone stacks. Jazz amps are created with that tone in mind so maybe not such a problem.

If your guitar is balanced acoustically but the pickup is boomy, first try turning the bass literally to zero. In fact for jazz I often turn both bass and treble to zero, then just open them up a bit to 1 or 2. But then I often use an eq to tailor the crucial mids.

Otherwise, pure nickel strings have less output than plated, maybe monel, and then I’d look for another pickup. Also, on one of mine the second string sticks out, and I sometimes use a quality compressor for that.

[sgosnell]

Loud individual strings are the reason for adjustable polepieces. If the pickup doesn't have them, the only other fix I know of is to lower the pickup as far from the strings as possible. That helps. But the tone is somewhat different, which can be good or bad, depending on one's ear.

[mr. beaumont]

How are those polepieces set?

[citizenk74]

Or you can use a preamp with a hi-pass or low-cut filter,e.g. the Polytone-in-a-pedal offered by a forum member. Or an amp like the Schertler Unico or Acoustic Image Clarus with a built-in filter.

+1 for my Acoustic Image Corus III. Adjustable shelving lows really tightens up the sound.

[sgosnell]

Again, IME monel strings lack the boominess of bronze. The SIT American Roots strings are only $7.00, the Martins not much more. The SIT monels are only available in .011 and .012 sets, but I swap the plain strings for .013 and perhaps .016. I just ordered a couple of .011 sets, and expect to get a better balanced set ala TI, which sells sets with lighter wound strings. But your guitar, your strings. You asked, we answered.