About .006 Guage Guitar Strings from Schmeg.com

   

With all the types of guitar (and bass) strings around, you certainly have a choice to make about how you want to sound.  This will describe the most common types of electric and acoustic guitar and bass strings, and what features and characteristics each has.

Materials

The metals most commonly used in strings are steel, stainless steel, nickel, bronze, and phosphor-bronze.  Plain (unwound) strings are made of plain steel.  Wound strings have a steel core and a winding made of any of several materials.  Electric strings commonly have nickel-plated steel, pure nickel, or stainless steel winding.   Acoustic strings generally have bronze or phosphor-bronze winding.

The material used for the winding affects the sound tremendously.  Nickel-plated steel (the most common winding for electric guitar strings) is a middle-of-the-road sound - not too soft, and not too bright.  Pure nickel winding gives a softer, warmer tone, and stainless steel winding gives a much brighter tone.  Most string packages which say "Nickel-Wound" and not "Pure Nickel" are wound with nickel-plated steel.

Acoustic guitar strings are generally wound with bronze or phosphor-bronze.   Bronze strings have a slightly brighter tone, while the addition of phosphor increases string life.

Winding

Most electric and acoustic strings are "roundwound."  This type of winding has a full, bright tone, and the strings have a textured surface.  Because of their texture, roundwound strings can make it harder to control finger-movement noise when playing.  Flatwound strings resemble the totally-smooth strings used on an upright bass.  Rather than a round winding being applied to the steel core, flatwound strings are made by winding a flat tape-like strip of material around the core.  These strings have a much warmer, duller sound than roundwound strings.  To compensate for this loss of brightness, stainless steel winding is used almost exclusively on flatwound electric strings.