Questions: Vintage Strings

by Fan Tao

Originally published in American Lutherie #91, 2007

Andrew Lines from the Internet asks:

I am looking for information on original string types as fitted to early Orville Gibson archtops as well as 1920s and ’30s instruments such as the L-5, New Yorker, and Master 400. I understand that these were originally metal strung, pure copper or Monel wound, but can’t find any info on gauges or core-to-winding ratios.

Fan Tao of D’Addario Strings in Farmingdale, New York, replies:

I’ve asked Jim D’Addario and several other guitar players around here, and no one knows. They all say it was long before their time. We have historical information only on modern D’Addario products, (back to the 1950s). However, there is some information in the book D’Addario: The Player’s Choice: 1905–2005 by Baker Rorick commissioned by D’Addario in 2005. Chapter 2 starts:

“Before WWII, most steel-core strings had been wrapped with copper, silver-plated copper, or ‘commercial bronze’ (90% copper and 10% tin and other alloys). Monel — the trade name for a nickel-copper alloy — became a popular wrap wire in the 1920s, and its high nickel-steel content also made it viable for use with electromagnetic pickups and amplifiers. John Sr. [he passed away in 2000], searching for a louder, brighter, stronger, and longer-lasting string, experimented with different alloys of copper and tin, and developed a formula using 80/20 bronze (80% copper and 20% tin, also called brass) windings over a steel core. Trying different core-to-wrap ratios, he used a lighter core than other string makers, which ended up being the key to a better sounding string.... One of the first people to recognize [their] superiority was John D’Angelico.... It’s not known when [they met], but it is known that by 1937 C. D’Addario & Son had begun supplying their new 80/20 bronze roundwound strings to D’Angelico....” ◆