Ever mixed 80/20 with Phosphor Bronze?

Timcito

I'd always thought this in the 'hell no!' category, along with putting steel strings on a classical and such like. But last night I needed a bottom 53 or 54 string for one of my acoustics, which was strung with 80/20s. All I had was a 53 PB, so I stuck it on and hoped for the best. Well, it sounds just fine. If there's any subtle difference between this and how an 80/20 53 would sound, I'm not sure my ear is sharp enough to catch it. Six strings all in 80/20 vs, six all PB, yes, I'm sure I could hear the difference, but with just one string? I can't hear it. 

Tannin

This is actually a thing. At least two manufacturers (and probably more that I can't think of at present) do it for tone balance reasons.

Thomastic is the best-known example. Their well-known Spectrum set mixes brass strings with phosphor bronze (and also round wound with flat) to (they say) produce a more even, better-balanced tone overall. From memory, you have two plain steels as usual, then three flats with a round wound E. Two of the four wound strings are phosphor bronze, two brass. (I forget which ones.)  The result works well and is a reasonably popular choice, though very expensive like all Thomastic products. Does it actually work better than a standard all-the-same set? Not really, at least not in my opinion. Nice strings well-made but needlessly complicated. (Which is pretty much what you could say about most German engineering!) 

I'm trying without success to remember the other brand of mixed-material strings I've tried. Bit of brain fade there and I'm away from home and my string database scribble. 

Timcito

Tannin said:

This is actually a thing. At least two manufacturers (and probably more that I can't think of at present) do it for tone balance reasons.

Thomastic is the best-known example. Their well-known Spectrum set mixes brass strings with phosphor bronze (and also round wound with flat) to (they say) produce a more even, better-balanced tone overall. From memory, you have two plain steels as usual, then three flats with a round wound E. Two of the four wound strings are phosphor bronze, two brass. (I forget which ones.)  The result works well and is a reasonably popular choice, though very expensive like all Thomastic products. Does it actually work better than a standard all-the-same set? Not really, at least not in my opinion. Nice strings well-made but needlessly complicated. (Which is pretty much what you could say about most German engineering!) 

I'm trying without success to remember the other brand of mixed-material strings I've tried. Bit of brain fade there and I'm away from home and my string database scribble. 

Interesting what you say. 

I do find it odd that I've never thought to do it before - just to see what it sounded like. It's been one of those things I imagined one simply shouldn't do!

Mellish

OP are you talking about buying two sets of strings (80/20 and PB) and  using a mixed set?? 

ICBM

Timcito said:

I'd always thought this in the 'hell no!' category, along with putting steel strings on a classical and such like. But last night I needed a bottom 53 or 54 string for one of my acoustics, which was strung with 80/20s. All I had was a 53 PB, so I stuck it on and hoped for the best. Well, it sounds just fine. If there's any subtle difference between this and how an 80/20 53 would sound, I'm not sure my ear is sharp enough to catch it. Six strings all in 80/20 vs, six all PB, yes, I'm sure I could hear the difference, but with just one string? I can't hear it. 

That doesn’t surprise me if the set was played-in and the PB was new. A brand new PB does sound like an 80/20 at the point it’s played-in but not dead. The advantage of PB is that it’s not as horribly bright as 80/20 when new, and doesn’t die anywhere near as fast.

Timcito

Mellish said:

OP are you talking about buying two sets of strings (80/20 and PB) and  using a mixed set?? 

No, just one string. The thing was, I had the guitar set up for dropped D, so I had a 55 for the E string tuned down to D. The strings were all 80/20s. I then wanted to play the guitar in standard, but I didn't want to tighten that 55 up to E, so that's when I rummaged through my string sets to see if there were any single strings I had that I could use.

Timcito

ICBM said:

That doesn’t surprise me if the set was played-in and the PB was new. A brand new PB does sound like an 80/20 at the point it’s played-in but not dead. The advantage of PB is that it’s not as horribly bright as 80/20 when new, and doesn’t die anywhere near as fast.

The strings had been on about a week, and the PB 53 was new.

I actually prefer the brightness of 80/20s as I like 'sparkle.' That's assuming there is added sparkle - maybe the difference between PBs and 80/20s is more negligible than I had thought.

Mellish

@Timcito gotcha

ICBM

Timcito said:

The strings had been on about a week, and the PB 53 was new.

That's about when 80/20s play in, and about a week before they die .

Timcito said:

I actually prefer the brightness of 80/20s as I like 'sparkle.' That's assuming there is added sparkle - maybe the difference between PBs and 80/20s is more negligible than I had thought.

No, I think you're hearing it right - new 80/20s are really bright.

Tannin

Brass strings don't die the way phosphor bronze ones do. They mellow. An old PB (after maybe 2 months, depending on your usage) loses some treble zing but it also loses its integrity of tone, it sounds a bit out of tune no matter how carefully you adjust it. An old brass string (after half that time or even less) still rings true. It will go on producing a good quality, smooth and tone-accurate sound for a long time (say 6 months). Of course, it has very little treble. In the classic years (the 1960s, say) this was the way most guitars sounded most of the time, and countless thousands of great recordings were made on old brass strings. 

Do I prefer that sound? Not really, though it can be just right for some styles of music on some instruments. Similarly, the super-bright sound of new brass strings can be just right sometimes. It's not "horribly bright" unless you happen to want something else. It's just yet another colour in the diverse  pallete of tones acoustic guitars provide.