Acoustic VS Electric Guitar Strings: All You Need to Know

Release time: 2022-06-28

There are many types of guitar strings, and each of them can bring a different sound to the instrument. The sound of a guitar string depends on many aspects, including the material, gauge, core, coated of the string, and its winding ways.

Acoustic and electric guitar strings are the two major kinds of guitar strings relating to the timbre and effects of the guitar. This article will introduce the differences between acoustic and electric guitar strings. Follow up and keep reading!

1. Materials

The electric guitar strings usually consist of three common metals: nickel-plated, pure nickel, and stainless steel. The nickel-plated strings are popular and cover most of the electric guitar strings. They are made of steel and coated with nickel, which helps soften the touch. In addition, the nickel-plated strings balance the characteristics of nickel and steel on one string for warm and bright tones.

Pure nickel strings have a warmer tone and a thicker sound than other electric guitar strings. Therefore, pure nickel strings are best for classic old-school or retro-style songs such as blues, jazz, or classic rock.

The pure steel strings produce the brightest and loudest sound of all-electric guitar strings, making them perfect for rock. In addition, it has good corrosion resistance because it is made of a highly magnetic alloy. This characteristic makes it more durable than other electric guitar strings. However, these strings will wear out your frets faster than nickel-plated or pure nickel strings.

● Acoustic Guitar Strings

People often play folk songs with acoustic guitar strings because of their warm tones. So, they are ideal for soft tonal genres such as ballads and lullabies. In addition, acoustic guitar strings are best for smaller-sized guitars. In contrast, the electric guitar strings produce a brighter tone, so they are perfect for aggressive music genres like heavy rock or hip-hop.

3. Gauge

Wound strings are much thicker, so wound strings produce a warmer sound. Acoustic guitars have more wound strings than electric guitars. In most cases, the four acoustic guitar strings with the lowest volume are all brass or bronze wound. However, for electric guitar strings, only the former three strings(E, A, D strings) have nickel plating.

Why Choose Alice Strings

Established in 1999, Alice Strings has built five modern workshops with a total area of about 30,000 square meters and twelve professional production lines. The company is one of the most influential musical instruments and accessories.

In addition, Alice Strings has a professional R&D center with all materials and products tested to ISO9001:2015 standards. We offer more than 2000 products to meet music lovers' needs, including classical guitar strings, acoustic guitar strings, Classical Guitar Strings, Acoustic Guitar Strings, Electric Guitar Strings, Acoustic Bass Strings, etc.