Gibson VR strings.

[Wizard1183]

Which is better, the blue black pack or the recent gold orange like this?also how much demand for these strings? As in Gibson uses a “proprietary” type of material but quite easily replicated. Question is will string manufacturers create it for someone over a company?

 

[Wizard1183]

So I’m I bought a pack of DR blues which are basically pure nickel. I’ve ordered Gibson VR black pack, Gibson premium strings (nickel) and the recent Gibson vintage reissues. When they come in, I’ll be bringing them to work to perform PMI (positive metal identification) tests on all of them. I’m not going to buy all kinds of stings to test it but when the tests are completed I’ll post the chemical composition of each of those strings. If someone wants to send me a used set? I’ll do tests on those. And I’ll give out Gibsons proprietary composition of their strings. So if D’Addario or GHS can creat strings or have that chem comp in some of their cheap sets we can know exactly what they are…

 

[TM1]

They're JUNK strings! Get something that's better made out of better materials! Gibson hasn't had any good strings since the early`60's.

 

[Wizard1183]

They're JUNK strings! Get something that's better made out of better materials! Gibson hasn't had any good strings since the early`60's.

Really? Most tend to NOT agree with that

 

[DrewB]

Really? Most tend to NOT agree with that

I really like them; been using them on several guitars for the last 18 years.

 

[Wizard1183]

So here’s the strings I’ll be testing for chemical composition:
DR Blues pure Nickel,
Gibson Vintage Reissue most recent sold strings
Gibson Vintage Reissue black blue pack
D’Addario pure nickel XL
Gibson Les Paul premium strings pure nickel wound

 

[corpse]

I believe they are out of production. I see left-overs price in the $teen plus.
I have been using Blue Magic. I generally am a big fan. They have a similar slinkiness to the VR.
I this age of “oh I farted” being posted on social media, Gibson let these die with nary a peep.

 

[Wizard1183]

I believe they are out of production. I see left-overs price in the $teen plus.
I have been using Blue Magic. I generally am a big fan. They have a similar slinkiness to the VR.
I this age of “oh I farted” being posted on social media, Gibson let these die with nary a peep.

They’re not out of production. They’re just no longer for sale to the general public unless you buy a brand new guitar lol

You can still buy limited amounts from sweetwater (the recent GVR). Black and blue pack no longer sold.

 

[Wizard1183]

First set of strings tested are DR Pure Blues Nickel wound

6th string wound (testing the wind)
Nickel-Ni-99.83%
Manganese-Mn-.119%

3rd string (the core of the strings)
Iron-Fe—99.71%
Copper-Cu-.632%
Lead-Pb-.100%
Tin-Sn-1.08%

 

[TM1]

I’ve been using the German made Pyramids since 1995. Pyramid has been making strings for 180 years. They use the best quality materials that money can buy. They last much longer than others by 50-60%. A lot of the guitars strings use a Round Core and are wound by hand. Most of the women who work there have been with the company for anywhere from 30 to 50 years.

 

[J T]

Yeah Tone-Man is right. Pyramids are it.

 

[Wizard1183]

I’ve been using the German made Pyramids since 1995. Pyramid has been making strings for 180 years. They use the best quality materials that money can buy. They last much longer than others by 50-60%. A lot of the guitars strings use a Round Core and are wound by hand. Most of the women who work there have been with the company for anywhere from 30 to 50 years.

DR is handmade strings as well with round core

 

[darkwave]

Aren’t all of the plain strings plated (I seem to remember it being tin on American strings). Also anything NPS wound (obviously).

Does your equipment ablate *through* the plating?

-Douglas C

 

[Wizard1183]

Aren’t all of the plain strings plated (I seem to remember it being tin on American strings). Also anything NPS wound (obviously).

Does your equipment ablate *through* the plating?

-Douglas C

The strings I’ve listed aren’t plated. They’re pure nickel wound. Plated nickel is ONLY the wound strings plated with nickel. Pure nickel, the wound strings are 99.xx% nickel

If you’re talking about the core (1st-3rd) and core of wound strings? There is no nickel in them. There’s lead in it for corrosion purposes.

Whatever material a string is made of? PMI will tell you the %. Plated it’d tell you how much of the string is plated. It uses radiation and emits electric sparks to find the chemical composition of materials

It will not test through the wind into the core no. Which is why I’m testing 6th and 3rd strings. On the wind being the plating is bonded it’d test through that into the wind.

If you noticed there is Tin in the core of strings. I posted the % of it

 

[darkwave]

Yeah - I was specifically talking about plating of the “plain” strings. What I understand is that American companies tend to use a tin plated steel, but pyramid uses a different plating (maybe silver?).

I only mentioned NPS to acknowledge that those are nickel plated, but not solid on the windings like the DR strings you tested. A lot of people seem to miss that.

For the record, I always used the typical D’Addario NPS “XL” strings for rock on a lot of my guitars, but for my Americana band guitars I’ve been using heavier gauge DR or D’Addario pure nickel wrap and I am really happy with them. A littler rounder sounding, and a nice warm resonance to them.

- Douglas C

 

[Wizard1183]

Yeah - I was specifically talking about plating of the “plain” strings. What I understand is that American companies tend to use a tin plated steel, but pyramid uses a different plating (maybe silver?).

I only mentioned NPS to acknowledge that those are nickel plated, but not solid on the windings like the DR strings you tested. A lot of people seem to miss that.

For the record, I always used the typical D’Addario NPS “XL” strings for rock on a lot of my guitars, but for my Americana band guitars I’ve been using heavier gauge DR or D’Addario pure nickel wrap and I am really happy with them. A littler rounder sounding, and a nice warm resonance to them.

- Douglas C

Well all strings are labeled nickel plated or pure nickel. If nickel plated? 9/10 it’s a steel winding. Easy to tell. Grab a magnet. Cause did it to the DR pure nickel. The steel core will slap to a magnet real quick where as the pure nickel wound, you feel the weakness of magnetism to it.

You have an old set of pyramid? Mail them to me. I’ll tell you exactly what they’re made of. As long as they’re not rusted. I have a set of D’Addario Elixir stings (not labeled nickel wound or pure nickel) I can test if you’d like to see those results?

 

[darkwave]

Well all strings are labeled nickel plated or pure nickel. If nickel plated? 9/10 it’s a steel winding. Easy to tell. Grab a magnet. Cause did it to the DR pure nickel. The steel core will slap to a magnet real quick where as the pure nickel wound, you feel the weakness of magnetism to it.

You have an old set of pyramid? Mail them to me. I’ll tell you exactly what they’re made of. As long as they’re not rusted. I have a set of D’Addario Elixir stings (not labeled nickel wound or pure nickel) I can test if you’d like to see those results?

I never used Pyramid, so I don’t have any to send. My main interest was how your test dealt with plating since it was my understanding that the plain strings were often plated.

I have some passing familiarity with the laser-ablation systems for PMI, but I don’t know the radiation-based ones well.

- Douglas C.

 

[Wizard1183]

I never used Pyramid, so I don’t have any to send. My main interest was how your test dealt with plating since it was my understanding that the plain strings were often plated.

I have some passing familiarity with the laser-ablation systems for PMI, but I don’t know the radiation-based ones well.

- Douglas C.

It’s going to depend on thickness of plating. On guitar strings? It’s a plating thin enough that it will go through the plating into the core. If we’re talking about playing 1/8” thick? Well of course it wouldn’t. We’re using XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence analyzer) gun.

When performing Positive Material Identification (PMI) using X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) on plated material, the analysis will primarily detect the composition of the plating layer, meaning it will show the elements present in the plating rather than the base material underneath, unless the plating layer is very thin or the XRF device has advanced capabilities to analyze deeper layers; this can be a limitation when trying to identify the underlying base metal of a plated component

 

[Wizard1183]

Here’s the results for all brands of strings tested. The D’Addario XL and the Gibson Vintage Reissue Black/Blue pack are basically the same strings. The New Gibson Vintage Reissues have no Iron in the nickel wind whatsoever.

The DR Pure Blues “should” last longer since there is tin and lead in the string for corrosion purposes. So there you have it. The results.

 

[Wizard1183]

Here’s the results for all brands of strings tested. The D’Addario XL and the Gibson Vintage Reissue Black/Blue pack are basically the same strings. The New Gibson Vintage Reissues have no Iron in the nickel wind whatsoever.

The DR Pure Blues “should” last longer since there is tin and lead in the string for corrosion purposes. So there you have it. The results.

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