How do Martin's SP Fingerstyle Strings
Differ from their Regular SP Strings?

by Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke BSEd, MA

"songthief"

C.F. Martin's new SP Fingerstyle is a regular SP string
with it's characteristic bronze plated plain and
core wires. But the core wires in the wound strings
are smaller diameter than in regular SP's. The
thickness of the wire used to wrap the strings
is larger so that the end result is the same
diameter string, with (in some cases) a little less tension.

Once the winding wires are made with larger gauge wire,
the "sawtooth" effect of the string becomes more pronounced.
There will likely be more finger squeak noise as you move
around on the fret board.

There will also be less harmonic overtones produced by the
smaller diameter core wire. Whatever guitar you play may
tend to sound a bit more like a Martin and less like a
Lowden or some other typically harmonic rich guitar.
More fundamental, less overtones.

The core wire on ALL strings, regardless of brand,
is plain Swedish steel. It all comes from the same place
on big spools. Only difference at all is the diameter. SP
core wires are then plated with bronze (copper/zinc or copper/tin alloy)
and then the winding is added. The WINDING wire is made of
92/8 copper/tin (for phos bronze strings) or 80/20
copper/zinc (for 80/20 strings). 92/8 is more correctly
called bronze. 80/20 is more correctly called brass.

Thomastik-Infeld does the same thing for some of their
incredibly expensive strings. They plate the plain steel
with bronze.

Bronze or brass is softer than steel. Think brass plumbing
fittings vs steel bolts. Anytime we have a larger area of
bronze or brass between the fret and the steel core wire,
that bronze/brass will absorb more of the physical trauma
that we give to the string when we fret or capo it.

Consider, for example, the plain strings vs the wound.

If you remove a plain string after abusing it for too
long, and look at it with a magnifier, you'll see tarnish
and maybe a little tiny bit of indentation. But the majority
of the "abuse" is borne by the fret, which is made of
nickel/copper alloy, and softer than the steel string.
The steel string dents the fret, not the other way around.
Look at a guitar that's been played for a few years
and you'll typically see lots of fret wear around
the first few frets in the area of the 1st and 2nd strings.

Now remove a wound string from the same guitar.
You'll see flattened, even broken windings. In this
case, the winding wire is softer than the fret. So the
winding is taking the brunt of the abuse, not the fret.

All of this suggests a couple of things:

1) We probably WANT the strings to wear out faster
than the frets. Strings are easier and less expensive
to replace than frets.

2) The first two strings, the plain wires, won't make
any difference at all to the sound or life of the strings.

SO

The fingerstyle set should theoretically sound a little
less harmonic rich. They should wear a little faster and
they will have less than 2 lbs total tension difference.
The tension difference will all be within the 3 through 6th
strings (the wound strings).

Here's the comparisons in gauges and tension in lbs.

Set           Gauge          1      2       3       4       5        6    Tension lbs

SP Phos Bronze Strings 6 String
MSP-4100 Light         .012  .016  .025  .032  .042  .054   164.8
MSP-4200 Medium    .013  .017  .026  .035  .045  .056   186.2

SP Fingerstyle Phos Bronze 6 String
MSP41FS  Light        .012  .016  .025  .032  .042  .054   163.2
MSP42FS  Medium   .013  .017  .026  .035  .045  .056   184.8

Difference here, in tension, is -
Lt Gauge 164.8 (regular SP) vs 163.2 lbs (fingerstyle SP)
MedGauge 186.2 (regular SP) vs 184.8 lbs (fingerstyle SP)

SP 80/20 6 String
MSP-3100 Light        .012  .016  .025  .032  .042  .054   160.5
MSP-3200 Medium   .013  .017  .026  .035  .045  .056   181.1

SP Fingerstyle 80/20
MSP31FS  Light        .012  .016  .025  .032  .042  .054   161.4
MSP32FS  Medium   .013  .017  .026  .035  .045  .056   182.8

Difference here is -
Lt Gauge 160.5 (regular SP) vs 161.4 lbs (fingerstyle SP)
MedGauge 181.1 (regular SP) vs 182.8 lbs (fingerstyle SP)

Note that in 80/20 strings, the SP Fingerstyle strings are HIGHER in tension.

I change strings frequently. My Lowden mini jumbo
and my Martin OM get new strings once a week. They
get very heavy use in heavy Kottke-like fingerstyle
played with thick acrylic nails and a lot of
percussive, loud effects.

For ME personally, I want a string with as much tension as
I can stand so that my right hand has some resistance to
work against and so that I can get a bigger range of
dynamics. I can get away with really heavy strings when
playing fingerstyle. But I also play a lot of chord melody
jazz style with lots of barre chords, my left hand doesn't
suffer and I sometimes do it for several hours daily. I believe
that good body mechanics allows anyone to achieve that.

My Lowden typically wears SP4250's and is usually tuned to standard
or DADGAD or DGDGBD or DGCGCD but down a half step from
concert pitch. The downtuning is primarily for the growl
of the low end and not to reduce tension. If I took it down further
the tension would begin to be so low that tone would suffer.

My Martin OM wears SP4200's in standard concert tuning.

So what does this all mean?

The new strings will have less than two pounds tension
difference. They will sound darker. They will wear
quicker. They will have more finger squeak.

If you have thoughts, theories or guesses about how
you feel regarding strings on your guitar(s), I'd
be honored to hear them. The strings I sell are
only the strings that I use professionally. I
don't sell styles or types that I don't use
myself. So all of my thoughts and comments
come from personal experience and my own
subjective opinions.

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke - eBay songthief