Comparing The Two Classics, TI Jazz/Bebop vs D'Addario Chromes

If you play jazz, bebop, swing, fusion, surf,
just about any non-metal rock electric guitar style,
it's quite likely that you find yourself looking for
guitar strings that aren't the typical "round wound 9's"
like the rockers tend to gravitate toward.

Here's a comparison between what I seem to find are
the two most popular strings of this non-rock type,
the Thomastik Infeld Nickels and the D'Addario Chromes.

I'll refer to the Thomastik Infeld strings as "TI's"
and the D'Addario Chromes as "Chromes" simply because
it's a shorter way of discussing the two brands.

First the TI Strings

TI makes two flavors of these strings. Both are wound with
pure nickel, not nickel plated steel, and both involve
double wound construction on round core wires, like piano strings.
The plain strings in all TI sets are brass plated steel.

The round cores of the wound strings are high carbon steel.
They are not hex shaped in cross section like the majority
of strings. The core wire is round.

The first layer of winding on the TI strings is a round wire,
nickel/steel alloy. It is not nickel plated, but an alloy of
the two metals.

The outer layer of winding on the TI strings, is pure nickel.
Not an alloy, not nickel plated, but entirely made of nickel.
The flatwound "Swing" series outer layer is a flat ribbon of
pure nickel. The roundwound "BeBop" series is a round wire of
pure nickel.

The wire that makes up the outer layer of the roundwound strings
is comparitively small in diameter. That means that the windings
are closer together and therefore is a little "smoother" to the
fingers than if the wire were larger in diameter.

The double winding construction (either flat or round) tends to
filter out the odd-order uneven harmonics. The result is that
the string tends to be more "bell like" and be richer in
even-order harmonics.

Darker, more mellow,                        A little brighter, more bebop,
players typically choose                    Tuck-like players typically choose
Flatwound (Swing)                         Roundwound (Bebop)

Here's the data on string gauges
Set     Gauge                                         1      2      3       4       5     6    Tension
JS110 Flatwound Swing Xtra-Light         .010 .014 .018w .023  .033 .044  107.6 lbs
JS111 Flatwound Swing Light                .011 .015 .019w .025  .035 .047  123.6 lbs
JS112 Flatwound Swing Med-Light        .012 .016 .020w .027  .037 .050  140.4 lbs
JS113 Flatwound Swing Medium           .013 .017 .021w .028  .039 .053  156.5 lbs

BB111 Roundwound Bebop Xtra-Light   .011 .015 .019  .026w .034 .047  120.2 lbs
BB112 Roundwound Bebop Light          .012 .016 .020  .028w .036 .050  137.9 lbs
BB113 Roundwound Bebop MedLight   .013 .017 .021w .030  .038 .053  154.0 lbs
BB114 Roundwound Bebop Medium     .014 .018 .022w .032  .040 .055  173.6 lbs

TI Flatwounds

Are my personal favorite string for ES-175 style guitars
or just about any jazz box when you want that classic,
dark, Joe Pass like "jazz tone".

TI Roundwounds

Are my personal favorite for giant archtops (L5's, supers etc)
when playing BeBop or any time you want jazz tone but just
a bit "brighter". The roundwound TI's sustain a little longer
and have a little more treble response, than the flatwounds.

Now consider the Chromes by D'Addario

The term "chrome" is a bit of a misnomer. The wound strings are not chrome
like a car/truck bumper, but polished stainless steel which is a steel/chromium alloy. 
Unlike the TI round core process, the wound strings start with HEX shaped steel wire.

D'Addario then wraps their hex shaped core wires first with a layer
of round cross-section, steel wire.

The outer layer of the Chromes is a stainless steel ribbon wire.

The plain strings in the D'Addario Chrome sets are ROUND plain steel
which, have been "silvered", an industry term which means "tin plated",
like tinned electronic wires.

Here's the data on string gauges for the Chromes

Set    Gauge                   1       2      3         4       5      6      Tension
ECG23 Xtra Light          .010  .014  .020w  .028  .038  .048    117.0 lbs
ECG24 Jazz Light         .011  .015  .022w  .030  .040  .050    137.3 lbs
ECG25 Regular Light     .012  .016  .024w  .032  .042  .052    155.2 lbs
ECG26 Medium            .013  .017  .026w  .035  .045  .056    183.8 lbs

D'Addario Chromes
are one of the electric guitar strings that I like for big, flatwound jazz playing.
But they also make really great strings for surf, fusion, or electric slide.
They're one of the largest gauge strings you'll likely ever put on an electric guitar.
Big, stainless steel, ribbon wound. That translates into a LOT of fundamental tone,
not a lot of overtones, and not a lot of finger noise when sliding from fret to fret.
They're not what you'd want to use to play Santana or Van Halen stuff.
For that you'd surely want something lighter with more sustain and overtones.
These are fabulous for surf on a Tele or Jazzmaster or Mustang or similar.
They're also very well suited to a Les Paul or Strat in the recording studio,
when playing nearly anything except maybe metal. They'll TWANG or they'll
MOAN, depending on your tone settings. They just don't sustain like roundwound strings.

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke - eBay songthief