Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone use these Flexible core FX strings by Martin? I had not see them before yesterday. Opinions?
The guy at the store told me that the core is actually thinner. If thats true, would that have an effect on intonation?
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

?

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

I doubt the size of the core will have much (if any) effect on intonation as long as the final gauge of the string is the same. I think Martin is more than likely trying to change the sustain of the strings by changing the core size.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Core size of a string is WHAT affects intonation Joe .. put a 24 plain, then a 24W G string on a guitar, and you will see they are nowhere near the same intonations setting. The core is whats under tension, the wraps simply add mass to drop the freq.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Yeah, what he said. The core size is the reason you get the weird 'jump' on the bridge between a wound and unwound string on a properly-intonated guitar - usually the core on the wound string is smaller than the diameter of the unwound string above it in pitch.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

If the core is thinner, the inharmonicity should be less if everything else were equal. But the wrap contributes some stiffness and friction loss. The main limit on how thin the core can be is the strings breaking.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

As others have said, what affects the amount of intonation needed is the stiffness and not the thickness of a string, and what affects the stiffness most is the core. Think of it as a metal bar inside a coil spring.

When I made my third bass, which was heavily influenced by Rick Turner's Renaissance series, I decided to use the same strings he does which are Thomastik-Infeld Acousticores. These are acoustic bass guitar strings and are bronze wound on nylon cores. I had a feeling this was going to affect the intonation so I made dummy bridge and makeshift tailpiece to try it out. I made the dummy copying the intonation from a 5-string bass which plays perfectly in tune but has normal stainless strings. You can see, in the photo, how much I had to change it for the TI strings.

I know that a number of musicians who play Rick's basses don't like the TI strings and change them for something else. I wonder if they have intonation problems afterwards. Perhaps if Rick's listening he'll tell us.

All other things being equal a wound string with a thinner core will feel floppier. Intonation would be more an issue of consistency in the diameter, no?

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Absolutely. If two strings (of the same material) have the same outside diameter but one of them has a thinner core and a thicker winding, it will normally need less intonation.