By Paul Van Name
Ask Les Paul what he knows about electric guitar strings and he’ll tell you, “First of all, you don’t just take a handful of wire and throw it on the guitar.” It’s no surprise that Les is passionate about his guitar gear, right down to the strings he uses. “I have always been intensely interested in strings,” he said. “Back in the 1940s, I took all the strings that were on the market and tested various metal alloys to see what worked best.”
The specific metal that provided Les with great tone, high output and uniformity was pure nickel. He’s been a supporter of the “nickel standard” ever since.
“In terms of magnetic level, nothing comes close to pure nickel-wound strings,” Les said. “They give me the highest output. The nickel material also lends an evenness to the strings, giving the correct level for each string.” Today Gibson Les Paul Signature and Les Paul Electric guitar strings are manufactured using a pure nickel wrap.
“Pure nickel electric guitar strings also provide excellent balance,” Les added. “There is a linearity between the six strings, which is to say that they have the same volume when tested on a VU meter. Simply put, they are uniform between the Big E and the Little E.” As a result, pure nickel strings are incredibly, well, musical. Top players ranging in style from Joe Perry to BB King agree, and insist on playing Gibson pure nickel strings exclusively.
Les Paul didn’t stop there. He also experimented with gauging and cover-to-core ratios (diameter of cover wire versus diameter of core wire) and essentially invented the standard electric guitar gauges used today.
An illustration from a 1981 Gibson guide to guitar strings
illustrates three different possibilities for core and winding
dimensions for a .054" string.
“I always played a plain G (unwound), even back in the 1930s, which was better for bending notes and playing lead guitar,” Les said. This preference was quite radical at the time, and further helped establish Les as a new breed of player.
| “During the big band era, a lot of guys would use a wound G, and sometimes even a wound B-string. This was better for rhythm guitar because it delivered a big, round sound.” With Les doing pull-offs, hammer-ons, big bends and the like, the plain third gave his treble notes more definition. It wasn’t until the 1970s that players’ tastes finally caught up with what Les had discovered 40 years earlier. |
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Today, Les still actively experiments with the mechanical aspects of what we know as guitar gear. What have been some of his most recent discoveries? Stay tuned, and let’s hope we don’t have to wait another 40 years to catch up with him.
