[hoosieree]

The "tune slightly flat" technique gets people 90% of the way there, which is usually enough. The remaining 10% is really subtle, like most subjects.

This is like "the earth is a sphere", which is mostly right but if you want to be less wrong you have to dive deep.

So...

The instant after a string is plucked, it begins to lose energy. The loss of energy shows up in amplitude (obvious, because the note gradually gets quieter), but also frequency. This is less noticeable, but for heavy strings with low tension (think down-tuned sludge metal) it can be pronounced.

The reason for this is that a vibrating string is constantly bending back and forth. Tension pulls it toward its lowest-energy position in the center. A familiar demonstration of tension is bending a fretted note to increase its pitch. But the same thing happens to a lesser degree whenever the string vibrates. Displace the string left or right and its tension increases.

Strings you consider "better" might exhibit less of this effect. But that depends on both your playing style (how hard do you strike the strings?) and your idea of what a better string is.

"It depends on technique, tension, and string mass" gets you to 95%.

For conventional electric guitars with magnetic pickups, there's an additional force slowing down the string: the magnets in the pickup. These are weird. For one thing, unlike tension, it's not distributed throughout the length of the string, but focused at 1 or a few (for multiple pickups or humbuckers) points. If you imagine the vibrating string as a weight-on-a-string-pendulum, then the effect of the magnetic pickup is like a small mass attached partway up the string. It interferes with the pure sinusoidal motion and gives it a little wobble.

On most guitars, the effect is not noticeable. But some pickups have very strong magnets, or some guitars put them very close to the strings. Then it can be noticed, and guitarists call the effect "wolf tones" and generally they don't like it.

This gets you to 98%.

My point is there's a lot going on. And while a certain brand of strings and/or tuners may work for you, someone else may have an entirely different experience. I get kind of frustrated with the whole guitar "gear" marketing being heavy on hype and light on data, so sorry if I come across as lecturing. My frustration isn't with you, but the context.

[magduf]

>For conventional electric guitars with magnetic pickups, there's an additional force slowing down the string: the magnets in the pickup.

That's interesting, I never even thought about that. So theoretically, if you remove one of your pickups, you should get a slightly better tone, and longer sustain, right?

Personally, I never use the middle pickups on my guitar, and actually wonder what they're for. I only use the neck and bridge pickups. I've noticed a lot of newer guitars simply eliminate the middle pickups.

[hoosieree]

Technically: less magnetic force gives you more sustain, but practically speaking it's probably too small of a difference to notice.[0]

The middle pickup in a Strat-style guitar is often "reverse wound, reverse polarity" which, when combined with one of the other pickups, provides some hum cancellation.

If the neck+middle or bridge+middle combo is in parallel (most are) you'll get a slightly more hollow/nasal tone compared to the neck or bridge pickup alone. The jargon for this is "quack" as in "it has a lot of quack".

If the combo is in series, that's essentially a traditional humbucker (albeit with the 2 coils spaced farther apart than usual). It'll be louder and have more midrange. 2 single coils wired in series like a humbucker can often be too mid-heavy and start to sound "muddy" or "lacking in definition". Real humbuckers can get away with using smaller magnets (ballpark: half the size of single coil magnets) and their close physical spacing means the signals going into each coil are nearly identical, so adding them in series just makes it louder, without making it "muddy".

Often, players who don't use the middle pickup will keep it there but use the height adjustment screws to lower it deep into the pickguard, farther away from the strings. In my opinion, the most practical benefit of this is your pick doesn't bump into it, but there are probably very subtle tonal effects going on.

[0]: Whenever you have "electric guitar" and "subtle difference" together, I demand blind testing before believing anyone else's claims. I trust my own ears, but I know myself well enough that my eyes will fool them.

[dizzystar]

My intuition is that removing a pickup would not reduce sustain. The magnets are pulling slightly on the strings, which would increase sustain, but not enough to be noticeable.

It really comes down to the wood of your guitar. You can feel the vibration of the guitar when you play, and the difference between one with a lot of sustain vs one without is pretty noticeable.

The pickups and amp, and gain levels also make a difference. The pickups on my guitar are extremely sensitive, so any little touch is quite loud through my amp.

[dizzystar]

Right. I just think there's a lot of saw tales and, after some exploration, I'm not convinced.

Another odd one is over tune new strings to get stretch, which often gets turned to don't put new strings on a guitar the same day as a show.

Well, call me a rebel, but I don't stretch my strings and I will go one stage 30 minutes after putting on new strings.

These are fine rules of thumb, I suppose, but as you are saying, a lot of nuance is involved.

The only thing I'll flat out disagree on is that old strings sound better... No just no.

[wilsonnb]

The effect of string stretching is pretty easy to verify. After putting on a new set, tune them to pitch and the stretch each one side to side and away from the fretboard a few inches. They will all be at least a quarter step flat afterwards, usually more. Tune them to pitch again and restretch and they will be less flat.

I'm not sure stretching matters for the long term tuning stability of the strings but definitely has an effect on the immediate tuning stability. Players who don't bend much and fret/strum lightly might not need the added stability but I like it.

Also, I've only ever heard the old strings sound better thing about flatwound strings, particularly on bass guitars, in which case it's true as long as "good sound" to you means a serious lack of treble.

[mtts]

"Well, call me a rebel, but I don't stretch my strings and I will go one stage 30 minutes after putting on new strings"

Which would probably work.

Back in the day I would break strings on stage. Yes, stretching strings helps a lot in that case.

Of course you can only do so much of it before the rest of the band has milked the specially rehearsed for just this occasion "intermission music”, but it really does help.