Official Luthiers Forum!

In the May 2014 issue of Acoustic Guitar mag there is a review of Aluminum Bronze strings. Quite positive, so I was wondering if anyone has tried them. Also what is your impression..?
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Never used em, but being familiar with Aluminum bronze, I'd say they would probably wear your fret wire much quicker than other strings.

Are these the same as the GHS "white bronze"? I just put a set of those on my latest, and I thought they sounded very nice. Fairly bright and articulate. They seemed to behave like a lighter gauge than they actually were. The 12-54 set felt more like a 11-59. I don't know how much aluminum is in them, but it would make them lighter, which would explain the effect.

Mike:
Not sure if they are the same thing. Might have to get a set and try them.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

It's possible that the white bronze could be the same. But not necessarily. Al bronze is a lighter color than most bronze but the term "white bronze" is frequently used to describe other alloys that contain no aluminum. As far as the weight, you wouldn't really be able to tell a difference. The percentage of aluminum can vary but it's usually not much more than 10% and without a scale you wouldn't be able to tell a difference based on weight.