Ask Zac Episode 20 - Pure Nickel Round Core Guitar Strings

For many years I had heard about Fender Rock-N-Roll strings, and how they were used by Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Cornell Dupree, Roy Buchanan, Jimi Hendrix, and many, many others. They were pretty much the standard for light gauge strings until Ernie Ball and D'Addario started eating up Fender's market share in the 1980s. I found out that the set was a strange gauge by modern standards (10,13,15,26,32,38) and that they were of different construction, having pure nickel wound strings, with round cores. Most modern wound strings are nickel-plated steel and on a hexagonal core. Fender stopped regular production of the set years ago, but I found that Pyramid made a "Jimi Hendrix" inspired set, that is to the exact specs of the old Fender set, and decided to try them. In the video, I start off with my regular D'Addario 9.5-44 set with nickel-plated steel/hex core wound strings, and then change strings on my 1967 Telecaster, and let you hear the difference.

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Correction: There were 2 string factories in Battle Creek, MI. GHS, and VC Squier. Fender was supplied strings by VC, and then Fender bought them out in the early 1960's. The Fender String factory in Battle Creek was shuttered in 1981. Fender owned the Squier name, and used this for a line of guitars starting in the early 1980's.

Pyramid "Jimi Hendrix" set https://www.stringsbymail.com/pyramid-pure-nickel-jimi-hendrix-inspired-custom-set-10-38-full-set-15204.html

Gear for this video:

1967 Telecaster - D'Addario XL120+ 9.5-44 strings https://amzn.to/3a5qxVi

Then switch to the Pyramid set mentioned above

1965 Deluxe Reverb with Celestion Vintage 30 speaker