Fancying myself an innovator and inventor, I'm always looking for ways to push the envelope. Putting on my innovative-musician hat at the moment, I'd simply like to share of few thoughts about titanium guitar strings. It seems there is a company (Rohrbacher) that has begun to make these things.
I have some opinions about their strings, and titanium strings in general, based on my personal experience.
Rohrbacher gives the proper formula for the frequency of string vibration in their discussion of string physics on their website, so you can check out their opinions in the discussion of the subject there. It's correct physics, as far as it goes, but I disagree a bit with their conclusions.
Most of all, I disagree with their assertion that you can't use titanium strings to obtain a higher pitch, or a high guitar tuning. Titanium strings reach a pitch approximately a "fourth" interval higher than steel strings of the same gauge. That should be obvious by running the numbers (as I did, 10 years ago, using the same formula). It'sn aside, but I'll describe, briefly, how I arrived at my conclusions.
Titanium is lighter than steel, so, of course, a titanium string vibrates faster (titanium is, in fact, about 5/8ths the weight of steel). The vibration frequency varies by the reciprocal of the square root of the string's mass-per-unit-length, so the string should vibrate at a frequency that is higher, approximately, by the square root of 8/5ths (or, the square root of 1.6). Trust me on this, since it's been ten years since I did the math - the ratio of frequencies maps out fairly close to the ratio of frequencies musicians refer to as a "fourth".
An ordinary guitar usually produces an E note on its highest string, but higher notes can be reached when the guitar is strung with smaller strings. The string gauge is usually .010 or .011, but modern steel technology has refined the "music wire" used for strings, so that it's quite practical to use strings as small as .008. These are just about the smallest strings you can buy (although music wire is actually manufactured as small as .005). Some guitarists have experimented with .008's (one I know of, was Lenny Breau), and used them to produce a guitar tuning about a fourth above the standard tuning, which included a high A. Others have backed off (wisely, in my opinion), to a G (for example, consider the .009 G string in the 3d string of the so-called "Nashville tuning", or "high-3d" guitar).
Strings this small are a bit dangerous, because they break when you overstretch them (and when they break - trust me on this - they cut like a knife). Of course, there will always be those who are willing to live dangerously (I prefer to think of myself as one who intelligently weighs normal risks, and lives "cautiously"). If a .008 steel string can reach A, a D should be possible with .008 titanium - and, in fact, that has been my experience. It's living on the edge a bit, of course, because titanium is a bit brittle, and a string that small is easy to break (I don't mean to be melodramatic about this, but when you break a string this small, and you get a finger in its way, the laceration produced can be deep enough to require stitches) .
My only personal experience with titanium strings came when I finally wheedled a bit of titanium wire from a titanium supplier (you'd think I was trying to build a bomb, or something - they didn't want to let that stuff go, for some reason). I tried, repeatedly, for some 3 years, in the early 90s, before I finally obtained a sample reel of wire, sized .0078 (titanium wire comes in some odd sizes). I took the ball end off an old guitar string, and wound it on the end of a length of the titanium wire, strung it on an old guitar, and stretched it tight - in fact, I stretched it as tight as it would go, to see how far it actually would go, before it would break. I expected it to reach a D (almost an octave higher than the standard guitar tuning), and in fact, it did - in fact, it went a bit further.
In all honesty, though, I couldn't say it ever really reached E-flat.
So that's how I know. At least, that's why I think I know enough that I can share a valid opinion. So, here is my take on titanium guitar strings (which is a little different from Rohrbacher's):
1) Titanium is only useful for acoustical instruments (on this I concur with Rohrbacher).
2) In small gauges, titanium should only be used on instruments with a short scale (such as violins, and mandolins). Using them on longer instruments is dangerous, because the player's fingers can get enough leverage on them to snap them. Besides, it's these small, higher-pitched instruments that have the most to gain from titanium's performance advantages.
3) As an exception to the preceding, titanium could be used to make the highest-pitched string for a 12-string guitar. Many people detune a 12 string from Ee Aa Dd Gg BB EE, to Dd Gg Cc Ff AA DD, anyway. Using titanium, it's possible to tune the guitar in 6 pairs of octaves (Dd Gg Cc Ff Aa Dd) - trouble is, though, adding one small-gauge titanium string adds appreciably to the price of the set.
4)I agree with the Rohrbacher analysis about how titanium strings work with reduced tension (at least, in standard tuning), but I'm not sure whether an unmodified guitar can really take full advantage of that, so I'd like to see some changes made by the guitarmakers. I think it would be smart to ask them to make guitars that are designed to work with reduced string tensions - even deliberate de-tunings (for starters, I'm imagining lighter bracing, and thinner tops). I think we're witnessing an advance in the state of the art, heading for a sweet, mellow sound in the guitars of the future.
5)That said, however, I really don't think Rohrbacher is doing us any favors by making a .014 the high string of their set. It doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, after all their talk about the advantages of low string tension (a .014 titanium E string requires a string tension similar to a steel string of .012). I'm not sure why they're doing this, and I'd go so far as to say I'm actually wondering why they're "B.S.ing" people on this (I don't know whether they simply can't obtain smaller wire gauges economically, or their lawyer says not to risk the product liability suits from people who use the small-gauge strings unwisely, break them, and get hurt). Personally, I favor a smaller string - probably not a titanium .008, but possibly a .009.
6) We need to find some way to make titanium strings work on electric guitars (I have some ideas about that, too, but I'm not telling).
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