Such a deal-it's really $4. 99 when you add it to your cart. Free shipping.

 Yibbyl wrote: 
The thing with the high brass strings was they were so sharp  they could give you a strong 1/32 note that you could sustain without any electronics. Now the low brass strings won't let you get more that a 1/16th bend.
  Damn things are as bad for music as the conservatories where they stifle the students  voices and minds  and destroy their  potential.

Just took delivery of mostly a `68-`70 Kay (Teisco) E-200 el-cheapo guitar.  The tuners are not stock, they're sealed and the tailstock is a non-tremelo version from Decca.  Other than that, it looks a lot like this one.

The guitar is insanely light as the body is only 1-1/16" thick!  If you stereotype, it makes sense...skinny Japanese guitar for small Japanese hands.  The action was surprisingly good for such an old guitar, though the height of the "A" string coming off of the saddle seems a tad too low.  It just doesn't match the radius of the fingerboard (the rest of the strings do).  Scale length is 25" and it utilizes a zero fret.

So, how does she sound?  I plugged straight into my Harmony H303A amp, which is a little 5 watter with a 6" speaker.  This guitar can't drive the amp like my Strat-clone I technically never finished building (P-90 in neck, a tilted discontinued Seymour-Duncan single coil in the mid, and nothing in the traditional bridge position).  The E-200 delivers serious mid range, with respectable bass response.  Handles bluesy stuff well and could be phenomenal with my ceramic slide, if I could find it!  Closest thing I can think of is that it sounds a lot like the old Mosrite pickups.

Fun, fun, fun!  Yay, E-Bay!

 bokey wrote: 
Supply & demand.  The strings were not well known outside of recording studios and even when you could find them, their relatively high cost (I paid $18-$21 per set in the Chico/Paradise, CA area) discouraged a lot of guitarists from giving them a shot.

 bokey wrote: 

if high % brass guitar strings make a come back, I'm grabbing all  I can

 musik_knut wrote: 
Brass isn't really a real metal, if you know what I mean. The various contents of copper, zinc, nickle, etc actually have created a subclass of brass that is complicated beyond belief and requires chemicals to actually ascertain the  various metals in the mix.

 Whereas aluminum is simple and easy- it's got it's own Dewey decimal like system of categorizing the various alloys.

  I have no idea what got so expensive with the brass  that they stopped using it though. I haven't worried about commodities  for years.

 bokey wrote: 

maybe the cost of brass made high % brass string impractical? you have solid point on the 'brightness' of various strings...

 musik_knut wrote: 
Hey-as far as I know he's still alive. He's the guy that invented that irritating Peter Frampton frog voice thing BTW.

 I just wish I could  still get the high % brass strings.

 They still  make plenty of strings, the fact  that they  discontinued my fave is my gripe.

 bokey wrote: 

 gotta ya covered on that!

 musik_knut wrote: 
Well, if you hear from Dean Markley, tell him I miss his strings.

 Yibbyl wrote: 
Yeah, when I got down below/above  the 12th fret with those strings I could stand out over a mandolin player with those things.

 When you use an acoustic  string with a lower brass/higher copper  content the pitch is theoretically the same but its not as "bright".

 bokey wrote: 

I go Martin for acoustic...EB for electric...it's what I grew up with.

 musik_knut wrote: 
I'm mostly an acoustic guy. If I really needed any sound I could get it of one off my acoustic Taylors through a Line6 Pod, but I really don't like recording something if I can't knock it out live.

 bokey wrote: 
That's why I can't find them!  A couple of months ago I ran into some kid who cocked his head like dogs sometimes do when hearing a high-pitched noise.  I couldn't believe he worked in a guitar shop and had no idea what I was talking about.

Damn.  I loved those strings.  Sounded lively for a really long time and had a really nice high end that just cut through a mix.

 bokey wrote: 

Thanks for the heads up.

The Ernie Ball Super Slinky, if you have used them you would know, are lightning fast...great action, esp. for smearing.

 musik_knut wrote: 
 I was just warning about a BS marketing scam that I got caught in when my last 10 pack of Daddario's ran out and I was in a bind.
I'm fine with Daddario's or Martin Marquis. My favorite Dean Markley brass strings are discontinued.

 Got a new 10 pack of Daddario's since my November post.

 bokey wrote: 

I'm slavish to the use of Ernie Ball...so I can't help.

 bokey wrote: 
Follow up on a post  from 11/09/09. These things are total, 100% crap. Just BS marketing hype. I've barely played these things and they are deader than an average set of strings that cost 1/3 of the price (in bulk)and sound better 3 months later.

    100% total marketing hype that I let a salesmen scam me on.
 I fell for the DR Strings hype 10 or so years ago, I'm not sure what made me fall for this one. Oh well.

 Guitarists beware.

I wish I had thought of this!  And, of course, now I want one.



(It's linked for those interested)

  Guitar Center


 They do add sales tax in some(my) states though.