# guitar strings



## cloomis (Jan 24, 2009)

i watched a show on how things are made and they said that nylon guitar strings are raped with silver plated copper wire has anyone explored this type of scrap?hope i helped


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## Chumbawamba (Feb 7, 2009)

That sounds like an egregiously violent process. Those poor strings.


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## walter (Feb 8, 2009)

this is a good idea if u can get many pounds of strings. Perhaps someone should do a little rummaging behind a guitar repair shop huh?

P.S. I think you meant to say wrap (To cover, envelop, or encase) rather than rape (to force to have sexual intercourse).

right???


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## JustinNH (Feb 8, 2009)

Chumbawamba said:


> That sounds like an egregiously violent process. Those poor strings.



hahahahahaha


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## cloomis (Feb 11, 2009)

lol no really a laughing matter but funny just the same ,yes i meant wrap


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## hoardpm (Apr 5, 2009)

I have played guitar for 20 years and you may be correct about guitar stirings having copper and silver in them. However, a nylon string is just what it says. Nylon. I could be wrong. Also, I would think that you would have to search for very high quality metal strings to find any silver in them. I use GHS boomers on all my guitars and they are 10 dollars for 3 string sets (meaning they are super cheap) at most music stores. However, you have got my curiosity and will have to do a little research into this. I will speak to my local guitar shops tech and have him save me all the old strings to see what I can come up with. I am new to refining however, and my findings might not be absolute.


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 5, 2009)

Most Ag plating on copper wire runs about 1% by weight. For extremely small diameter wire, it might run 3 or 4%, at the very most. There is no economical way, that I know of, to process 1% Ag plated Cu. The nylon would also create problems, if acids are used.

According to the web, the 3 lower strings of a classical guitar are often nylon wrapped with Ag plated Cu wire. They don't seem to be expensive, probably because the total weight of Ag is minuscule.


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## Harold_V (Apr 6, 2009)

goldsilverpro said:


> There is no economical way, that I know of, to process 1% Ag plated Cu.


The best I could advise is to melt the material (after removing from the string) and cast ingots, which would be used to cement silver from nitrate solutions. That way you'd recover the silver plating, and use the copper that is sorely needed by those that recover silver by cementation. Sure as hell would take a lot of strings to make it worth while, though. 

Harold


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