I was stringing someone's guitar recently & he wanted to try a set of steels. When asked what motivated this choice, he said it's more suitable for heavy music.
Are there particular string types more suitable for a certain genre than others? Maybe there are for some reasons or the other. Taking the flatwound as an example, these are favoured by the jazz camp for the warmer tones. More often than not, some strings are addressing our quirks without us realizing it & not a case of defined specialization. For intense music, harder string materials tend to be the go to, steel ones included.
I had a brief steel episode some time back & would agree that steel strings don't wimp out when it comes to aggressive playing. They also sound brighter & crispier especially when played fresh out of the pack. However, I gave them up because they are harder than many of my guitar fret materials so fret wear was happening faster with steel strings compared to other materials. These days, manufacturers have beefed their guitars up with steel frets & that would be a good thing for those who fancy steel strings. If you are into harder string material but would not want to venture into the steel camp, do give the DR brand a go. The Ernie Ball set you see above can be purchased at Swee Lee: $17
PS: Steel strings here refer to the entire set, not just the plain top end strings (E/B/G).
Pic: Amazon
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