I've used .020 wound A-strings as long as I've been playing zouks/OMs, and in the last week I've broken -four- of them...
This is unusual to say the least... Maybe I just got a bad batch of them. The ones I use now on my Crump B-II are Ernie Ball 82/20 bronze. I've been buying them in 5-packs from my (beloved) local shop, Roadworthy Guitar & Amp.
At one time I had a little burr on a newly-made bone nut, and it cut two, not the pair, but the bass-side one, about a day apart, and instrument tech Keith Skoglund hunted down the rough spot and smoothied it quickly and well.
These late breaks are happening at around the 2nd - to - 5th fret. It doesn't appear to be a cut in the string (nor the winding), but they -part- and the bronze unravels on both ends. It happens on either course and not in the same spot on the neck twice... so far...
I've never seen anything like it...
Last night, at a St. Pat's gig, one (the treble-side one of the pair) broke in the first set, and I got ir replaced quickly (while Min sang "May Morning Dew"), and then about an hour later, the other one of the pair broke! Aaaack!! And it broke at a different spot...
I wouldn't mind changing brands, tho it would mean buying elsewhere, since the Ernie B's are the only ones the local carries,
Local guitar players (accustomed to lighter gauges than I use) have commented that I'm asking a string normally used as a G to bear the tension of a whole pitch higher, but I don't think that one step should make that much difference... And, these have done well for long enough to go completely thumpin' -dead- before. And for years, in fact...
Thanks for any insights/experiences/recommendations/comments, etc., that y'all have to offer! I hope it's just a passing issue of quality control at Ernie Ball..
Thanks,
stv
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