Ever since I was younger, music has been one of things that I have enjoyed the most and is something that I’ve tried to make a big part of my life. My first introduction to music most likely occurred from a very young age with music played by my parents, however the first time it actually was of great interest to me occurred in 4th grade when it was time to choose an instrument to play in the elementary school band. While I was really interested in learning the alto saxophone or the trumpet, I was assigned the clarinet, which of course led to the obligatory jokes referencing Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants. Being assigned the clarinet kickstarted my interest in learning instruments, and I went on to learn the alto saxophone, viola, piano, guitar, drums, and the ukulele. While I enjoy all of these instruments, one of my favorites is the cherry red Fender Telecaster that I received from my cousin after her father died. Even though my uncle was a psychiatrist, he managed to collect many electric guitars, amps, and records with the purpose of learning how to use them once he retired, which he unfortunately was never able to do before his death.
While the cherry red Fender Telecaster was given to me by my cousin after she finished cataloging my late Uncle’s guitar collection, my uncle most likely purchased the guitar from a music/guitar store like Guitar Center or directly from Fender itself, and from the serial number on the back of the neck it is likely that the guitar was produced in either Mexico or the United States depending on the production year, which I don’t know. I can’t find out how my uncle actually purchased this guitar, I can find out the history of the guitar and how specific parts, like the tuning pegs, strings, and body, are made. Coming directly from the Fender website, the introduction of the Telecaster allowed musicians to have a guitar that was well designed, easy to play, and that had great sound, among other good qualities. Fender describes the Telecaster as having many of the same features of the Hawaiian steel guitars they had already been producing (fender.com), including the guitar’s bridge covers, knobs, and tuning pegs.
My telecaster has a Cherry Red colored body with one singular pick up and three knobs that I have yet to completely understand the use of. The guitar’s neck is a light tan color and the tuning pegs are silver. The shape of the pegs are flat and rounded, making tuning easy. While there are many different parts of the guitar, I wanted to look more into how guitar strings are made.
When I first started researching guitar strings, the complexities of what seems to be an incredibly simple object surprised me, however the more I looked into the more sense these complexities made because different strings produce different sounds and different musicians want different sounds. While there are different types of strings for acoustic guitars and electric guitars, I decided to focus on electric guitar strings.
Electric guitar strings can be made of materials, including nickel plates, nickel, stainless steel, chrome, and the can be polymer coated. Each of these materials produces different sounds, with stainless less steel strings being used for hard rock due to the sharp sound that they produce and chrome strings being used in Jazz. My guitar uses nickel strings, one of the most common strings for electric guitars.
Most nickel is mined in the Sudbury region of Ontario, Canada and is mined specifically from the mineral pentlandite, which has the chemical formula NiS 2FeS. While not known for sure, it is likely that this specific nickel deposit was the result of an ancient meteor impact. While there are different brands that produce nickel electric guitar strings, I use Ernie Ball Regular Slinky strings which nickel strings, which are made from nickel plated steel wire that has been wrapped around a tin-plated hex shaped steel core wire (www.ernieball.com).
Sources:
https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/the-one-that-started-it-all-a-telecaster-history
https://primesound.org/how-guitar-strings-are-made/
The Materials of History, Thought, and Art 
Hello!
It is so interesting to learn that the metal the strings are made of change depending on what music you are playing. It’s something that makes sense to produce the proper sounds, but it is just something I’ve never given any thought to. And that’s coming from someone that plays three string instruments. From the description the guitar sounds really beautiful, I am sure it’s something you’re really proud to show off.