Making Cool things Cooler with Teflon®

Teflon Coated Guitar StringsDupont’s™ Teflon® coating is truly a miracle of modern science. Everything from baking pans to biocompatible surgical instruments are coated in Teflon to prevent sticking, friction, and wetting. However, did you know that Teflon or Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) could actually make your guitar sound better?

In the last fifteen years, a number of guitar string companies including Wyres discovered that coating their strings in Teflon PFT had a number of benefits.  Originally, manufacturers started using Teflon to prevent string corrosion. Many modern guitar strings are made of highly corrosive bronze, which makes it almost impossible to keep them fresh and rust free. By using a protective polymer coating, the alloys in the strings stay oxygen free, which allows them to sound fresher, longer. As an added bonus, the coating also allows manufacturers to eliminate something called finger squeak, which as the name implies, is the terrible squeaking sound that rusted or damaged guitar strings can make when played.  This may not sound like a big deal, but if you are paying $200 an hour to record an acoustic guitar in a studio, nothing will waste time and money like squeaking strings!

While this is not a big part of what we do at PCM, it is a perfect example of how Teflon® plays a role in almost every aspect of modern life. Next time you tell a friend you work in the non-stick coating business and they start asking about frying pans and skillets, you can tell them there’s much more to it than that.