Regarding the initial bright sound of strings; the sizes of the strings, and relative size and spacing of the windings makes much more difference than the material. Put "string" and "90" days into the filter box to catch some previous discussions.

I'd be the first to agree that some guitars sound better with particular string sets, but always figured that the deck bracing and bridge geometry were more significant than the string manufacturer. (Last I heard, all of the wire was produced in only a few shops, and what we buy is mostly just cut into handy lengths and packaged.)

Depending on what I'm playing, I'll even juggle the sizes a little bit, such as dropping the low E from .053 to .050 so that I can rattle it on the frets for a dirty blues sound, or up to .057 for clean celtic base lines.

~S~