Sixstringpsycho
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I use whatever is on sale..............
What's your favorite kind of strings and why?
- Thread starter Turumbar82
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Turumbar82
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I'm thinking of trying Slinky's again just because it's been about 6 years since the last time I used them.
I definitely have started to use different gauge strings on different scale necks. I use 9's on my Xiphos because of the 25.5 scale but I use 10's on my SG and Sheraton because of the shorter scale.
If you are looking for cheap strings Web Strings is a good place to order them from online. I think they are very similar to GHS and on the site they talk about how there are really only a few string makers in the world and they just put different brand names on them. I stopped ordering from them because they could never get my order correct. They always sent me the wrong gauge.
I definitely have started to use different gauge strings on different scale necks. I use 9's on my Xiphos because of the 25.5 scale but I use 10's on my SG and Sheraton because of the shorter scale.
If you are looking for cheap strings Web Strings is a good place to order them from online. I think they are very similar to GHS and on the site they talk about how there are really only a few string makers in the world and they just put different brand names on them. I stopped ordering from them because they could never get my order correct. They always sent me the wrong gauge.
I was a Dean Markley guy since the early 80's, until about 2 years ago when I tried D.R. strings. Now that's what I use on all my electrics but one (the Yammy SA2200, I use D'Addario flatwounds). I currently use Elixers on my Taylor 710ce, but will try the D.R.'s acoustic strings on it next re-string.
I like the D.R.s for a simple reason: They sound better to me.
RB
I like the D.R.s for a simple reason: They sound better to me.
RB
I think I've tried them all at one time or another and always seem to go back to Gibson strings. I tried GHS and they are very abrasive, Ernie Balls sound OK but die very quickly, I tried the coated strings recently but they don't seem to have the top end sparkle I look for, although they did last for a while. I guess the real fact is I change my strings after every 8-10 hours of use and that's once per week minimum times 7 guitars or about $5000 per year. I wish I hadn't thought about that, but that's what it turns out to be. Gibson .009 - .042 for everything I own.
MetalMike
Well-known member
I started out using whatever was on sale or the new string to try and found out that my Favorite Strings at DR tite fit 10-52's. I cant seem to break these string sand get a full months out of them even if they get covered in beer at a show.
I have only broken 2 DR's and thats the main reason i stick with them and the fact that they have a rich warm sound on my les paul.
Funny thing is my other guitarist breaks one of these strings like every practice.
Good luck finding strings that are right my recommendation is DR's the coated are amazing but look cheap after a month but still sound as good as tehy day you put them on.
I have only broken 2 DR's and thats the main reason i stick with them and the fact that they have a rich warm sound on my les paul.
Funny thing is my other guitarist breaks one of these strings like every practice.
Good luck finding strings that are right my recommendation is DR's the coated are amazing but look cheap after a month but still sound as good as tehy day you put them on.
There is no "bad" strings on Today's strings market (except Fender and Gibson :twisted: )
After four decades of playing here and there my choice narrowed to only one brand :
ELIXIR !
PROS :
-they last at least three or even four times more than any other strings brand on the market,
-they stay in the tune for incredible long time ,
-they are silky , I mean really silky . Once used on it , playing any other "non Elixir coated " brand has a feeling of playing rusty iron wire picked up from the street 8) .
-you can torture them with whammy bar and bend as much as you can , but you can't brake it (if set up was proper) .
-they feel as a lower gauge than they are , but the sound still stays thick and big
-they need minimum maintenance , but maximum of proper set up when put a new strings set.
CONS:
-When I tried it for the first time ,the feeling was strange and strings tend to slip and escape from my fingers , as a snake .
-Need time to learn how to play it ,especially for bending a strings.
-Elixir strings still has no that sweet playability of Daddario strings
-Btw, Daddario strings has the best,the sweetest and the most controllable way of playing , but after two days they looks like a four months old Elixir set ,and I know that you know what I am talkin' about .
Conclusion :
The best strings ever could be a breed between Elixir and Daddario
Enjoy playing ,it was my 0.02 $
BH
After four decades of playing here and there my choice narrowed to only one brand :
ELIXIR !
PROS :
-they last at least three or even four times more than any other strings brand on the market,
-they stay in the tune for incredible long time ,
-they are silky , I mean really silky . Once used on it , playing any other "non Elixir coated " brand has a feeling of playing rusty iron wire picked up from the street 8) .
-you can torture them with whammy bar and bend as much as you can , but you can't brake it (if set up was proper) .
-they feel as a lower gauge than they are , but the sound still stays thick and big
-they need minimum maintenance , but maximum of proper set up when put a new strings set.
CONS:
-When I tried it for the first time ,the feeling was strange and strings tend to slip and escape from my fingers , as a snake .
-Need time to learn how to play it ,especially for bending a strings.
-Elixir strings still has no that sweet playability of Daddario strings
-Btw, Daddario strings has the best,the sweetest and the most controllable way of playing , but after two days they looks like a four months old Elixir set ,and I know that you know what I am talkin' about .
Conclusion :
The best strings ever could be a breed between Elixir and Daddario
Enjoy playing ,it was my 0.02 $
BH
user 10300
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Turumbar82 said:
on my strat i've got d'addario xl gauge .10
used to have .09 but found them too thin, both for tone and for feel.
on my jazzer d'addario chromes .13
i'm used to these now but always have a feel to try something thicker.
d'addario was not a consciou choice,
they were the strings i started out with.
i've tried many other brands over the years,
but always came back to d'addario.
G.I.G.
Well-known member
I was always a D'Addario guy (and still am to a certain extent) but a few years ago my tech turned me on to Dean Markley Blue Steels. I've been using those primarily now and I really like them. They have a well balanced tone between the wound and unwound strings, even as they get older. Rarely do they break on me, and they seem to last a bit longer than other uncoated strings.
I've never liked the coated strings on my electrics, but really like them on my acoustics. I use the D'Addario EXP strings on my acoustics and have been digging those a lot. The player points are a nice little perk of using D'Addario products as well.
I would like to try a set of DR's next time around on one of my electrics. I have heard good things about them but they are not as common as other brands and I don't know a lot about them. Anyone here have opinions on the DR's?
I've never liked the coated strings on my electrics, but really like them on my acoustics. I use the D'Addario EXP strings on my acoustics and have been digging those a lot. The player points are a nice little perk of using D'Addario products as well.
I would like to try a set of DR's next time around on one of my electrics. I have heard good things about them but they are not as common as other brands and I don't know a lot about them. Anyone here have opinions on the DR's?
stadidas
Well-known member
D'Addario EXL115 and 116. I love DAddario strings. I have a set of Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky 12-56 on my main guitar and I hate them. Annoyingly it was set up that way and D'Addario don't make a set of strings in the gauges that I need. I think I will have to buy separate strings from them and make up a set.
nomad100hd
Well-known member
or change the setup! 12's are pretty thick
I love the DR Extralife series coated strings. Im using the sliver stars right now (the ones with the .0002 layer of silver on them to keep them looking new on the thick 3 gauges, and with such a thin layer of silver, it dosent affect the price nor tone much at all) and they are amazing. Ive had them for 2 months and have been whailing on them hard with my floyd rose. they can take a beating like no other. Ive used ernie ball, but they dont have as long of a life, i own a pack of spare ernie ball .9's and .21's (custom gauge packs of 5 strings) for when i snap my E and G string (which i havent snapped yet). Ive use D'addario. theyre nice if you dont have a floyd rose. Floyd roses just eat your strings to death no matter what brand, but my DR's have held up three times as long as Ernie Balls, D'addarios, Clearwires, Elixers, etc.
Havent found a better brand yet
Havent found a better brand yet
stadidas
Well-known member
Indeed they are; the guitar is tuned to drop B, so they need to benomad100hd said:
.D'Addario XL120's (.009 -.042) on my electrics because they are of the same quality everywhere that I have tried them and well priced.
Elixir PWACL Acoustic Custom Light (.011 - .052) on my acoustic guitar for the same reasons as above and also because they last sooooo amaaaazingly long!!!
Elixir PWACL Acoustic Custom Light (.011 - .052) on my acoustic guitar for the same reasons as above and also because they last sooooo amaaaazingly long!!!
A couple of other points just occured to me that might help any newbies here:
1. I break in my strings properly as soon as I put them on... I always stretch them in until my heavy handed bending and vibrato does not throw out the tuning: Hold down the string with your thumb above the neck pickup at the same time as you gently stretch the string up (away from) the guitar body with the fingers of the same hand. This is done while 'fretting' the string with the fingers of the other hand somewhere above the 12th fret. Repeat this as you move both hands simultaneously towards the headstock of the guitar by keeping the hands apart by the same amount. Do for every string. Tune up and check if 1/2, whole, 1 1/2 and double bends release to the right pitch again or repeat all this until they do.
2. Keep your hands clean! I have seen some filthy strings / fretboards over the years when doing repairs... one look at the hands of the owner usually tells me what is inside the case before I even open it!
3. Some of us (not me thankfully!) have excessive and sometimes very caustic sweat. Ever noticed that the plating on your bridge / tremelo or other components is bubbling and flakeing off? This might be a part of the cause... and of course will shorten string life as a result. Just wipe them down after playing.
1. I break in my strings properly as soon as I put them on... I always stretch them in until my heavy handed bending and vibrato does not throw out the tuning: Hold down the string with your thumb above the neck pickup at the same time as you gently stretch the string up (away from) the guitar body with the fingers of the same hand. This is done while 'fretting' the string with the fingers of the other hand somewhere above the 12th fret. Repeat this as you move both hands simultaneously towards the headstock of the guitar by keeping the hands apart by the same amount. Do for every string. Tune up and check if 1/2, whole, 1 1/2 and double bends release to the right pitch again or repeat all this until they do.
2. Keep your hands clean! I have seen some filthy strings / fretboards over the years when doing repairs... one look at the hands of the owner usually tells me what is inside the case before I even open it!
3. Some of us (not me thankfully!) have excessive and sometimes very caustic sweat. Ever noticed that the plating on your bridge / tremelo or other components is bubbling and flakeing off? This might be a part of the cause... and of course will shorten string life as a result. Just wipe them down after playing.
Sixstringpsycho
Well-known member
I use GHS Boomers 10's. or whatever is on sale. I like to change my strings every couple of weeks so i use boomers or D'andarrios.
homoeopath
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I’m old enough to remember when almost all guitar strings were flat wound. Here in the UK, a top brand was Black Diamond. At the time there was never such a thing as a ‘light’ string. Probably an 11 or 12 would be rated as light and all thirds were wound. In the sixties, most rock players were putting a banjo octave string on top E which was a pain because they had a loop rather than a ball end. The set was then moved down one: 1st became a 2nd, the plain 2nd became a 3rd etc and the poor 6th was thrown away, sometimes with the ball cut off the end so it could be used on the next banjo string! Then Rotosound strings became popular, especially through their use by bassist John Entwhistle and for several years the only decent string for rockers was rotosound custom gauge where they pulled out your six strings from a huge box of different gauges. Another popular make at the time was Picato. I’m not sure whether they’re still available. I think they still were in the 90s.
I remember all the American makes appearing here in the 70s. For some of that time I used a string called Darco Funky, which I believe were part of the Martin stable. They weren’t that good but they did give a sharp ‘funky’ tone. Fender strings were called 'Rock and Roll'. They sounded fine for about a week and then were played out. By the late 70s I was playing d’addario half wounds which felt like flat wounds but sounded like roundwounds. They needed to be a gauge lower than normal strings so for a time I was playing those in 8 top sets. They stopped being available over here in the early 80s and so I went onto Dean Markleys- 8s then slowly moved to 9s then 10s. They gave superior tone, lasted a long time and just felt right, but eventually they went off. I tried a Dean Markley ‘Blue Steel’ set I think they were called and found them altogether awful. I don’t know why Dean Markleys went off.
I tried lots of different strings eventually settling on Elixir 11s. I tried and really liked the polyweb Elixirs but they were limited to only a few gauges and seemed to die out. I was told that there had been lots of complaints about the coating coming off. I like Elixirs nanoweb 11s but they’re way too expensive over here.
I used to really dislike d’addario roundwounds but find I quite like them now. As I’ve gone up in gauge, I find that the unwound third is too fat and lacking in tone, though. I recently bought some unbranded strings from a music store chain over here that went bankrupt. They were sold as 11s but turned out to be 12s with a wound third. Their tone was great. I found that eventually I could get a reasonable bend on the third string despite it being wound. I’m not sure they would be much use in Nashville type bend situations though.
The great thing about heavy gauge strings is that the tone is better, you can play faster because there’s no slack to take up when your finger hits the string, and you can set your action lower because there’s less fret buzz. I think that’s a very useful analogy with the response of Mesa amps I’ve used. There’s no sag so you’ve got to play accurately but they encourage you to do that.
I use flatwounds on my archtops, 12s D’addario chromes because they’re fairly inexpensive over here. I’m thinking of moving up to 13s which are fine as long as the guitar is good enough and you can get a low action on it. The feel from flatwounds (we tend to call them tapewounds over here) is beautifully smooth, but I don’t think most rockers would enjoy them. For a long time I wouldn’t have been seen dead with them but its horses for courses. I’ve tried flatwounds from a Austrian company. I can’t remember their name but they are extremely expensive and so although they’re great stings, I don’t use them very often.
One thing that has always made me think is that a lot of the brands are supposed to come out of the same factory. I wonder about the Elixirs. They’re sold by the company that does Goretex linings for clothes and boots. I’d be very surprised if they actually made the strings I suppose they pay somebody else to do that and probably even to coat the strings. I’m sure somebody out there knows.
One of the funniest things I saw regarding strings was a set of really cheap strings at a folk music fair in Northumberland in about 2000. I think the strings were Chinese or Korean, but the paper envelopes for each string were proudly claimed to be US made by the ‘American String Packet Co.’- weird but true!
Hom
I remember all the American makes appearing here in the 70s. For some of that time I used a string called Darco Funky, which I believe were part of the Martin stable. They weren’t that good but they did give a sharp ‘funky’ tone. Fender strings were called 'Rock and Roll'. They sounded fine for about a week and then were played out. By the late 70s I was playing d’addario half wounds which felt like flat wounds but sounded like roundwounds. They needed to be a gauge lower than normal strings so for a time I was playing those in 8 top sets. They stopped being available over here in the early 80s and so I went onto Dean Markleys- 8s then slowly moved to 9s then 10s. They gave superior tone, lasted a long time and just felt right, but eventually they went off. I tried a Dean Markley ‘Blue Steel’ set I think they were called and found them altogether awful. I don’t know why Dean Markleys went off.
I tried lots of different strings eventually settling on Elixir 11s. I tried and really liked the polyweb Elixirs but they were limited to only a few gauges and seemed to die out. I was told that there had been lots of complaints about the coating coming off. I like Elixirs nanoweb 11s but they’re way too expensive over here.
I used to really dislike d’addario roundwounds but find I quite like them now. As I’ve gone up in gauge, I find that the unwound third is too fat and lacking in tone, though. I recently bought some unbranded strings from a music store chain over here that went bankrupt. They were sold as 11s but turned out to be 12s with a wound third. Their tone was great. I found that eventually I could get a reasonable bend on the third string despite it being wound. I’m not sure they would be much use in Nashville type bend situations though.
The great thing about heavy gauge strings is that the tone is better, you can play faster because there’s no slack to take up when your finger hits the string, and you can set your action lower because there’s less fret buzz. I think that’s a very useful analogy with the response of Mesa amps I’ve used. There’s no sag so you’ve got to play accurately but they encourage you to do that.
I use flatwounds on my archtops, 12s D’addario chromes because they’re fairly inexpensive over here. I’m thinking of moving up to 13s which are fine as long as the guitar is good enough and you can get a low action on it. The feel from flatwounds (we tend to call them tapewounds over here) is beautifully smooth, but I don’t think most rockers would enjoy them. For a long time I wouldn’t have been seen dead with them but its horses for courses. I’ve tried flatwounds from a Austrian company. I can’t remember their name but they are extremely expensive and so although they’re great stings, I don’t use them very often.
One thing that has always made me think is that a lot of the brands are supposed to come out of the same factory. I wonder about the Elixirs. They’re sold by the company that does Goretex linings for clothes and boots. I’d be very surprised if they actually made the strings I suppose they pay somebody else to do that and probably even to coat the strings. I’m sure somebody out there knows.
One of the funniest things I saw regarding strings was a set of really cheap strings at a folk music fair in Northumberland in about 2000. I think the strings were Chinese or Korean, but the paper envelopes for each string were proudly claimed to be US made by the ‘American String Packet Co.’- weird but true!
Hom
Sebby123
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For its 11-52 Blue steels the tech at the shop replaced my old blue steels with EB Heavey bottom skinny tops? (11-52) and they last a good amount of time but i like the sound of blue steels better the EB last alot longer but theres a warmth and smoothnes to blue steels.
nomad100hd
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R you sure you don't have that backwards
Hellohehehe
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I use Elixir Nanoweb 0.10-0.052 on my electric Kritz... Very long life time, nice "touching" on the fingers, clear sound till the end.
And i use Elixir Nanoweb on the acoustic Taylor too... In 0.012 - 0.053.
I've used a lot of Dean Markley before, Blue Steel on the electric guitars and D'Addario on my acoustics. But now, i really like the sound of the Elixir strings. Quite expensive here in Europe but eBay is my friend
And i use Elixir Nanoweb on the acoustic Taylor too... In 0.012 - 0.053.
I've used a lot of Dean Markley before, Blue Steel on the electric guitars and D'Addario on my acoustics. But now, i really like the sound of the Elixir strings. Quite expensive here in Europe but eBay is my friend
