Guitar strings

V

VertuGoGo

New member
so, are they all the same pretty much? the most recent thing i've heard was that the unwounds all come from the same factory and are virtually all the same. the wounded strings are where they start to differentiate.

right now i use gibson 9's vintage reissue (as recommended by Donna R of The Donnas). i used to play slinkys, but i found that they break often (or was it just my playing style back then?). i'm also trying to order singles, preferrably gibson vintage reissues or ghs boomers. i need about 5 each of the 9 guage set except for the 9's and the 11's. can't find a website that has those brands available in singles though.
 
I like the sound of nickle strings on my Strat, but I don't think they sound as good on humbucker guitars.

P.S.
I play .011's
 
Absolutely not the same...they all feel different. Experiment until you're reasonably satisfied, and then stick with that brand!

Slackmaster 2000
 
LocusLarsen said:
I also broke a massive amount of slinkys, i think they are just cheap strings with a mid range price
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For me, D'Addario's break less. My playing style is much harder than when I used Slinky's too.
 
It all depends on the player and guitar.

I break D'Addario like they're silly string, and slinkies hold up MUCH better. I've personally been playing power slinkies for many years. I've tried various other strings over the years but they either break too easily (d'addario) or I just don't like the way they feel.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I've gone through a number of string phases. I used Ernie Ball slinkys when I started, and I broke them a lot too. But I also used 9s and used my whammy bar like it was going out of style. When I switched to 10's for a while I used GHS boomers because someone gave me a set and I thought they sounded a lot bigger. Turned out that was more because I was using 10s though. Now I use D'Addario 10s, simply because I like their colored ball end scheme, and I'm a sucker for their "environmnntal" packaging... they put 3 sets of strings in one carboard pack, which I think is a decent thing to do. Anyway, all the strings sound different, and stainless sounds different from nickel, but in the end, I never found that any string made me sound like anything but myself.
 
I'm an elixer guy all the way for my acoustics. I tried the Martin super coated wonder deals... cost a buck more, and I busted one on the spot during install. They also have a far more dull sound to them, I hate them.

Electric wise I dont get to up in arms.... whatever is on sale at the time. Generally fender 150's or super slinkies.
 
Re: Strings Strings Strings?

Pier Calacino said:
OK Pros,

What does everyone recommend for:

Acoustic Guitar?
And Electric Guitar?

Pier
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For electrics, I like GHS Nickle Rockers on my Strat and GHS Boomer 52s on my Gibsons.

For Acoustic, right now I'm playing with differant brands to see if I can find something I like better than the same thing I use on my Strat. No luck so far.
 
seems like i'm back at square one. i was hoping there would be a near-unanimous verdict on a very good set of strings. but from reading the posts, someone hates a particular set that someone else likes.

what i look for in a string set is durability first, then sound. i broke a lot of strings recently, but it could be because my guitar is new and the bridge has sharp edges that need to be filed.

i've been reading a lot about strings lately. it seems like there's two main types--pure nickel and nickel plated. the core wire seems to be all the same for any brand. like i said before, i'm currently using gibson's vintage reissue 9's which are pure nickel. unless i'm mistaken (and somebody correct me if i am), steel is harder than nickel and therefore tougher. being that the case, i'm probably gonna go back to the super slinkies which are nickel plated steel. they are also WAY cheaper than pure nickel strings, and the brighter sound is probably more my style (vs the warmer sound of nickel).
 
What you're looking for is a set of Maxima Gold. Compared to ordinary strings they last like forever. I've used Maximas exclusively since the first time I tried them back in 1990.
 
For one thing, those little wimpy nine's aren't going to last long no matter what you do, unless you play really super easy. And if you don't play really super easy, then you're cheating yourself with that light guage anyhow.

Step up to a 10...it's still pretty light, but better. I've been playing 11's for so long now that I don't really notice that the strings are heavy until I pick up a guitar with 9's....and suddenly I'm popping strings left & right and bending them off the fretboard, etc :)

Now that's not an end-all solution. You really do need to try different brands of strings. Like I mentioned above, many people say that d'addario last much longer than slinkies....yet I find the exact opposite to be true, and I've proven it to myself many times. It's a combination of me, my guitar, and the strings that determines how long they'll last!

(note, if you ever do move up to a higher guage, always have the guitar setup by a pro...it's quick and painless and they'll tell you right away if any adjustments need to be made)

Slackmaster 2000
 
i'm for dean markley all the way. every other type of string i've ever tried i break right away. i've heard some people say that the chemical makeup in people's skin reacts differently to different strings. i don't know if that's true but dean markley strings are the first i've ever tried that i actually didn't have to change the set till they started to get dead as opposed to just breaking, and i play REALLY hard to. i actually started with 9's and over the years have progressed to the 13's i use now
 
for electrics i tend to prefer DR mediums (lotta mass there, so not for the timid), but i will probably end up going bulk

for acoustic, i get 12-packs of rogue strings from musician's friend (i hear they're basically the same as the low-midrange martin strings)-in sizes 56,42,32,25,16,11 i believe. they do well for me-i do a lot of alternate tunings. with religious use of ghs fast-fret, they sound more or less like new until i break em (usually i break the heavy e)
 
The big thing to me is fretwear.

Almost all modern strings are extremely hard, and this means that when makers are still using traditional nickle frets, they are going to wear out like crazy, especially small vintage-style frets. The unavoidable problem is with the hardness of the unwound strings. You can get nickle-wound strings for the EAD, but the unwound GBE ones are still going to tear up your frets.

I think Ernie Balls are still soft-alloy, which means that they wear out faster, but your frets don't go away as fast.

If you want to see something truly hideous, check out what stainless steel roundwounds do to bass frets. Yikes!
 
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