Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi folk's,

Hope you all have had a great Christmas and fun New Year

I have a question relating to strings, for 15 years my choice of string has been he Martin Medium .13-.56... They have been great.

So I purchase a guitar online and its fitted with another string, not sure size or make but they feel good. I play them for a month and decide to change to my preffered choice of string. Low and behold my guitar now sounds so dull.

I want those old strings bac, but I dont know what they were, the gauge felt like a medium string .13-.56 the end of the string had a "chrome" barrel I think, and they sounded and looked so bright compared to Martin normal medium strings. I cant get over the difference in playing ability and brightness.

Can anyone help me on my string search? I contacted seller though he has no idea.. "help"

Thanks Folk's

Stephan...

Hi,

Thanks for the response JJ, 3 or 4 string manufacturers? You are probably right!

Maybe I just need to buy a few different sets and try them out?

Love & Peace..

Stephan..

This would be a good subject for the A.S.I.A. publishers to research and do a story on. I have always felt like there are only a few manufacturers of strings and then others put their label on them too.

It may be that these few string manufacturers actually blend metals and wind strings to their customer's specs??

The things I do know:

1. nickle wound electric guitar strings sound like mudd on an acoustic guitar.

2. there is a BIG difference between bronze strings and phospor-bronze strings.

3. there is a difference in sound between coated and non-coated strings.

4. string guage can change the sound, feel, and playability of a guitar.

5 silk wound strings sound different.

In general, I like the sound of phospor-bronze strings and I have been playing with both the coated and non-coated versions of these strings in light guages to see which ones suit my tastes better. The jury is still out as to which one actually sounds better. Sometimes it is a guitar specific decision as the same brand and style of string will sound bad on one of my guitars while a different style will sound outstanding.

Hesh, I have a friend who has been using a set of strings for almost as long as you have. He likes the sound that set produces. The main difference is that when they begin to sound dead, he takes them off og the guitar, rolls them up and boils them in water and soap until they are clean, then he oils them with WD-40 and puts them back on the guitar. I have never heard of this before, but it obviously works for him.

It would be good for someone to actually do some research on strings and report on them. I have problems with "guitar magazines" doing reports because I always feel like it is just advertising for the string company that is currently paying their advertising bills at the moment and not honest research.

I highly reccomend D'Adarrio brand strings. I swear by the bluegrass gauge on my main guitar and use lights on my others. John Pearse are also very good for flatpicking. Martin strings seem to not sound as good to my ears ever since they moved the string production down to Mexico. Musiscians friends brand is decent for the low price, cheaper than many bulk sets too. I dont buy the "2 or 3 factories make most of the strings" hype. Call me crazy, but I can really hear the difference between string brands.

 The more I build, the more I reach for the aspirin.

I hope this is not too far off topic...

I used to buy D'Angelico stings.  Do they still exist?

Yes, I know that it stings when a stRing breaks.....