Preferred Strings Folks

grungebob

I find my body chemistry means I can get ages out of a set of strings and I only need to change them once every 6-8 months. I’ve tried many brands but Ernie Ball slinky’s are still my favourite. 

The new guitar ive just picked uk has come with elixir nanowebs and they feel a little strange, there’s more tension for a smaller gauge than I’d usually use and it’s almost like I can hear the coating against the frets if that makes sense? 
Ill be swapping back to slinky’s.  

ICBM

thegummy said:

Do you have a special maintenance routine?

Are you specifically going for an unusually dark tone?

No special maintenance other than cleaning them after playing if they need it.

I’m not going for that dark a tone - I don’t want a jazzy muddy tone. I don’t like the brash brand-new sound though.

amarok1971 said:

I don't have sweaty hands and possibly have reynauds (my hands look like a corpses ones in winter!) My strings last forwver, no joke.

I do have Reynauds, and don’t sweat much.

Voxman said:

Only thing I can think of is that you must be playing thicker gauge (11's upwards) and play mainly rhythm chords/open chords with little or no real bending i.e. you're putting a lot less wear/strain on the strings than a rock/blues lead guitarist like me.

Yes, I use 11s, play mostly chord/arpeggio rhythm. I do bend strings, but don’t use a lot of vibrato. I actually hit the strings quite hard, but I don’t use a pick - not sure if that makes much difference.

Brian May uses 8s, plays lead with a sixpence, and still never changes strings - I think he said 2 years or more wasn’t unusual as well.

RonanF

Is there much difference tone wise between 9s and 10s?

Ive 9s on my Les Paul and I'm thinking of changing to 10s, would this mess with the intonation?

HAL9000

RonanF said:

Is there much difference tone wise between 9s and 10s?

Lord David of Gilmour and SRV say yes. Billy Gibbons says not.

RonanF said:

Ive 9s on my Les Paul and I'm thinking of changing to 10s, would this mess with the intonation?

Slightly. TBH you'd probably get away with it.

skaguitar

just switched to Kerly's 50's Pure Nickels...expensive but feel great.. I always use 10's. I did try flatwounds at one point on the advice of another ska/reggae guitarist but I didn't get on with them in the end.

Strat54

GTS Super 10's - not cheap but last a hell of a lot longer than any other string and don't suffer from the little underside indentations you get on other makes. There is a difference between these and other strings but like anything related to guitars, if its expensive everyone just dismisses it as snake oil. 

thegummy

RonanF said:

Is there much difference tone wise between 9s and 10s?

Ive 9s on my Les Paul and I'm thinking of changing to 10s, would this mess with the intonation?

To try out the tone difference between 9 and 11, you could tune the 2nd string on a set of 9s to the same pitch as the 1st string and play the same notes on each string to compare.

Suppose you could buy a single 10 string and string it alongside the 9 and do the same to compare that.

When I compared the 9 and 11 the difference was enough for me to assume that even though the difference from 9 to 10 will be smaller, it will still be quite clear.

Also, as you go down the strings, there will be more than 1 thou difference between the strings from each set.

Garthy

Philtre said:

Last year I changed the strings on my classical guitar. After 10 years. ;-)

My classical still has the strings I bought it with in 1986!

viz

John_P said:

D’addario 9 - 46    I prefer the heavier bottom strings. 

Same here. Light and easy to bend on top, lots of character and oomph in the bass. I use Dean Markley Blue Steel if I can get them. 

stickyfiddle

Elixirs since about 2004. Anything between 9-42 and 10-52 depending on the guitar. I get about a week out of normal electric strings, but can happily go a year or so on a set of elixirs - non coated strings just aren't an option.

I'm enjoying the sound of non-coated strings on acoustic at the mo, but I get about 3 months out of a set of 80/20 bronze, compared with at least 6 months from Elixirs, so I'm not sure if i'll stick with them.

Modellista

Elixirs here as well. Normal strings just seem to go dead straight away. I like a bit of zing to a string. 10-46 on everything. You can get 3 sets of Elixirs for £20 so they're barely more expensive than normal strings and they last about 10 times as long. Tone-wise they're fine on electric.  On acoustic they can be almost too zingy - there's a bit of crispy treble that's not ideal - but I'd take that over no treble at all every day of the week. Perhaps if recording I'd use a decent uncoated set but for day to day playing and gigging It's coated all the way. 

rico

Strat54 said:

GTS Super 10's - not cheap but last a hell of a lot longer than any other string and don't suffer from the little underside indentations you get on other makes. There is a difference between these and other strings but like anything related to guitars, if its expensive everyone just dismisses it as snake oil. 

I am intrigued - can you explain how?

Strat54

rico said:

Strat54 said:

GTS Super 10's - not cheap but last a hell of a lot longer than any other string and don't suffer from the little underside indentations you get on other makes. There is a difference between these and other strings but like anything related to guitars, if its expensive everyone just dismisses it as snake oil. 

I am intrigued - can you explain how?

How they are different? Well I've never played two different makes of string that both sound and feel the same. The GTS sound evenly balanced across all six strings and from the off they were amazing, not the first play brightness of some but more of a woody bloom. I went from DR round cores to these. Pretty much tried every string over the last 30 odd years of playing. Not a fan of coated strings, Pyramids were too high tension on the bends, the NYXL's were dull from new. Mangans's were good but again feel a little bit tight. The GTS on my Tele stay in tune longer and from fitting settled in really quick. I saw one US session play say he could keep them on for four times the length he could with regular strings and so far for me playing a couple of hours a day they seem to still feel fresh. I'm happy, have some more on order. 

markblack

I like  DR Pure Blues Pure Nickel
Medium - 10 13 17 26 36 46

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DR-Strings-Blues-Nickel-Round/dp/B0009FUUO2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513036818&sr=8-1&keywords=dr+pure+blues

kt66

Newtone Type R - 10-42 the BEST strings for Rickenbackers, just don't tell anyone as they aren't easy to always get. 

JerkMoans

kt66 said:

Newtone Type R - 10-42 the BEST strings for Rickenbackers, just don't tell anyone as they aren't easy to always get. 

Oooh. How so? Having just become a Rickenbacker owner you intrigue me strangely with this arcane lore.

rico

Strat54 said:

rico said:

Strat54 said:

GTS Super 10's - not cheap but last a hell of a lot longer than any other string and don't suffer from the little underside indentations you get on other makes. There is a difference between these and other strings but like anything related to guitars, if its expensive everyone just dismisses it as snake oil. 

I am intrigued - can you explain how?

How they are different? Well I've never played two different makes of string that both sound and feel the same. The GTS sound evenly balanced across all six strings and from the off they were amazing, not the first play brightness of some but more of a woody bloom. I went from DR round cores to these. Pretty much tried every string over the last 30 odd years of playing. Not a fan of coated strings, Pyramids were too high tension on the bends, the NYXL's were dull from new. Mangans's were good but again feel a little bit tight. The GTS on my Tele stay in tune longer and from fitting settled in really quick. I saw one US session play say he could keep them on for four times the length he could with regular strings and so far for me playing a couple of hours a day they seem to still feel fresh. I'm happy, have some more on order. 

Interesting, I was more referring to your comment stating that they don’t suffer ‘fret indentations’ compared to other strings? 

stickyfiddle

rico said:

Strat54 said:

rico said:

Strat54 said:

GTS Super 10's - not cheap but last a hell of a lot longer than any other string and don't suffer from the little underside indentations you get on other makes. There is a difference between these and other strings but like anything related to guitars, if its expensive everyone just dismisses it as snake oil. 

I am intrigued - can you explain how?

How they are different? Well I've never played two different makes of string that both sound and feel the same. The GTS sound evenly balanced across all six strings and from the off they were amazing, not the first play brightness of some but more of a woody bloom. I went from DR round cores to these. Pretty much tried every string over the last 30 odd years of playing. Not a fan of coated strings, Pyramids were too high tension on the bends, the NYXL's were dull from new. Mangans's were good but again feel a little bit tight. The GTS on my Tele stay in tune longer and from fitting settled in really quick. I saw one US session play say he could keep them on for four times the length he could with regular strings and so far for me playing a couple of hours a day they seem to still feel fresh. I'm happy, have some more on order. 

Interesting, I was more referring to your comment stating that they don’t suffer ‘fret indentations’ compared to other strings? 

Surely the only way that’s possible is if they’re made of harder metal than the frets, in which case you’re going to cause excess feet wear, right?

crunchman

stickyfiddle said:

rico said:

Strat54 said:

rico said:

Strat54 said:

GTS Super 10's - not cheap but last a hell of a lot longer than any other string and don't suffer from the little underside indentations you get on other makes. There is a difference between these and other strings but like anything related to guitars, if its expensive everyone just dismisses it as snake oil. 

I am intrigued - can you explain how?

How they are different? Well I've never played two different makes of string that both sound and feel the same. The GTS sound evenly balanced across all six strings and from the off they were amazing, not the first play brightness of some but more of a woody bloom. I went from DR round cores to these. Pretty much tried every string over the last 30 odd years of playing. Not a fan of coated strings, Pyramids were too high tension on the bends, the NYXL's were dull from new. Mangans's were good but again feel a little bit tight. The GTS on my Tele stay in tune longer and from fitting settled in really quick. I saw one US session play say he could keep them on for four times the length he could with regular strings and so far for me playing a couple of hours a day they seem to still feel fresh. I'm happy, have some more on order. 

Interesting, I was more referring to your comment stating that they don’t suffer ‘fret indentations’ compared to other strings? 

Surely the only way that’s possible is if they’re made of harder metal than the frets, in which case you’re going to cause excess feet wear, right?

That was my thought when I read that comment.  I'd rather change strings slightly more often than need a refret years sooner.

Strings are dependent on body chemistry.  Once I was playing with a young guy once who had an Epiphone Les Paul, so I let him use my Gibson for the weekend.  After maybe 6 hours of playing, the strings on my Les Paul were totally corroded and black.  I could have left them on there for two years and they wouldn't have got like that.

If you have body chemistry like that then coated strings might be an unfortunate necessity.  Personally I really dislike them though.

Halikus

Last time i restrung was easily 18months ago - Elixir Nanoweb 10-52.   Just restrung the 2 guitars i play most withOp[tiwebs and so far liking them even more than the Nano's.