Strings.....I wonder....

Haz478

Bought a nocaster a couple of years ago it’s awesome. It would be the last one to go, my favourite guitar and I really don’t like telecasters. 

Bought some different stings (Elixr optiweb things) and strayed away from my normal slinkys. 

The guitar is suddenly awful, plays awful, sounds awful, horrible. Restringing very shortly. 

That started me thinking, how many times over the years have I put the guitar back in a shop, not realising with different stings it could be a whole different story. Funny it has taken me this long to see the light!

merciful-evans

Coated strings do sound a bit different. I used polywebs for quite a while just or longevity, but the coating gets ragged when it wears. At that stage it feels very different too.

Sassafras

Trouble is, you can't very well sit in a shop re-stringing a guitar that doesn't even belong to you.
It would make trying them out an expensive, wasteful pastime.

mudslide73

I put different strings on some guitars.. my LP still gets Slinkys despite me going to Newtone on everything else. The Newtones don't do it for me on that guitar for some reason. 

Haz478

Yup, it would be an understanding shop for sure! It’s funny the relationship between certain guitars and certain strings....
I think I hit the mix of a bright guitar with bright strings, it was like somebody had turned every treble knob to 11

maltingsaudio

Haz478 said:

Yup, it would be an understanding shop for sure! It’s funny the relationship between certain guitars and certain strings....
I think I hit the mix of a bright guitar with bright strings, it was like somebody had turned every treble knob to 11

Would depend on how long they’d had the guitar, how expensive it is , how desperate they are to sell it and how convinced they are that you have the money and would definitely buy it.

if they offered to do it for me I would smell a rat or lemon!

ICBM

Elixirs are certainly part of the reason I don't like new Taylor guitars.

Voxman

Tried Elixir's once years ago on my 69 Strat ...yuk, it was like playing plastic strings and they were dull and lifeless. Never again, and went straight back to d'addarios. 

Lestratcaster

I put some D'addario coated strings on a learner's guitar the other week and I don't like how they feel, stiff and not very nice to play. Compare to EB slinkys they may not last as long but they sure feel nicer to play on.

Mudcrutch

I don’t know anyone that’s a fan of coated strings.
Even if I was offered a load of them to use for free I would say Thanks but No Thanks.

stickyfiddle

I like coated strings on electrics because they mean I can go a year between string changes - you're amplifying anyway so can you always tweak the EQ to get a little more bite if you need it. 

They suck on acoustics though.

jaymenon

I thought Optiwebs are Elixir's thinnest ever coating?

Have a couple of sets but not used them yet :-(

Blueingreen

jaymenon said:

I thought Optiwebs are Elixir's thinnest ever coating?

Have a couple of sets but not used them yet :-(

I think they're great.

kennedydream1980

I’ve said this on a few threads regarding strings, Compared to regular Daddario EXL’s (which is my go to strings), Elixirs sound terrible and feel too stiff. There is something in the top end which isn’t pleasant at all. They just don’t sound right to me. Maybe it’s just because I’m so used to the sound and feel of Daddarios.

monquixote

Mudcrutch said:

I don’t know anyone that’s a fan of coated strings.
Even if I was offered a load of them to use for free I would say Thanks but No Thanks.

I prefer them.

Rotosounds on the other hand

HAL9000

Rightly or wrongly I've always thought of strings as the first element in the signal chain. Get it wrong and the mistake will get amplified at each subsequent stage. I suspect most people feel that strings are all much of a muchness but that simply isn't true.

Stevepage

I love Elixir Nanowebs but I'd rather save a few quid and buy D'addarios at the moment. I can make one set of them last a while as I'm not playing live or with a band anyway. If I was rehearsing or gigging often then I would pay out for the Elixirs

boz_h

I don't believe in saving money on strings (even when I was a skint student).  I go with Hal9000 on the first element in the chain concept.  Over the years I have tried pretty much every make and mode of strings out there and the difference in tone and feel can be quite marked.

Cranky

HAL9000 said:

Rightly or wrongly I've always thought of strings as the first element in the signal chain. Get it wrong and the mistake will get amplified at each subsequent stage. I suspect most people feel that strings are all much of a muchness but that simply isn't true.

Yeah, I used to be one of those fellas, but then I started paying closer attention.  A quality set of (D'addario. for me) strings makes you wanna play more, and that's the whole point.  What's an average guy going to save on strings per year by cheaping out?  It's a negligible expense in exchange for truly enjoying your hobby.

PonchoGreg

Haz478 said:

That started me thinking, how many times over the years have I put the guitar back in a shop, not realising with different stings it could be a whole different story. Funny it has taken me this long to see the light!

This is why I actually don't really enjoy trying guitars in shops, or at least why I feel it's not necessarily going to leave me more clued up as to how a guitar will sound or even feel (you can certainly ascertain stuff like neck shape, fit & finish, ergonomics, etc).

- Amp you don't know (most times)

- Noisy shop / annoying sales guy (often)

- suboptimal setup (often)

- String gauge you're not used to, old strings

The latter is probably the worst for me. Case in point, went to try a few PRS SEs recently, all strung with old, draggy 9s. Same for any Fender US standard I've ever tried. Made it very hard to go "yeah, that's ace I'll buy it right now!". Obviously it's very understandable for cheaper (say sub-£1k) guitars, they're not going to go through the hassle of setting it up in a different gauge from the factory.

skullfunkerry

I used to change my strings fairly regularly when I was gigging, just in case of breakage (although I don't think I've ever broken a string mid-gig). Nowadays though I leave them on as long as I can. It definitely helps that I use quite a lot of gain, that hides dead strings nicely... I've just done some recording for a friend's album, using my Jackson. Unplugged, the strings sound as dead as anything, but through the amp they sound fine - my friend has literally just texted a few minutes ago to tell me that he's happy with the recordings.

I've been using standard D'Addario strings for years, but I'm a lot less fussy recently: Feline's strings are very good (and a good price too), and I bought a couple of sets of Darco from Strings Direct, just because they were cheap. I've got a set on my RG at the moment and they sound and feel pretty much the same as the D'Addarios on my Jackson