Can I please get a view from any players that have experience of Ernie Ball Aluminium Bronze strings on whether the set I’ve put on my guitar are a duff set or if this is normal for these strings?
Having acquired an all mahogany small bodied short scale guitar a couple of months ago, I’ve been trying a few different string types to find out what works best for blues fingerpicking. So far I’ve tried Ernie Ball PBs (nope), 80/20s (possible), Newtone heritage PBs (maybe) and most recently Ernie Ball Aluminium Bronze. I have a set of Monels to try next. However, the Aluminium Bronze that are on at the moment MAY be old stock and I’m not sure if they truly reflect the intended sound of these strings.
Out of the wrapper the wound strings looked very dull rather than shiny like PBs. There’s no corrosion spots visible, just rather dull looking down the whole length of the string. On the guitar they are strong on the trebles and the fundamentals, which I had expected, but two unexpected things are: the thick E string is noticeably quieter than the other strings, so not ideal for dead-thumb bass lines, esp on a small guitar. Secondly, the strings leave mucky black streaks on my fingers from the first time I played them. Normally strings on my guitars only go ‘mucky’ after a few weeks of regular play. I clean them each session, but they’re mucky again next session.
I suspect this packet of strings may be duff, but it may be normal for this type of string. Any views please?
Comments
I have heard about other people having the black marks on fingers, I don't get that.
Mike Dawes used them for years before his D'Addario sponsorship, Andy Mckee uses them also.
No one is going to fake Ball aluminium bronze. When you fake something, you fake a best-seller, not a weird little niche-market product. Things like D'Addario EJ16s and Elixirs get faked a lot.
Apologies, I didn't have the top 10 best selling acoustic strings to hand!