Acoustic guitar strings: experiences with different brands and gauges

[mellowsun]

Over the years I've tried dozens of different brands and gauges of acoustic strings, in the quest for the perfect string. In summary, there is no perfect string, however, here's what I found, maybe useful for some!

I'm assuming regular daily use of 2-3 hours playing a day. Your mileage may vary.

Uncoated strings

Martin Bronze / Phosphor Bronze Lights (12-54): The baseline set. These are pretty cheap (£4.99) and sound great for the first day or two. The PBs are a little brighter, but feel slightly stiffer. The PBs last about twice as long (so maybe 4 days) as the plain Bronzes before they go dead.

D'Addario EJ16 PB Lights (12-54) and Medium (13-56): Cheap (£5) and a step up from Martin's in terms of longevity. Strong, bright sound, sound great when first fitted. I think these work best on short-scale guitars, as full-scale I find them a bit stiff and unforgiving. The mediums are as stiff as haulage cables and caused the neck of my Lowden to bow noticeably!

Rotosound Country Gold (now known as Super Bronze) 12s: Cheapish (£6.50). These are unwound at the bridge end (piano string design), which is supposed to give better sustain. It will also lower your action slightly, which might be a good thing. However, I found these sounded dead from the off: there was sustain, but they sounded wooly to me.

Newtone MasterClass PB lights (12s): hand-made UK strings at a fair price (around £8), these have a round core, so you can't trim the ends of the wound strings until you have tuned up to pitch and locked the free end, or the whole string will unravel. Low tension and really supple and flexible, but they sounded pretty dead to me and tarnish really quickly - lasted less time than the Martins, and the intonation was off from the start.

Coated strings

Rotosound Nexus Phosphor Bronze, coated 12s. Expensive (£12-15), hand-wound strings. The windings are coated before being wound on the core and the plain strings are gold plated. I really liked these: good sustain, pretty supple, warm but bright. However, they don't seem to last as long as Elixirs and I found I had a few intonation problems after changing tunings a few times: maybe they don't stretch evenly?

DR Extra Life Phosphor Bronze, coated Lights (12s) and Mediums (13s). Expensive (£14), hand-wound like Rotosound, these were somewhat strange - they sounded dead initially, but after playing in they developed quite a nice, warm sound, and are pretty supple. However, in terms of longevity, these didn't last any longer than plain D'Addarios and, even more so than the Rotosound Nexus, they didn't seem to keep their intonation: again, I wonder if uneven stretching is the reason. However, the mediums felt like lights so they were good for DADGAD initially at least.

D'Addario EXP Phosphor Bronze, coated Lights (12s) and Mediums (13s). There must be something about the thickness of the hex core with D'Addario strings, as like the uncoated sets, these are very stiff. However, they do last a long time and sound pretty bright - good for bashing out big chords on a spruce-topped jumbo or dreadnought, but pretty unforgiving and punishing for delicate fingerstyle. However, they do survive changing tunings, holding their intonation well.

Wyres Pierre Bensusan Signature set (hybrid gauge, part light, part medium), teflon coated. These are great for DADGAD, but very expensive - you order direct from Pierre Bensusan and are priced in Euros (EUR 16.90, discount for bulk orders). Superbly playable and supple, but really only for DADGAD - in standard tuning the intonation is off on the wound strings. Also they don't last as long as they should, after a week I needed to change them. The teflon coating seems to come off quite easily.

Elixir NanoWeb Phosphor Bronze, coated Lights (12s) and Mediums (13s). Fairly expensive, prices vary (£10-15), and often there are deals (3 for 2, 2 for 1 etc). I have to say these are my favourites so far. They last forever (one of my guitars has had the same set for 3 months now and still as good as new), superb intonation in all tunings - particularly the Mediums which work well from Csus through DADGAD, and standard tunings. Not too stiff, warm and bright, and work equally well bashing out chords or intricate fingerstyle. After some weeks, the invisible coating (GoreTex I think!) does fray a bit on the G string but otherwise, no complaints.

[bertie]

Id agree with the comments on DR and Lixxy coateds. After using DR un-coateds for younks (being a finger picker I love the bright spankyness) the coateds were a MAJOR let down.......very dull.........and even after a month just didnt give anything back.

Nanos all the way from this old timer

(oh, and good thread BTW)

[Vim Fuego]

Originally Posted by mellowsun

Rotosound Country Gold (now known as Super Bronze) 12s: Cheapish (£6.50). These are unwound at the bridge end (piano string design), which is supposed to give better sustain. It will also lower your action slightly, which might be a good thing. However, I found these sounded dead from the off: there was sustain, but they sounded wooly to me.

couldn't agree more. Awful strings, so bad I had to take them off after a day or so.

However, my experiences of the martins are completely different. I've had a set on for about 6 months now, and they still sound good.

Tho I should qualify that by saying I don't like the new string sound, I like my strings with some miles on the clock.

[Lixarto]

Originally Posted by bertie

Lixxy

Hmm?

[Guitar_Slinger]

Originally Posted by bertie

(oh, and good thread BTW)

+1, thanks for sharing.

[Big Paulie]

I've tried the Elixirs and Martin SP. The Martin SP are, for me anyway, much better. But when you consider you can get 3 sets of Martin M140 or M150 (80/20 Bronze) for a tenner delivered, I can't see past this deal.

[bertie]

Originally Posted by Big Paulie

I The Martin SP are, for me anyway, much better. But when you consider you can get 3 sets of Martin M140 or M150 (80/20 Bronze) for a tenner delivered, I can't see past this deal.

mmm most places they're £6+ a set, and for un-coated, they dont measure up to DRs..........but at £10 for three sets that makes them considerably more"attractive" - where's that offer then ?

[Big Paulie]

bertie. Just re-read my post and it does sound as if I'm saying that you can get Martin SPs for 3 for £10. What I was saying was that I go for the Standard 80/20 Bronze strings. Either M140 (Light) or M150 (Medium).

The best I can find on Martin SP are 3 sets for £15 delivered.

[noisepolluter]

Very useful thread.

Personally I find I get along best with the D'addario phosphor bronze 12's; the 13's are good for pounding out bluegrass but are really hard work for fingerpicking or slightly more complex chords.

Fortunately I don't seem to have string-eating hands so I find each set lasts up to a couple of months which makes the 3-packs very good value indeed.

I do find that the Martins go dead very quickly.

[mellowsun]

Originally Posted by lespaulgb

Damn I wish I'd seen this before I got new strings.....

I got some Dean Markley Vintage Bronze ( £6.50 ). I'm going to fit them this evening and see how they sound.

+loads for coming up with this thread

I've not tried Dean Markley's before - please add your experiences to this thread! We can create a useful knowledge base.