Ask 5 people and you'll likely get 5 different answers...


D'Addario are good strings; good sound and feel, cheap, largely popular. That said, my sweat corrodes them too fast. Rotosound were even worse. So I use DR now. They're more expensive but I get good sound, feel AND lifespan.

There are a lot of choices out there and there are only a few basic differences. Everyone has a preference, usually for personal reasons. It never hurts to try something different though. I too use D'Addario's on my 12 string electrics, but I use Elixers on my 6 string acoustics and Martin Silk and Steel on my 12 string acoustics. For me it's more a matter of sound than anything else.

Everyone is going to have their own reasons, but you'll still have to find out for yourself. Just hit the store and pick up a different set. Play them for a week or two and change them out again. You will be able to tell fairly quickly what they do for your sound, your fingers, and your pocketbook.

For electric: Steel strings are brighter and react with the pickups a bit more intensely than, nickle strings which are a bit smoother is overall sound. Brass wounds react the least with your pickups, (not a bad thing, and most people hardly notice a difference,) and will be a little darker than nickle.

I knew someone would post before I did.

Yeah... Watch how the strings react with your natural skin oils and such. DO NOT LET ANYONE ELSE PLAY YOUR GUITAR. Especially when trying out new strings. The combination of different body oils and such can gum them up, corrode them, or otherwise turn you away from something that might have been perfect for you, had someone elses dirty little hands never touched them.

I use D'Addario 7 string packs. I used to use GHS Boomers but they kept breaking on me. Swiching to D'Adarrios made all the difference to me.

I use Ernie Ball Slinky's for my electrics and D'Addario .12 -.53 Phospor Bronze for my Ovation. I like my strings light.

I use:
6 string acoustics: Elixer Nanoweb
12 String Acoustic: D'Addario
Electric: Gibson Vintage Reissue strings [honestly their life is short but the tone for that week is just great]
Mandolin: Dean Markley

I also have a liking for John Pearse acoustic strings.

I found D'Addarios highly reactive to my sweat, also. I always played only them because slayer do... They normally needed to be changed (suffering significant loss in brightness) after a couple of months.
I'm trying a set of Ernie Balls at the moment and it's been 4 months and still no sign of staining on the high strings. They sound great.

I can bend the living daylights out of the slinkys and they won't break, at least on my guitars they don't. I sometimes wonder if you had, say, three different strats, all with the same action settings, that each guitar might utilize a different set of strings better. Guitars are like a living, breathing, animal. They can roll off the same assembly line but all seem to have their own personality.

I usually use D'Addario's but it's not a religion, sometimes I'll use others brands. right now I have a set of Elixers on my Gretsch acoustic and D'addarios on my 12 string. To be honest I probably don't pay as much attention to strings as some of these guys because I hate to change strings but I love the sound and feel of a new set.

Hey eds1275 - I use Gibson Vintage Reissue strings too. 11's on both my SG and Sheraton (Gibson pickups + Gibson strings = tonal bliss). I have found that they give the best tone and since I switched to them I have broken one string in the past 3 years. You are right that they lose their brilliance pretty quickly. FastFret has been a life saver on that front. I was gigging a lot and I sweat like a whore church even though I am a measly 140lbs. Being half Greek doesn't help either. The olive oil just oozes out of me. FastFret keeps the strings clean and extends their life.

I have 2 other guitars that I like to experiment with strings on. One of them is a Danelectro U2/Les Paul Jr. blend with 2 pickups: a P-90 at the bridge and a lipstick at the neck. Sometimes I put a set of Dean Markley mediums on her; the set with a wound G. Very interesting sound.

Acoustic, I like old school Martin bronze strings, 12 gauge. My Taylor came with Elixirs, but I did not like them at all. The tone isn't bad, but once the coating on them starts to go, the strings look and feel weird.

Evol

I literally buy strings by the caseload [cases of 40 sets] and change my strings once a week on both my gibsons and my guild. The other 7 guitars get changed as needed, but these three get the most play and since I mainly play in my studio writing material they need to be fresh. I agree about the gibson pickups being sweet. I have a gibson 57 and a 57+ in my V, and a P90 and P100 in my blueshawk. Those two guitars cover everything from jazz to metal.

I personally like DR strings. I use the Dimebag signature series and they are great for my Ibanez RG.

A question about any "signature" series strings: Are they actually any good, or was it something a company had put the face of some random great guitar player on and gave them craploads of endorsement money to do so? And if they are any good, which ones do you suggest? (I was looking real hard at some Dunlop "Zakk Wylde" strings yesterday lol)

The Zakk strings are peculiar in that no regular set matches the gauges used. Zakk does all sorts of drop tunings and he wants really chunky strings in the bottom but still keep things light and playable on the top side. So yeah, the Zakk strings are indeed different from others.

The Hi-Volatge DR (Dimebag's) are basically "normal" strings that are treated and coated with fast fret or something of the kind. They sound as excellent as their "normal" sisters except they should last longer. Personally, I find that the coat flakes away and I didn't like that, however, my bro keeps them a whole year looking shiny new so I guess that's a matter of skin greasyness and acidity)



Usually, signature sets (and I make a distinction between these and sets that are simply endorsed by some artist or another) exist because some whacky player had an idea not covered by the existing strings' availability and they got a company to make them for them.

So tuning is also a factor - I never really thought about that (I was thinking mostly about sound and longevity) I play in standard tuning at the moment, sometimes drop-D, and I may even start working with an open-D tuning. And I would love to know more about gauges as well (using a moderately light gauge at the moment, but would like to try something a little heavier, is it worth it?)