twocorgis said:
I've pretty much always preferred phosphor-bronze strings. I used to use Guild strings pretty much exclusively while they were still being made.
Hi "Two": This has been tossed around a couple of times but one of our members says D'Addario WAS in fact Guild's supplier and was squeezed out by Fender 'cause Fender already owned a string maker. I REMEMBER that the Guild L350's I used on my D25 contained an .025 G string which was some what unusual. Most sets offer an .024. Sometime around 2003 or so I noticed even the Guild sets started using an .024. I found a few sets with the old gauge and stocked up, and discovered D'Addario still offered (and still does offer) the .025 as a single. This leads me to believe they really WERE Guild's supplier, and when I compared the actual strings they look identical, no slight color mismatch indicating maybe a slight difference in the metals. I use the D'Addarios ("EJ" series) now and am always happy and personally convinced they're the correct "OEM replacement". My '25 came back from its refret with Martin 80/20's and I left 'em on there for about 3 hours just to give 'em an honest chance, but I think they're stiffer and definitely not as woody in the low end as the D'Addarios. Hope that helps!