What is Your Opinion about Strings?

Horse

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Hey thanks to one and all for your input. I think I'll keep mediums for a while, and stick with the Martin 80/20 phophors. One thing I've noticed about medium gauge strings; when they go they go in a big way. One day they were still sounding crisp, but the very next day they were sounding so dull I thought I'd done something to the guitar. A restring corrected. I've been away from playing for so long I'd forgotten that you have to change your strings once a month or so. 8)
 

crank

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Horse said:
Hey thanks to one and all for your input. I think I'll keep mediums for a while, and stick with the Martin 80/20 phophors. One thing I've noticed about medium gauge strings; when they go they go in a big way. One day they were still sounding crisp, but the very next day they were sounding so dull I thought I'd done something to the guitar. A restring corrected. I've been away from playing for so long I'd forgotten that you have to change your strings once a month or so. 8)


I use the D'Addarios you dislike because I find that they last a good long time. Other brands I've tried may sound better at first but the D'Addarios sound good longer. tried the Martins and they sounded great for about a week and then went dead. I have always used mediums.

PS. I use D'Addario XL's on my electrics for the same reason - long lasting. I hate changing strings.
 

Horse

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You may be right about those Martin strings. But the 80/20 light 12-strings do seem to last and hold their tone. Of course lately I am in the habit of swabbing the old calluses with wintergreen rubbing alcohol before playing, and then wiping down after. Seems to eek a little more life out of them, not much, but some. I will give the D
'Addarios another try one of these days.
 

Drka

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Just because no one mentioned it yet.... DR! Try it! I've tried D'addarios, Elixirs, JP, martin. brand loyalty i guess, and its subjective but i always come back to them for some reason. It's worth the mention. and the try!
Cheers,
Drka.
Really wanna try some newtones...
 

Horse

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Drka said:
Just because no one mentioned it yet.... DR! Try it! I've tried D'addarios, Elixirs, JP, martin. brand loyalty i guess, and its subjective but i always come back to them for some reason. It's worth the mention. and the try!
Cheers,
Drka.
Really wanna try some newtones...

- - - - -

Thanks for that. I think I'll give them a try just cuz their site looks looks cool. http://www.drstrings.com/
 

fronobulax

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Horse said:
Thanks for that. I think I'll give them a try just cuz their site looks looks cool. http://www.drstrings.com/

Often mentioned, but
[url=http://www.drstrings.com/about-us said:
The DR Strings web site[/url]]Mark Dronge, the founder of DR HandMade Strings, is the son of Guild Guitars Founder, Al Dronge.
 

Horse

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Often mentioned, but
[url=http://www.drstrings.com/about-us said:
The DR Strings web site[/url]]Mark Dronge, the founder of DR HandMade Strings, is the son of Guild Guitars Founder, Al Dronge.
[/quote]

Well that settles it then, doesn't it? Best these things be kept "in the family". I will order a set tonight. Hey ... how are their 12-strings?
 

adorshki

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Horse said:
As some may know who were involved in the price thread, I recently had the good fortune of getting hold of a New Hartford D50 at a decent price. One of the things that I noticed is that they are shipping Guilds with (what I consider to be) these godawful D'Addario Phosphor Bronze strings. Anyway, so I get the guitar home and start playing with it.... It was then that I realized that, lo and behold, Guild also shipped the dread with medium gauge strings! What I was hoping to do here was get a few questions answered by some of you more seasoned Guildfolk.

Firstly, is this normal?
According to Guild's website, it is, and it kinda surprised me when I first saw it too. Started with New Hartford production.
Horse said:
I was determined to restring immediately, and it just so happened that I had a very old set of those Guild phosphor bronze strings, you may know the ones, discontinued I think, with a black sleeve cover? Unbeknown to me for all the years they sat in the drawer, these too were mediums! Ok, I figured, I'll put these on anyway. The guitar's been hanging in the store for months with mediums, so who am I to suddenly change up. Well, I put these on and I had to say, they are some fine sounding strings. A shame they don't make them any more. I'd like to see them in light or med-light.
In spite of your reservations, those old strings're probably D'Addarios! But uncoated. See this thread for why I still use 'em (but lights, as you say, and I agree):
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24725
Horse said:
I'm also concerned that I the wonderful throaty bass will be diminished with lighter gauge. I am wondering what I could expect in terms of tonal changes should I decide to abruptly go with light gauge (as is the case with my old Martin, which never suffered *any* sort of problem when I went "light".
Lemme tell ya, bass response is not a problem on my D25 with lights. My belief is that lights allow a greater arc of travel which I think means there's still a lot of string energy being transmitted to the top. The variable in this case may be that your D50's top is intended to support the tension or "top loading" of mediums or Guild wouldn't have put 'em on there. On my D25, it was spec'd for lights. Tops resonate best within an ideal range of "preload" applied by the strings. Going too light or too heavy for the top can be counterproductive for volume and tone.
Hope that gives you some more food for thought.!
 

Horse

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[/quote]
Lemme tell ya, bass response is not a problem on my D25 with lights. My belief is that lights allow a greater arc of travel which I think means there's still a lot of string energy being transmitted to the top. The variable in this case may be that your D50's top is intended to support the tension or "top loading" of mediums or Guild wouldn't have put 'em on there. On my D25, it was spec'd for lights. Tops resonate best within an ideal range of "preload" applied by the strings. Going too light or too heavy for the top can be counterproductive for volume and tone.
Hope that gives you some more food for thought.![/quote]

Sound intel. Seems like good logic, and I defer to your wisdom on that....

Actually, since this thread began, I've found the perfect compromise using the Martin Marquis 80\20 Light Mediums (phosphor or regular bronze, somewhat different sounds, both styles great). Of course, now I will give those DRs a try.
 

Horse

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whoops ... accidental duplicaton. Nothing to see here, move along.
 

Horse

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Fellas, let's be Politically Correct about it, shall we?

It's Fervorous Be-OTCH, yo.
 

adorshki

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Horse said:
Fellas, let's be Politically Correct about it, shall we?
It's Fervorous Be-OTCH, yo.
Whenever we try to talk politics things get a litlle, well, "BE-otchy".
Just for the record, I am all in favor of the ban on fir virus vaccine.
 

Horse

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adorshki said:
Just for the record, I am all in favor of the ban on fir virus vaccine.

Yes but I'd heard it was thimerasol-free.
 
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