Six new phosphor bronze string sets to try on the D-55

Boomstick said:
So I put DR Sunbeam mediums on my D-55 and I don’t think I’m going to try much else.
Click to expand...
I've always liked Sunbeams on the Taylor. They're unique in my experience; beautiful sweet sound, long sustain, flexy. But they do lack volume, which is why I didn't include them in the test group for the D-55.
 
dwasifar said:
I've always liked Sunbeams on the Taylor. They're unique in my experience; beautiful sweet sound, long sustain, flexy. But they do lack volume, which is why I didn't include them in the test group for the D-55.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure they lack volume but they aren’t nearly as bright as say D’Addarios. I guess I could say they lack high end volume, and maybe some bass too but a lot more in the mids. I believe they have more mids than the Veritas mediums did but that’s been a while. Maybe I should try Veritas mediums again because that’s my favorite strings for my F-50, I can buy in bulk for a discount.

I had Sunbeam lights on it for a while too but the mediums are probably the best all-around strings. That said I may end up putting XT mediums on for the better bluegrass tone at some point too because this is the guitar I use for that stuff.

I’m debating trying some of the GHS true medium sets too.
 
Last edited:
Okay, the D'Addario EJ-16 have been on long enough to lose their initial brashness. They sound good, as D'Addario tends to. Nice balance, strong volume, excellent quality, good tuning stability, solid bass. But, surprisingly to me at least, not my favorite of the group.

That's the last set of the group, so now it's time to summarize my selections.

Best overall: no contest, it's the Stringjoy Naturals. Super musical right from the get-go. Beautiful tone, perfect quality, excellent playability and tuning stability, strong bass, good volume, outstanding balance. If money were not a concern, they would instantly become my go-to. But money is a concern, and they cost twice as much as the next most expensive set in the test.

Best for the money: again no contest, it's Webstrings. They're the least expensive brand I tested, yet they were among the most satisfying. Wonderfully musical, perfect quality, nice volume, well balanced and stable. Really the only thing Stringjoy has on them is playability; they're a bit less flexy. But seeing as how you can get four sets of Webstrings for the price of one set of Stringjoy, well, that's an acceptable tradeoff. I liked them as well as anything else I tested aside from the Stringjoy, and better than most. Webstrings wins the test and will become my new go-to.

Runner-up honorable mentions: Martin SP and GHS phosphor bronze also tested very well on this instrument. I liked the GHS more than I expected to. Martin has always been a good reliable choice at a good price, and if Webstrings disappeared tomorrow, I'd buy bulk packs of Martin SP and pack them into individual sets for the cost savings. BlackSmith also tested extremely well, definitely first when it comes to volume, but well made and well balanced. Adamas was better than expected for Chinese manufacturing. And D'Addario is always a standard, but they weren't any better than some of the other brands that cost less; I've noticed they're heading toward premium pricing lately, and unless you find a sale, there are more economical options. I'd buy GHS or BlackSmith first.

I imagine this conclusion may be surprising to some of you. Thanks to everyone who stuck with this all the way through.
 
Last edited:
dwasifar said:
Best overall: no contest, it's the Stringjoy Naturals.
Click to expand...
The Acoustic Shoppe did a string shootout with Foxwoods, GHS Americanas, D’Addario EJs and XS’s. My favorite was the Foxwoods despite not having good bass. Everything else was fairly similar but the Foxwoods had really nice mids
 
dwasifar said:
Not sure if this is due to the BlackSmith strings or if I was just playing heavily, but I completely wore out two picks in a two hour gig yesterday:

photo_2025-01-06_09-04-37.jpg

These were brand new yesterday morning.
Click to expand...

As an experiment, I compared two different Fender picks at a gig today. I played half the gig with each one:

1000002477.webp

One's a California Clear and the other is ordinary "celluloid" (probably not really celluloid).

The "celluloid" shows a bit of wear, but the California Clear is close to worn out, with the tip broken and the edges heavily beveled. Just like the previous.

Maybe this is why Fender stopped making the Clears.
 
dwasifar said:
As an experiment, I compared two different Fender picks at a gig today. I played half the gig with each one:

1000002477.jpg

One's a California Clear and the other is ordinary "celluloid" (probably not really celluloid).

The "celluloid" shows a bit of wear, but the California Clear is close to worn out, with the tip broken and the edges heavily beveled. Just like the previous.

Maybe this is why Fender stopped making the Clears.
Click to expand...
I eat Fender mediums alive. Fender heavys (.73mm) would be the minimum thickness I'd ever use in this day in age, although most .73mm picks would be delrin which is stiffer.
 
Also on the topic of strings, I put on a set of GHS Americana true mediums on both my F-50 and D-55. On the F-50, they're about perfect. I want to say they're right behind the DR Veritas mediums which have been the best, but I haven't had Veritas's and bought John Pearse's last time (I do have three sets in the case now).

On the D-55, I don't like them fingerstyle as much as the DR Sunbeams, but they still work great fingerstyle and they have better highs and lows and still decent mids. I could see these being a winner. I can see how maybe lights wouldn't be quite bright enough on this guitar too but as I'm using true mediums, the unwound strings are a little thicker which adds more high end. But they have good mids, even with the true medium set where the strings match in tension and also more in volume.
 
Last edited:
I took a better picture. There is some wear to the celluloid, but nothing like what the Clear experienced:

IMG_20250303_132817750.webp

Boomstick said:
I eat Fender mediums alive. Fender heavys (.73mm) would be the minimum thickness I'd ever use in this day in age, although most .73mm picks would be delrin which is stiffer.
Click to expand...
.73mm is a Fender medium. The heavy is 1.0mm. I just miked a couple of them to be sure.
 
dwasifar said:
I took a better picture. There is some wear to the celluloid, but nothing like what the Clear experienced:

IMG_20250303_132817750.webp


.73mm is a Fender medium. The heavy is 1.0mm. I just miked a couple of them to be sure.
Click to expand...
Aren't Fender mediums supposed to be .60mm?

Either way, the .73mm, I use are delrin. I don't shred them like Fender mediums. They probably are the equivalent of other .88mm picks or so.

Most of the time, I use 1mm delrin picks. There are times I grab a .73mm which I use for light strumming to play a more bluegrassy piece and the extra flex literally ffects my ability to pick notes in time - I can adjust to get through the song, but it's a conscious thing.
 
Last edited:
Thanks dwasifar for taking the time to post your experiments. Very informative and helpful.
 
dwasifar said:
Best for the money: again no contest, it's Webstrings. They're the least expensive brand I tested, yet they were among the most satisfying. Wonderfully musical, perfect quality, nice volume, well balanced and stable. Really the only thing Stringjoy has on them is playability; they're a bit less flexy. But seeing as how you can get four sets of Webstrings for the price of one set of Stringjoy, well, that's an acceptable tradeoff. I liked them as well as anything else I tested aside from the Stringjoy, and better than most. Webstrings wins the test and will become my new go-to.
Click to expand...

A postscript: I put a set of Webstrings on the D-55, directly after taking off a set of D'Addario EJ-16, so I was able to make a fairly direct comparison, and I like the Webstrings better. The guitar sounds more awake with them. That's really something, because I've always regarded D'Addario as a de facto standard.

Also, on the Yamaha, I just did the reverse: I took off Webstrings and put on a set of Yamaha-branded D'Addario. They're good, but I will be going back to Webstrings after this set.
 
I just ordered 8 sets of GHS Americana true mediums. The plan is to use them on the D-55 because those have been my favorites, but I also am going to try them on my G-37, I expect that they'll do well on that guitar.
 
Great comparisons,thanmks for that. I've settled in on using DaDdario's XS strings. Good sound, and they last forever.

I will give the webstrings a try. The Xs is a bit pricey.....
 
dwasifar said:
Okay, the D'Addario EJ-16 have been on long enough to lose their initial brashness. They sound good, as D'Addario tends to. Nice balance, strong volume, excellent quality, good tuning stability, solid bass. But, surprisingly to me at least, not my favorite of the group.

That's the last set of the group, so now it's time to summarize my selections.

Best overall: no contest, it's the Stringjoy Naturals. Super musical right from the get-go. Beautiful tone, perfect quality, excellent playability and tuning stability, strong bass, good volume, outstanding balance. If money were not a concern, they would instantly become my go-to. But money is a concern, and they cost twice as much as the next most expensive set in the test.

Best for the money: again no contest, it's Webstrings. They're the least expensive brand I tested, yet they were among the most satisfying. Wonderfully musical, perfect quality, nice volume, well balanced and stable. Really the only thing Stringjoy has on them is playability; they're a bit less flexy. But seeing as how you can get four sets of Webstrings for the price of one set of Stringjoy, well, that's an acceptable tradeoff. I liked them as well as anything else I tested aside from the Stringjoy, and better than most. Webstrings wins the test and will become my new go-to.

Runner-up honorable mentions: Martin SP and GHS phosphor bronze also tested very well on this instrument. I liked the GHS more than I expected to. Martin has always been a good reliable choice at a good price, and if Webstrings disappeared tomorrow, I'd buy bulk packs of Martin SP and pack them into individual sets for the cost savings. BlackSmith also tested extremely well, definitely first when it comes to volume, but well made and well balanced. Adamas was better than expected for Chinese manufacturing. And D'Addario is always a standard, but they weren't any better than some of the other brands that cost less; I've noticed they're heading toward premium pricing lately, and unless you find a sale, there are more economical options. I'd buy GHS or BlackSmith first.

I imagine this conclusion may be surprising to some of you. Thanks to everyone who stuck with this all the way through.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the time and care you put into this comparison.
 
thanks for this good review. only problem thoes 2 strings are not sold in EU :S
So i cant try them out on my D55 from 2025.
How would you place the EJ16 and the XTs if you numbered your favorites from 1 to 10 ?
 
So as my G-37 is getting a neck reset and getting setup with mediums, this means I’ll have three guitars with mediums if I leave things as is. So I decided to go back to lights on the D-55, also I’m working on some fingerpicked songs currently so that makes sense.

I first tried a set of D’Addario XS’s, generally a safe bet and they hold up, but they lacked chimey highs and high mids and sounded quite a bit too focused for my liking. Still worked with a pick well enough but I don’t have nails.

So based on this thread, I decided to try String Joy Natural lights as my local shop had some. They really brought the guitar alive when fingerpicked and are still good with a pick. The high E is a little bit quieter than I’d like compared to the other strings, which is their only imperfection.

I also have some Sunbeams on the way. I really liked how they sounded before I got the neck reset and a bone saddle, but with a bone saddle they may be short in highs but I should like the mids so it may be a tough battle.
 
A follow-up.

I've been using the Webstrings for 15 months now, and I'm most of the way through my first bulk order. I'm still pretty happy with them, mostly, but after running through so many sets, I have to reluctantly report they can be a bit inconsistent. Some sets seem to start out brighter and last longer than others. This is not something my previous testing would reveal. I haven't yet run into any that were bad per se; they've all been usable, but some better than others.

I still recommend them, but I feel obliged to mention this long-term finding.
 
dwasifar said:
A follow-up.

I've been using the Webstrings for 15 months now, and I'm most of the way through my first bulk order. I'm still pretty happy with them, mostly, but after running through so many sets, I have to reluctantly report they can be a bit inconsistent. Some sets seem to start out brighter and last longer than others. This is not something my previous testing would reveal. I haven't yet run into any that were bad per se; they've all been usable, but some better than others.

I still recommend them, but I feel obliged to mention this long-term finding.
Click to expand...
I may need to retract this, having just realized that the picks I've been using (Fender California Clears) start sounding muted way before they look worn out. I was about to change my strings early today when I dropped my pick, took out a new one, and suddenly the strings sounded new again. Found the dropped pick and compared them to confirm.

So maybe it was the picks. I'll have to pay more attention to this for the remaining sets. Stay tuned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top