What is your favorite string brand for acoustic guitar?

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1
  • D’Addario
  • Ernie Ball
  • Elixir
  • Other (which one)?
0 voters

I put them in alphabetical order.

I like polls :relieved_face:

2

They’re all good. Unless you have an amazingly well tuned ear you won’t notice any significant difference.

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3

Maybe for electric guitar (?)

4

Disclaimer, I’m tone deaf so I’m not the guy to analyse these things.

6

Yes, you certainly do!

you didn’t specify electric or acoustic and the number of possibilities is far larger than the three you listed.

I have string preferences based on how the guitar sounds, so my tastes are specific to the guitar in my lap.

I dislike D’Addario - they never sound as pleasing to me as others
For single coils, I prefer DR Pure Blues
For HB, I tend toward EB Cobalts
But, for my super-bright SG, I tend to like GHS Thick-core.

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7

For acoustic. I think these brands are top 3 (maybe?). I know there’s a lot of string brands, so pick one of those 3 :+1:

8

They all come off huge spools at a chinese factory and are put in different wrappers.

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9

D’Adario says their strings are made in Long Island. Elixir says theirs are made in Maryland. Ernie Ball strings in Indio California.

Unless you have evidence to the contrary, you really ought not libel them.

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10

I make my own out of catgut. The only problem with this is that the local source of raw materials is drying up. The neighbours are getting suspicious. l am an ailurophile but, well, needs must.

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11

You know that cat gut strings were made from intestines of goats, cows, or sheep, right? “Cat” was short for cattle. Cats were never used.

12

Yes, perfectly aware of that. Thank you for taking me seriously.

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13

I never believed you were making your own, and knew it was a joke, but lots of people think cats were used.

14

I don’t have a favourite… Taylor recommends D’ddario phosphor bronze light 12-53 for my guitar so that’s what it gets. They know more about acoustic guitars than I do

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15

This really is too funny. Love your sense of humour!

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16

I have not tried ernie ball in like 20 years so I cannot say much and the coating on the Elixir seems to flake off like a lizard skin. I like the D’Addario mostly because they are color coated though I bought a higher end set of D’addario for the electric recently and they where 6 shades of grey instead of rainbow ¯_(ツ)_/¯ so OK.

That said, I put D’Addario XS whatever on my Acoustic nearly a year ago. I play every day, my son also plays occasionally, I am not fastidious about making sure my hands are clean before playing. Those strings still look clean and sound good (though not as bright as new). The only issue I have with them is that the windings on the G string are actually popp’ed up like little ridges where the frets are. I am not sure that is a weakness in the strings or just that I have not changed them in so long, but I dont think I have ever experienced that particular issue before. I will probably change them next month and see if the next set of D’Addario XS last as long. Definately got my monies worth out of those.

17

I prefer D’Addario Silk & Steel EJ40 light gauge strings. They have a warm sound that I prefer and last quite a while.

18

I always wondered about the name. Knew it was not felines, but cattle makes some sense.

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19

newb here with an experienced, but weak ear:
I too am experimenting with strings.
To @sequences comment, I think the guitar makes a strong difference the two string types their sporting: an old arch top and a new dreadnaught, both acoustic

I’m presently playing with two variables on string choice

  1. String weight (I/my fingers prefer playing light)
  2. round/flat/polished wrap (3X more expensive)

The arch top is currently sporting polished strings (put on by a luthier who set it up --only three strings are wrapped). totally different sound, way reduced finger noise, mellower sound. I cannot see any difference after four months of usage.

My 80/20 D’Addario bronze strings begin to look used within a couple of weeks. I change out about every three months (playing every day), and the new strings sound decidedly brighter than the ones I removed. Perhaps I should change out more frequently, but I play for an audience of one, and he is more bothered by unnecessary expenditures than by less bright sound.

20

In the past I never really paid attention to my strings. I used whatever the guitar tech installed.

For the past year or so, I’ve been trying Stringjoy strings (made in Nashville, TN, fwiw) on both my acoustics and my electric. I’ve been pretty happy with them so have no reason to change right now except to try something else, I suppose.

Interesting this came up because I noticed recently my strings sounding dull on my acoustic. I’m going to change them today so I have freshies on for open mic on Thursday.

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21

I started with the cheapest, most plentiful string brand at my local music store - D’Addario.

I have no complaints, so I’ve never had a reason to try a different brand.

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