Guitar string gauges, brands and preferences

[crall7]

I acquired a Takamine G230 om acoustic model guitar and it's really at the bottom of Takamine's line of guitars but it is a great guitar to play and quite frankly one that I could afford. My question is if anyone has any experience with this particular guitar. My second question is in a general sense what brands and gauges of strings would work best in your opinion if you are a finger style acoustic

player and want the optimum amount of playing pleasure. My bridge is at the perfect height for me and the truss rod is adjusted nice as well but it still feels stiff and not spongy enough for my liking . Oh and I should mention these are the strings it came with and the guitar was used. They seem like bronze medium gauge strings which project pretty good but I don't like them . Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated and Thanks in advance.

[DeepEnd]

"Bronze" isn't very specific. Are they phosphor bronze or 80/20 bronze? If you don't know, PBs tend to be more pink in color like a penny while 80/20s are yellower like brass. PBs also sound a bit mellower. I'd recommend a good brand of PB "lights," which are 12-53 or so, vs mediums, which are 13-56. You can even go to 11s, which are 11-52. Do go by numeric gauge rather than "light," medium," etc. because some manufacturers like DR use non-standard gauges. For example, DR calls 12s "medium" and Ernie Ball calls 11s "light." Martin makes "FX" strings which are supposed to be more flexible and better for fingerstyle due to having thinner cores. They might work for you.

[Freeman Keller]

I'll echo what DeepEnd said - most people consider PB's to be "warm" or "mellow", while 80/20's are often described as 'bright". A smaller bodied guitar like an OM is a perfect match for light guage strings, which, again, as DE said are usually 0.012 to 0.053 or 54. Manufactures are pretty good about their labeling but double check. Lighter gauge strings are easier to fret and bend notes, slightly more prone to buzzing if your setup is marginal. Medium gauges strings are a bit louder and work better on larger guitars or if you plan to tune down.

 

One of the last decisions is whether to go with coated or extended play strings. They are significantly more expensive, but they often last 3 or 4 months. Elixers are the big name in coated strings - there are two thickness (Nanoweb are thin coat, Polyweb thicker). Some folks feel that the coating deadens the sound a little (I don't find that to be true), others don't care for the feel. Other manufacturers have their own long life strings.

 

My suggestion is to buy two sets of light gauges strings - one set in PB and one 80/20 (uncoated), play for a week, then while they are still fresh, switch to the others. It helps to record them both - let your ears tell you which sounds the best. Play them until you feel they have gone dead (if you are careful removing the first set you can usually put them back on). Then try the same composition and gauge in a coated string - see if you feel there is a difference in sound and how long they last.

 

Report back and we can discuss more - at that time I'll tell you what a similar experiment lead me to use.

 

btw - before I forget my manners, welcome to HCAG

[crall7]

Thanks Deep End these strings are more yellowish and I do like DR strings on my LP as far as Ernie Ball they seem like they should be bluegrass strings because they're so bright. I'm definitely looking for mellow dark tone . I haven't tried the Martins but I'm feeling adventurous. Someone told me about Labella silk and steel. The person told me they put less tension on the neck and really bring out all the nuances your guitar can dish out . Your knowledge of strings is impressive. I think I have the 80/20's.I also like DeAddario strings. Thanks for answering my thread.

[crall7]

Thanks Freeman those Elixer strings can be mighty pricey. Your knowledge of strings is impressive as well. I think I'm going to hunt for a lighter gauge strings lighter and darker in tone. If you leave your comment on the back side that you mentioned earlier I won't be able to get back to you till around Sunday or so. Thanks for jumping on the thread and I appreciate you expanding my knowledge on strings and stuff. It's good to be back here at HC.

[garthman]

My answer when this question is asked is "experiment - try different makes, compositions, gauges". It's just not possible to predict what a particular string will sound like until it's on the guitar.

 

 

 

[recordingtrack1]

I acquired a Takamine G230 om acoustic model guitar and it's really at the bottom of Takamine's line of guitars but it is a great guitar to play and quite frankly one that I could afford. My question is if anyone has any experience with this particular guitar. My second question is in a general sense what brands and gauges of strings would work best in your opinion if you are a finger style acoustic

player and want the optimum amount of playing pleasure. My bridge is at the perfect height for me and the truss rod is adjusted nice as well but it still feels stiff and not spongy enough for my liking . Oh and I should mention these are the strings it came with and the guitar was used. They seem like bronze medium gauge strings which project pretty good but I don't like them . Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated and Thanks in advance.

 

I use medium gauge strings on my Taylor. It is well braced and handles the extra string tension from mediums (.13) rather well. Your particular guitar is not braced well enough for 13's and hopefully, by now you have gotten them off of it. Though it is just my opinion, the extra string tension is not healthy for that guitar. I just recently did a set up on a low-end Takamine for a co-worker/friend. Hers was rather stressed from strings that were old and had become much more stiff causing the action to raise because of the string tension. She reported that she hated to pIay it because it hurt her fingers so much. I put a set of extra-light Elixirs on it (11's) and she was thrilled. With a couple of slight tweaks on the truss rod and a paper thin shim under the saddle, it was great. The adjustment of relief was ever so slight and no rattles or buzz. I'm not a big fan of strings that light, but in this case, the guitar really came alive. She reports that she is back to playing her guitar every day because it plays so much better.

 

Just my 2 cents worth.

[sdelsolray]

The only way I've figured out what strings work best for a particular guitar is to try several different strings to see how they behave on that guitar, with my chops and technique, with my songs, etc. I can make some educated guesses ahead of time but I've been surprised often once the strings get on the guitar.

 

Also, keep the strings on the guitar throughout their entire life, i.e., new, mid-life and end-life. That way you can have some expereince with how long they last, how they sound and behave at different times, etc. For example, new Exilir strings don't sound great to my ears when brand new, but after a few days (maybe 3-5 hours of playing time) their sonics improve. As another example, some strings sound quite brash when new but sound great once they reach mid-life.

[Idunno]

2-3 weeks they come off after the highs start to break down. It's all so subjective. Some consider new strings as a product that needs to be played in. I consider that same played in period to be played out. Also, there was a time when I thought I could hear differences between same brand/gauge/alloy and shucked it off to other things like room acoustics, RH and whatever. But, just for the sake of eliminating my 2nd guessing I eventually mic'd a couple sets of the fore-mentioned and found their actual sizes varying to minor tolerance differences. Then I found out that there's pretty much one guitar string extruder that provides wire to the string "makers". If their dies are worn, or their feeder is a little slow/fast, or their alloys vary, or the temp of the metal isn't ideal for extruding, or the machine operator is pining for Friday on Monday, product consistency suffers. Thus spake my micrometer. IOW, I buy D'Addario products and swap them out every 2-3 weeks and I'm satisfied that any audience will be as well.

[garthman]

2-3 weeks they come off after the highs start to break down. It's all so subjective. Some consider new strings as a product that needs to be played in. I consider that same played in period to be played out. Also' date=' there was a time when I thought I could hear differences between same brand/gauge/alloy and shucked it off to other things like room acoustics, RH and whatever. But, just for the sake of eliminating my 2nd guessing I eventually mic'd a couple sets of the fore-mentioned and found their actual sizes varying to minor tolerance differences. Then I found out that there's pretty much one guitar string extruder that provides wire to the string "makers". If their dies are worn, or their feeder is a little slow/fast, or their alloys vary, or the temp of the metal isn't ideal for extruding, or the machine operator is pining for Friday on Monday, product consistency suffers. Thus spake my micrometer. IOW, I buy D'Addario products and swap them out every 2-3 weeks and I'm satisfied that any audience will be as well.[/quote']

 

Yes - I agree just about 100% with all of this. There is an awful lot of horsesh!t talked about guitar strings.

 

And I too like the sound of nice fresh new strings. These days I buy cheap, albeit (IMHO), pretty good quality, 11 or 12 gauge 80/20 bronze (actually brass - copper/zinc alloy) MIK strings and restring every 3 to 4 weeks.

 

The only exceptions to this are (1) my nylon string dreadnought on which, of course, I use nylon strings that get changed when the D string breaks which is usually after about a month and (2) my old Eko Ranger VI to which I have fitted a cheap and cheerful magnetic sound hole pick-up and which is strung with 12 gauge nickel steel wound electric guitar strings (either Rotosound Medium/Heavy or La Bella Jazz Lights - both with a wound G string) which seem to last for ages. And please don't anyone say you can't put nylon or electric guitar strings on an acoustic guitar - because you can!

 

 

http://www.olympiastrings.co.uk/olym...auge-119-p.asp

[Telecruiser]

 

http://www.juststrings.com/cfm-msp-4150.html

 

 

 

[Freeman Keller]

. And please don't anyone say you can't put nylon or electric guitar strings on an acoustic guitar - because you can!

 

You can, of course, put any strings on any guitar but it may not work very well. Over the weekend I had a guitar in my shop where the owner was complaining of buzzing on the 4th and 6th strings - oh, and they had just restrung it, please try to reuse the strings.

 

The guitar was an inexpensive and moderately old Horner acoustic - X braced, pinned bridge, paddle headstock, worn frets. The player was a middle school youngster just starting out on guitar (she also plays violin). Her instructor is a very good guitarist trained in the classical style - he plays both classical and some early folkie stuff. The young lady was having trouble fretting the guitar (action was quite high) so the instructor had installed a set of hard tension nylon strings. The guitar was a little buzz box in the first few positions. When asked she said it did not buzz before with steel strings....

 

I measured the relief, there was none on the low strings and about 0.002 on the high. I slackened the truss rod (single acting) until the adjuster was actually loose - the relief went up to 0.001 or 2 on the bass strings, 0.004 on the treble. With a very light touch I could play it without buzzing, any more and it still sounded like a sitar.

 

I called the owner and said that if she wanted to use nylon strings I could work some relief into the fretboard, then lower the action and make it playable. At that point she could no longer go back to steel strings and my time might be several hours (by the time I dressed the frets it would probably be more). Otherwise I told her that I couldn't help her and there would be no charge.

 

I believe that her grand parents are taking her shopping for a classical guitar today.

 

btw - you all do know that nylon string guitars have approximately half the string tension, they do have relief even tho they don't have adjustable rods (more relief than most steel strings) and their actions are almost always set up higher at both ends, not to mention totally different construction.

 

 

[Freeman Keller]

http://www.juststrings.com/cfm-msp-4150.html

 

Its interesting that you linked to light-mediums, I have recently started playing the medium-lights that Elixer has developed in conjunction with Taylor and for my style of playing I like them a lot.

[guitarcapo]

Phosphor bronze can sound a bit dull on some guitars but more cutting and punching. Personally I like 80/20 better because I like that brightness of a new set of strings.

[garthman]

Well, of course.

 

I assumed that people here would be aware that nylon strings exert less tension than steel ones and there would probably be a need to adjust neck relief, perhaps saddle height too, if they fitted nylon strings to a steel string guitar. A slight tweaking of the truss rod was all that was required on my guitar.

[Freeman Keller]

I would have assumed that an instructor, who plays both steel and nylon string guitars (and owns very nice examples of each) would also know that. However he also sends his students to me for setups and adjustments - probably not wise to assume anything.

 

There are some other things wrong with trying to do this that should be obvious - the nut slots are wrong, the sharp edges on paddle head tuners will cut the strings, the saddle compensation is wrong and you have to deal with the pinned bridge.

[garthman]

True - good points - but as you say they are pretty obvious ones. It is obvious that the nut slots for the treble strings need to be widened a little to accommodate the thicker nylon trebles - the bass slots are fine. The strings can be attached at the bridge by using beads or knots (or using ball-end nylon strings) - again not too hard to work out.

 

Also, in the 10 years that I've been using my nylon sting dred I've never had a string cut by the tuner pegs and the intonation on the guitar is no worse than my two classical guitars despite using the original saddle intended for steel strings.

 

I've posted detailed instructions of how to do the conversion in threads overs the years - it's quite simple to do. But what is the point of doing it, you may ask? Well, for the hell of it . . . . . and to get a guitar that is my most-played instrument - probably 50%+ of my playing - and a quite unique sound that I find most pleasing.

[Telecruiser]

 

Its interesting that you linked to light-mediums, I have recently started playing the medium-lights that Elixer has developed in conjunction with Taylor and for my style of playing I like them a lot.

 

What I like about these light-mediums is that they are a true blend between a light and medium gauge. They don't put lights for the first three and mediums for the 4,5,6. They are a balanced set. YMMV