OT: lol...d'addario strings

[MrNixon]

never liked the D'addario brand; always found them feeling less than slinky, and in my opinion they rotted much quicker than the two other brands i've tried (EB/DR). so while im all about setting up my Jaguar up, i've only been able to procure D'addario 'chromes' 12s.

 

so far, in the past 24 hrs, i've went thru FOUR BRAND-GODDAMN-NEW HIGH E STRINGS. all 4 have popped off @ the ball end - once when merely stretching the string out (that string didnt even get any play), once when attempting a whole step bend, two with super light trem use - and i doubt that theres a guillotine in the tailpiece of this Jag. The rest of the strings have been fine, even after re-tuning from scratch several times. The Jag plays amazing, only i'm afraid of breaking a High E string pretty much all the time now.

 

I'm used to breaking the D & G strings on my hardtail guitars, but those usually are honest breaks, if not a shotty string.

 

anyone else have a similar story, or am i just really bad @ setting guitars up.

 

also while on the off-topic, anyone recommend a good brand of Flatwounds for this thing?

[Tengo]

 

anyone else have a similar story, or am i just really bad @ setting guitars up.

 

 

I think it may be a bit of both in honesty, as even D'Addarios, which I HATE, shouldn't be that bad. That being said, I hate their damn strings.

[Heineken]

or am i just really bad @ setting guitars up.

 

Voila!

[Flying_Milkman]

Dean Markley'd.

[MrNixon]

dammit.

[Flying_Milkman]

 

dammit.

 

 

Is that 5?

[MrNixon]

lol no, just pissed that i have all these extra flatwound strings sitting around.

[OverdrivenEL34s]

that happened to me once few years ago but not with usual set of d'addario but with a 5 pack of high e strings i had gotten. i don't break strings often but bought this for backup since high e is most likely to break. well one day i broke high e string and i took one of the high e strings installed it and then it popped where at the ball end it broke. thought it was a fluke but the remaining broke one after the other in the exact same place.

 

never bought one of those packs again but do still use D'Addario strings and have never had that problem since.

[JETKING]

no wonder they're blowing them out on Pedalgeek for $2 a pack

[MrNixon]

just to give you a background - i HAVE set guitars up before, for myself and friends; them and i haven't had any problems.

 

im hoping that its just the new setup settling down, considering i've tooled around with it 3 times so far - last night's string-breaking bonanza was the result of trying the 'proper setup' with the saddles high, and the actual bridge low.

[Jeremy Skrenes]

I use D'addario EXPs on my acoustic and mandolin, and they work fine. They are acceptable on my electric, but Dean Markley nickel steels are the best.

[MrNixon]

nevermind:

http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/index.php?topic=1021.0

 

theres a lot to these Jags/JMs that dont apply to other guitars.

[Collapse]

Meh, D'addarios rule.

[frankiej]

i like their acoustic strings.

[Cadd99]

A) If you're breaking them that often, it's probably your bridge.

B) I swear by D'addario for guitar strings, so I'm clearly biased.

[frankiej]

plus ive never snapped more then one string when setting up my guitars.

 

and thats with my {censored}ty floyd rose copy (the bridge), so you must not know what your doing.

[thebloodbrother]

I like them, but then again, I don't have a guitar with a whammy bar.

[MrNixon]

plus ive never snapped more then one string when setting up my guitars. and thats with my {censored}ty floyd rose copy (the bridge), so you must not know what your doing.

 

the trem system on this thing is very new to me. its a reissue of a flawed design, so what are you gonna do. cool guitar with a bad bridge design. i'm learning tho.

 

according to those dudes over @ offsetguitars.com, someone with a similar problem said the angle the high E string breaks over a screw in the jag's tremolo system gets very close to the head of the screw, esp when the trem bar is in use:

that 3rd screw up by the E string comes really really close to the winding around the ball end, which can be abrasive to that ever-important ball-end winding. apparently its a problem i was bound to run into tinning those ends solves it.

 

at this point the guitar plays to my liking, and i know about the bridge issue(s) with this guitar.

apparently not many people around here own this type of guitar, although they seem to be popular in the forum.

[houseofglass21]

I've never had a problem with D'Addario strings. Only broken a string maybe once or twice out of a hundred packs and that was after not changing strings for weeks. I like them better than Ernie Ball (which feel too slinky to me) and they last longer in my observation.

 

There can only be one explanation for your problems with them:

[fantastico]

no problems here

[Destrega]

I can't seem to manage to break a string anymore, even through heavy use and hard playing. My first year of two of playing guitar I'd break strings, but since then (a decade) I just don't break strings, no matter what brand. Go figure.

[Zer0beaT]

I use D'Addario flatwound Chromes .11 on my Jag (and other guitars too, love the flatwounds for the past 3 years)

 

Anyway, I never break a string anymore. But you know what? I used to break the high E all the {censored}ing time on my Jag and totally forgot about it until this was posted. Seriously I used to put on a new set of strings and within a few days the high E would break either at the bridge or the ball.

 

So now that I think about it, I think it stopped when I fashioned my own "buzz stop" for my Jaguar to get rid of some fret buzz. I guess it helped with the stings/bridge too because I'm pretty sure that's when the high E stopped breaking.

 

So, it's probably the Jaguar design at fault, not the string brand. I made a buzz stop out of a piece of chrome pipe and drilled some holes and screwed it on with the existing 2 top screws on the Jag trem plate (didn't feel like paying $40 for the real thing).

 

Only downside is no more Sonic Youth fun behind the bridge, it changed the pitch obviously

[MrNixon]

I use D'Addario flatwound Chromes .11 on my Jag (and other guitars too, love the flatwounds for the past 3 years) Anyway, I never break a string anymore. But you know what? I used to break the high E all the {censored}ing time on my Jag and totally forgot about it until this was posted. Seriously I used to put on a new set of strings and within a few days the high E would break either at the bridge or the ball. So now that I think about it, I think it stopped when I fashioned my own "buzz stop" for my Jaguar to get rid of some fret buzz. I guess it helped with the stings/bridge too because I'm pretty sure that's when the high E stopped breaking. So, it's probably the Jaguar design at fault, not the string brand. I made a buzz stop out of a piece of chrome pipe and drilled some holes and screwed it on with the existing 2 top screws on the Jag trem plate (didn't feel like paying $40 for the real thing). Only downside is no more Sonic Youth fun behind the bridge, it changed the pitch obviously

 

yeah it took some searching for that info on the inherent problems with the bridge, cuz i lost hope for help 5-6 posts ago.

 

hopefully the soldering of the windings will do the trick.

 

and to everyone drooling over MIM offsets, caveat emptor!!!!! these fenders sound great, but definitely have their design flaws that you'll have to adapt to!

[moon shadow]

This seems to be a common issue with some Jags and JMs. It's not the strings. I had the same problem until I started soldering the windings at the ball ends. Problem gone.

 

Slipping ball ends from old strings onto the new strings so that they're pressed against the ball ends of the new strings also worked for me. It's a good quick fix, but I prefer soldering the windings.

[TheGareth]

That sucks man. I got D'Addario strings free when I bought a Gibson Les Paul a few years back and I hated them. They seemed to go dull really quickly and I'd never use them again. Balls are best.