D'Addario Guitar Strings

[humbuckerstrat]

Right now my favorite strings are EB Regular Slinky Cobalts.

[hellion_213]

Right now my favorite strings are EB Regular Slinky Cobalts.

 

 

In reference to the OP - I did try a set of Chromes last year - 12-52s. They were pretty nice, lasted a while. if I were going with a D'adarrio, the Chromes would be my choice.

[WRGKMC]

 

one set lasted me a year on my main guitar after i`d taken the wammy bar off and blocked up the bridge and i gigged it a lot,the strings stayed sounding good .i`m ok with bright, i play through a Marshall

 

I get two good sessions out of a set of 9/46 and then the wrapped strings begin to get notches and cut into the frets. I do allot of string bending however. If you're using 11's you probably don't do allot bends so I can see them lasting longer, but even thick acoustic strings, start sounding dead in a few weeks. I can maybe get 6 months from Bass strings If I'm not playing them allot but even those get bends at the frets and start having tone/tuning issues.

 

When you take your strings off next time run your fingers down the strings and you can feel the bumps.

[1001gear]

Elixers solve the wound issues but plains are plains. You can clean 'em to death with alcohol (this actualy works) but bend for 5 minutes and they no longer intonate.

[Steve2112]

personally is have always liked D'Addario strings but everyone has their own preferences.

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Yep...it's pretty much personal preference. But when you've been playing for 25 years with dozens of different guitars you can sort of put trends together. If all you played was a LP and you say something like "strings too dark and don't last", you might not have a good sample size.

 

I actually use different gauges and different manufacturers on different guitars because I've found out what feels, sounds and works best can be different from guitar to guitar.

[WRGKMC]

I like D'Addarios on bass better then guitar. The guitar strings have string tension issues with the sets I use. A couple of the strings are too flexible and if you use tall frets like I do they tend to bend sharp too easily. Boomers on the other hand have a much better balance to their stiffness. When you play leads you don't have to re-adapt to each strings stiffness, they all feel basically the same for both bending and pressure holding them down. Their 10's and up are better but their 9/42 or 9/46 sets just aren't for me. Boomers, Saffarzo, SIT, Labella, Even Slinky have better tension balance.

[knotty]

 

I get two good sessions out of a set of 9/46 and then the wrapped strings begin to get notches and cut into the frets. I do allot of string bending however. If you're using 11's you probably don't do allot bends so I can see them lasting longer, but even thick acoustic strings, start sounding dead in a few weeks. I can maybe get 6 months from Bass strings If I'm not playing them allot but even those get bends at the frets and start having tone/tuning issues.

 

When you take your strings off next time run your fingers down the strings and you can feel the bumps.

 

2 sessions? Wrapped cut into the frets. ? You need different frets.

 

and how much wrapped bending do you do?

[WRGKMC]

 

2 sessions? Wrapped cut into the frets. ? You need different frets.

 

and how much wrapped bending do you do?

 

I bend notes allot, almost like playing slide. Its not just the bends its the vibratos. The 4th string especially gets chewed up really fast. The frets are just standard type on most of my guitars. I only have stainless on two out of the 30 or so its not a fret material issue. I polish the frets every other set of strings as well so its not like the frets are abrasive.

 

I do use the tallest frets made on many of my guitars for a fluted neck feel. My fingers don't really touch the fret board. All the pressures on the strings themselves at the frets.

 

I did a single 4 hour session this weekend playing stuff like this at a party and that new set of strings I put earlier in the week were toast when I checked them the day after. I had no more then a couple hours doodling around breaking them in a little but not the kind of stuff I do when I'm pumped up playing this stuff.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1682170/In%20%26%20Out%20(b).wav

 

You can scroll about half way through to the lead parts and understand better why there isn't much left to strings after a long session.

[catscurlyear]

 

I get two good sessions out of a set of 9/46 and then the wrapped strings begin to get notches and cut into the frets. I do allot of string bending however. If you're using 11's you probably don't do allot bends so I can see them lasting longer, but even thick acoustic strings, start sounding dead in a few weeks. I can maybe get 6 months from Bass strings If I'm not playing them allot but even those get bends at the frets and start having tone/tuning issues.

 

When you take your strings off next time run your fingers down the strings and you can feel the bumps.

 

if you like the sound of new strings then i can understand why you would want to change them regular . i personaly like the sound after a couple of gigs with the gear i have from there on they sound ok and on my guitar which is a strat fit with a fender bullet maple neck from the late 70`s the guitar acoustically sounds very good and through my marshall jcm 900 kicks arse. i actually do bend the strings a lot ,i used to play with 10`s but i have a fast vibrato and at times the vibrato would go a bit wide and sound too much like an heavy metal opera singer so i put 11`s on to tighten the vibrato up now it sounds like kossoff or angus, by the way the band i am in we tune to Eb. i use 12`s on my acoustic and they have been on a couple of years ,they sound mellow as hell but it suits what i play on it .i don`t know why some people like the sound of new strings they might suit country finger slapping but thats about it ,i couldn`t believe it my self but since ditching the trem arm the intonation seems to stay together on old strings much longer.

[WRGKMC]

 

if you like the sound of new strings then i can understand why you would want to change them regular . i personaly like the sound after a couple of gigs with the gear i have from there on they sound ok and on my guitar which is a strat fit with a fender bullet maple neck from the late 70`s the guitar acoustically sounds very good and through my marshall jcm 900 kicks arse. i actually do bend the strings a lot ,i used to play with 10`s but i have a fast vibrato and at times the vibrato would go a bit wide and sound too much like an heavy metal opera singer so i put 11`s on to tighten the vibrato up now it sounds like kossoff or angus, by the way the band i am in we tune to Eb. i use 12`s on my acoustic and they have been on a couple of years ,they sound mellow as hell but it suits what i play on it .i don`t know why some people like the sound of new strings they might suit country finger slapping but thats about it ,i couldn`t believe it my self but since ditching the trem arm the intonation seems to stay together on old strings much longer.

 

I haven't tried to go that long with strings since I was like 12 years old and barely knew anything about guitars. That first set of strings seemed to sound the sweetest for some reason. Now I buy them in bulk. I may buy a dozen sets every other months depending on whether I'm playing out or doing sessions.

 

Down tuning 12's make them feel like 11's. I used to use heavy strings allot but after 50 years of hard playing the joints in my hands get inflamed too easily now. I do play bass too which is bad enough on the joints but its a necessary evil doing your own stuff.

 

 

Tone with new strings really depends on the pickups, and the gear you use and your string choices. The only guitar I have that sounds overly bright with new strings is my Tele. I use my tone knob during the break in period which rarely lasts very long. After a few songs they start to darken and plateau off.

 

Within a few weeks of playing strings just don't feel the same any more for a number of reasons. Of course I'm using 9's which aren't going to last half as long as heavier strings do. I have a bass or two that can get a years playing off and on. On guitars, bends become difficult and they start getting grubby as the chromed finish eats through. You can clean that stuff off the plain strings but the wrapped ones get crap in the wraps. That stuff eventually begins to affect your pitch, intonation and note clarity.

 

I have allot of instruments so some of them may sit on a hanger for 6 months without being played. Even if the strings were in good shape when I hung it up, allot of strings elasticity gets lost being left strung up. A certain amount of deadness and loss of sustain is usually noticable too. I'll usually wind up snapping strings when they're old like that.

 

Something's just before they go you can get some good tones happening. Maybe its just because there's no stretch left in the strings.

 

I do set all my instruments up just after the break in period and they will retain that intonation for a duration of time depending on how may hours I put in. After that they usually starts sounding sour at some frets while other frets you don't use much sound true to pitch. That really drives my ears nuts. I can tolerate the normal tempered tuning issues but you add the worn string syndrome and forget it. Those suckers come off and new ones go on.

 

Heck I couldn't get more then a couple months playing without having grooved frets in the root position making those strings sharp. Its always the first 3 string, 1st through 4th frets that see the most wear. Once that grooving starts its a bitch to get rid of because you have to level all the frets down to the lowest common denominator.

 

I know this other guitarist that has guitars where he's never maintained his frets. The thing had trenches grooved into the frets 1/2 way up. I then understood why the guys guitar always sounded sour. I eventually got him to let me re-level and re-crown his SG. When I gave it back to him and after he played it awhile he practically got down on his knees to thank me. It was the first time I could tolerate listening to the guy play cause all those notes weren't out of pitch and buzzing badly.

 

Moral of the story. Maintain your gear and it will sound better then maybe even your ears can recognize as sounding good. 1 year performing? I probably wouldn't want to be listening to that guitar. You may think its fine, but you should realize there are many others who have highly acute hearing and old strings is going to loose you tone and customers.

[knotty]

Er, sour notes? Acute hearing? You may want to listen again to that track you posted.

[WRGKMC]

Er' date=' sour notes? Acute hearing? You may want to listen again to that track you posted.[/quote']

 

Yea I figured whatever I posted in attempts to keep the conversation polite, you'd bash it. You are so predictable. You questioned me about note bends so I gave you an example. Then you bash my buddies for having some sour notes during a jam. Hope that makes you feel like a big man.

 

In case others want to know, that was open mic jam at my buddies birthday party last weekend. We had about 15 musicians trading instruments on and off and keeping instruments tuned wasn't the #1 priority.

 

The other guitarist/singer in that recording is a classic example of a musician with tin ears. He is probably the worst I know when it comes to tuning. Part of that is because he uses .008's on his guitar and on top of that he uses paper thin picks. I was actually lucky enough to have him get it tuned as close as he did. I think he's beginning to go deaf at the age of 64 but I do give him respect for still being out there performing live every week instead of sitting around regretting he wasn't as successful as he could have been.

 

So why do I like jamming with him? Its because we play songs like that live, never having heard it before with absolutely no rehearsal before hand. That was an example of a song being composed on the spot as we played it. I don't know many musicians that can do that. It takes allot of experience as a player and there aren't many out there who can pull that off so I can tolerate a few sour notes if a players have that kind of creativity. If I was worried about a few sour notes being posted on this site I could have easily edited and doctored it up instead of posting the raw live version.

[knotty]

 

Yea I figured whatever I posted in attempts to keep the conversation polite, you'd bash it. You are so predictable. You questioned me about note bends so I gave you an example. Then you bash my buddies for having some sour notes during a jam. Hope that makes you feel like a big man.

 

In case others want to know, that was open mic jam at my buddies birthday party last weekend. We had about 15 musicians trading instruments on and off and keeping instruments tuned wasn't the #1 priority.

 

The other guitarist/singer in that recording is a classic example of a musician with tin ears. He is probably the worst I know when it comes to tuning. Part of that is because he uses .008's on his guitar and on top of that he uses paper thin picks. I was actually lucky enough to have him get it tuned as close as he did. I think he's beginning to go deaf at the age of 64 but I do give him respect for still being out there performing live every week instead of sitting around regretting he wasn't as successful as he could have been.

 

So why do I like jamming with him? Its because we play songs like that live, never having heard it before with absolutely no rehearsal before hand. That was an example of a song being composed on the spot as we played it. I don't know many musicians that can do that. It takes allot of experience as a player and there aren't many out there who can pull that off so I can tolerate a few sour notes if a players have that kind of creativity. If I was worried about a few sour notes being posted on this site I could have easily edited and doctored it up instead of posting the raw live version.

 

I was talking about your sour notes not his. I thought things like that made your ears bleed.

Your a fantasist. Any way you carry on, most here seem to swallow it.

[catscurlyear]

Here`s some over 2 year old Elixir 12`s acoustic guitar strings on a Tanglewood Koa .lol

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mxwrxl8au...er%29.mp3?dl=0

[hellion_213]

Enjoyed the piece. I played with some dudes a few years back, and we worked in some off the cuff songs as well. It takes a decent lyricist to pull vocals off spur of the moment, and they be more than the same line for 30 second bursts. And you have to have a drummer that can sense when you're changing time signatures.

As far as string changes, I whammy a lot, but like strings that have broken in and won't stretch any more after lock down.

[Steve2112]

The track WKRP posted...the only thing I hate about it was the constant noodling through the whole entire song, the mumbling out of tune vocals, and the predictable drumming.

 

I sorta doubt this was just "instant jamming on the spot" but I don't hold me to that. Thing is...this was probably a lot of fun but you had to be there. You know what I'm talking about!

 

Next time you guys do an impromptu jam thing, maybe don't solo through the whole entire song?

 

Also..not sure what the point is about strings. Other than I can understand if you solo like this over every single thing you ever play you might think it will wear strings and frets.

 

Honestly? Although there is WAY WAY too much blow hard soloing over the whole entire song- I think WKRP picked it to try to convince us the shredding shreds up strings and frets and his guitar blew up. - but I have heard WAY more shredding and Floyd Rose dive bombing to buy that this chews up everything in 4 hours. It's either incredibly bad technique or horse manure. I suspect both.

 

You know...even if you CAN do it adeptly- which I didn't hear- doesn't mean you SHOULD, most especially during a jam session!. And this does call into question many things WKRP posts as authority,. No offense intended all due respect and just mvho. Any resemblance to any other opinion is purely coincidental.

[hellion_213]

Steve - I think WR has probably read WAY too many guitarist tips, and now tries to incorporate All of them, but if he has the time and $$.... I know dudes that read somewhere that you should change strings after every show, and they do. Drummers that change heads every second/third show. Some just either Really like the sound of new strings and heads or they got completely Sold. As for myself, I'm anal about pick wear, can't stand a pick that has much wear, and go through three, minimum, every show, more on a long set.

[Steve2112]

Yo hellion...I like new picks too. More than new strings LOL. I'm also a scrooge so I file down the edge of the picks with an emery board. Youknow...where the strings chew it up? It doesn't make up for the diving board effect...so when it matters I use fresh picks.

 

I'm more concerned about WKRP's noodling than his strings! Even Yngwie makes way for vocals. : )

[knotty]

I assume you guys know the carpet trick for reshaping and smoothing worn picks.

Just swipe the edge along a carpet and let friction do the rest.

[Steve2112]

Yep I know the trick (a tall tale!) but I like Emery board better. I like that edge to be sharply 90 degrees and shaped to perfection. Not as much work as carpet and way more precise for us pick snobs.

[knotty]

I cant get as smooth an edge with an emory board as I do with the carpet.

I am not a pick connoisseur though.

[Steve2112]

Not smooth SHARP! 90 degree edges no radius! Only original mold or file will do : )

[hellion_213]

I hear you, I hate new strings, like out of the pack new. When whammied I dont want to worry about retuning any more than a quarter fine tune adjustment. Picks I just throw away, so between the pick monster we all have in our houses and throwing them out as they wear, I go threw my share, lol.

I know some dudes that like to solo 1/2 the song, they typically don't last in a band setting long, and most songs have the same noodled solo, or a variant of, so that tends to put off the audience. Personally, I don't mind listening to one or two like that in a set, but when the entire set is just one big 40 minute song... We played a show with a 'band' like that, dude more or less noodled for 45 min with, no joke, five full stacks. I went outside, as did some of the audience. It was beyond ridiculous. Each new 'song' was more or less a new riff with a variant of the same pentatonic noodling over top.

[WRGKMC]

The track WKRP posted...the only thing I hate about it was the constant noodling through the whole entire song, the mumbling out of tune vocals, and the predictable drumming.

 

I sorta doubt this was just "instant jamming on the spot" but I don't hold me to that. Thing is...this was probably a lot of fun but you had to be there. You know what I'm talking about!

 

Next time you guys do an impromptu jam thing, maybe don't solo through the whole entire song?

 

Also..not sure what the point is about strings. Other than I can understand if you solo like this over every single thing you ever play you might think it will wear strings and frets.

 

Honestly? Although there is WAY WAY too much blow hard soloing over the whole entire song- I think WKRP picked it to try to convince us the shredding shreds up strings and frets and his guitar blew up. - but I have heard WAY more shredding and Floyd Rose dive bombing to buy that this chews up everything in 4 hours. It's either incredibly bad technique or horse manure. I suspect both.

 

You know...even if you CAN do it adeptly- which I didn't hear- doesn't mean you SHOULD, most especially during a jam session!. And this does call into question many things WKRP posts as authority,. No offense intended all due respect and just mvho. Any resemblance to any other opinion is purely coincidental.

 

I picked it because it was the only song I had uploaded on drop box at the time which had allot of string bending. No more no less. I hadn't even listened to it more then twice.

 

The song is just rough on the spot jam, "but" I've played together for over 15 years. When you've played with people that long you can read what the other is going to do before they do it. Some of it is body language and some of it comes from working as a team for so long. when we get a good one with potential we'll use it as a blueprint for building something better.

 

We used to do cover stuff in the beginning. Then we did our own versions of cover tunes which we liked even better. Now we only do original stuff with an occasional cover tune. The other guitarist came up with the chords and vocals in this case. The bass player was on that side of the room and was able to visually follow the progression. I just filled in with whatever came to mind.

 

I could have stumbled over chords and caught up half way through but I chose not to in this case because it was an open party and we had visitors. My buddy can be a loose canon on chord changes so I just let him go. I let the recorder document what's going on and can transcribing it into something solid later.

 

We've written hundreds of songs together that way. Either I'd come up with chords and vocals or he would. The rest would do the backing while adding something unique to it. If we like the results and see something worthwhile, we'll take what was on the scratch recording to the next stage.

 

We then structure the song, write up better lyrics, figure where breaks should be, figure out how long the song would be and all that kinds of stuff. We then work it into the rehears al rotation then play it out a few times. If it's a keeper we'll do a serious high quality recording so what you heard is only step one of many used to refine a song and it can change allot along the way.

 

None of this is relative to the thread of course. The reason for posting it was to give contrast to the OP getting a year out of strings. For me, Two sessions of 4 hours each playing hard is all "I" usually get out of my strings. They could go longer but I don't like the feel of worn wrapped strings. They have more friction on bends which slows me down and makes me fight the strings.

 

I did listen to the OP's song posted and playing technique and I can see why he can get allot of mileage out of his strings. He has a very light touch playing at least on that recording so I can see us having very different string wear.

[Steve2112]

Okay it's cool WKRP....do whatever makes ya happy. I must also be cut form a different cloth because even as a a "jam session" or song building or whatever you call it it's still offends my musical sensibilities. I've always felt there should be a reason for everything you say on guitar...not just for the sake of bending notes or keep from being lost. Been around the block myself with jams and loose chord movement...I didn't find that incredibly difficult.

 

But you found a "tune" with mximum bending and string nuking. Okay. Personally I'd HATE hearing that for more than a few minutes let alone 4 or eight hours egads. It's not like I have Zappa-like expectations and ears....but come on!

 

No need to appease me though right?