Electric Guitar Strings

[Structo]

What brand and style of strings do you guys like the best.
I've tried a lot of them and always seem to come back to D'Addarios.
Sound good, cheap, available, good life.

A few months ago I ordered a dozen or so sets of different brands and styles.

I pretty much stick to the light gauge 10-46 sets on all my guitars.

My main player for the last few months has been a Schecter C1 Classic which is a 25.5" scale, neck through, dual humbucker guitar.

I've tried the chromes, nickle plated, hex core, round core, etc.

The other day I put a set of D'Addario Pure Nickle XL's.
The silver looking packet.
They have a .010, ,013, .017, .025, .035 and .045 strings, so the bass strings are smaller by .001 than normal 10-46 sets.

According to D'Addario's tone chart they are considered a more mellow sounding string.

This guitar can be a bit bright and harsh with new nickle plated strings on the bridge pickup and what I noticed immediately was that these Pure Nickle strings sound much better.
More organic and mellow if you will.

I'm still evaluating them but I think I may have found the right strings for this guitar.

So what strings do you like and why?

[selloutrr]

Earnie Ball - They are made just down the street and they are free

Who made the bass strings with a lion on them? I remember I liked them but at $80 a pack, Free sound just as good.

[Gibsonman63]

GHS Boomers Custom Lights. Slightly smaller string guages on the unwound strings and regular for the wound strings. A cross between a set of 9's and a set of 10's.

They last pretty good for outdoor gigs in the Texas heat, they're cheap at around $3.50 a set and they don't tear my fingers up. I do a lot of bends and the thicker guages separate my fingernail from my fingertip by the end of the night.

[NickC]

I know these are not popular with many folks ... but I like the Elixir light-top-heavy-bottom sets (09 -46).







edited to correkt schpellink

[kevster]

My first choice: Elixir... These last 4x-5x longer with my body chemistry...

Second choice: Boomers

Third choice: Old strings or nothing... Everything else is a distant 3rd..

[bcmatt]

Earnie Ball - They are made just down the street and they are free

Who made the bass strings with a lion on them? I remember I liked them but at $80 a pack, Free sound just as good.

Sweet deal!
I only live near a coal mine right now, and I get that free from Santa every christmas anyways.

So, I go for Long & McQuade brand strings at $4 per pack. They are exactly the same string as several major brands since Yorkville is the Canadian distributor for tonnes of companies anyways, it's the cheapest I can find. My style lends itself to a lot more breaks than how I used to play.

For my acoustic I go for the Elixirs just because I'm too lazy to change strings very often and I don't use the acoustic too much (Despite it being worth more than 3x more than any of my electrics)
I hate the sound of dead strings on an acoustic and it seems to happen way too quickly. I don't really notice electric strings going dead (is that weird?- maybe I assume it is an amp setting that needs to change)

[xtian]

I drink the kool aid, too. I like Elixir 9s on my electrics. More than the fact that they last longer, I like the smoother feel of the strings, and I don't miss the extra bite that can be had from brighter strings.

[Berger]

I'm running D'Addario XL110 on my tele's ,Elixers on my Carvin, and Ernie Ball Super slinkys on my 7-strings

[bluesfendermanblues]

Did a lot of testing a couple of years back. .... why spend a lot of time, money and effort optimizing guitar, pick ups, cable, amp and speaker and not be a little consious about various string brands. So I tried all the 10-46 sets I could get my hands on.

FWIW my preference is

"DR, Tite-Fit" for strats with rosewood fretboard

"Earnie Ball, Regular Slinky" for strats with maple fretboard

[Lonely Raven]

Wow, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Snake Oil Brand strings.

I really like them, they stand up to my abuse and sound very consistent.

[Cantplay]

Fender bullet ends, pure nickel, and GHS Boomers.

John

[selloutrr]

you are going to hate me, but I really don't like the sound of new strings... AT ALL!!! Honestly I don't think I've changed the strings on my go to guitar in over a year, and it's never sounded better. Plenty of top end and harmonics without the harsh top end. I like the dully rounded top end far better then the squeek of new strings. I still have plenty of treble if I need to cut but none of the shrill string to fret and pick noise.

On stage strings last a few songs, in the studio same thing, it seems like they are replaced almost the same time they finish stretching out and start to break in.

[Structo]

Wow, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Snake Oil Brand strings.

I really like them, they stand up to my abuse and sound very consistent.

Well the problem with SOB strings is it seems to be hit or miss if you will get the strings.
If you follow the saga at The Gear Page, seems like some guys get their order in a week or two while other guys have been waiting for months.
Emails go unanswered and only when a threat of refund is made does Dean either send the strings or refunds the money.
That is so weird why some would get there sets while others never do.
He seemed to have one excuse after another too.
Family emergency, health problems, supplier problems, etc one after the other.
It is probably the worst business model I have ever heard about.

I really wanted to try a few sets until I read the threads at TGP.

They could be the best strings in the world but if you can't get them then they don't exist.

Some people claim that there is only one or two actual string manufacturers in the USA.
Then the various companies just rebrand them with their names.
They may be able to custom order the strings to their specifications to make them unique to their brand.
I don't know.

I'm a bit surprised about the coated strings that are popular with a few of you.
Although I do understand how corrosive some peoples sweat is.
I knew a guy that could rust strings in a matter of hours.
Possibly the salt content in his sweat.

I like the Elixers on my acoustic guitars but after a while the wound strings look like a snake shedding it's skin.

I have not tried Thomastik Infeld or Pyramid brand strings yet but they are spendy.

I did try the Curt Mangan 10-46 set and I found them sort of tight like it was harder to bend.

The Long & McQuade strings must be a Canadian store brand, haven't seen them here.

A few years ago Sam Ash Music had a sale on Guitar Research, electric 9-42 and 10-46 strings, like $12 for a box of 12 sets.
Never heard of the brand then or since but they seem to be as good as D'Addario's nickel plated.
They do turn your finger tips black. lol
I bought three boxes of those at $1 a set of strings you can't go wrong.

Years ago I used the Dean Markley strings on my Jaguar because they seemed to be able to not break on that guitar.

In the 70's I think every kid in town used the "Super Slinkys".
Man could you bend those suckers!

I still have a set of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky with a pure nickel wrap to try.
Plus a set of GHS GBL Boomers, Roundwound 10-46 as well.

It is amazing how different strings feel and sound.

For right now I am digging the D'Addario EPN110 Pure Nickels.

[exocet]

I've always thought that Ernie Ball Regular Slinkies had the best tone but I found that they lost their initial 'box fresh brilliance' very quickly.....even after a few weeks of sweat free bedroom playing they were pretty dead.

I moved onto Dean Markley for years, sound was good...not quite as good as Ernie Ball but the lifespan was 3 times as good.

The last few years I have used D'Addario 10.5 - 48, nickel wound. I love these too, great tone and lifespan.

I did try Curt Mangan last year, thought they sounded great.....very similar to Ernie Ball......had the same lifespan issues as well. Strangely enough Curt used to work at Ernie Ball.

[jaysg]

I use Elixir nanowebs...not because they sound great, but because I don't have much in the way of oils and acid in my hands, so they can last me six months before they won't tune. I get a month or more out of Ernie Ball strings and I suppose I like the sound better in the first week.