What strings do you use for your sound?

[Bender 4 Life]

Depending on what i'm playing at the moment, my sound varies from the sweet/clean tones of BB King/Geo. Benson

through the slightly overdriven John Lee Hooker "Boogie Tone", to the heavily distorted and/or "tweaked" tones of Hammett, Hendrix,Gilmour(tweaked) and worse.

 

No matter what I play, Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys do it for me.

 

My Acoustics get D'Addario 80/20 (used to be called "brass") strings, because most of my acoustic playing is either Delta, or Chicago style Blues.

[ef_in_fla]

I use EB Slinkys. 10-46. I'd probably use D'Addarios (they cost less) but I really hate those colored ends. Honestly, colored ends?

[Dave]

D'Addario 10-46 nickel plated. I keep coming back to them in spite of trying various other brands and no-names. Most nickel wound strings sound pretty much the same when you first put them on, but the D's seem to keep their brightness longer.

 

There are only a few manufacturers of strings and they sell to most of the other brands. I've heard over and over that there's a string winder down the street from D'Addario who makes a lot of strings for private label sellers and does overruns for D'Addario when they need more capacity. Don't know if that's true or not. One of the music dealers I have known for a couple of decades has been to both factories and says the string he sells with his name on them are made on the same machine brands in that factory. They are good strings and he sells them 3/$10.

 

String manufacturers aren't solvent washing their strings anymore, probably due to EPA restrictions. Every time I put on new strings, I get gray, dirty fingertips the first time I play them. It goes away after a couple of hours of playing. I guess it's from the lubricant that is applied to the strings as they are run through the winder.

[stan 58]

I think most people would agree, the sound you get from your guitar is 95% in your hands and 5% in your strings, at the most. Stan.

[Dave]

I started out with 9's but keep breaking the high e string.

Been using Ernie Ball since the 80's .10 - .46

Never had a problem with them.

 

You may have had a burr or sharp edge in the saddle casting. I had this on a new Gibson...broke at the saddle every time. I wrapped some fine sandpaper around a triangle file and polished the edge. No more E string breaks.

[Stevie Nazarenie]

my sound is on a budget. i just ordered some of the cheapest. 3 sets for a £5 strings. they are pretty good too! they are on ebay called alice??? who the f£££ is alice i hear you say.

[sexygibson]

I generally use Gibson Brite Wires, medium gauge, on my guitars with humbuckers. I think that on electric guitars you are not gonna hear much difference in the brand of strings. I am much more picky about acoustic strings.