D'Addario: good enough for Pros?

[louloomis]

Even though I am interested in learning which artist uses which product (you rarely hear precisely "why" unless it's the usual "because they give me my sound" type of stuff), I've noticed in the last few years the following:

Certain products and brands totally dominate certain musical styles and instruments, artist-endorsement-wise. Yet, if you read the product reviews, these products don't always measure up. This goes for sound quality and reliability.

I truly believe (and have even seen interviews attesting to this at least in a couple of cases) that musicians, like anyone else, will usually take something if it's free or if they get compensated a bit. It is, after all, a business. If someone gave you free food that was decent, you just cut your overhead by a lot. Same idea here. They're cutting their overhead, and they're smart to do it.

So, I'm convinced that there are bassists using brand "a" of a product because it is free, for example, whereas they used to use "b" when they actually had to pay for it themselves.

Also, I'm convinced that there are some very strong marketing campaigns out there in the musical equipment business. If you really analyze on a product-by-product basis, you'll see that some brands have no endorsements and another brand has everyone, even though the products are just as bad or good as one another. You can also see every few years a mass migration of these people to another brand.....not because of quality disparities, but because the other brand has now "come alive" with better endorsement deals. It's the same thing in many other professions: people go from company to company, to whichever one gets "hot" at the time, "hot" meaning "with more $ to give [me]".

This goes for strings, too, I'm sure.

LouLoomis

 

[Root 5]

Your pro friend is an idiot.

And it doesn't take much to be called a "pro" today.

 

[iiipopes]

Not only do pro's used them, but they are the stock string for Ibanez basses.

 

[Solarmist]

^ Ibanez uses Elixir Nano's.

 

[Klonk]

D'Addario is a renowned string maker as far as I am concerned. I don't necessarily use them myself, but I've played my share on Chromes and XLs over the years.

Interesting discussion about endorsements as well, it doesn't need to be related to quality at all, it's more likely that it's related to the company's marketing policy. Just look at Thomastik-Infeld strings, for example. For years they had a poor web site, no famous endorsers, no marketing to speak of, yet regarded as a high quality string maker (their web site has improved slightly during 2014).

 

[Pier_]

I truly believe (and have even seen interviews attesting to this at least in a couple of cases)

that's actually the most normal thing in endorsement... I guess that only teenager starting out or people that can't change strings themselves believes that the endorsements are something "more" than a contract...

the only thing that should be believed in what the players use is when they have no endorsement

take the recent Marcus Miller case: he's a long time user of DR Strings, has worked with DR to develop the Fat Beam. at the beginning of 2015 he switchd to Dunlop strings, and on the DR site he's not even mentioned, he totally disappeared.

he endorses EBS amps, but uses SWR live...

the "real" references to look at are the instruments actually used by the players, and for their own choice (usually they don't have any endorsement).

it's just how any endorsement in any commercial context works. remember Forrest Gump and his ping-pong racket? that's the summary of endorsement.

 

[taylor16]

Love me some ProSteels.

 

[iiipopes]

^ Ibanez uses Elixir Nano's.

On some models. But mostly D'Addario's of various models, depending on the instrument, including EXP's. Check out the new catalog on their website.

 

[groundhog]

By the way, I've been using D'Addario's for about three years, on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, and double bass.

Not to mention ten years prior using sax reeds by Vandoren, their sister company.

Did not know that D'Addario and Vandoren where together. I use Vandoren for my sax

 

[iiipopes]

Did not know that D'Addario and Vandoren where together. I use Vandoren for my sax

Yes, on the front page of their website, as members of the D'Addario family:
Evans drum heads
Promark drum sticks
Pure Sound Percussion snares
Rico reeds
La Voz reeds
Planet Waves accessories

I think Van Doren is still a separate company, but it is also a family company like D'Addario, hence the confusion.

 

[JimmyM]

So, I'm convinced that there are bassists using brand "a" of a product because it is free, for example, whereas they used to use "b" when they actually had to pay for it themselves.

I'm convinced that musicians will be happy to accept free stuff. Who wouldn't? But if it shows up in their stage or studio setup, they must have liked it. The best P pickup I ever used I got free. I think it takes a real cynical person to play free stuff that they hate, and I don't think it happens very often at all. I also think it takes an even more cynical person to believe that all musicians with endorsement deals are up on stage playing free stuff they hate.

 

[FatStringsRule]

^ Ibanez uses Elixir Nano's.

Ibanez uses both elixirs and daddario.
You'll notice on some new basses the colored ball ends..dead giveaway !

 

[Pier_]

I also think it takes an even more cynical person to believe that all musicians with endorsement deals are up on stage playing free stuff they hate.

why talk about them haitng stuff? probably many of them don't care about strings, straps or even amps.

here in Italy Wooten did an entire gig only with the Zoom B3, no amp, no other pedals. it was an actual gig, not a clinic or what.

then you take Dave Ellefson, wich endorses a lot of things (duncan, peavey, d'addario...), makes spot videos and whatever, then live he don't use any one of the things he endorses...
peavey basses? not even once. the jacksons he now endorses? naaah! only his old stuff. peavey amps? neither.

what I've noticed is that there are players endorsing stuff they actualy use and (I guess) like, and usually they used that stuff before becoming endorsers. for example, Flea is a long time user of GHS strings, but his endorsement is not that old. Larry Graham uses them too, but try to find a GHS advertisement with him...
Gene Simmons had many advertisement for GHS strings, in magazines and on the web, but after the contract expired, bang, he's with D'Addario. his roadie says that Gene doesn't even know what he plays, he lets the technician decide (in fact he now plays without amps, only with Tech21 preamps, and he doesn't know...)

how many out there have changed endorsement many times? for a period Garry Tallent from the E-Street Band was in the DR advertisements, but he said that he had never used those strings, always sticking to his flats (labella jamerson for his 34" basses and pyramid for the 32" Spector), but try to search him on Labella and Pyramid websites...

this doesn't mean that every endorser is just a guy selling himself to the best bidder.

I bet that Dunlop will increase the sales, now that Marcus Miller endorses them... how many bassists out there bought the Fat Beams only because they had Marcus Miller's face on the package?

now how many will buy them? or just want to try them, without the endorsement?