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What Are Your Favorite Electric Guitar Strings?

#21
I went bougie and have TI's Bebop 13s (current) and 12 TI flats on the Aria 175 . jazz box. They last a long time there too.

On the Godin Flat6X, I bought a D'Addario Chrome 7 string set because it came with a wound G but I had TI Bebop 11's before

My Hybrid Bass+Guitar, On the guitar side - I use DR Tightfit (round core low strings ) in 10 because I tune this ax 3 semitones up, I need a supple string for this axe because of the tuning and DR Tightfits deliver

I have been using D'Add Half Rounds 12 on my 2 teles but will go back to normal XT rounds. The extra B string for from the 7 Chrome which I believe is a 76 is on one of the teles tuned one octave lower

Electric Baritone is using left over StringJoy and when they are done, I am switching to Ernie Balls on those. The G&L strats are all XT 11's as well.

Acoustics has just changed to D"Add XS and XT. I bought a box of Martins and I just ran out last year. Use to do 13's now 12's

Nylon, I use D'Add carbon and/or titanium strings. High tension. They really have come a long way with their nylon strings. Even some flamenco guys have started using them. For as long as I can remember, I used Savarez on nylons. One of the other guitar strung with a wound B, yeah that's right wound B. I used the last set with a wound B on this cheapo fretless nylon I got from CL and it sounds great,.

Acoustic Baritone is half Nashville tuning . I was actually able to get a mixed set from Santa Cruz, but I still have a custom set from StringJoy. Half-Nashville is where you the middle strings (2 and 4) are tuned an octave higher. Santa Cruz makes the a really good set for Acoustic but they are expensive. They are on my Gibby J45.

I just realized I have too many guitars but the Acoustics are like shared between my 2 grown up kids and my wife - So I only really play 2 nylons and the acoustic Baritone. and of the electric guitars, my wife got them before we met. Because of their sentimental and also monetary value, I never gig with those.

So I guess, I am mostly a D'Addario customer when it comes to guitar needs. Not very expensive, reliable and they sound good. Other than the DR Tightfits, I can go completely D'Addario for everything. They have the most variety.

Somehow I do not like Elixirs. The new D'Add XS IMO are better.

Wound B, tuned 3 semitones up, mixing brands and wound types --- weird tuning? and favoring thicker gauges and higher tensions - Yeah -- I am not normal and I couldn't even keep up with me.
 
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#25
logdrum said:
Acoustic Baritone is half Nashville tuning ...[snip]... Half-Nashville is where you the middle strings (2 and 4) are tuned an octave higher.
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Wait, but it's a Baritone, so up an octave means...they're a 5th higher than a standard guitar? :::scratches head:::

And is "half Nashville" only those two strings? #2 and #4? (ime Regular Nashville is #3, 4, 5, & 6 up an octave.)

Dammit, nobody said there was gonna be any math! I am either confused or intrigued by your post! Tell me more about this half Nashville Baritone!
 
#29
Bob_Ross said:
Wait, but it's a Baritone, so up an octave means...they're a 5th higher than a standard guitar? :::scratches head:::

And is "half Nashville" only those two strings? #2 and #4? (ime Regular Nashville is #3, 4, 5, & 6 up an octave.)

Dammit, nobody said there was gonna be any math! I am either confused or intrigued by your post! Tell me more about this half Nashville Baritone!
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It's how Pat Metheny does it.

Starting from highest strings and piano Equivalent low B on 5 String bass is B0

B - B3
F# - F#3. I use wrapped 0.021
Oct D - D4. ( High E of regular guitar is E4 )
Oct A - A3 ( G of guitar is G3 )
E. - E2. ( Lowest string of regular Guitar
B. - B1

To simplify I use regular baritone mediums and switch 3 and 4. Eith regular high E and B of a regular Acoustic. I may also use the G of the acoustic as my 2nd strinf F#.

Listen to Pat Metheny when he plays Nora Jones Don't know Why. He has a 30 inch scale Baritone and he tunes to A. Mine is just a run of the mill 28 scale by Corr.
 
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#31
el jeffe bass said:
NYXL’s for my electric guitars as well. Thanks for sharing about the info about the 11’s being optimized for D standard
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You're so welcome!

Fun Fact - Scott Ian of Anthrax plays the same NYXLs as I do on guitar, but he tunes to standard or Eb Standard. Some like their strings tighter.

thisheregiraffe said:
I’m not fussy about guitar strings. I normally buy 10-46 Ernie Ball Slinky or D’Addario XL. Next string change I am going to try Roto Yellows (also 10-46) for fun. Not sure I’ll be able to tell a difference 😂 Roto Pure Nickels are also on my radar for a future experiment.
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I tried Roto Yellows on my old tenor (4 string) guitar and they were too light for me. I also didn't know as much about guitar strings a decade ago as I do now.

Grapevine921 said:
Funny to see how many xl 10s users there are. I've tried almost every bass string under the sun and I'm very picky when it comes to finding the right strings for each bass... and all my guitars always get the orange Daddarios.
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I agree with you! I didn't expect D'Addario XLs and NYXLs to be so popular on guitar.

I switched from the regular XLs to the NYXLs on bass because of Frank Bello (who endorsed D'Addario at the time) and because I was curious. I loved them so much that I tried them on my guitar. I then realized that the NYXLs last twice as long as the regular XLs, so they stayed.

I can say that I'm picky about my bass strings too. But that's a conversation for another thread.
 
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#35
singlemalt said:
Whatever 10’s are on sale, so mostly D’Addario xl’s. MF regularly has 12 sets for $30. I’m probably set for years.
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Wow, that just might be a reason to look at using MF again, a company I mostly swore off decades ago. Nothing like that price right now though:

1774886796033.png
 
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#37
It was probably a “stupid deal of the day” price.

I’m going go for a few sets of 8’s just to see what happens.

Somehow I’m up to four guitars, so there are plenty to experiment with.


I checked on that price, it turns out it was $40 for 12 sets daddario xl 110 . The stupid deal of the day took $30 off the regular price of $70. Around $3.30 a set.

Three sets of EB extra slinky .08 was $20.

Cheap compared to bass strings.
 
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#38
singlemalt said:



I guess I’ll be trying some lighter strings soon.

I went super light on bass strings years ago and never looked back. .090-.030 is my usual round set. TI Jazz flats for flats.

I just picked 10’s as a “middle of the road” place to start.
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Very interesting! I was thinking about trying 12s or 13s in D Standard, but I'm glad I stuck with my usual 11s. The tension of the 11s in D Standard are roughly the same as 10s in standard tuning according to the D'Addario string tension calculator. If I were to get a second guitar, I might want to try 10s in D Standard to get the same effect as 8s or 9s in Standard.
 
#40
Gopherbassist said:
I have an orange guitar and I like to put orange DRs on it.
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I put black coated strings on my LP copy to match the hardware and plastics, looked cool.
While I am not a fan of coated strings on guitar, I use the guitar for slide, so it’s all good.

However, one thing I learned.
Putting black strings on a guitar with a black headstock is not fun, it masks what you’re doing.
So never again for coloured strings that match the headstock
 

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