D’Addario has come under renewed fire from the guitar community over its handling of a recent AI scandal the company found itself embroiled in.

Last week, the string and accessories giant was accused of using AI generated guitar music in a demo video for its new NYXL HD electric guitar strings. It was also criticized for deleting comments and blocking users who were leveraging the accusations.

D’Addario strongly denied the claims and defended deleting comments, saying it was safeguarding the guitarist who featured in the demo video from harassment.

While admitting it had made a mistake by using such a heavily processed track for the demo, D’Addario asserted it “was not created by AI” and that “all guitars were tracked in real-life”.

The company also shared a follow-up video of the recording’s workflow, which seemingly showed the multiple guitar tracks and production that was used.

However, the response has found itself at the center of renewed controversy, with commenters and YouTubers accusing D’Addario of further fakery with its BTS video.

YouTubers Danny Sapko and KDH have both scrutinized the clip, alleging the song depicted doesn’t match up to the original demo and claiming it is in fact a completely different recording.

Both Sapko and KDH highlight glaring differences between the original demo video and D’Addario’s response. In certain instances, the guitar playing doesn’t match up. There are inconsistencies between lead lines and rhythm parts throughout the track.

The audio between the two also drifts out of sync when played side by side. Sapko says this is particularly damning, as he notes that music generated by AI platform Suno – which many commenters are accusing D’Addario of using – doesn’t stick to an exact tempo and can drift.

“Whether it’s AI or not, the video evidence they have provided is clearly not the same as the original,” Sapko insists.

Sapko and KDH aren’t the only ones to voice their skepticism over D’Addario’s response. Big name YouTubers, musicians and producers have also weighed in on the Instagram comments.

“A generally pathetic attempt at saving face, and insulting to the musical community you serve,” bassist Adam Neely wrote. “Proof you shouldn’t let interns post on socials,” Music is Win’s Tyler Larson added.

YouTuber and producer Malyan wrote, “It really feels like you're insulting your customers (and endorsers) intelligence, and it’s such a shame. I’d stake on this being the real version, and the other being AI. As for the reasoning for the other existing in the first place, we can only guess.

“My best guess would be that this artist used generative AI in the creation process, re-recorded it in and played it, and then somehow the demo version made it onto the final video for release.”

When approached by Guitar World, D’Addario declined to comment on the fresh allegations and said it stood by its initial statement.

[Update 24.07: D'Addario has posted a response video on Instagram that it says shows the workflow of the recorded demo.

"Setting the record straight, this string demo was certainly over-produced. However, it was not created by AI. All guitars were tracked in real-life, drums and synths were MIDI programmed, plus a whole lot of plug-ins and production."]

D’Addario has denied allegations that it used AI to create music in a promo video for its new NYXL HD electric guitar strings. It has also defended deleting comments and blocking accounts on its social media channels, saying it was protecting its employees from harassment.

In a statement to Guitar World, D’Addario confirms it never uses AI when making music for its video marketing content. “Our brand is grounded in authenticity, and doing so would be against our ethos,” says the strings and accessories giant.

The video in question is a slick production featuring some high-gain progressive metal. The launch offered the NYXL HD range as single high-density strings for seven-, eight- and nine-string guitars, while the XT Dynacore HD Classical Singles offered individual strings for seven- and eight-string nylon-string guitars.

The promo clip is undeniably super polished, super processed. That was the problem. It didn’t sound quote/unquote real.

There was a pile-on in the comments section. D’Addario got involved in the comments, denying the allegations, and then began deleting the comments relating to AI and blocking some accounts.

YouTubers soon picked up on the story, with Danny Sapko running a video titled, ‘Did the world’s biggest guitar string company just get caught?!’

D’Addario stresses that the video was created by real musicians. But perhaps this controversy tells us that these über-finessed productions, electric guitar tones that have been processed so far that they take on this sheen of artifice, don’t work for audiences anymore.

In replying to Guitar World, D’Addario acknowledges that it was a mistake to present the demo with full production.

“We have an organization filled with extremely talented musicians whom we rely on to compose, produce, and demonstrate our products,” said D’Addario.

“We made a choice to demo these products in a fully produced mix, it backfired. We have learned from this and will shoot and demonstrate the products again without that fidelity of production, so consumers will be able to hear a comparison of these strings both in a mixed and raw format.”

The company says it had to turn comments off after one of its employees’ personal accounts was identified and he was “being targeted with malicious comments and messages”. That crossed the line.

“We have a responsibility to protect our employees from harassment. As always, we are open to accepting criticism as a brand,” said D’Addario. “But there is no place for harassment of our employees on their personal social media accounts. It’s so important that we all behave in a responsible and respectful way given the volatile nature of social media.”

You’ve probably asked yourself, “How often should I change my guitar strings?” After every gig? Every month? Once a year? Or should you stick with the same strings until they snap? Until they’re so riddled with corrosion that they physically can’t hold tune?

No two players will provide the same answer. But what’s the correct answer – if there even is such a thing? We reached out to some of the biggest brands in the world of acoustic and electric guitar strings to find out, including Ernie Ball, D'Addario, Rotosound, Martin and Stringjoy.

The straightforward answer

Every brand broadly agreed on the same timeline: changing your strings at least every three months seems to be the sweet spot.

“For most players using high-quality strings and taking decent care of them, changing strings every three to six months is a pretty healthy window,” says Scott Marquart, founder and president of Stringjoy.

Martin’s manufacturing manager Dave Doll agrees with the lower end of that estimate. “I’d say best practice is to change every two to three months if it’s a guitar you play fairly often.”

Meanwhile, Brian Vance, D’Addario’s VP of fretted strings and accessories, suggests more frequent changes could be useful for acoustics.

“I would suggest changing electric strings every two to three months – four times a year – and acoustic strings every one to two months – six times a year,” he says. “However, these time ranges can vary, and many factors impact string life.”

The bigger picture

Every brand we spoke to agreed that changes are sometimes required at more irregular intervals. It’s important to know the telltale signs. Rotosound and Ernie Ball try not to deal in timeframes, and instead encourage a more pragmatic approach depending on your own playing habits.

“Rather than asking, ‘how often,’ we prefer to frame the question as, ‘What are the signs that you need to?’” says Jack Dunwoody, Rotosound marketing manager.

“Look and feel for signs of corrosion as humidity and sweat tarnish the metal. Listen for an unpleasing change in tone and sustain; pay attention to tuning stability and intonation issues. When you notice one of these signs, it’s probably time to open a fresh set of strings.”

Ernie Ball’s Chris Harrington echoes, “I suggest asking what matters most to you as a player: confidence or tone? As strings age they become susceptible to breaking, loss of tone or sustain, and even intonation issues. You may need different timing for string changes, depending on the instrument.”

What to watch out for

For Martin’s Dave Doll, aging strings can also negatively impact the performance of your guitar – and, by extension, your playing.

“There are definitely people who prefer the sound of ‘dead’ strings,” he says. “But the question of when to change isn't just about tonality. As strings tarnish, their mass increases and they become less flexible, making them more difficult to play.”

Stringjoy’s Marquart agrees: “The biggest sign it’s time for a fresh set are when your strings start sounding dull, feel rough or sticky under your fingers, have visible corrosion, don't intonate properly and won’t stay in tune as well.”

Plenty of factors can speed up the need for a restring. Nearly every brand acknowledges that humidity and environmental conditions are big ones. Playing habits inevitably have an impact on string life, too.

“How often do you play? The more you play, the faster your strings can deteriorate,” explains D’Addario’s Vance. “What kind of environment do you live and play in? Areas of high humidity or close to the ocean can accelerate the corrosion process.

“What style of music do you play? Fingerstyle and strumming techniques typically put less stress on the strings, while heavy or flatpicking can break a string down faster.”

Setting up for success

Thankfully, measures can be taken to extend the life of your strings. Rotosound and Stringjoy both recommend a robust care routine. Ernie Ball emphasizes the importance of using quality strings in the first place.

“The best thing you can do to extend their life is to wipe them down with a lint-free microfiber cloth every time you play,” says Marquart. “Sweat, oils and grime are a huge part of what kills strings. We’ve seen that simple habit extend lifespan tremendously.”

Introducing coated strings into your setup can also make a huge difference, as Vance notes: “Uncoated strings are typically changed one to three months, while coated strings can last six to 12 months or longer, depending how often and hard they are played.”

How you put your strings on can make a difference, too. As Harrington notes, “Many people over-stretch their strings when they install them. Target those specific pockets of slack – the tuning posts, the nut, the bridge and the ball end twist. You'll get your strings to settle into pitch faster, and you're less likely to damage them, potentially extending their life.”

Personal touch

Ultimately, though, that three-month mark is a good safety net to have in mind. But your individual style will demand its own routine, so it’s important to find out what that is.

“Fresh strings can make a guitar feel alive again,” says Marquart. “My general advice would be to buy the best strings you can, take care of them, and let your ears and hands tell you when it’s time.”

Harrington agrees: “It really comes down to identifying what matters most to you, and letting that be your guide.”

What is it?

The old adage goes, “If you want great, vintage bass tone, change your bass strings approximately half as regularly as you change your bank account”. Or something like that.

Indeed, Motown legend, James Jamerson was famous for rarely changing his strings, claiming “the gunk keeps the funk”, and he wasn’t alone.

Countless bassists prefer the sound of well-played strings that have long lost the high-end sizzle and bright attack of a pack-fresh set. Americana session player, Bonnie Whitmore told Guitar World in 2021, “I'm one of those bassists who never changes their strings, and when I do, I rub bacon fat on them to deaden them!”

But, what if you don’t have years of time or would prefer not to be reminded of cured meats every time you play, there is another way: flatwound strings.

Another player who has been a longterm convert to flatwounds is Pino Palladino, who you’re probably familiar with from his work with, well…everyone. Most recently, Pino announced that he's teamed-up with Ernie Ball to release a signature set of flatwounds: Ernie Ball Pino Palladino Smoothies. made of an outer wrap of cobalt-alloy ribbon over an inner core of steel, these strings aim to give you Pino's preferred starting point and feel straight out of the pack.

“I guess we could go back to the mid-90s” Pino tells Ernie Ball. “I’d been playing my fretless bass almost exclusively on lots of sessions, and there came a point where I was just getting a little jaded with it.

"I got myself a Fender Precision Bass and put some flatwound strings on it. That became a new thing for me.”

What are flatwound strings?

As with roundwound bass strings, flatwound strings consist of an outer winding, wrapped around a central core. However, where roundwound strings feature a (you guessed it) round-profiled outer wrap, flatwounds use a flat, ribbon-profiled wrap. This not only changes the feel of the string, but it also pretty much eliminates the friction-creating gaps between each wind. For a more detailed description, check out our guide to the differences between flatwound vs roundwound bass strings.

In Use

I tried the Pino Palladino Smoothie Flats in Medium gauge (43, 61, 76, 104) –– one of two gauges spec’d by Pino with Super Light also available –– on a couple of different basses. First was a Fender Player II Modified Precision Bass (an active P-Bass with a PJ pickup configuration) as well as a Squier Jazz Bass.

They come in standard packaging with cloth-wrapped ends to help reduce and prevent string slippage, and I’m pleased to say that (unlike the occasional experience from various other brands) they came out of the pack free of any oxidization.

Reviewing strings from ‘tonal memory’ is fraught with potential suggestion and subliminal observations, so, to aid with the sonic side of this review, I recorded a few simple basslines with the original roundwound strings and again with the flatwounds. However, the first thing that’s immediately obvious with flatwounds as much as the tonal difference, is the change in feel.

The first stop was an appointment with an allen key. Flatwound strings can add a little more tension relative to roundwounds, and while slight, I tweaked the truss rod in order to remove a little of the additional relief.

These strings are extremely forgiving, which makes playing them for extended periods a joy, without fatigue on your fingertips. The cobalt wrap has been highly-polished to produce a glassy feel, and it’s really noticeable when traversing the fretboard.

Of course, this isn’t unique to Pino’s signature Ernie Balls, and a good amount of the shift in comfort qualities come from the flatwound ribbon’s profile - helped along here by the finishing process. But if you haven’t ever tried flats instead of roundwounds and are looking for something a little less callous, you’re in for a treat.

Now, let’s talk about cobalt. As you might already be aware, Ernie Ball uses cobalt in place of steel for the outer wrap on a number of its strings, and the main characteristics of cobalt are a strong output, combined with heavier bass and a clarity-boosting lift in the treble end.

This might seem contrary to the ethos of flatwounds, and in a sense, it is. So, while there’s an audible difference in the tonality between the Smoothies and roundwounds, it’s more subtle.

The finger-noise is most definitely reduced by a long way, and the higher end is tamed too. Overall there’s less of the new-string zing too, which is something that you’ll either love or not, depending on where you stand on glossy-sounding new strings.

But the presence is still there, maintaining note definition. Tonally, the straight-through, unprocessed difference in sound place the Smoothies in the ‘vintage-inspired’ category rather than out-and-out old school tones. You get all the feel of flatwound strings, with a retro vibe that still has a modern twist to it, much like the man who they’re made for.

Final Thoughts

If you’re after the building blocks of ’60s-style rock and roll, R&B and funk/soul, these will certainly get you a long way towards them, without being wholly throwback straight out of the pack.

The tonality will dull over time, for sure, but in the weeks I’ve had them fitted to my bass they’ve held their tuning and intonation, with the tonal characteristics still intact.

The biggest change comes from the super-comfortable feel, aided by the high-sheen finishing. It’s been an interesting and inspiring start, but needless to say, my jazz Bass is going to remain strung with flats for the foreseeable future.

La Bella Strings has teamed up with funk and session ace Ella Feingold for a signature set of guitar strings that brings her favored expansive inverted guitar tuning to the masses.

Feingold, who made her name playing with the likes of Bruno Mars, Kanye West, and Jay Z, has become one of the foremost champions of a tuning that was first explored by Chris Weisman around 2008.

As its name suggests, the tuning flips the electric guitar on its headstock for a whole new world of harmony.

The set has a 46-11 gauge – .046W (low E), .032W (B), .017 (G), .026W (D), .016 (A) , .011 (high E). It is strung to mimic a standard six-string's tuning setup, though flips the pitch and gauge around the D and G string equator. In essence, the low E becomes the high E, while the A and B strings also have their pitch and gauge 'inverted'.

Notably, the D and G strings are not inverted, and keep the same orientation as standard. That also means that the high E is in the place where the low E is usually found – and Feingold has previously discussed how that helps combat strumming issues found with traditional guitar designs.

“What I love about playing upside down is the fact that there's all this real estate for your hand to go anywhere it wants to,” Feingold once told Rhett Shull, having first played a guitar that was quite literally flipped upside down in order to try inverted tuning. “You don't have to worry about hitting the pickup selector.”

The Grammy winner, who once auditioned for Prince, has made quite a name for herself with the tuning. This new signature set empowers others to experiment with it, although La Bella recommends getting a custom nut to aid fitment. Flipping the nut has worked a treat for some and is a lot cheaper.

“Inverted tuning is a treasure trove of undiscovered harmonies and colors waiting to be called upon,” says La Bella, which becomes the first big brand to make an official set for the tuning.

The Ella Feingold signature string set is available to order now and is priced at $9.59 per pack. They are made with American Wire and packaged using MAP Technology (Modified Atmosphere Packaging) to maximize freshness.

Head to La Bella to learn more.

Elsewhere, Feingold has explained why every up-and-coming guitarist should learn from this “gentle genius,” and has also revealed how her Prince and Bruno Mars auditions proved to be worlds apart.

Thanks to the appointment of Strings & Things Ltd as the new distributor, Cleartone Strings are now back in the UK and Ireland. With the company putting quality at the forefront, this collaboration means even more musicians can reap the benefits of Cleartone.

Founded in 1998 by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers under the moniker Everly Strings, the company's main ethos was always to provide durable, high-quality guitar strings.

Fast forward to 2008, and after years of research, Everly and his team introduced a unique coating treatment that extends string life without sacrificing tone, which inspired the new name, Cleartone.

“We are thrilled to partner exclusively with Strings and Things UK, a company that shares our passion for innovation and quality in the music industry. This collaboration feels like a natural fit,” comments Cleartone’s General Manager, Michael Loscalzo.

Each string is expertly crafted in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the patented treatment, applied at just a 0.5-micron thickness, engineered to never flake or fray, no matter how hard you strum. What's more, Cleartone Strings guarantees that the coating can boost your guitar's volume “by up to 36% and sustain by up to 48%.”

There are different series under the Cleartone umbrella. First off is the Standard Series, the brand’s flagship electric set. These nickel-plated steel strings are manufactured in the U.S. in small batches to guarantee premium quality and are crafted with “only the highest grade steel.”

Moreover, each string is wound around a high-carbon hex core, ensuring “exceptional tuning stability, bright and articulate tone, and enhanced output” – essentially, engineered for players who need a set of strings they can truly bet on day in day out.

Up next is the Electric Heavy Series: each string is crafted with a thicker core wire to ensure “beefier tones” and “high-volume play.” As the name suggests, it's designed to withstand intense playing styles without sacrificing exceptional playability and tone.

For acoustic players, Cleartone’s Acoustic Strings are available in both 80/20 Bronze for a brighter tone and a sparkling top end, and Phosphor Bronze for those who prefer a richer and more rounded sound.

With the EQ Hybrid Metal Acoustic, Cleatone boasts “the world's first materially tuned acoustic strings,” carefully crafted to produce “an even response across all strings and frequencies.”

The wound strings of an EQ set are also manufactured using various alloys to emphasize each string's natural voice. For instance, the lower E's are made out of copper due to its increased bass response, while the A and D are made using the purest Phosphor Bronze to highlight that mid-range fullness.

And for those guitarists who have a penchant for nylon strings, you'll be pleased to know that Cleartone's Sevilla Classical Nylon Strings promise a smooth and comfortable feel, coupled with a distinct and resonant tone that accentuates the richness of the traditional classical guitar sound.

All Cleartone products are now available from guitar shops across the UK and Ireland.

Head to Cleartone Strings and Strings & Things Ltd to learn more about each Cleartone product.

What are they?

One of the things that makes the guitar such an interesting instrument to play and write about is the amount of personal preference around how a person approaches it. The variety here is always good fun to discuss in sometimes overly passionate debates, with guitar strings and their gauge, type, and brand, often being a sometimes overlooked source of guitar-geekery (a phrase I use with utmost respect).

Strings are a vital part of how a guitar can feel to play, as well as sound, but are also one of the most accessible ways to make a change. There are plenty of brands to fuel discussions about the best electric guitar strings for your needs, Cleartone being one with some interesting strings in its arsenal.

Launched in 2008 and founded by musician Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers fame, Cleartone’s strings are “100% made in the USA” and are noted as ‘treated’. My usual strings are an uncoated set, so having never tried treated strings before, and with Cleartone claiming benefits of protection against “sweat, dirt, and humidity”, I was intrigued and set them loose on my PJD Carey and see what they are all about.

Road Testing

Interestingly, the first thing I notice upon restringing the guitar with a set of Light 10-46 treated Cleartone strings is a lack of that new string ‘snap’. This is a sound that usually dissipates within a day or two of playing, so I am a little concerned that these strings may sound a bit dull once they are played in and lose some of that high-end brightness.

Alas, after spending quality playing time with them I can happily report that this is not the case. At the point of writing, the strings have been on the guitar for two weeks and have been tasked with a fair bit of riff writing for Guitar World demos, general playing, and practicing.

The tone has remained pretty much as it was in the first minute of restringing, so they may not have that new string sound of some untreated strings to my ears, but the payoff is that they don’t seem to degrade to sounding duller as quickly as some other strings I’ve tried.

This seems to be evidence that the "micron-thin, multi-patented treatment"’ of these strings is doing its job, but what about the feel? Particularly coming from uncoated strings to this ‘treated’ set, I am surprised that I don’t notice any discernible difference in feel between the two. It certainly gives weight to Cleartone's "no-feel coating" claim that could appeal to players previously put off by the texture of some coated strings they've tried before.

As the point of contact between the music in our minds and the guitar, any small differences under our fingertips have the potential to be highly consequential, so the lack of change here is only a good thing.

The overall tone compared to my usual set is slightly more mellow. This is not a criticism in any way, but noticeable as a point of reference. When it comes to premium strings, these differences are subtle and mostly down to preference, so as long as you have strings from a reputable brand, it’s a case of experimenting and finding out what you prefer.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to choosing guitar strings, it is often difficult to discern what may be better from the blurb alone. Brands make quite similar claims of "better" and "longer" despite their differences in string construction and materials, so there is no substitute for getting your hands on some and giving them a go. I can't recommend the value of trying different brands and gauges with guitar strings, and even plectrums, enough.

From my experience with this Cleartone set, the consistency between the tone I got from the moment I put the strings on, to the tone present two weeks later, is the highlight here. Couple that with a feel that isn’t any different from a set of ‘normal’ strings, and it makes these worth a try if you're in the mood for some experimentation.

Like putting a wash on or doing the hoovering, nobody likes changing their guitar strings but alas, it just has to be done. Thankfully string changes don’t need to happen as often as your household chores, especially if you’ve got a set of coated guitar strings on your axe. To encourage guitarists to change their strings more often, D’Addario has launched World String Change Day, and to celebrate you can bag yourself 25% off D’Addario XS strings at Guitar Center.

• Get your hands on 25% off D’Addario XS coated guitar strings at Guitar Center

The deal is only available until June 11th, so you’ve not got much time to get your hands on some discount strings. The deal on the 3-pack of electric guitar strings is a particularly good one for electric guitarists, as it gives you each pack of strings for just $10.66 when they would ordinarily add up to $13.99. It’s small margins but in this economy, every little helps!

Coated strings can be an absolute godsend, especially if you own lots of different guitars. Regular strings just don’t last as long so despite coated strings feeling slightly different to a regular set, if you’re gigging a lot or you have a big collection of guitars switching to coated strings just makes sense. Although they are more expensive, you’ll change strings less often with them, especially if you wipe down after every play, which means they’ll more than pay for themselves in time and money.

If you’re not already changing your own strings, it’s something you should absolutely take up. It’s an essential bit of maintenance that any guitarist can - and arguably should - be doing to their own guitars. I’ve been changing my own strings for about 20 years now, and it doesn’t take me longer than 15 minutes to do it, and that includes wiping down my guitar while the strings are off and conditioning the fingerboard if it needs it.

It’s a great time to get into every nook and cranny of your pickups, guitar bridge, and other hardware to give them a deep clean, getting all that dead skin and detritus that gathers there when you’re playing your instrument. You can also wipe the body down, polish any metal on the guitar to prevent rust and check for any issues with your instrument that might be obscured with the strings on.

If you’re unsure where to start, we’ve got some useful articles here that will get you pointed in the right direction, whatever you instrument:

• How to restring an electric guitar
• How to restring an acoustic guitar
• How to restring a bass
• How to restring locking tuners

Ernie Ball has released a newly reimagined version of its Earthwood Bell Bronze acoustic strings with a little help from John Mayer.

Having worked with the firm for some peculiarly precise electric guitar strings last year via the Silver Sky set, Mayer and his partner in string experimentation have now turned their attention to the humble acoustic guitar.

They were teased during NAMM 2025, with Mayer championing them as “a giant leap forward in tone, playability, and durability.” Now, Ernie Ball cites them as its “most sonically complex acoustic strings to date”.

But, beyond the hype, what’s actually changed? Well, Ernie Ball is promising strings that are richer and fuller in sound in comparison to its 80/20 and Phosphor Bronze sets, whilst ensuring they don’t go too dark. Comparatively, the top end is said to be similar to its counterparts, but with a richer low-end than the Phosphor Bronze strings.

Those subtle but telling tonal differences are achieved through proprietary alloys, inspired by the metals traditionally found in bells and cymbals and unique to Ernie Ball strings.

Having chipped away at crashes and splashes, then, Ernie Ball says the strings “deliver a uniquely rich, full-bodied tone with enhanced clarity, harmonic content, and projection”.

“Acoustic guitars are the great equalizer of ideas,” says Mayer. “If your idea works here you can change the world.

“One thing I've said about guitar strings for as long as I've really played professionally is that you don't play the guitar, you play the strings. The strings as this medium between your ideas and what the guitar can do is a really important one,” he adds. “When you get it right, you don't have to think about it anymore.”

He also makes an interesting point regarding the revival of the acoustic guitar. Some of today's leading guitar stars – from Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift to Tim Henson and Charlie Robbins – are making magic with acoustics, and making the instrument more appealing again.

“It wasn't until the last 10 years or so that acoustic guitar has really stood at the forefront of pop culture, of youth culture, of high-energy creativity from young people,” Mayer continues. “There is no stage too big for the music you can make on an acoustic guitar.”

Recognizing this, Ernie Ball has also recently partnered with Tim Henson for a signature nylon guitar string set.

Expectations for the new set are high considering that GW News Editor, Matt Owen, found that the Silver Slinky package ended his years-long quest to find the perfect set of Stratocaster strings. Will this set get a similarly revelatory response from players?

The Earthwood Bell Bronze acoustic guitar sets are available in four gauges: Extra Light 10-50, Light 11-52, Medium Light 12-54, and Medium 13-56. They are priced at $12.99 per pack.

Visit Ernie Ball for more.

John Mayer, meanwhile, has hinted that Dead & Company might record new music having shocked the guitar world by playing an amp modeler at Coachella.

When it comes to bass guitars, there are a few key features that dictate tone and feel, and for all the conversations surrounding tonewoods, pickups and beyond, one of the most important factors to consider is how the instrument feels under your fingers. In other words, you need to be aware of what strings you're playing.

It’s easy to take strings for granted, but not all strings are made equally, and there very much is a gulf in performance between good bass strings and great ones.

Indeed, there are some that have been engineered and tweaked by some of the finest instrumental minds of our time – and Rotosound’s Swing Bass 66 strings represent the very peak of bass string innovation.

First developed in the mid 1960s, the Rotosound Swing Bass 66 strings have since stood the test of time, having been developed by big name players and beloved by bassists over the decades from across the entire genre spectrum, from classic rock acts of the 20th century to the counterculture mainstays of today’s music scene.

It’s rare that something so humble as a bass string can have such an impact, but in the case of the Swing Bass 66, such words are not hyperbole.

Renowned for their incomparable brightness and punchy character that helps basses push through the mix, the stainless steel Swing Bass 66s offer a unique formula of core-to-cover wire ratios using premium materials that have not – scratch that, cannot – be replicated by other brands.

But just how did Rotosound come to revolutionize bass strings? Well, as the firm explains, the story begins in the mid 1960s, when the firm’s founder James How developed a set of strings that would withstand the emerging demands of rock concerts and meet the requirements of the era’s players.

“Until the arrival of Rotosound’s roundwound stainless steel strings in the mid-sixties, bass guitar strings tended to be all thump and no bite, leaving electric guitars and drum kits to overshadow the much maligned bassist,” Jack Dunwoody, Rotosound Marketing Manager, tells Guitar World.

“The Swing Bass 66 string was designed to dramatically improve sustain and sound punchy enough to compete with the other members.”

To meet this brief, How began developing what would become the first roundwound music string designed especially for the needs of electric bass guitar players. Before long, he was working with none other than John Entwistle of The Who to perfect the design.

“Entwistle’s influence on the Swing Bass 66 design, and on bass players as a whole can’t be denied,” Dunwoody goes on. “He clearly knew what his role was in The Who and how his instrument needed to perform to achieve this.

“It’s not the case with all musicians, but Entwistle could obviously articulate what kind of tonal characteristics he was after and James, with his background in music and engineering, had the skill to make this a reality.

“He approached James looking to improve his bass strings, which he found lacked the power needed to keep up with Pete Townshend and Keith Moon’s wall of sound. Entwistle rocked up to Rotosound’s factory with his bass, testing different strings as they came off the machine, until James found the perfect combination of materials and winding tension.”

Entwistle wasn’t the only player to have a say in the Swing Bass 66 lineage, though. Billy Sheehan also brought some ideas to the table, and would help create an altogether different gauge set to produce more even string-to-string tension. The resulting signature set continues to be one of Rotosound’s most popular bass string sets.

Upon their development, the Swing Bass 66s would go on to define the face of rock music as we know it, and can be heard on some of music’s most revered and influential albums from across the history books. The Who’s Live at Leeds and Who’s Next, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland, Rush’s Moving Pictures, Queen’s A night At The Opera, Nirvana’s Nevermind and Oasis’ What’s the Story, Morning Glory are just some of the iconic records to have been shaped by Rotosound strings.

The Clash, The Damned, Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Slits were also loyal Rotosound champions, and that lineage continues to this day: currently, IDLES, Black Honey, The Mysterines and Los Bitchos are among the many contemporary acts flying the flag for the Swing Bass 66 strings.

“We’re incredibly grateful to have many important musicians play Rotosound strings over the decades,” Dunwoody reflects. “I’ve had times when I’ve been in the car and a dozen or more songs in a row come on the radio that have been recorded with our strings.”

Bassists looking to improve their tone – and follow in the sonic footsteps of their heroes – will be hard pressed to find a string more suitable for the task than the Swing Bass 66s.

Players making the switch can expect an assertive tone, one probably brighter than they’re used to, that will help them stand out in a crowded mix. They can also expect a difference in the physicality of the strings: they’re not like your usual nickel-wound strings, thanks to their stainless steel composition.

“I think that players know what to expect from our Swing Bass 66 sets: expertly made bass strings that pack a punch. The fact that their bass playing idols – be it Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, Bruce Foxton or Geddy Lee – have consistently relied on these strings is a good enough reason for them to give them a go.”

“Stainless steel strings aren’t as smooth as nickel-wound strings, so you might notice a “grippy” feel to them, which many players love,” says Dunwoody. “Billy Sheehan once said, ‘I’m a finger player and when my fingers grip the string the edges on the Rotosounds, because they’re hand wound, grip really strongly so I can get a really good snap of power out of each note.’

“I often say to bassists and guitarists that they should consider trying different strings if they want to change their tone. Compared to changing pickups, effects pedals, or amps, buying a new set of strings is a small expense that can make a huge difference to tone and how you approach your instrument.

“So next time you change strings, why not join the multiple generations of bassists who have played Swing Bass 66 strings?”

Head over to Rotosound to find out more.

The D’Addario story begins in the Abruzzo mountains of Southern Italy, crosses the ocean to America at the dawn of the 20th century, and writes a new chapter with every pack pulled from the peg of a neighbourhood guitar store.

But alongside the geographical mileage, what resonates with this family firm’s current custodians – chairman of the board and chief innovation officer Jim D’Addario and CEO John D’Addario III – is the relentless march of its product.

From the hard-won intuition of its first string-makers to the forensic accuracy of its cutting-edge wire mill in Farmingdale, New York, D’Addario has remained the market leader since ’74 through its credo that even the most advanced guitar string is a work in progress.

Better materials, tighter tolerances, greater uniformity: all are moving targets that have seen the firm deliver breakthrough products spanning from the XS coated series to the uncanny pitch-holding abilities of the NYXL line – not to mention luring star turns including Nile Rodgers, Mark Knopfler and Guthrie Govan. We asked Jim D’Addario to reflect.

Congratulations on last year’s milestone anniversary, Jim. But the D’Addario story actually goes back even further, doesn’t it?

“Yes. My grandfather [Carmine/Charles D’Addario] came to America in 1905 – at about 14 years old – after there was an earthquake in the family’s hometown of Sala, Italy. He wasn’t really a trained string-maker yet, but there was a shortage of quality strings in America at the time because the recording business was just getting off the ground and there was more need for musical instruments and strings.

“My grandfather started importing strings, but then, during World War I, there were embargoes on importing. So he partnered up with an uncle that knew the trade and he trained him to make strings.

“They were partners for several years, and later on he just branched off by himself as C D’Addario. Then my dad joined him in the 1930s when he was in his late teens, and then it was C D’Addario & Son, all the way through to 1959 when my grandfather retired.”

“My dad formed Darco Music Strings, which was a partnership between John III’s dad – my brother, John Jr – and two other gentlemen from the same area in Italy. They were in business for about 10 years, then merged their business with Martin Guitars in ’69, at a time when Martin had made various acquisitions like Levin Guitars and Vega Banjos.

“My brother, John Jr, and my dad both had contracts to work for Martin and had to stay for five years. But I wasn’t under contract, so I left in the fourth year and started this company with my wife [Janet], as a printing and marketing company at first. Then, in August of 1974, when my dad and brother were able to join us, we began making strings again.

“We also decided in ’74 that we would use the family name on the strings directly, thus, the 50th anniversary of the brand name D’Addario in 2024. But we’ve subsequently traced our family history all the way back to 1680. The father always had to put his occupation down on the church records, and it’s ‘string maker’, all the way back to the 1600s. So we’ve been making strings for hundreds of years.”

Looking at the timeline from ’74 onward, was there a particular product or string that represents a breakthrough moment for the company?

“There were several, actually, because we were testing new materials all the time and I was very inquisitive about how they affect the string. Of course, it was all trial and error. At the time, we didn’t have a lab like we have now. We couldn’t measure things the way we can today, scientifically, but we did some really innovative things.

“I would say the biggest breakthrough for our company in the 1970s was the Phosphor Bronze acoustic string. Prior to that, various materials were used. The Black Diamond string was the biggest-selling guitar string with a steel core. They started in the 1890s and dominated the market all through the 1920s to 1950s. Then Gibson, Fender and other brands of guitars started to have private-label strings made, or had their own string companies.

“The Black Diamond string was a silver-plated copper-wire string that tarnished early and wasn’t really the best-sounding string on a steel core, but they had a dominant share of the market. Then Gibson put out Mona-Steel, and my dad started developing 80/20 strings – they called it ‘bronze’, but it was really brass – for D’Angelico, Martin, Guild and multiple other companies..”

“The 80/20 was really the benchmark string that my dad developed with John D’Angelico in, like, 1938. Those specifications are very close to what we use today in terms of core-to-wrap ratios and the alloys, but no-one experimented with a lot of different bronzes. They were using what they called ‘bell bronze’. Black Diamond had a bell-bronze string, and I believe that was, like, a 90/10.

“It was 90 per cent copper, a very red-looking alloy, and it didn’t really sound great. A lot of that had to do with the fact they didn’t really have sophisticated machinery… So, even though it looked like a string, it didn’t have the performance that we expect today from strings. The whole state of the art of making strings has improved so dramatically.

“So I would have to say the Phosphor Bronze was the big one. The second biggest was our Half Round bass strings in 1975. The whole world was migrating more towards a round-wound, brighter sound, even on the bass, when people like John Entwistle were making it more of a solo instrument. When we introduced those, they were a big success.”

Is it harder to make a good electric string than a good acoustic guitar string?

“They’re pretty much the same in terms of the process, winding techniques and so on. What is different is specifying the material, and the temper it needs to be annealed or softened to after drawing it. We did a lot of trial-and-error testing.

“We weren’t as sophisticated as we are today, but when I purchased our first Instron tensile-testing machine in the early ’80s, we realised, ‘Oh my God, these people are just making the wire any which way they wanted.’ It was like they didn’t ask you whether you wanted your steak rare – you just got steak!

“We started doing blind acoustic testing of the various alloys in the ’80s. We spent a lot of time A/B testing, without telling people what they were playing.

“We varied the tempers and discovered that having that wire tempered to the ideal temper for the particular type of string – whether it’s an acoustic or an electric string, whether it’s a Phosphor Bronze instead of an 80/20 Bronze – they are all slightly different. Those slight variations in the way you temper it make a pretty big difference with the performance.”

“Having the good fortune to afford a machine to do that testing, we honed in on where we wanted to be with those wrap wires. Now, we have a wire mill here in Farmingdale, where we make almost all our wire, both high-carbon steel for the core and plain strings, and wrap wires. We make nickel-plated steel for electric, Phosphor Bronze and 80/20 for acoustic.

“We’re able to zone in with the equipment we have today. It’s all digital. In a lot of cases, we’re not even using traditional ovens to temper the wire. We’re using plasma on one line and induction on another. You can control the temper so precisely, you don’t have to be concerned that it’s varying and that you might be getting different strings from the output of your factory.

“It’s one of the reasons why we decided to invest in a wire mill and grow that, and it’s a pretty nice operation that we have there. If you can believe it or not, we sell quite a bit of wire to our competitors.”

Can you tell us a more about your wire mill operation – and how it has improved the quality of the D’Addario product?

“About 10 years ago, we moved the wire mill we had in Massachusetts down to here. But we essentially discarded all the equipment and bought all-new, super high-tech German wire-drawing machines, four of them to start with. We now have six of those for high-carbon steel and three more for wrap wires, so we have nine lines running [and a 10th to come].

“We immediately started experimenting with the high-carbon steel back then to see if we could just tweak that tensile up a little bit. We were fortunate enough to make it about 10 per cent stronger, so it stays in tune better.”

“We also developed the Fusion Twist, where the twisted area of the ball-end is fused so it doesn’t slip. The NYXL was the first set we introduced with this new wire, and the tuning stability was really noticed by the consumers. Pat Metheny said, ‘It does away with the need for my roadie to tune my guitar after I play a wild song’ – and it’s true.

“We wouldn’t have had that opportunity if we didn’t make our own wire mill because none of the vendors were capable, or interested, in doing anything like that. [This was] because the quantities of wire the music industry uses is pretty small compared with electronics, automotive and that kind of thing.

“High-carbon steel is used in steel-belted radial tyres – imagine how much more high-carbon steel is produced for the tyre industry than the string industry, right?”

You mentioned Pat Metheny. What role have artists played in making significant advances in D’Addario’s product line and its quality?

“They’re a very important factor. We do a great deal of testing with our artists – and I’m not going to say that some are ‘better’ at it, but they’re more valuable testers because they actually take a more objective and scientific approach to evaluating what you’re asking them to test. Other people are sometimes not as discriminating – or sometimes overly discriminating. They’re great players, but they’re not great testers, right?

“Then there are people you know you’re getting a reliable answer from. Pat is one of them. He’s one of those guys that, when he tests something of yours, it usually correlates with the scientific knowledge we already had about the product we asked him to test.”

What trends have you seen over the years, in terms of string gauges and their suitability for various acoustic body types?

“Well, when I first started playing acoustic guitar in the 1960s, they were just starting to monkey around with piezo pickups – Ovation really being the first electrified acoustic guitar you could take on stage and have a semi-decent tone through the pickup system they developed.

“Prior to that, everyone was standing in front of a microphone. So if you watch Bob Dylan or Pete Seeger, they’re standing there in front of a microphone and trying to maintain the right distance.

“Very tricky to get really great tone out of the guitar, so everyone was always gravitating towards large dreadnought Martins, right? Because they were louder. But you see a lot of people now playing 00s and parlour-size guitars because the pickups and strings are much better.

“The fact is that some of those guitars speak better in the midrange, particularly if you’re a soloist or your particular type of songwriting uses those middle strings. We don’t even sell heavy gauge much any more. Doc Watson used to get our heavy-gauge 80/20 strings. It’s like playing ropes! It’s a lot of work, but they drove those guitars and made it possible for you to hear them.

“Now, that has changed dramatically because there are so many other tools. You have different sound effects, pedals and amplifiers to tweak the tone, and these smaller guitars sound wonderful on stage. You don’t really need a thicker string.

“Our biggest-selling set is our 012 Light Gauge. But I always made, for myself, a set which is like our EJ26 set, which has an 11 and 15 on the top. Then the rest is almost the same as the EJ16 Light Gauge set.

“I always liked that better because the top string spoke better for me, and I could bend them a little bit. Of course, all the ageing baby boomers like me, we’ve got arthritis in our fingers now, so we’re not going to play medium-gauge strings any more anyway because they hurt to play!”

Right now, it feels as though acoustic singer-songwriters are the most prominent guitar practitioners. Is that reflected in relative sales of electric and acoustic strings?

“We were always known for the acoustic strings first. But now, recently, with our NYXLs and our XS coated electric strings, we have a first position in almost every category of string.

“In all honesty, the sales of acoustic guitars right now are sluggish. Factories are not running at capacity, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t playing the same amount of acoustic guitar.

“I think the problem we have now is you compete with used instruments, as a manufacturer, particularly acoustic instruments, in that they actually sound better when they’re older, right? So people don’t put the guitar in the basement, next to the boiler, and watch it crack or put it in the attic. They put it on eBay or on Reverb – and get their money back!”

Finally, what do you think are the most promising areas for the further evolution of guitar strings, whether for acoustic or electric?

“I would even spread it out a little further because one of the things we’re working on is a way to come up with a covered classical guitar string. That’s a real challenge because the core melts in the process of fusing the coating, so we have to come up with a different coating that would actually function at a lower temperature.

“We’re working hard on that because we think the coated wound strings on a classical guitar string would be a big seller for us. We have a lion’s share of the classical guitar-string market worldwide. In fact, two out of 10 of our top-selling sets of strings are classical guitar sets, believe it or not.

“I think we’re at a point where we’ve explored almost all the materials that are viable. Those ‘aha’ moments are few and far between now because we’ve all turned over almost every rock in the garden, looking for worms. So now our opportunities are about process.

“What we’ve done on our machinery and everything else is to incorporate sophisticated digital controls and measuring sensors and devices everywhere so that every string comes out the same. It’s almost impossible for our machinery to make a bad string.”

• Find out more at D'Addario.

Step into any guitar store and you'll find D'Addario electric guitar strings and acoustic guitar strings. Since its inception in ’74, the brand has positioned itself as a market leader, luring legions of stars – including Nile Rodgers, Nita Strauss, Joe Satriani, Yvette Young, and many more – into its artist ranks over the years.

One of the secrets behind its success? “We do a great deal of testing with our artists,” discloses Jim D'Addario, the chairman & CEO, in the new Guitarist edition. However, not all guitarists are as reliable as others when it comes to string science.

“I’m not going to say that some are ‘better’ at it, but they’re more valuable testers because they actually take a more objective and scientific approach to evaluating what you’re asking them to test,” D'Addario adds.

“Other people are sometimes not as discriminating – or sometimes overly discriminating. They’re great players, but they’re not great testers, right?”

Pat Metheny is one such artist who D'Addario relies on for analyzing the finer details. The jazz fusion virtuoso, who has been a D'Addario artist since 1982, has been instrumental in collaborating with the brand to – as he astutely puts it – “investigate possibilities of strings and what they can be”.

“I don't think I ever changed the strings on my [Gibson ES-]175 from the time I bought it until maybe I had started playing with Gary [Burton],” Metheny once shared in an interview with D'Addario.

“And I kind of liked how they sounded. They were these flatwound strings that were really dead. And so I asked Jim and everybody, ‘Could you make a string that sounds kind of dead?’ And they did.

“I was like, ‘Oh, that's cool that it's possible to have a relationship with a company – and genius inventor – where some of these ideas or thoughts or methods could manifest themselves.’ That began this thing of what we used to call the dead wounds.”

Metheny concludes, “We're on the hunt for the best possible solution. So it's great to have the resources of the company to investigate possibilities of different ways of thinking about strings and how they can be used, and it's something I really value.”

For more from D'Addario, plus new interviews with Rosanne Cash and Brian May, pick up issue 514 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

NAMM 2025: Last October, John Mayer joined forces with Ernie Ball to launch the Silver Slinky set, a set of electric guitar strings boasting a unique in-between gauge and a custom core-to-wrap ratio.

Our own Senior Staff Writer, Matt Owen, happened to get his hands on a set, and said that the Silver Slinky package ended his years-long quest to find the perfect set of Stratocaster strings.

Now, the Silver Sky-slinging guitar hero and pop star has joined forces with Ernie Ball once again for something a little different – the Earthwood Bell Bronze set of acoustic guitar strings. From the way its co-creator speaks about the strings, it seems they may get similarly revelatory reviews.

“Earthwood Bell Bronze strings are a giant leap forward in tone, playability, and durability,” Mayer says of the set. “They’re great in any musical setting but really shine when played solo. There’s an orchestral quality to them.”

Not that we don't believe him, obviously, but what would make someone channel Neil Armstrong when speaking about a string set?

Well, Ernie Ball says it all starts with how they were inspired by alloys traditionally used for bells and cymbals. Ernie Ball says that this, in turn, leads to a bigger sound, with better sustain, projection, and resonance.

The alloy Ernie Ball ended up creating with that percussive inspiration is patent-pending, and the company says it helps produce “a richer, fuller sound than any other string in our catalog.”

Ernie Ball's new Earthwood Bell Bronze string sets will be available in four gauge combinations: Extra Light (10-50), Light (11-52), Medium Light (12-54), and Medium (13-56), starting this spring. Their price hasn't been announced as of yet.

Mayer's not the only 21st century guitar hero to unveil new Ernie Ball guitar strings at NAMM this year. He's joined by Polyphia's Tim Henson, who unveiled a signature string and accessory set of his own at the show's opening yesterday (January 23).

For more info on both string sets, visit Ernie Ball.

NAMM 2025: Ernie Ball has teamed up with Polyphia’s generational talent, Tim Henson, for two new signature string sets that epitomize the two sides of his playing.

Releasing as part of an official Tim Henson Signature String and Accessory Collection that also includes a fret wrap and a guitar cable, there are six-string sets for classical and electric guitars.

Currently, there is no extended range set to accompany it, which is a little odd considering a seven-string Ibanez sits amongst his score of signature releases.

Whether that’s a trick missed, or the demand for the set simply isn’t there remains to be seen. Luckily, his other signatures – the best-selling electric nylon TOD10NL and his Fishman Fluence-loaded Ibanez TOD10 are covered.

As to be expected from a collaborative release, the sets have been “designed to meet Tim’s unique specifications and versatile performance style”. The classical set pairs fluorocarbon trebles with silver-plated copper basses, resulting in a “dynamic, brighter response with a percussive quality.”

That is especially useful considering the twang Henson likes to get out of his nylon on tracks like their nuevo flamenco smash hit, Playing God. The set’s gauges are .24, .27, .33, .30, .36, .42 and it’s well-suited for finger-picking and attacking the strings with a pick.

Over to the electric side, Henson has gravitated towards a hybrid blend of Ernie Ball’s Cobalt and Paradigm tech. Here the strings, which are nano-treated for life-prolonging corrosion resistance, rock a Cobalt exterior with Paradigm’s core wire added for strength and muscle, and Cobalt exterior.

This, Ernie Ball says, offers “maximum output and clarity,” to accentuate every nook and cranny of his highly nuanced playing. The string gauges are: .09.5, .12, .16, .26, .36 and .46.

The fret wrap has been designed by Gruv Gear and features Henson’s cherub-style logo, but info on what makes the cable different is hard to come by. But it has Henson’s logo on it. So that’s cool.

“When I first started talking to Ernie Ball, I gave them a list of unreasonable demands,” Henson explains. “One of which being hitting the low string and harmonics [hard] and the low string not overpowering the harmonics.

“When we started the process of this, I was playing 10s so the riffs wouldn't go out of tune live, [the question was]: ‘Can you make a string that’s lighter than a 10 but still maintain that stability, that I can bend easier and keep an air of percussiveness without being shrill with too much top end?’ I think we found that balance.”

That’ll be why the electric set features a high .09.5 e string, and the nylon only goes as thick as .42, with a real nit-picking approach taken.

As Henson points out in the promo video, when he was approached for the collaboration, only Metallica’s James Hetfield and Slash had signature string sets with the firm.

John Mayer’s ultra-precise string set and Avenged Sevenfold's Synyster Gates strings have arrived since, with Henson's double-whammy adding fuel to the fire. That shows a clear intention from Ernie Ball to widen – and modernize – its signature string set range, so it will be interesting to see where else the firm is stretching to.

The Ernie Ball Tim Henson Signature String and Accessory Collection is due to arrive in the Spring with no price list currently revealed.

Head to Ernie Ball for more info.

Meanwhile, Polyphia’s recent Ernie Ball session revealed that Ibanez has built Henson a brand-new eight-string signature, with the band hard at work on their next album with a superstar guitarist and producer. They’ve also revealed their hopes for an all-star list of guest collaborators. No release date has been mooted.

The surname D'Addario is, by now, inextricably linked to guitar strings. Among its many ventures and innovations is the system of color-coding strings, which D’Addario CEO Jim D'Addario reveals was inspired by an eco-conscious comment made by his daughter.

“In the early 1990s, a package of strings had an envelope for each of the six strings – a paper envelope for each one, identified for each note, in a vinyl pouch with a fancy label,” D'Addario tells Billboard. “So there was a minimum of eight pieces of packaging; sometimes there was a little advertisement as well.

“My daughter Amy was in high school, and they were studying environmental friendliness and recycling and packaging, and I was changing my strings on the bed and I had all this garbage when I was done. She said, ‘You should really do something about that, that’s really criminal, you’re putting so much junk in the waste-stream just to change a set of strings.’

D'Addario took Amy's observations to heart – which led to a bona fide light bulb moment. “I came up with a system of color-coding the ball end on the string a different color, then coiling those together in one corrosion-resistant plastic bag and having them color-coded, so the silver one is this note and the brass one is this note.”

The CEO notes that the simple yet impactful solution eliminated “75% of the packaging,” saving “billions of trees” and “millions of pounds of carbon not released into the atmosphere” over the years. A handy branding by-product was the fact that this color-coded system made D'Addario strings instantly recognizable.

“That was one of the things that distinguished our strings. That’s one way we can tell onstage if our strings are being used. Otherwise, it’s very difficult. You can put branding on the package but when they’re playing on stage you can’t see it.”

Adding to their extensive list of offerings, D'Addario has just released the XPND Pedal Power Battery Kit – a rechargeable and wireless pedalboard power supply equipped with a 10,000mAh battery for over 10 hours of playtime between charges.

It’s that time of the year when the Black Friday guitar deals are filling your feed, each offer tempting you to part ways with your cash for the latest trend-setting bit of gear. Over at Sweetwater, there are 14,000 of these tempting deals ready to empty your wallet and whilst there are many great deals, sometimes it’s the cheaper ones that are the best value for money.

With 5 packs of Ernie Ball guitar strings for just $19.95, it may not be the most headline-grabbing deal out there this weekend, but in my opinion, it’s definitely the most useful. Considering they normally cost $34.95 for a 5-pack, you’re getting two packs of electric guitar strings completely free, and an extra dollar on top for your troubles.

Strings are something all of us guitarists will need more of, no matter what your play style or genre. Whether you play exclusively in the bedroom or gig regularly, the only difference between string changes will be the amount of time in between, but it’s inevitable that you’ll need to do so. I stocked up on my favorite Skinny Top Heavy Bottom sets last year, buying three three-packs and I still have some leftover despite requiring regular string changes due to gigging. It was a sound investment, and one I’ll definitely be making again as it costs less in the long run.

Ernie Ball strings have been my go-to for the majority of my playing career and despite some brief stints with other string manufacturers, I’ve always ended up coming back to Slinkys. Something about the feel has always appealed to me, and for my playing style, they’ve always proved to be incredibly durable, especially as I have a rather heavy right hand.

There are also acoustic string sets available if you prefer your tones more natural, and a mix of phosphor bronze and 80/20 bronze sets lets you dial in your perfect tone even further. At this price, you might want to shoot out some different string sets too, as you never know you might find you actually end up preferring a different set of strings in the long run.

Earlier this month, John Mayer and Ernie Ball launched the Silver Slinky signature guitar strings, which brought the guitar hero’s previously unreleased custom gauge to the masses after years of development.

With an irregular gauge set of 10.5, 13.5, 17.5, 27, 37 and 47, and some special core-to-wrap ratios, developed on a string-by-string basis, the Silver Slinkys were said to be “perfectly tailored” to Mayer’s style, and allowed him to achieve “an even higher level of expression”.

For what it’s worth, I’ve never been sold by the concept of signature guitar strings, and I was skeptical at first. But I’ve been playing the Silver Slinkys for around three months now, and I think they might have actually ended my years-long search to find the ideal Stratocaster electric guitar strings. Let me explain.

When I first got my Strat I was going through a serious SRV phase, which meant I inevitably ended up falling for that old adage, “Thicker strings means thicker tone”. Fooled by this false promise, I strung up some D’Addario EXL115 11s and away I went.

As a 10s player, the jump to 11s took some getting used to. The extra heft on the top strings made bends laborious, to the point where I’d avoid bends altogether as best I could – an approach that continues to influence my style.

However, I was fond of the beefier feel of thicker bottom strings, and so for a period of two years I simply put up with them.

Eventually, I had to give in: 11s were simply too arduous for me, and (surprise surprise) they did not make my tone ‘thicker’. The switch back was underwhelming, though, and while I didn’t miss the finger-shredding top strings, I missed the girth and robustness of something a little more tangible when chording.

I ran into a conundrum. Do I stick with the 10s, which now felt alien on my Strat, or get on with 11s? I could think of only one solution: I bought a Telecaster and forgot all about it.

Then Ernie Ball gave us a heads-up on the Silver Slinky set. Naturally, my interests were piqued. Like countless others, Mayer is my biggest guitar inspiration. He is also an individual who clearly knows a thing or two about well-playing Strats, having loyally stuck to Strat-style guitars for most of his career, and tailored the design to his own image through his PRS Silver Sky signature guitar.

He’s also spent years developing a custom-gauge string set, which could comfortably accommodate the playing style that inspired me so much: irresistibly silky bends brimming with character, luxurious fretboard glides and a beefy punch that formed the foundation of his feel.

I was fortunate enough to be given a Silver Slinky set three months prior to last week’s launch date, and – buoyed by the hope that these could be the strings my Stratocaster has been longing for – I pulled my Strat out from hibernation, ripped off the 10s and got to work (yes, I did play Slow Dancing in a Burning Room first).

Eerily, the claims from Ernie Ball and Mayer seemed to speak directly to my own Strat problems.

“The gauges are perfectly situated between .010 and .011 sets, and feature special core-to-wrap ratios,” Mayer wrote on Instagram. “The tension is exactly where I’ve always wanted it – big enough to get great tone, but nimble enough to finesse those vocal bends we as guitar players are always going for”

Perfectly situated between 10s and 11s? Big enough for great tone? Nimble enough for vocal bends?! My prayers, it seemed, had been answered.

The top strings were only .0005 thicker, which sounds imperceptibly small, but under the fingers there’s a noticeable difference. Bends felt better and more fluid then 11s, more substantial than 10s, and now I’m no longer scared of failing to hit a note when I feel adventurous with my lead playing.

They also feel much more pleasant when I'm up there, as if they aren't trying to drag my fingers back down with barbed wire – something the gauge and carefully considered string tension both account for.

Likewise, the bottom strings are only .001 thicker than regular 10s, which retains the nice chunky feel that I especially enjoyed with my D’Addarios. They aren’t quite as heavy as conventional 11s, either – 27, 37, 47, instead of 28, 38, 49 – which means they certainly feel a bit more agile.

There wasn’t a disconnect between the bass and treble strings, which can sometimes be the case with bottom heavy sets. The transition between registers felt natural, and although the knee-jerk reaction was to play Mayer riffs and licks, this seemed to be a great all-rounder string set.

Then there’s the physical, tangible feel of the string. The gauges were nice, and the tension felt good, but what I didn’t expect was the slight friction that the strings offered, probably a result of the core-to-wrap ratios and Reinforced Plain String treatment.

Under the pick, it allowed for some nice ‘digging in’ dynamics, while under the fingers they felt robust and sturdy.

It feels very strange saying this as a signature string skeptic – and I know some will probably roll their eyes – but I felt connected to my Strat in a way I hadn’t in a long, long time.

So much so that I even began taking my Strat out for gigs again for the first time in about 18 months: I used it for a headline festival slot in the summer, and took it as my backup guitar during a sold-out Academy show in Scotland. Now, I take it on the road whenever I can.

I’m well aware that I won’t be the only player who has had to juggle between 10s and 11s on their Strat. Heck, there are bound to be loads of players out there who buy single strings to assemble their own custom set. Indeed, without the Silver Slinkys, I may have eventually gone down that route myself.

Luckily, I don’t have to, and despite being initially skeptical about the promises surrounding Mayer’s new strings, I’m pleased to report that they are absolutely a solid option for Strats, and could save a lot of Stratocaster players considerable time and money in their hunt for the ideal string set. That was certainly the case for me.

Now, I just need to decide whether to try them out on my Telecaster…

• The John Mayer Silver Slinky set is available now for $9.99. Visit Ernie Ball to find out more.

John Mayer and Ernie Ball have announced the Silver Slinky electric guitar string set – a new signature set that brings a previously unavailable string gauge that Mayer himself has been playing for the past few years to the masses.

Aptly named to serve as the ideal companion to his best-selling PRS Silver Sky signature guitar, Mayer’s new Silver Slinky string set is the result of a years-long, “extraordinary partnership” between himself and Ernie Ball.

Said partnership has resulted in a new six-string set that opts for a rather unconventional gauge that serves as a neat bridge between regular .010s and slightly heavier .011s.

As per Ernie Ball, the set has been “meticulously” assembled on a string-by-string basis, leading to a collection that has been “perfectly tailored” to Mayer’s touch sensitive, dynamic playing style.

The Silver Slinkys offer “10.5, 13.5, 17.5, 27, 37 and 47” gauges. To put that into perspective, it is a slightly bottom-heavy set (only .001” up from the first three strings of the Regular Slinky set) that also beefs up the lighter strings by .0005”.

It’s only a marginal difference, but one that supposedly has a huge impact on playing. Indeed, Mayer has been exclusively playing this set for the past few years, and in his own words, this new string gauge – as well as the other unique string specs – allows him to achieve “an even higher level of expression”.

“I’ve always said that I don’t play the guitar, I play the strings,” Mayer says. “Having a feeling of fluidity is so important in my playing, and Ernie Ball strings have always given me that ability.”

Quirky gauges aside, the Silver Slinky strings have also been treated to a handful of other Mayer-requested tweaks that set them apart from any other string set that Ernie Ball currently has on its books.

This includes string-specific core-to-wrap ratios, and a Reinforced Plain String (RPS) design that promises enhanced tuning stability and durability.

“All my career I’ve been experimenting with custom sets of guitar strings, and for the past few years I’ve been working closely with @ernieball to develop what I consider to be the ultimate set for my playing style,” Mayer added on social media.

“The gauges are perfectly situated between .010 and .011 sets, and feature special core-to-wrap ratios. The tension is exactly where I’ve always wanted it – big enough to get great tone, but nimble enough to finesse those vocal bends we as guitar players are always going for.”

“Very few guitarists in the history of popular music have influenced a generation of players like John Mayer,” adds Ernie Ball CEO, Brian Ball. “For over 25 years, John has not only been a remarkable artist but also a dear friend to the Ernie Ball family.

“This partnership represents our shared passion for music and innovation, and we can't wait to see how John’s signature Silver Slinky strings continue to inspire guitarists around the world.”

The Silver Slinky set is available now from $9.99 per set. There are also three and six packs available for $29.99 and $54.99, respectively.

Visit Ernie Ball to find out more.

In other Mayer news, the virtuoso recently joined Neil Young and Stephen Stills for a ferocious rendition of Rockin’ in the Free World.

Seymour Duncan has expanded its Antiquity electric guitar pickup range, but not with a new set of humbuckers or single-coils.

Instead, the storied pickup specialist has turned its attention to the electric guitar string market, unveiling a new six-string set that serves as the firm’s first-ever set of guitar strings.

In keeping with the wider Antiquity family – which is committed to capturing “the true vintage tones of the most infamous guitars ever produced” – this new release rolls back the years with a more retro design that looks to deliver the desired string sounds and feel of yesteryears.

Specifically, it opts for pure nickel winds, rather than a nickel-alloy plated design. As Seymour Duncan notes, before alloys were introduced, pure nickel-wound strings were commonplace on most guitars.

As well as apparently offering a longer string life and a more consistent tone, pure nickel also provides a richer, warmer tone that became the backbone of classic blues and rock ‘n’ roll.

“Now our Antiquity Vintage Modern Strings bring you even closer to the sound of electric guitar’s early heyday,” the company states. “Antiquity Vintage Modern Strings are the perfect start to your signal chain in the quest to unlocking your favorite classic guitar sounds.”

In terms of gauges, Light (.010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046) and Extra Light (.009, .011, .016, .024, .032, .042) options are available.

This release also sets a potential precedent for future Seymour Duncan drops. We don’t believe this move into the string market is a “one and done” thing, and we fully expected the firm to bolster its string reserves in the future.

Could it continue down the line of releasing strings specific to its pickup collections? Or, failing that, some signature strings to go with its signature pickups? An eight-string set of alt.metal strings would be quite the release.

Both Light and Extra Light Antiquity string sets are available now for $9.99.

Visit Seymour Duncan to find out more.

Let's face it, as guitar players, we're all a bit guilty of not changing our strings as often as we should. The thought of replacing the strings on your beloved electric guitar can be daunting, and worst of all it can cost a small fortune if you have multiple guitars! Well, fear not, Amazon Prime Day is here, and it's not just about smart devices and home goods. We're talking hefty discounts on a variety of products, including strings for your guitar!

If you're not already aware, Amazon’s Prime Day is a 48-hour sales event that you don't want to miss. It's a bonanza of savings, covering everything from smart devices to musical instruments and everything in between. 

However, it's crucial to remember that only Prime members can benefit from the massive price reductions. If you're not already a member, sign up now to ensure you don't miss out on the amazing Prime Day guitar deals. The clock is ticking, don't miss this opportunity to save big on your guitar strings and other musical gear!

Below is a selection of the best deals we've managed to find on Amazon. 

While many of us agonise at length about what the perfect set of pickups for our Strat or 335 might be, fewer devote the same amount of deliberation to strings. This is a bit unfair, I think, as not only do strings influence the tone of our guitars more than we give them credit for, but they’re also our tactile interface with the instrument.

Looked at that way, we should be treating them like tone-making royalty and, crucially, trying out different makes, types and gauges of string – not so we can select one and have done with it for the rest of our lives, but to find the set that best fits each guitar we own. 

At the very least, we owe it to ourselves to find strings that work for who we are as players, says veteran string-maker Curt Mangan, who produces some of the best strings made today, from his workshop in Cortez, Colorado. 

“First off, every player is unique in how they will make a string vibrate,” Curt observes. “Their ‘attack’ has a huge effect on the resulting tone both electric and acoustic. The old saying, ‘It’s all in the fingers’ is, in my opinion, 100 per cent correct. I was once in a room with three well-known guitarists all playing the same guitar through the same amp. The differences in the tonal responses from each player were remarkable. 

“So, there is no right or wrong choice in the strings a player selects,” he continues. “They must find strings that match the tone and feel they want. There is no one-size-fits-all. But the good news is, today, players have thousands of choices. The player will know what it is they are searching for when they feel and hear it. But it can take some time.”

While there is tremendous diversity in the feel and sound of strings on the market today, basic physics means they tend to be designed on broadly similar lines. Therefore the features that can be finessed and tweaked by string makers assume greater importance. 

Get To The Core

“Due to some laws of nature, there are rules that all string manufacturers must follow otherwise the strings will not work. So, in many ways, strings will need to be more alike than different, but there are differences,” Curt explains. “All metal guitar strings, both electric and acoustic, use ‘music wire’ for the plain strings and the core wires [of the wound strings]. 

“It is a spring wire and the most common and popular is tin-plated, high-carbon steel. The wire is available in many shapes, but the most common is round and hex. Round wire is used for plain strings and core wire. Hex is only used for [the core of some types of] wound strings.”

And here lies an interesting design choice many players are unaware of: experimenting with the relative thickness of wrap wire and the core wire beneath, yields big differences in the performance of the string – something that many string-makers exploit to develop strings that work in different specialist applications. 

“The biggest difference in strings is what metal or metals (alloy) that the cover (wrap) wire is made of and the core-to-wrap ratio. There are several ways to make a 0.054-inch diameter string,” Curt says. “You can use a thinner core wire with a larger cover wire or a larger core wire and a smaller cover wire, but both strings will still measure .054. 

“The core-to-wrap ratio affects the feel and tone of the string. A string with a thinner core wire can feel a little easier to bend and have slightly more high-end harmonic nuance, but might require the player to have a lighter, less forceful picking action to avoid buzzes and a rubber-band effect. A heavier core wire has a little more tension allowing a player to be more aggressive, but if the core wire gets too large you can lose some high-end harmonic nuances.

“Cover-wire alloys, meanwhile, greatly affect the tone of the string,” Curt continues. “For electric guitars, nickel-plated steel (NPS) remains the most popular. It has balanced highs, mids and lows, plus more steel for magnetic pickups. NPS strings are good for any style of music. Pure nickel is very similar to nickel-plated steel but has a little more warmth. Many blues players prefer pure nickel and [these types of strings] are good for guitars that are too bright.”

Moving over to the world of acoustic guitar strings, the overall gauge of the set used arguably has even more of a crucial impact on tone and playability than it does for electric guitars. 

“In the old days, most [acoustic] guitars were shipped with 13-56 medium-gauge strings. And yes, some guitars didn’t do well with the stress and some did just fine.

“Today, we have a lot of choice and unless the manufacturer doesn’t recommend medium-gauge 13 to 56 strings, you’re probably safe to use them. What’s more important is the player finding the gauges and alloy that fits their unique playing style and best enhances the natural tone of the guitar,” Curt says. 

One big factor in what string-gauge range will work best on your acoustic guitar is the instrument’s scale length.

Curt says: “Players also need to keep in mind that 25.5-inch scale length guitars [as used on many Martin-style designs] will have more tension than 24.75-inch scale length guitars [as used on many Gibson-style designs]. This is why we see an abundance of 11- to 52-gauge sets being used on 25.5-inch scale guitars and 12- to 53- and 12- to 54-gauge sets used on 24.75-inch scale guitars.”

That being said, it’s also worth adding that going up to a heavier gauge on your acoustic doesn’t necessarily mean a meatier bigger sound, adds Damian Ford, who works closely with Curt Mangan to bring the company’s premium strings to the UK market. 

“A great example is that on my Martin 000-28,” Damian says. “I used 12 to 54s for the longest time, but then thought I’d like to drop down a gauge to 11 to 52s to see how they felt – and, my goodness, it completely opened up the sound of the guitar, which I wasn’t expecting!

“Plus they were easier to play, so that was a bonus. Sometimes the guitar will tell you what it likes the best. Each piece of wood is different, in the same way that each of us is different. So there are no wrong answers – have fun experimenting!” he concludes.

Gibson has unveiled its latest batch of signature Dave Mustaine products, which sees the brand branch out into the world of signature electric guitar strings.

In the past, Mustaine and Gibson’s collaborations have been strictly electric guitar in nature. The pair previously partnered for Epiphone and Kramer Flying V signature guitars, a Gibson Flying V EXP, and even a signature Songwriter acoustic guitar.

This time round, though, the two parties have turned their attention to the accessory department, with Gibson announcing a new set of Mustaine guitar strings.

Though at first glance this may seem a fairly tame drop, it’s worth noting Mustaine’s is the only set of signature guitar strings currently offered by Gibson. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find any hint of signature Gibson guitar strings in the recent past, save the Ultra-Light Les Paul-endorsed pack.

It’s certainly an interesting move from Gibson. Could this open the door for future signature strings for its other artists? Possibly – and probably. We’d be quick to rule out a Slash set, though: he’s firmly in the Ernie Ball camp.

Regardless, the Mustaine strings have supposedly been designed to “bring out the best in his signature Gibson guitars” – though we imagine they’d work just fine on practically any electric guitar – and deliver the “powerful, heavy sound and exceptional playing performance” the Megadeth frontman requires.

And, as an extra seal of approval, these are the same strings that Mustaine has been using on all his guitars during the band’s tour. In Gibson’s words, “They’re the loudest, best-performing strings he’s ever used.”

Specifically, they’re a top heavy set, with a gauge of .010, .013, .017, .030, .042 and .052.

The strings have been joined by a signature guitar strap, which isn’t as eyebrow-raising. It joins Adam Jones and Sister Rosetta Tharpe signature straps, and is made from full-grain black leather with and embossed Vic Rattled head artwork.

To find out more about each new release, head over to Gibson.

DR Strings has launched its new Dragon Skin+ range of strings, covering electric and acoustic guitars, as well as bass, multi-scale bass, and mandolins. 

Their design centers on getting “more from your guitar”, with DR’s patented Accurate Core Technology and K3 Coating sitting at its heart – and they’ve already got some big admirers. 

Dirty Loops bassist Henrik Linder has called them “the best strings I’ve ever tried” and believes they “will change the way I play music.”

Jared James Nichols, meanwhile, was suitably impressed by their longevity: “These are next level,” he says. “I never thought I would like coated strings, but these are silky, easy to play, and lasted nine shows!” 

Hyperbole aside, what makes these coated strings all the (dragon) rage? 

Well, DR says that “ tone starts at the core wire,” and so has primed each string with “micro-thin” coating to maximize resonance, with the locking grooves on the wrap wire helping “achieve superior tone, projection, and tuning stability”.

This combination allows each string to “vibrate to its full potential with better projection,” which feels quite poetic.  

The string’s wrap wire is coated before being, er, wrapped around the core wire, allowing the strings to ring out naturally, compared to when the coating is applied post-winding.

The acoustic strings are available as Extra-Light 10-48, Custom-Light 11-50, Light 12-54, and Medium 13-56 sets and have a “bright and bell-like tone”. There are versions coated in bronze and phosphor bronze. 

For electrics, players can choose from quantum-nickel strings ranging from Light 09-42 sets through to Heavy 11-80 eight-string sets.

There are quantum nickel and stainless steel bass strings available, covering a range of gauges, from Light 40-100 through to Medium Multi-Scale-6-String 30-125 sets. 

All the sets are available to order. 

Head to DR Strings for more information.

If you’re looking to breathe some life into a classical or Flamenco guitar, then there’s no better or easier way than fitting it with a set of the best nylon guitar strings. 

Whether you’ve inherited an old classical and you fancy learning guitar yourself, or you’re a seasoned player looking to perform some regular maintenance, the best nylon guitar strings will improve the instrument’s sound, feel, tuning and intonation. 

Nylon guitar strings have come a long way since their inception. Many classical and Flamenco guitars were actually strung with catgut strings, among other natural materials, until around World War II. Now though, they’re made from nylon and other similar synthetic materials. 

There are loads of different ones on offer, and will suit different guitarists and playing styles. We’ve picked out what we reckon are the best nylon guitar strings, covering a range of features and budgets. 

Product guide and reviews

Buying advice

Tension

With all of the best nylon guitar strings, you’ll see them labeled as either soft/low, medium/normal or hard/high/strong tension. This is sort of similar to the gauges that you’d see on electric and steel acoustic strings in that it affects how they feel under the fingers and the sound you get. 

Nylon strings are naturally softer than steel strings, but soft tension are the most easy-going on your fingers. The reduced tension means you don’t have to press down quite as hard, which can help those just starting out. You’ll usually get a super mellow tone with a relatively slow attack to the notes. 

Conversely, hard tension nylon strings provide a brighter and snappier tone, with a quicker attack – they’re slightly louder too. There’s more tension, so slightly more pressure is required to press the string down properly. The higher tension also means they’re well suited to hybrid guitars that feature a truss rod running through the neck. Players who use a pick might also like the resistance that the higher tension provides. 

As you’d expect, medium tension strings sit somewhere in the middle making them a good starting point if you don’t know which way to go! 

Ball end

When you take them out of their packet, most nylon strings don’t have anything at either end. When restringing, you feed the string through the hole and then make a loop and tie it underneath itself. Some find this to be quite fiddly and tricky, but after a bit of practice, it’s easy enough (there are plenty of tutorial videos out there showing you what to do).

Some manufactures do offer ball ends on their nylon strings. This makes installing the strings a lot easier – all you need to do is feed the string through the bridge and the ball end will hold it in place. 

Materials

You might expect nylon strings to be made of, well, nylon – and you’d be sort of right. The thinnest three strings are usually made from a single nylon filament. Sometimes, you might see carbon strings advertised – the treble strings here are made from fluorocarbon and sound brighter and puncher. 

The bass strings (the three thicker ones) feature a core, wrapped by windings – not unlike electric and steel acoustic strings. With nylon strings, the core is usually a multifilament nylon or composite material, and the windings are made from copper – often coated in silver or bronze.

Silver is a touch warmer sounding, and 80/20 bronze tends to be brighter and snappier, with more sustain. Sometimes, you might have a naturally dark or bright sounding instrument, so choosing your strings to complement or counterbalance this can help you nail your tone.

Can I use steel strings on a classical or Flamenco guitar?

Whilst you will be able to fit steel strings to your classical or Flamenco guitar, they are not designed for it, and you could end up damaging your guitar. Steel strings apply more tension to the neck, and, given that most nylon-strung guitars aren’t fitted with a truss rod to strengthen them, that tension could then warp the neck and, over time, make it unplayable. 

How we choose

Here at Guitar World, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar and bass related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides.

When choosing what we believe to be the best nylon guitar strings available right now, we combine our hands-on experience, user reviews and testimonies and engage in lengthy discussions with our editorial colleagues to reach a consensus about the top products in any given category.

First and foremost, we are guitarists, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best nylon guitar string on the market right now.

Read more about our rating system, how we choose the gear we feature, and exactly how we test each product.

Related buyer's guides

• Just starting out? Check out the best beginner classical guitars
• Stock up on guitar gear essentials and accessories
• Best acoustic guitars under $500: including acoustic electric guitars
• Check out the best acoustic guitar pickups

Acoustic guitars don’t have the tone-tweakability of electric guitars, so your choice of strings is especially important. The good news is that advances in string-making technology have granted guitarists more choice than ever before. But that very diversity also makes choosing the right set of acoustic guitar strings more daunting.

We join Jack Dunwoody, a product expert with Rotosound, to get his advice on what you need to know about strings to make an informed, tone-enriching choice the next time you string up your acoustic guitar. 

Let’s start with the basics. The most common types of string for acoustic guitar are phosphor bronze and 80/20 bronze, terms that refer to the alloy used for the wrap-wire on the wound strings. What’s the difference between them?

“Mostly the tone. So phosphor bronze is a very even-sounding string. The middles come through very nicely, and they have a great sustain to them. And then the 80/20 has more of a scooped middle sound – we’d describe it as more of a ‘hi-fi’ sound – where you’ve got some very strong bass and a lovely crisp, crystalline top‑end.

“You can visually tell the difference by looking at the wire, as well, on the string: the phosphor bronze is a little bit more of an orangey colour, whereas 80/20 has a bit more of a yellow colour. Actually, although ‘80/20 bronze’ is the name that we give it in our industry, it’s actually brass – 80 per cent copper, 20 per cent zinc – hence the yellowish colour.”

The bronze alloy wrap-wire described in the previous question is typically wound around a steel core. Describe the role of the core and some variations in its design that you commonly see.

“Manufacturers will offer hex-core or round-core strings. Hex core is by far the most popular type of core in use nowadays because it gives you a really stable string, in terms of tuning. That’s because the hexagonal [cross-section] of the core allows the wrap-wire to grab hold of that and not slip. So that’s what we use at Rotosound. Purely for tuning stability, we found it works really well. 

“The majority of your [wound] acoustic guitar strings will then just receive one layer of wrap-wire that gets wrapped around the core. And that would usually be one of the two materials we’ve spoken about: the phosphor bronze or 80/20 bronze. But the heaviest strings receive an additional wrap around them to build them up to where they’re thick enough but also flexible enough to work well on a guitar and sound right.”

Bronze alloy wraps are typically used on the wound strings, E, A, D and G. How do they differ from the plain strings above them?

“Yeah, when we’re talking about cover alloys like phosphor bronze and 80/20 bronze, those are just used for the wrap-wire on the wound strings. We choose those alloys for that role because they’re soft, which allows us to wrap them around the core easily, and because of their tonal properties.

“But you couldn’t make the whole string out of them because they’re so soft that if you actually put it on a guitar and tried to use it as one of the high strings, you’d be tuning it forever because it would just keep stretching and you’d never get up to pitch – it’s not suitable for that.

“So our plain [non-wound] strings tend to be tin-plated, high-tensile steel. It’s so hard and high-tensile it’ll hold tuning without breaking. It’s basically the same material as the core of the wound strings, but it’s not hexagonal, it’s got a plain, round cross-section.

“However, with our Nexus acoustic strings, rather than using a tin-plated steel for the plain strings, we use a platinum‑plated steel instead for the plain strings because they are produced as a longer lasting string. So, for our Nexus set, we’ve chosen a plating that’s a little longer-lasting than the tin-plated steel equivalent.”

Nexus is a coated string set – what, in your view, are the pros and cons of coated sets versus traditional uncoated acoustic strings? Traditionally, their main benefit was supposed to be resistance to corrosion and hence a longer life.

“Our Nexus strings use the same phosphor bronze wire that we use on our standard [uncoated] Jumbo King range, except in this case that wrap-wire comes from the supplier coated with a very thin layer of polymer. That then gets wrapped around the core, using the same process as we use for our normal uncoated strings. That means that we can use the same machinery, the same processes for making the strings, and that makes production a lot easier. 

“But the main benefit of coating just the wrap-wire is that it feels more like an uncoated string. So you have the natural ridges that you’d have with an uncoated string when you run your fingers up and down.

“The tone is a little bit closer as well because you’re not kind of dunking the whole thing in [a polymer coating, as some makers do] – it’s not all completely restricted by the polymer coating, it’s just the winding. So your fingers are not getting in contact with the core of the string, therefore you’re not corroding that part of the string.

“For us, we feel that having the winding coated provides that protection, but it’s also a balance to give the normal feel of a string that’s uncoated.”

Given the benefits of coated strings, why do some players still opt for uncoated?

“I think the main reason would be the tone – there’s a certain brightness that you get with a brand-new set of uncoated strings that you just can’t get with the coated strings. However, I would say that over the lifetime of the string, once they’ve settled in, the coated strings are a lot more consistent for longer.

“My general view that I’ve got from working in the industry is that it’s more the players who prefer to keep strings on for a long time on their instrument who will go for the coated strings. They might not be picking their acoustic up every day. But when they come back to it, they want it to sound consistent over months. And you will get that with the coated strings.

“Another thing worth mentioning as well is finger noise. Some people really object to the sound of finger noise when they’re playing acoustic, and the coated strings definitely mitigate that quite a bit.

“Then again, we have a lot of artists who use our uncoated acoustic strings for recording, and many of them would say that they have to have uncoated strings, which they put on their guitar before they start recording a song. Even when it comes to the next day of recording, they would put on another fresh set of uncoated strings because that bright sound is exactly what they’re after.”

By now, Mdou Moctar's ferocious fingerpicking guitar style has established him as an important voice in the contemporary guitar world.

On his latest album, Funeral For Justice, Moctar pushes the boundaries of his songwriting even further, while still retaining his signature guitar sound informed by his home country Niger's music, history, and politics, alongside American guitar heroes such as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.

In the new issue of Guitarist, album producer Mikey Coltun has explained how Mdou's gear preferences shaped the new album's tone.

“Mdou used his American Professional series left-handed white Strat,” he reveals. “We got this in 2018. It’s a newer American-made Strat with Lollar pickups and a Sustainiac pickup at the neck.

“He uses D’Addario NYXL 10s and doesn’t like the sound of new strings. I think the ones that were on the guitar for Funeral For Justice were two years old.”

Despite the deadened strings, Coltun and mixing engineer Seth Manchester still sought to tame Moctar's high-end, opting for a Soldano SLO-100 and a Traynor 4x12 cab.

“Since Mdou doesn’t play with a lot of dynamics, and it’s pretty much just hard fingerpicking on the bridge pickup, there tends to be a lot of bright sizzly highs and not enough clarity,” Coltun says. “The SLO just scoops all the unwanted high frequencies out.”

Moctar also used the Roland Chorus Echo RE-501 in the studio for its chorus sound, as it produces a similar chorus to the Roland Cube. As Coltun notes, the Cube is widely used throughout West Africa, as it's battery-powered, lowering the barrier to entry for musicians who don't have access or otherwise have limited access to electricity. It’s also one of Moctar's favorite amps and has accompanied him throughout his career so far.

And as far as Moctar's own thoughts on whether good guitar playing is in the gear, he asserts: “You could be given the best instruments in the world, but if you don’t know how to play well, it’s not going to sound good. However, if you’ve worked a lot and then you start to get some good instruments, it’ll really be something. But it comes down to work.”

For more from Mdou Moctar, plus interviews with Bill Nelson and Larkin Poe’s Rebecca Lovell, pick up issue 511 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

When it comes to restringing your bass guitar, you’re faced with lots of options. There are all sorts of brands, materials and gauges that all offer the player something slightly different. One of those choices is whether you opt for roundwound or flatwound bass strings.

Roundwound and flatwound bass strings feel and sound quite different from one another, so if you’re looking to make a big change to your sound without having to rip out and replace pickups or electronics, then switching up the kind of strings you use can make quite an impact. Most basses come strung with roundwound strings, and they do tend to be more popular, but lots of players do opt for roundwound instead.

Here, we’ll go through the differences between flatwound and roundwound bass strings, covering the pros and cons of each. Like with so many of the options out there, neither one is better, but you might find that you prefer one over the other. 

What are roundwound and flatwound bass strings?

Let’s just quickly go over what we mean when we say flatwound or roundwound. Pretty much all bass strings consist of a metal core wrapped by a metal winding. If you were to closely inspect the winding of a roundwound bass string, you’d see that it’s round – hence the name. If you think of circle shapes placed right next to each other so that the sides are touching, there would be a gap at the top – this is very much what’s happening on a roundwound string once it’s all wrapped up around the core. This means that you can feel the bumps and gaps of the windings underneath your fingers.

The core of a flatwound string is very much the same, but the winding is flat, instead of round. So, if you think of rectangles next to each other, the tops will line up and the surface won’t have gaps in it. 

Flatwound vs roundwound bass strings: Feel

The first difference you’ll notice, apart from looking at them, is how they feel. Roundwound bass strings feel slightly bumpy – that’s because your fingers can detect the gap between the windings. Flatwounds, as you might expect, feel a lot flatter and smoother – some players even describe them as feeling slippy.

As a result, when you play flatwounds, there’s less friction between the string and your fingers, making it really easy to slide your fingers up and down. People who play lots of fast passages around the fretboard sometimes find that flatwounds make their life easier as they can get to their notes more quickly. If you’re just moving from rounds to flats however, this smoother string feel might mean you overshoot it and go past your note!

Due to how they’re constructed, flatwound strings will probably have a little more tension than roundwound strings. If you’re swapping over to flats, then a little truss rod adjustment or general tinker with the action might help you along your way.

As with anything that’s different from your norm, going from one string type to another might take a little while to get used to, but if you like what it’s offering in terms of tone, then you’ll almost certainly be able to make it work for you.

Flatwound vs roundwound bass strings: Tone

Another big difference between flatwound and roundwound strings is how they sound. Immediately, you’ll notice that flatwound bass strings are much warmer and mellower sounding. Roundwound strings on the other hand are brighter, and have a lot more top-end detail.

With flats, you tend to still get good note definition, but there’s more low-end thump and, while they’re still well balanced tonally, their natural EQ curve will go down as you get to the higher frequency ranges. Through the right rig, flatwound strings can be punchy and articulate, but you don’t get a lot of the upper mids and trebles that you do with roundwound strings.

For a lot of music – blues, rock, soul, jazz and pop – flatwound bass strings can work really well in a mix, as they’re more confined to the bass frequencies. There’s less going on up where guitars and vocals would normally sit. If you think of the classic Beatles bass sound, most of that was done with flatwound bass strings. 

You do sacrifice some sustain with flatwound strings though. The notes won’t last quite as long when compared to roundwounds, though that might not matter too much to some players. You can also help that along with a good compressor pedal. 

Bassists that want more top-end presence, detail and articulation might find that they prefer roundwound strings. They sound brighter, and more open-sounding, plus it’s easier to dial in a growling, more aggressive bass tone. If it sounds like that naturally though, you can always just dial it out with your controls. With roundwound strings, there tends to be more differentiation between lows, mids and highs. Slap players will likely want to stick with roundwounds as they sound snappier and have more attack – flats might sound a bit too muffled for that style. 

Of course, when we’re talking about how bass strings sound, there is the rig as a whole to take into account. The tone that your pickups naturally deliver and your bass amp will play a huge part in the final sound that you hear. 

Flatwound vs roundwound bass strings: Other Considerations

Of course, it depends on the brand and the particular model, but flatwound bass strings, on the whole, cost more than roundwounds. You can get cheap ones, but if you compare the standard D’Addario flats with their regular roundwounds, for example, they’re quite a bit more expensive.

As an upside to that though, they do last longer. Flatwound strings aren’t normally replaced as much as roundwounds are. If you’re after the mellower, warmer sound associated with them, then you probably aren’t chasing the bright, zingy tone associated with fresh strings.

Like many players of a certain age, my first guitar was a nylon-string. I don’t think it had a brand name, but it was definitely a cheapo. I’d caught the rock ’n’ roll bug much earlier, which meant the poor ol’ nylon string guitar was soon put in the back of a wardrobe while I shredded my fingers on a lowly Gibson copy of equally dubious origin. 

Some decades later I re-caught the nylon bug and discovered a whole new world. Any of us can use a nylon-string. You might want to dip into the classical/flamenco world, or jazzier bossa nova styles, but, yes, every house should have one.

Some time back I’d loaned a Córdoba GK Pro to a friend who fancied trying some nylon flavour for a recording. On receiving it back some months later with an “Oh, sorry I should have changed the strings…” I was met with a rather neglected guitar. 

It made me wonder how many other neglected instruments are out there, unused, missing a string or two and in dire need of some TLC? The thing is, with a bit of spit ’n’ polish you might have a ‘gateway’ guitar on your hands – some nylon style that could take you somewhere different.

Fit for purpose?

Getting any guitar that’s been slightly forgotten about back into its best playing condition starts with a thorough evaluation – exactly the same as you might do if you’re considering buying a used guitar. 

Are there any obvious alarm bells going off, like a bridge that might have slightly come away from the top or any obvious cracks in the top, back or sides? If it sort of looks okay and has strings, even if they’re old, tune it up and give it a basic play test.

As we’re focusing on nylon-string ‘classical’ guitars here, it’s doubtful they’ll be any (or very little) fretwear, but you should still check how straight the neck is. Simply hold down the G string at the 1st fret and, in this instance, the 12th fret and in the middle of the fingerboard you should see a slight gap – certainly no bigger than half the diameter of the top E string – between the underside of the string and the top of the fret.

Traditionally, the classical guitar doesn’t have a truss rod, but many of the more modern builds do, including ‘crossover’ nylon‑strings. If you’re in the former camp, then a forward-humped neck will require some specialist help, but with the latter, relaxing the truss rod may well fix the problem.

Obviously, if the neck has a concave bow, a slight tightening of the truss rod should get it straight with barely any relief – that’s what we’re aiming for. As ever, play each string at every accessible fret to check whether there are any false notes or buzzes that might be caused by a fret that’s come unseated. If you really want to go to town, check the fingerboard with a Fret Rocker.

If you’re new to the nylon-string guitar, you’ll probably be getting used to a wider fingerboard and string spacing. You might also be a little concerned about the string height, which should be much higher than a steel-string, not least your electric. 

So, while we’re still evaluating, check the nut height first: fret each string at the 3rd fret and visually check there’s just a slight gap above the 1st fret. If that’s looking okay, then measure the string height in the usual fashion at the 12th fret between the top of the fret and the underside of the string.

Traditionally, a concert classical will have a higher string height, a flamenco guitar lower, but a good starting point would be no higher than 3mm on the high E and 4mm on the bass side. If you think the nut grooves look too high, simply capo at the 1st fret and measure at the 13th fret. At this stage, you need to see if you’re in the right ballpark.

As with any glued-in neck acoustic guitar, the problem you have is the limited adjustment potential. So long as the neck is virtually straight and the nut is okay, if your 12th/13th fret height is too high you need to see if there’s enough saddle height above the top face of the bridge to reduce it. 

If, for example, over time the top has bellied up, the saddle might have already been reduced and you’ll either have to live with what you have or seek some professional advice. Likewise, if the neck has a slightly forward angle and in combination with too much relief (bow, which can’t be straightened), you’re in trouble unless you have a truss rod.

One thing to consider on a classical-style nylon-string is that most (certainly lower-cost) guitars usually have a straight topped saddle that’s not domed or curved. Some makers, however, like a little radius.

“I also curve the saddle a bit,” says US luthier Kenny Hill, “with the arc peaking on the fourth string. The purpose is not to accommodate a curved fingerboard (it’s not usually curved) but to accommodate the different motion of the strings themselves.

“The third and fourth strings move more wildly and have more tendency to buzz,” he continues. “By setting them higher, the better-behaved fifth and sixth strings can be kept at a more comfortable height.” 

With a standard classic bridge, the saddle sits in an open-ended slot and shouldn’t be glued-in. This means, because of the lower string tension, you can slightly detune then take a piece of dowel – or a block of wood with a radiused edge – that’s slightly thicker/higher than the strings’ height and push it under the strings right in front of the bridge; with some pliers, pull out the saddle from the bass side.

You can then make your adjustments and push it back in. (However, note that you shouldn’t do this if you have an under-saddle piezo – here you will need to slacken the strings much more and pull the saddle out from the top.) With a closed-end modern bridge that’s not possible and you’ll have to slacken off the strings. Again, basic setups like this won’t cost a lot from a good pro.

It’s doubtful your cheapo will have a bone nut or saddle. Is that important? Well, it’s not going to harm anything and would be a sensible upgrade, but only if the neck/string height geometry is looking okay. If you’ve been making notes on any problems you’ve encountered – which I suggest you do – you can make a plan for any DIY fixes or at least pass on your concerns to a pro.

Clean your machine

So, strings off and wipe over the guitar with a very lightly damp cloth to remove any dust and gunk. Guitars with older strings might well have a French polish finish, which should clean up perfectly ready for a very light wax polish later; use that lightly damp cloth, then a dry one, with plenty of elbow grease.

More likely your guitar will have a ‘plastic’ coating so there’s no need to worry. Gunky-looking fingerboards can easily be cleaned up with a little white spirit on a piece of kitchen towel and a vigorous rub. Any more stubborn gunk can usually be removed using an old credit card as a ‘knife’, then a re-rub with white spirit.

We’ve covered levelling, recrowning and polishing up frets many times in The Mod Squad, but because you don’t bend strings across the ’board like you would with a steel-string, I’ve often experienced new nylon-string guitars that have quite scratchy fret tops.

There’s no need for that: a quick rub with 600-grit wet and dry on a flat wooden or hard cork block, moving side to side across the frets, will cure it. If it doesn’t, then you’ll need to very lightly level the fret tops; I use a fine oil-stone. That will mean you’ll need to recrown the frets before the polishing stages. 

Also check for any fret sprout if the guitar has been in a dry environment: you can easily rub those back with a fine flat file, or a small sharpening block, which is what I use. Then 0000 steel wool will shine things up – or you can use a metal polish, but it’s a little unnecessary. If you have electronics in the guitar, tape up the soundhole and preamp control panel or use a similar-grade abrasive pad. A final dab of light fingerboard oil should finish the job.

Speaking of a light drop of oil, apply a tiny amount to the open cog wheel of the tuners and rotate them quickly wiping off any residue. And tighten (but don’t over-tighten) any potentially loose screws on the tuners, too.

Strings, strings and more strings

Like steel-strings, there are loads of different types and brands of strings for your nylon guitar. Gauge is less of an issue here, it’s more about tension – high or hard, medium or normal, and low – and/or the wrap on the wound strings. Swapping from high to lower tension strings can also help with a guitar that has an over-high action. All in, it’s really quite a rabbit hole to fall into.

Early in my experiments I settled on Savarez’s High Tension 520J set, quite a classic set I was led to believe and one that really suited my first proper classical guitar (even though I was more of a Latin/jazz fudger). These are quite crisp sounding with a fast response – some way from the clichéd ‘mellow’ nylon-string sound. They’re not cheap, either. For more general use, especially with stage-aimed nylon electros, I’ve found Savarez’s Cristal Corum High Tension 500CJ set really good, too.

Bear in mind that different brands and types will sound different, which could be quite a major consideration if you’re playing acoustically and/or recording. Plenty of players will mix the wound basses from one brand with the treble strings from another. Like I said, it’s a very different world.

One thing to consider, particularly if you’re amplified or recording, is the string noise, which is part of the sound for some and just plain annoying for others. LaBella’s Professional 413P Studio strings use polished golden alloy (80/20 brass) for the wound string wraps, which really helps to remove that ‘squeak’ – again, not cheap, but they do last for ages.

Another recommendation for everyday use is made closer to home: Rotosound’s Superia Pro CL3, which is high tension and less expensive. As you’ll find, nylon-strings seem to take ages before they settle to pitch, even with stretching. 

I have no scientific proof for this, but I find that these Rotosounds seem to settle faster than others, which can be quite handy if you need to restring on gig day (which is, frankly, not recommended). Of course, you’ll have to get used to that tie-block bridge, but there are loads of YouTube clips on that subject. Practice makes perfect.

Final thoughts

I’ve often referred to the world of the classical and nylon-string guitar as a parallel universe with its own history, makers and players – old and new. 

Yes, brands like Yamaha, Córdoba and Godin (to name but three) have brought the instrument into the rock ’n’ roll retail world with considerable success, and the ‘crossover’ guitar is an obvious place to start, with its aim for the nylon-string sound and more steel-string like playability. 

And while, with a little care and attention, you might be able to repurpose that old cheapo, I’d strongly suggest looking at something a little more modern and get practicing and listening. Don’t blame me if you get hooked!  

The first time Sue Foley saw blues music performed live, she was taken fully by the relationship between the performer and the audience. 

“The connection between the audience and the band was so key that the audience seemed to be creating the music, too, which is really quite magical,” she says. “I’m not sure audiences realize that they’re making the performance.”

Now, as a veteran blues musician herself, she gets to experience the phenomenon from the other side of the stage. Credit the fans who turned out for Foley’s May 2023 gig at the Continental Club in Austin, then, for the fiery guitar workout she gives on her first live album. 

Foley stacked the setlist on the recently released Live in Austin Vol. 1 with classics from bluesmen Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon, as well as tunes penned by Bob Dylan and Cheap Trick alongside a few of her own.

Foley leaned on her tried-and-true pink paisley Fender Telecasters – the namesake of her 2021 studio set, Pinky’s Blues – plugged into her ’59 Bassman reissue with minimal stompboxes to create her tone on the album.

“I’m based in Texas, and Texas is about tone,” she says. “You don’t get tone from pedals; you get it from your hands and by using a good, strong solid amp and a good guitar. If you don’t have good tone with just your amp and your guitar, ain’t no pedal gonna help you.”

Next up for Foley is One Guitar Woman, a collection of originals and songs by Memphis Minnie, Lydia Mendoza, Maybelle Carter, Elizabeth Cotten and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

She recorded the album, which comes out March 29, as a tribute to the pioneering women of guitar, using a flamenco guitar built by Salvador Castillo and employing styles like Piedmont fingerpicking. 

There’s even a rendition of the classical composition Romance in A Minor by Paganini as a nod to French classical guitarist and composer Ida Presti, a child prodigy who played professionally until her death in 1967.

“The [common] thread is me, and it’s sort of a reflective study, because I’m taking myself and my guitar and I’m doing their thing,” she says. “Even playing blues on a nylon-string – it is different, but it really works.”

• One Guitar Woman is out now via Stony Plain.

An Epiphone acoustic guitar string that was used by Paul McCartney during the Beatles’ recording sessions for Rubber Soul has gone up for auction and is expected to fetch more than $5,000.

The string is being auctioned by Special Auction Services in Newbury, England, and it is a guitar string of some historic significance. If the musicologist and venerable Beatles biographer Walter Everett is correct, we can assume that it was most likely to have been used on Michelle, on which McCartney lays down his Epiphone Texan acoustic.

There are no details as to the string’s gauge. The COA and documentation of its provenance only explain how the string got passed down from McCartney to its present owner. The string belonged to the vendor’s late cousin, David Cardey, a paid-up member of the Beatles fan club member who won it in a competition. 

Cardey received a letter on February 14 1966 from Johnny Dean, editor of the long-running Beatles Book fanzine, informing him that he had won, including a guinea (pre-decimalization, this would have been just over £1) and a tantalizing promise – “I will be sending you a piece of Beatle equipment within the next few days”.

You can imagine what Cardey was anticipating. McCartney’s 1963 Hofner 500/1 bass guitar? George Harrison’s 1965 Rickenbacker 360-12? John Lennon’s Gibson J-160E? Maybe even a guitar capo. A few days later, Cardey had his answer: a guitar string. Not that he was bothered.

Beatlemania is not to be underestimated. It was in his possession for 45 years, and whether it is worth over $5,000 or not, there’s something priceless about having that sort of thing.

But still... Five thousand dollars, maybe more, for one used string!? And here we are at the end of the month collecting spare change from the back of the sofa to buy a set of Elixirs. Anyway, you don’t see strings once used by a Beatle everyday. You can check out the auction at Special Auction Services.

McCartney’s string is not the only guitar accessory to attract an eye-watering fee at auction. In July, a plectrum signed and played by Kurt Cobain sold at auction for $14,000. 

The buyer, Shaun Ertischek, a Nirvana superfan and collector of alt-rock and grunge ephemera, told GW he was delighted with the collectible guitar pick, given that it was most likely used during the Nevermind demo sessions at Butch Vig’s Smart Studios.

“I knew this piece was special when I saw it come up at auction,” Eritschek said. “I often try to get my hands on guitar picks during live concerts, but there is usually no way to authenticate them because they are so generic. How can anyone prove that a particular pick was used by a musician? This pick, however, was signed by Kurt on one side and he drew on the other side. His personality comes through in this little doodle.”

Bernth Brodträger’s YouTube channel has become a well-stocked emporium for guitar-playing oddities. Who else can attest to a portfolio in which they play an acoustic guitar filled with water, light fireworks in a guitar while strumming and hook up to a functioning guitar amp submerged in a vat of water? No-one, that’s who.

Indeed, every time the Austrian shredder shares a new video, we think he’s reached the end of his seemingly endless list of ideas of how to trigger traditionalists.

Well, turns out we were very, very wrong. In fact, Bernth might actually be nearing his final form, releasing a video that sees him swap regular electric guitar strings for, erm, dental floss.

Though no doubt a useful aid to combat fretboard gunk and keep your guitar smelling minty fresh, dental floss has absolutely nothing going for it in terms of tone or playability (obviously). That, and mint oils are notoriously bad for the fingerboard.

Bernth being Bernth, though, somehow manages to make the minty strings sound as clean as they smell without any long-lasting damage, masterminding a unique way to play to the floss’s strengths.

We use the word “strengths” loosely, because there’s not too much to love about the shrill-sounding dental floss. Here, it's all about the way Bernth manages to use them to churn out coherent melodies.

Some nifty string pulls to easily alter the tension help with some atmospheric soundscaping, while standard fretting exchanges, speedy scale runs and even some heavy open string riffing help showcase the floss’s clean, albeit slightly harsh, tone.

It’s not the first time Bernth has experimented with strings, either. In a previous video, he recreated everybody’s childhood music experiment by using rubber bands as guitar strings.

For our two cents, the bottom-heavy rubber bands edge out the dental floss – that ultra-light gauge here sounds like an absolute nightmare for the untrained player – but we most certainly won’t be putting either on our best electric guitar strings round-up anytime soon.

File this in Bernth’s trophy cabinet of wild playing stunts, right next to the drilling holes into the body of an acoustic and inflating a balloon inside a soundhole.

That’s not to say Bernth hasn’t been responsible for some more conventional videos. In fact, he recently embarked on a noble quest to prove the merits of cheap gear by wielding a $90 acoustic at the Guinness World Records’ largest-attended music festival.

So, has Bernth reached peak Bernth? Well, owing to past lessons, we highly doubt it. 

Many guitar nerds note that perhaps the most important detail of replicating the Beatles’ tones after their guitars and amps is the type of strings that they used. It is generally believed that Harrison and Lennon used flatwound electric guitar strings in the early years up until late 1965, just after the release of Rubber Soul. After that, from Revolver and beyond, they apparently switched to roundwound strings.

This argument seems to make sense from both sonic and historical perspectives. The more balanced and less brilliant tone of flatwounds certainly explains why some critical listeners today are under the mistaken impression that George didn’t play an electric 12-string on Ticket to Ride (George Martin’s handwritten notes indicate that Harrison did indeed use his Rickenbacker 360/12) since most guitarists today are used to the sound of electric 12-strings with roundwounds. 

A 12-string electric with flatwounds sounds more blended and even. Heavy-gauge flatwound strings (like Pyramid .012-.052) are also a critical element of Lennon’s Rickenbacker 325 Capri setup. Because the 325 has a short 20-inch scale length, modern lighter gauge slinky strings are too floppy and loose.

• How the Beatles crafted the guitar and bass tones that forever changed the sound of rock music

The Beatles’ shift to roundwound strings likely had more to do with the new instruments the band acquired than any personal preferences. Most electric guitars shipped with flatwound strings until the mid-’60s, so when John and George bought their new Epiphone Casinos, George bought his 1964 Gibson SG and McCartney acquired his 1964 Fender Esquire, these guitars probably came from the factory with roundwounds installed. 

Back in those wild and wooly days before guitar magazines existed, no one knew what brand of strings the Beatles preferred, and once when asked, McCartney coyly responded that he liked “long shiny ones”. 

After the fact, it’s been determined that the Beatles probably used Pyramid flatwounds in the early years and Gibson Sonomatic and Rotosounds during the latter part of the band’s career. Generally, they used heavy-gauge sets with .012 or .011 high E strings, although they may have used lighter gauges starting in 1968 or ’69.

For more on the Fab Four’s guitar gear, check out our guide to how the Beatles crafted the guitar and bass tones that forever changed the sound of rock music.

While guitar strings are from from the sexiest category in our voluminous collection of Black Friday guitar deals, they may be the most practical.

Holiday season or not, not everyone's ready to drop big bucks on a new electric guitar or acoustic guitar, or even a nice guitar amp. But, chances are good that most guitarists have a few bucks to spare on a new set of electric or acoustic guitar strings to keep their beloved axe(s) playing fast and smooth.

Even if you recently swapped out your strings, having a spare set (or a few) is always good for piece of mind. After all, those high E strings don't care one bit if you're practicing in your bedroom or in the middle of your big solo spot onstage...

Looking to snap up a new set of strings at a wallet-friendly discount? You've come to the right place. Scroll on down to see the best Cyber Weekend guitar string deals right now.

Today's best Cyber Weekend electric guitar string deals

Today's best Cyber Weekend acoustic guitar string deals

Before you dismiss this article as my hot take on a particular brand of coated guitar strings, let me be perfectly clear by saying guitar strings have been the bane of my existence as a gear reviewer. Why? Because the subject of guitar strings – coated or non-coated – is probably the most personal and polarizing topic guitarists will “go to the mat” for. 

And for good reason: these spaghetti-like strands of musical wires are the metaphorical tires that drive our instruments – and predictably, guitarists will endlessly debate the merits of one brand or type of string over the other, and so on ad nauseam. Honestly, I’d rather be spending my time playing guitar, than be embroiled in this lose-lose situation.

But let me lower the temperature for a moment because on the flip side, I’ll be the first to tell you: great guitar strings make all the difference in tone, feel, and tuning stability, in addition to mitigating string breakage. This is a widely held and undisputed fact. If you’ve ever played cheap guitar strings, you’ll find they’re made with flimsy alloys that feel abrasive and more often than not, leave a metallic residue on your fingertips, which translates into a less-than-ideal experience and dull tone. The good news is there are far more great string brands out there than shoddy ones.

Now, since I’m here to talk about the D’Addario XS strings, I’ll let you know I’m not going to sell or preach about why you should be using these strings, because it’s not my job to do that. However, what I’m more than willing to divulge is my experience with the D’Addario XS coated strings. 

I received sets for the XS Nickel Plated Steel Electrics (which I strung on my Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster, and Gibson Les Paul Classic), and XS Acoustic (Phosphor Bronze on my Taylor Builder’s Edition and 80/20 Bronze on my Martin OM), and might I say, the silver-symbol with white packaging is outright beautiful, and what’s cool is the strings have metallic color-coated ball ends in black, silver and brass to distinguish between gauges, rather than D’Addario’s rainbow colors of ball ends found on their XL lines. 

Moving forward, I figure I’d have a little fun and shed light on my impressions of the XS strings by detailing their characteristics while using D’Addario’s marketing language to comment on whether the strings live up to their exact wording. Let’s begin with:

“Impossibly thin film coating”

According to D’Addario, this “impossibly thin film coating” on the strings has “1/10 the thickness of a human hair that completely protects the wound strings from corrosion, without dampening the tone. This new film covering is combined with D’Addario’s proprietary dispersion coating, used in our XT line, to protect the plain steel strings as well.” 

So, if that’s the case, I know what 1/10th of human hair feels like. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not faulting the company's claim, I’m only saying I definitely feel coating. But to D’Addario’s credit, the coating is razor thin and unobtrusively pleasant to the touch without the strings feeling glossy or gummy. 

Never fade away (maximum life)

Here’s where the XS strings really hit a high mark for me. Having played them for well over two months and over twenty live performances, not to mention, countless rehearsals, I can report I’m positively swayed by these strings. How so? Well, I have yet to break a string – and I punished these strings with extreme bends and sticky sweat throughout all my gigs. 

But I know that’s not nearly enough to persuade anyone to investigate them any further, so allow me to elucidate a little more. What I found is that the XS strings (both Electric and Acoustic) begin to break in and settle after a few gigs and practice sessions. Meaning, that crisp, newness feel (which I personally don’t care for) slowly diminishes after some wear and tear. With that, the silver lining is, the strings retain all the tonal properties of a fresh set, but now feel broken in and stretched out to stay in tune indefinitely.

So, durability, consistency and tuning stability is at play here, and that to me is paramount. Also, I found no change in tone, and that is quite remarkable. 

Smooth, fast feel

So, this is where I feel it’s more a matter of personal preference. There’s no way around this fact. I know a handful of guitarists who love the feel and tone of coated strings and a smattering of players who are revolted at the thought of them. Again, I will say that D’Addario’s XS strings have a nearly microscopic drop of string-coating, but I can’t say you won’t feel it. 

It’s detectable – even for someone who’s never played a coated string. But again, there’s nothing about the coating that will impede your playing or for that matter, tone. As I mentioned before, once the strings have been played on, that coated luster seems to gradually fade enough to feel like non-coated strings.

Tone

Okay, so I cheated a little here. This title is not part of D’Addario’s marketing speak, but we all want to know what the XS strings sound like. Speaking generally, I’ve heard that coated strings have often been pigeonholed for being bright and not as complex, and not having the sustain of non-coated strings. I’m willing to admit that I find these strings to be more brilliant sounding as opposed to being bright. 

They also have more presence so that there’s no need for me to dial down treble response from my guitar’s onboard acoustic preamp or from a guitar amplifier. As far as less sustain, I just don’t hear it. I find the disparities with the coated electric strings – compared to non-coated electric strings – to be less perceptible, but I’m willing to concede the acoustic strings have definitive tonal differences. The 80/20 is brighter and more incisive, while the Phosphor Bronze is warmer with a bronzy shimmer. 

One thing I can say is both the Electric and Acoustic share a taut and firm bottom end. Coated strings, even with a coating as light as the XS, keep the bass from becoming overly boomy.

So, what have we learned here? Well, for me, the stigma of coated strings is over. Sorry, people, I was with a lot of you on this bandwagon (mostly for electric), but string technology has become so advanced and dialed in, you’d be living in the dark ages not to at least try D’Addario’s XS coated strings. They are quite impressive. 

But let me also say, I’m a huge fan and user of other string brands, and what I hope you glean from my experience is to be adventurous in your musical journey, and in this case, try out some new strings that may inspire you. It will only deepen your knowledge. Because isn’t that what being a musician is all about?

Street prices

• Electric: $14.99 
• Acoustic: $17.99
• 12-string: $27.99   

• For more on the XS strings, visit D'Addario.

What product is heard on more recordings than anything else over the last 60 years? Many guitarists, musicians or even casual music fans would probably answer something like the Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul, Martin dreadnought or even the Fender Precision Bass. 

Those aren’t bad guesses, but the answer is actually something that all of those choices have in common more often than not: Ernie Ball strings.

The success of Ernie Ball strings in and of itself is a remarkable, noteworthy achievement, but it’s only one facet of the company’s extraordinary history over the last 60 years, starting in 1962 when Ernie Ball first packaged his own branded custom light-gauge Rock N Roll string sets and sold them from his music retail stores in the greater Los Angeles area. 

Today, Ernie Ball strings and accessories, as well as the company’s Music Man guitars and basses, are sold in 135 countries; the brands are internationally recognized icons; and their products are embraced by everyone from the world’s best-selling artists to beginners just starting their musical journeys.

“I’m super proud of the company’s 60-year history,” says Ernie Ball/Music Man president Sterling Ball. “We’ve worked with a lot of great people, and a lot of great things happened. It all started with my father. My dad changed an industry. But I’m reluctant to lean on history, because it’s too easy to use the past as a crutch. We’re focused on the present, and we’re thinking about the future. 

“With my son Brian now running the company, we’re making new history and continuing to change the industry. One of the main reasons for our success is that we figured out how to serve guitar players. We’ve consistently been determined to deliver what they want and need, and that is always changing and evolving. Everything is about the player.”

Ernie Ball’s dedication to guitarists was inspired by his own experiences as a player at first and later as a music retailer. After returning from service in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, he played pedal steel in various bands around Los Angeles before becoming a member of the house band on KTLA television’s “Western Varieties” program and doing session work. 

Around this time he met Leo Fender, and the two became good friends, with Ball becoming an early Fender endorsee and product beta tester in 1953. Seeking a more reliable means of making a living, Ball opened a guitar teaching studio in 1954 and his first music retail store in 1957 in Tarzana, California, located in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Ball’s store was considered controversial by the traditional-minded music industry during that time because it quite possibly was the very first shop in the U.S. that sold only guitars exclusively, whereas typical music stores of the time also sold brass, woodwind, drums and orchestral instruments as well as pianos and organs. The store struggled at times, but eventually it became successful, and Ball opened additional locations in Canoga Park and Thousand Oaks. 

“Guitarists knew my dad’s store was the place to go,” Sterling says. “My dad would set up all of the guitars that he sold. Players would come in from all over Southern California to buy Teles and Strats from us because of that. That’s something we still insist on doing today. We spend at least 45 minutes meticulously setting up every Music Man guitar and bass so it performs at its best before we ship them out, which is a lot more effort than most other companies make.”

Back then, electric guitars were typically shipped from the factory with .012-.052 or .013-.055 strings with a wound G, and replacement string sets were the same gauges or heavier. Ball noticed that many of his young students and customers struggled to bend strings, and he also knew that many pro guitarists were using lighter gauge strings on the recordings that these kids were trying to imitate.

After Fender and Gibson rejected his suggestion of offering light gauge string sets, Ball started setting up the instruments he sold with lighter strings and putting together his own packages of custom light gauge string sets by discarding the low E string, changing the fifth through first strings into the sixth through second strings and using a banjo’s light-gauge high D string for the high E string.

Ball introduced his first Ernie Ball-brand string sets in 1962. The packages featured eye-catching dayglo colors and bold logos and graphics designed by Rolly Crump. 

“My dad and Rolly were really good friends since high school,” Sterling says. “Rolly worked for Disney, where he became one of Walt’s top three art directors and designed the It’s a Small World ride. I remember when I was 7, my dad called all of the neighborhood kids down to the store, which was about a block from our home. 

“My dad had a stack of string wallet designs that said ‘Rock N Roll’ on them and were in different colors and black and white. He asked the kids to choose the ones they liked. The kids all loved the dayglo colors, so that’s what he went with. That was how he did his market research.”

Ernie Ball Rock N Roll string sets were offered in a variety of custom gauges, including skinny top/heavy bottom, rhythm guitar and “slinky”. Word about these strings – particularly the light Slinky sets – spread quickly as touring guitarists showed them to other players, and order requests came in from musicians and retailers across the country. 

Eventually the string production business eclipsed the retail stores’ income, and in 1967 Ernie Ball closed his stores and moved to Newport Beach to focus exclusively on making strings and accessories like personalized imprinted guitar picks, cables, straps and more. 

Another innovation that revolutionized the string industry was the company’s retailer packs of individual strings that were sold separately, enabling guitarists to put together their own custom sets.

The almost instant impact that Ernie Ball strings had on the sound of music recordings featuring the electric guitar cannot be overstated. 

In California during the early ’60s the company’s Slinky strings played a major role in the surf guitar phenomenon (the Ventures were among the store’s customers) and pop/rock records by bands like the Beach Boys and the Byrds, as well as the Bakersfield country sound of players like James Burton, Roy Nichols (Merle Haggard) and Don Rich (Buck Owens). 

Later in the mid-’60s when British artists like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and Cream toured in the U.S., they often returned home with Ernie Ball Slinky strings purchased by the case from music stores.

By the beginning of the ’70s, Ernie Ball strings had become the brand of choice for most rock guitarists. But although the company had carved out its own unique niche for most of the ’60s, eventually numerous competitors – including Fender and Gibson, who had initially rejected Mr. Ball’s ideas – started to offer sets in the same .009-.038 and .010-.046 configurations popularized by Ernie Ball Slinky strings. 

The company responded to its growing competition by focusing on diversification and innovation, expanding its selection of custom gauge electric guitar string sets and making strings for a wider range of instruments, including bass and acoustic guitar.

Ernie Ball introduced its acoustic Earthwood brand in a literally big way in 1972. In addition to rolling out the new line of Earthwood acoustic guitar strings, the company also produced its very first instrument: the Earthwood acoustic-electric bass guitar. 

Based on the Mexican guitarrón but equipped with a fretted neck, the Earthwood bass’s revolutionary design included a 34-inch scale length and massive body measuring 24 inches long and between 8 inches (first 1972 production run) and 6 5/8 inches (1973-1985) deep. 

Its natural acoustic tone was booming and powerful, but even more impressively, it was equipped with a Barcus Berry Hot Dot pickup that allowed it to be amplified. 

Ernie Ball built fewer than 600 Earthwood basses, but many of them landed in the hands of players like Freebo (Bonnie Raitt), John Entwistle and Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes). The company also made a limited number of Earthwood acoustic guitars. 

During this period the company enjoyed an impressive spike in sales, thanks to the efforts of Ernie Ball’s son Sterling, who was still a teenager. “I had worked for my dad on and off since I was 9, when I first ran the store’s cash register,” Sterling says. “I started working for the company as a road rep in 1973. My dad had this car in the factory parking lot that no one was using. 

“One day I told the sales manager that I wanted to be a sales rep in Southern California, but he said he didn’t need it. I offered to do it for 10 percent of the increase in sales. I took off in that car and visited every dealer I could find. By the end of the year I had set a new sales record for the business.”

Somehow, Sterling found free time to play bass in various bands, and he also moonlighted for Leo Fender’s first post-Fender venture, Music Man. “I did beta testing for Leo, although we called it ‘bandstanding’ back then,” he says. “Leo and Tommy Walker, who was a good friend of my dad and my godfather, had developed a prototype of the StingRay bass, and I’d play it at live gigs and show it to bass players to find out what they thought of it. Leo wasn’t a musician, so I brought the player’s perspective to the StingRay’s design.”

This collaboration would eventually lead to a major game-changing development for Ernie Ball during the next decade. Ernie Ball handed over the full-time responsibility of running the company to Sterling in 1975, and its sales and success continued to grow at a rapid pace. 

Soon the company outgrew the production capabilities of its facilities in Newport Beach. In 1979, Ernie Ball relocated to San Luis Obispo about 200 miles up the coast in central California, where its main headquarters are still located today.

In 1984, an event took place that was as important in Ernie Ball’s history as the introduction of Slinky strings in the early ’60s – the company purchased Music Man. 

“Music Man was going under,” Sterling says. “Leo had left a few years before to start G&L, and the partners were fighting with each other. I realized the company was probably going to end up in the hands of their Japanese distributor, so I went to my dad and suggested we buy the company. 

“It wasn’t a very significant purchase – just some inventory, a warehouse and the small amount we paid for the trademarks. It was really more of an emotional decision than a business deal. When the deal closed, I realized we just bought a guitar company but we didn’t have a factory. I needed to figure things out fast.

“I never once thought I was picking up where Leo left off,” he continues. “It was all about a reverence for the guitar and trying to move it forward. The StingRay bass was our first instrument, because that was the only Music Man product that musicians still accepted at that time.”

Every great guitar company needs a great guitar designer, and Sterling found exactly that when he hired Dudley Gimpel. The two first met in 1981 while Gimpel was working in the service department at Knut Koupee Music in Minneapolis and Sterling ordered custom Telecasters for himself and his dad. 

Gimpel soon moved to California to work for Valley Arts Guitar, and when he heard that Ernie Ball had bought Music Man, he asked Sterling to hire him. Sterling refused to steal an employee from an Ernie Ball dealer, so Gimpel quit before asking Sterling again. Gimpel, along with Sterling and Dan Norton, immediately went to work building and equipping the Music Man factory.

The first Ernie Ball/Music Man StingRay bass hit the market in 1985, followed shortly afterwards by the Sabre bass. 

Two years later in 1987, Music Man officially introduced its first guitar model, the Silhouette, featuring numerous innovations and enhanced features like a truss rod wheel that adjusts without needing a special tool, a compact headstock with a 4x2 tuner configuration and Molex connectors that allowed guitarists to quickly and easily change pickup configurations by swapping out pickguard assemblies.

“People laughed at the Silhouette at first,” Sterling says. “Then Keith Richards started playing it and they called me a genius.” Richards not only played the Silhouette; he famously said in a Guitar Player magazine interview that it “has the opportunity to become like the Stratocaster or Telecaster or Les Paul, one of the classic electric guitars.”

Around the same time, Music Man also introduced its first artist signature guitar, the Steve Morse model. An eye-catching solidbody featuring a modernistic compact angular design called the Axis was often seen in the hands of Albert Lee during this time as well, although that guitar wasn’t officially released until 1993 as the Albert Lee model.

With players like Lee, Morse and Richards enthusiastically supporting the brand, interest in Music Man guitars began to grow. However, the next artist to join the Music Man guitar roster – Eddie Van Halen – instantly transformed the response to the company from interested raised eyebrows to dropped-jaw, eyes-wide-open amazement. 

Although Van Halen famously endorsed Kramer guitars during the ’80s, Kramer never made a Van Halen signature model. The Music Man Edward Van Halen model introduced in 1991 was Van Halen’s very first official signature model, which the guitarist designed in a close collaboration with Gimpel and Sterling Ball.

Demand for the Edward Van Halen signature model was so overwhelming that the company could have easily sold tens of thousands of units every year if the factory were able to produce that many. 

However, the company’s emphasis on maintaining its highest standards throughout the production process – from the selection of quality materials through the finest details of fit and finish – kept output somewhat limited, and as a result Van Halen eventually jumped ship in 1995 to Peavey, who was more willing to deliver the higher sales numbers the superstar guitarist started to demand. 

Although Music Man’s relationship with Van Halen was relatively short-lived, its “sterling” reputation, particularly with artists, continues to this day. 

Shortly after the Van Halen model made its debut, Steve Lukather collaborated with Music Man on his first of many Luke signature models, introduced in 1993, the same year the Albert Lee model finally made its debut (with the Axis name later resurrected for the continuation of the Edward Van Halen model after Van Halen left), and both are still designing Music Man models today. 

John Petrucci, who first joined Music Man’s roster in 2001, has been an especially prolific collaborator, contributing to the design of numerous JP and Majesty models (the latter co-designed by Music Man chief engineer Drew Montell) that include six-, seven- and eight-string versions.

“We don’t have contracts with our artists,” Sterling says. “I never wanted a piece of paper to determine whether someone played our guitars or not. I wanted to make sure we always earned that privilege. Most of our artists have been with us a very long time. It’s all about family.”

Ernie Ball/Music Man has remained focused on meeting artists’ needs both by working closely with well-known touring and recording musicians and supporting up-and-coming talent. In 1997 the company started sponsoring its battle of the bands on the Warped tour and has held this event on every Warped tour since then. 

“When we started doing the battle of the bands, a lot of people in the industry were saying that the guitar was dead,” Sterling says. “We got 32,000 tapes that proved they were wrong about that. The contest became even bigger when my son Brian got involved with it. 

“We met a lot of musicians and gave them a chance to play on the Warped tour. That’s where we first met James Valentine, whose band played there before he joined Maroon 5. Post Malone and Katy Perry are just a few of the better-known examples who played on our stages when they were starting out.” 

Thanks to the efforts and dedication of Sterling’s son Brian Ball, who started working for the company in 2000 and subsequently worked his way up the ranks through sales, marketing and artist relations to become CEO in 2019, Ernie Ball/Music Man has attracted new generations of players, developed remarkable new innovations and increased its sales exponentially. 

Brian was particularly instrumental in the development and design of the Mariposa (Omar Rodriguez-López of Mars Volta and At the Drive-In) guitar and Tim Commerford (Rage Against the Machine) and Joe Dart (Vulfpeck) bass artist signature models. 

Most recently he oversaw the creation of the Kaizen, a seven-string multi-scale guitar with vibrato tailpiece co-designed with Tosin Abasi as well as the DarkRay bass featuring built-in distortion, EQ and preamp circuits designed by Darkglass Electronics.

In addition to those instruments, Music Man currently offers signature models for a diverse and impressive group of players. Guitars include the Stephen Egerton, Dustin Kensrue, Jason Richardson, St. Vincent (Annie Clark) and Valentine (James Valentine of Maroon 5) models. 

Music Man also makes signature bass models for Mike Herrera (MxPx), John Myung (Dream Theater) and Cliff Williams (AC/DC). Production models like the Axis, Cutlass, Sabre, Silhouette and StingRay guitars and Bongo, Sterling and StingRay 4- and 5-string basses remain successful perennials. 

Although Sterling has handed over the reins to Brian over the years, he’s remained involved with the co-design of numerous models, such as the St. Vincent (including the most recent Goldie model), Valentine, Majesty and Short-Scale StingRay.

Under Brian Ball’s direction, Ernie Ball continues to be a leader in developing innovations in string technology. His contributions have included the high-output Cobalt and M-Steel electric strings, ultra-high-strength Paradigm acoustic and electric strings, revolutionary Aluminum Bronze acoustic strings and half-gauge sets featuring E strings measuring .0085, .0095 and .0105 that further expand players’ options.

Ernie Ball/Music Man remains one of the few long-lived, successful, true family businesses not only in the music industry but in the entire U.S. In addition to Brian, Sterling’s son Scott is the company’s vice president and oversees factory operations. 

“When most family businesses pass from one generation to the next, its chances of success and growth usually decline with each new generation,” Sterling says. “With us it’s been the opposite. The growth of this company under Brian has been phenomenal and has exceeded everyone’s expectations. He has more than doubled our business since he took the wheel, and he’s been the straw that stirs the drink.

“We’re very proud of our heritage, and rightfully so, but it’s not a pillow we sleep on,” Sterling concludes. “We get up every day to support the products we make and to support our artists. We’re also focused on feeding the families of our workers. Our primary goal is creating new tools for artists. 

“Growth is a secondary goal. We’ve never been about growth for the sake of growth. We’ve grown because we’ve come up with better ideas and make products that musicians actually need or want as well as things that other companies may be overlooking. We still pay as much attention to making the best strings, picks, straps, cables and everything else as we do to making the best guitars and basses.”

Metal guitarists demand more from their strings. Utilising ultra fast alternate picking, heavy downstrokes, and a whole host of extreme techniques, nothing quite puts a set of strings through its paces like metal does. With the best guitar strings for metal you can reliably chug, sweep, tremolo pick, and abuse your whammy bar, safe in the knowledge your strings won’t let you down. If you like to down-tune your guitar then don’t fear either, we’ve picked out the heftiest available strings across all the range to ensure neither you nor your strings get in a flap. 

Best guitar strings for metal: Guitar World’s Choice

The Ernie Ball Slinky Skinny Top Heavy Bottom guitar strings are the ultimate choice for the discerning heavy metal fan. Combining heavy gauge low strings for more chug than a frat party with slim treble strings to ensure your solos really sing, this combo makes them a formidable opponent.

D’Addario’s NYXL Nickel Wound strings are another excellent choice for players on the heavier end of the scale. Thanks to their high carbon steel alloy construction and mid-range frequency boost, they pair excellently with high gain and intense playing.

Best Guitar Strings for Metal: Product Guide

Ernie Ball strings have been the professionals' choice for more than half a century now, ever since the man himself noticed players struggling with the thicker strings of that era. Ernie Ball’s Slinky Skinny Top Heavy Bottom strings give you the best of both worlds.

With a thicker set of bass strings and thinner treble set, you get all the power and heft to chug, with plenty of slinkiness for your solo work. As a metal guitarist you’ll want to be versatile, which makes these strings perfect for the genre.

The top strings are thick enough to handle dropped tunings down to C, and are also great for those Tom Morello-esque tunings where you only drop the low E. With a hex core you have excellent tensile strength, ensuring they’ll put up with plenty of abuse on stage or in the studio.

D'Addario are one of the most popular names in the string game, and they have a huge selection of string types to choose from. The set we’ve picked works particularly well for dropped tunings, and these should see you go all the way down to B with ease.

Manufactured in New York, these strings use a high carbon steel alloy to deliver outstanding durability, perfect for when you need to get heavy. They also offer an improvement over traditional nickel-wound strings, resulting in better tuning stability and less stretching when new.

The wound strings have also been designed for enhanced mid range frequencies, which means better clarity when riffing. This is particularly useful for metal players, as you’ll likely be using dropped tunings with plenty of distortion!

Jim Dunlop have been one of the top brands for guitar accessories for a long time but they also do a great range of guitar strings. The clue’s in the name here, these Jim Dunlop Heavy Core strings are specifically designed for metal.

The trick with these strings is the thicker than usual core, which adds more tensile strength, allowing you to really dig in with those chugging riffs. Made in California, these strings have outstanding quality and consistency too.

Proprietary wrap ratios allow for a tight low end, focused mid range, and harmonically rich highs even when playing with tonnes of fuzz and distortion. This means you’ll get great clarity even with those slow, doomy riffs.

When the pack features a menacing spider and says ‘drop-down tuning’ you know what you’re letting yourself in for. DR Strings DDT do exactly what they say, specialising in drop tunings for that are perfect metal, doom, and other extreme forms of music.

One of the best things about these strings is their stability. Once you’ve dropped your tuning they really do stay there, even through the harshest chugging imaginable. This stability means less adjustments between playing sessions, a welcome feature for any guitar player.

DR Strings DDT’s also give you fantastic intonation at lower tunings, ensuring even those most dirge-like riffs are audible and in tune. This clarity translates well with clean tones too, proving these strings aren’t just a one trick pony.

If you’re an extended range guitar player then Ernie Ball’s Cobalt 7 string set will be the perfect match for you. Thanks to its unique wrap material, you get a brilliant clarity even on the lowest strings, meaning your heaviest riffs come through loud and clear.

Cobalt is a less usual wrap material that creates a stronger magnetic relationship with your strings. This means that when you use lots of distortion with lower tunings, these strings prevent your sound from getting too muddy.

Your low 7th string will sound tight with a set of these, even if you decide to downtune it further. The highs will still be crisp and clear for solos or clean passages, giving you excellent balance across the set.

Elixir Optiweb coated strings are famous for their long life. Thanks to the very fine coating, they prevent grime and sweat from wearing away at the string, thus expanding upon the lifespan of traditional, uncoated strings.

This heavy gauge is perfect for the regularly playing metal guitarist, more than capable of downtuning with a long life for relentless progressive metal epics. Despite being pricier than traditional strings, the fact that these last longer means you’ll probably end up paying the same when it comes down to it.

Many guitarists report these strings lasting months with regular playing, whilst still retaining their life, allowing you to eschew the dead, lifeless sound of old strings. The thin coating helps the strings feel more like a traditional guitar string.

GHS Boomers are known colloquially as the ‘power string’, thanks to their long lasting durability. This quality is a must for any metal guitarist, where strings are going to be put through the most extreme playing techniques.

The nickel plated steel wrap delivers a nice brightness to your tone that will help those downtuned riffs stand out on stage or in the studio. The nickel alloy construction is GHS’ own creation, ensuring a long lasting string.

Being called ‘boomers’ it’s no surprise to find these strings have a fat low end response, making them perfect for downtuned riffing and chuggy breakdowns. The balanced tension across the set makes certain they feel great with riffs or lead work.

Jim Dunlop’s Performance+ strings have been painstakingly designed to ensure the best possible performance. This hefty set of 13s is only for downtuning really, as standard tuning on these bad boys will be nigh on impossible to play.

The proprietary core to wrap ratio marries playability with power, so while you’ll have an easy playing feel, your tone will still sound huge. Made at the Jim Dunlop factory in California, you’re also assured of great quality every time.

As you’d expect from such a huge brand, the sound quality present here is fantastic. Mixing a focused low end that’s great for sludgy riffing with a smooth high end. Road tested by pro guitarists, these strings are some of the best of the business.

D'Addario XL strings are the flagship of their range, one of the most popular choices of strings for players all over the world. This set offers a medium top, heavy bottom gauge, giving you plenty of heft in the bass strings with a slightly lighter treble set.

The versatility of these strings is fantastic, they’ll do a whole range of tunings, from standard all the way to drop C. Played by everyone from Slayer's Kerry King to Mark Tremonti of Creed/Alter Bridge, you’re in good company with a set of these.

Tonally they’re nice and bright sounding with excellent intonation. The bass strings are nice and punchy whilst still remaining playable at standard tuning and drop D and there’s a lovely balance across the whole set.

Put a set of Ernie Ball Mammoth Slinky’s on and you will feel the difference. These huge gauge strings are designed for use with Drop C, Drop B, and lower tunings. Standard tuning is not recommended!

As with any set of Ernie Ball strings, you’re getting years of quality construction and consistency. This set features a wound G string, such is the heft of the gauge. This will likely feel strange at first, but is a necessity when you want to play extra low tunings. 

Tonally they deliver excellent clarity in the low end, making those room shaking doom riffs sound heavy yet clear. The steel hex core gives you rock solid durability, meaning they’ll put up with the harshest of playing technique.

Best guitar strings for metal: Buyer’s Advice

One of the first things you’ll need to contemplate when selecting the best guitar strings for metal is the gauge of string. Using a standard set of strings and then down-tuning can result in the dreaded string flap, whereby the string isn’t thick enough to maintain the correct tension. 

This means you get a string that goes out of tune when you press down too hard on it and that’s not what you or your audience want to hear. If you’re going to be down-tuning to drop D, then you can probably get away with a set of 9s, but 10s would be better. For anything a step-down or below, you’re going to want at least a set of 10s or 11s. Also, it’s important to note the scale length of your guitar. A Les Paul-style guitar has a shorter scale length than a Strat-style guitar, and this means a set of 10s on an LP will feel like a set of 9s on a Stratocaster, so worth bearing in mind when purchasing a set of strings to play down-tuned metal.

Once you’ve selected your string gauge, it’s not enough to just slap them on and start down tuning. When you change the gauge of your strings, you’ll also need to adjust the setup. A string that’s thicker can cause multiple issues with your guitar, the most common will be buzz from the string not having enough clearance from the frets. The solution to this is to raise the action to compensate for the thicker string. You may also find the string doesn’t sit in the nut properly thanks to its larger circumference. 

Nut issues are a common gremlin that can often fly under the radar. Issues at the nut can cause tuning instability and fret buzz, most often due to the string not sitting properly. When you next pop a set of heavy gauge strings on your guitar, make certain to check they’re sitting in the nut nicely, ideally they should be half in and half out, with no side to side movement.

The material is a crucial component of how guitar strings sound. While metal guitars are all about the heavy, you need to make sure you’ve got the clarity to go with it. This is especially true with extended range guitars and down tuning of regular instruments. Without clarity of tone, your guitar tone will be muddy so a set of flatwound nylon strings won’t do the job here. You’ll want nickel, steel or cobalt sets to make certain you’ve got the higher range harmonic content to go with the crushing heaviness.

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The majority of guitar players start their journey on the acoustic guitar. It’s the perfect platform to build a solid foundation on, honing your finger strength, helping you nail open chords, and building the muscle memory to lay down the essential riffs. As a new player, you’ll need to make sure you have the best acoustic guitar strings for beginners as bad sound or poor playability can cause you to give up too soon. 

Your guitar strings are a critical component of your acoustic guitar and they should inspire you to keep playing, rather than putting up another barrier that can prevent progress.

Best acoustic guitar strings for beginners: Guitar World’s Choice

If you’ve got a bit of money to spend, the  Elixir’s Nanoweb Extra Light acoustic guitar strings deliver long life, albeit costing more than a lot of other kinds of guitar strings. Thanks to their special coating, they reject the sweat and dirt that builds up on your strings, meaning they’ll keep going as long as you can.

Alternatively, you could always go for the ever reliable name of Ernie Ball and their Earthwood Phosphor Bronze Extra Light strings. These are the perfect choice for beginners thanks to their extra light gauge and are top notch no matter what your style of playing.

Best acoustic guitar strings for beginners: Product guide

Elixir’s Nanoweb coated acoustic strings are favorites in the acoustic guitar world thanks to their incredibly long life. They can increase the lifespan over regular strings by three to five times, with many players reporting them lasting months, even with daily playing and regular gigging.

Some guitar players find it hard to get along with the feel of a coated string, so Elixir opted to deliver its ultra-thin nanoweb coating, retaining the feel of a traditional acoustic guitar string. Underneath the wrap and coating lies a hex core for excellent string strength.

Tonally, you’ll find these strings stay in the ‘sweet spot’ for far longer. They’re balanced in tone all across the set with excellent projection. The combination of traditional phosphor bronze tone with ultra-long life makes these strings an excellent proposition for beginners.

Ernie Ball strings have been the pro's choice ever since the 1960s. Famous for its Slinky electric guitar strings, the company's acoustic range offers many high-quality options for players, with this extra light gauge being perfect for beginners.

They feature a very typical construction for acoustic guitar strings, with a phosphor bronze wrap over a hex core made from plain steel. This construction is renowned for its stability under duress, ensuring it’ll put up with any playing style. 

Playing barre chords is an absolute joy on a set of these, and they react really well to string bends too. Lash a set of these to your acoustic and you’ll find your fingers dancing across the fretboard, with plenty of brightness of tone to match.

Martin Guitars has been manufacturing acoustic guitars since 1833, so you can bet it knows a thing or two about strings! This set from the acoustic behemoth is extra light, making them perfect for the hands of beginner players.

Manufactured in Martin’s dedicated Mexico string factory, a high-tensile steel core for each string is tin plated for extra resistance to corrosion. With them being made by such a large manufacturer, you can rest assured the quality control is top-notch.

The tone of these strings is bold and bright, reacting to your lightest touch and ringing out beautifully. Thanks to the light gauge you’ll find it easy to fret chords, with plenty of fluidity for fast riffing too.

Fender’s Dura-Tone strings ensure coated strings are available to all. Getting a coated string at this price is pretty astonishing, with the majority of others costing almost double the price of this particular pack.

Fender’s own Dura-Tone micro-treatment acts to protect your strings from the build up of all that sweat, dirt and grime that gets transferred from your fingers. This means your strings last much longer, inspiring more play time.

The 80/20 copper-zinc alloy gives you a lovely bright tone, making any acoustic guitar sound super lively. Great for fingerstyle as well as big open chords, these strings are tonally versatile, making them great for players learning for the first time.

D’Addario’s 80/20 Bronze strings are the most popular acoustic strings this huge company sells, which tells you a lot about how good they are. It’s not just beginners using these strings either, many seasoned musicians swear by them.

Wound onto a hexagonal core, D’Addario’s strings are all manufactured in the USA to ensure superb quality and consistency. Even the packaging is well thought out, coming in a corrosion-resistant pack that’s also environmentally friendly.

Guitarists love the 80/20 Bronze strings for their crisp projection, which makes them great for recording. The low-end projects well too, ensuring an excellent balance all across the spectrum whether strumming chords or fingerpicking.

Rotosound’s JK9 string set offers the easy playability of a set of electric guitar strings on your acoustic. Perfect for beginner guitar players, the sleek feel of these strings is sure to have you coming back time and time again.

All of Rotosound’s strings are made to exacting specifications and tolerances, ensuring that their sets will always feel the same under your fingers. A phosphor bronze wrap over a hex core delivers rock solid performance and stability.

Brightness is an inherent quality of Phosphor Bronze strings and these are no different. Percussive and punchy, the super-light gauge makes these strings a joy to play on, and easy on the fingers of beginner acoustic guitar players.

DR Strings RARE Bronze offers a low tension feel to make playing buttery smooth for new and seasoned players alike. These strings are handmade, offering the reassurance of high-quality USA construction.

These strings feature a wound third (G) string, so may feel slightly unusual at first. Once you’ve passed this though there’ll be no holding back – these strings sound immense! DR aimed to produce a string set with unique characteristics, and they’ve certainly succeeded with these.

They’re well suited to darker-sounding acoustics, such as those with Mahogany and Rosewood tops, helping improve sustain and overall tone. They’re loud and fat sounding, with plenty of projection and bottom end.

Martin’s Marquis Silk & Steel acoustic strings offer a slightly different construction method and material, to deliver a string that’s easy on the fingers and on your acoustic guitar. Despite being relatively thick, the softer material ensures these are great for beginners.

With the wrap material being silver-plated copper, these strings help to prevent wear and tear on your acoustic guitar. Your bridge will stay in pristine condition with a set of these thanks to their softer wrap and thicker gauge.

Sonically the wound strings are very zingy, with plenty of warmth on the treble side of things which makes them great for fingerpicking. The overall tone isn’t as loud as some other sets, but the excellent playability more than makes up for it.

Not content with dominating the market for picks and accessories, Jim Dunlop also makes fantastic acoustic guitar strings. This extra light gauge is perfect for players new to the instrument, offering great sound and easy playability.

Jim Dunlop strings are made at their California factory, so you’re assured of fantastic build quality, reliability, and consistency. Their string formula was developed alongside professional players such as Zakk Wylde and Matt Heafy, so you’re in good company with a set of these!

Players like them for their overall clarity and fantastic volume. They sound great in the low end too, ensuring open chords ring out evenly whilst single-picked lines and harmonics really sing.

D’Addario offers a huge array of acoustic strings, but for beginners, this super light gauge is the perfect match. It’s a lesser-known string with a slightly different composition - partly because these particular strings are only available outside the US - but is all the better for unconventional construction.

These strings have a hexagonal core which gives them a sturdy tensile strength, ensuring they’ll put up with the hardest strumming and picking. This construction also delivers excellent tuning stability and intonation.

Thanks to the 85/15 Bronze wrap, you get a very percussive string with a bright tonality. This makes these strings great for beginners to get to grips with, requiring far less strength in your picking hand to ensure notes ring out true and clear.

Best acoustic guitar strings for beginners: Buying advice

Choosing the Best Acoustic Guitar Strings for Beginners

When buying acoustic guitar strings for the first time, things can seem a little overwhelming. There’s a huge range of gauges, string materials and brands that are available so it can be difficult to determine exactly what it is you need. Luckily, Guitar World is on hand to help! There are two main things that you’re going to want to look at with the Best Acoustic Guitar Strings for Beginners, string gauge and materials. To put it simply, the string gauge determines how the strings play, whereas materials determine how they will sound.

String gauges typically come in the form of two numbers and you’ll usually find these on the front of the packet somewhere. They start with the highest pitched string, which is the thinnest, and end with the lowest pitch string, the thickest. A typical acoustic guitar set may read 10-48 as an example. The string gauge refers to the circumference of the string, so the lower the number, the thinner the strings will be. 

As a beginner acoustic guitar player, you will need to go for thinner gauge strings, as your hands will not have developed the strength required to deal with a thicker string and there’s no point making things even more difficult at this stage! Sets with a nine or 10 string to start with are the best choice for you here. It’s also important to note that a lot of guitar string packets carry terms like ‘light’ or ‘extra light’ to help inform you of the gauge. We recommend sticking with numbers, however, as one brand may determine a 10-48 as ‘light’ whereas for another brand that could be its ‘extra-light’ set.

Next up are the materials which make up the acoustic guitar strings. The most common materials you’ll come across are 80/20 and Phosphor Bronze. 80/20 strings are a mixture of copper and zinc respectively and offer a very bright sound with a more accented bass tone. Many classic songs used 80/20 strings so if you’re into The Beatles or Bob Dylan you’ll find a lot to love about them. They pair really well with dreadnought size acoustic guitars thanks to their accented bass. 

Phosphor Bronze acoustic guitar strings are a newer technology and contain a greater amount of copper, with some zinc and a little phosphorus. They’re considered to be warmer in sound than 80/20 acoustic strings and will pair nicely with smaller, ¾-size acoustics or travel guitars. You may also come across Silk & Steel acoustic guitar strings. These are great for guitarists who play fingerstyle, as they are mellower in sound and feel.

It’s important not to get too hung up on the sound qualities of the different kinds of acoustic guitar strings, however. As a beginner player, you’re not likely to notice a difference between the two materials straight away, so you can easily use any of the kinds of strings that are out there. That said it certainly pays to match the string material with the type of acoustic guitar that you have, as it will ensure you get the best possible sound, and thus inspire you to keep playing!

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Dunlop has teamed up with Slipknot’s resident electric guitar hero Jim Root for two all-new sets of signature electric guitar strings.

Arriving in drop A and drop B configurations, each set was hand-curated by Root, who personally spec'd up two individual sets of six strings capable of keeping up with his relentless low-end playing.

Both the gauge and core size were chosen by Root, with the Slipknot guitarist also highlighting the need to maintain a high-end clarity, while ensuring tuning stability and physical robustness for his no-holds-barred playing style.

With that in mind, Root approached Dunlop in an effort to design some signature strings capable of meeting the above criteria, resulting in the Jim Root String Lab Series guitar string sets.

“These strings give me what I need to get my sound, and they’re comfortable to play no matter what I throw at them,” he said. “They keep their high-end clarity for a long time, and they’re really consistent from one pack to the next – they never break on me.”

The drop A set are .012 to 0.064, comprising .012, .016, .020, .038, .048 and 0.064 gauges. The drop B collection, meanwhile, contains slightly lighter strings: .011, .015, .020, .036, .042 and .056.

We imagine Root will be strapping his strings on to his ever-growing collection of signature guitars, which was recently bolstered with the arrival of his long-awaited Charvel model.

Both sets are available now for $19.79.

To find out more, head over to Dunlop.

We’ve seen a few signature strings hit the market this year. Last month, Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein launched his own Monster Gear company, which offered a trio of Von Frankenstein signature sets.

Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein has announced that his own guitar gear company, Von Frankenstein Monster Gear, has officially opened for business.

To launch his latest business venture, the shredder has unveiled a comprehensive catalog of electric guitar strings, which comprises both regular gauges and a collection of signature string sets.

As well as having a trio of his own signature sets – which have been developed in collaboration with Sheptone – Von Frankenstein has teamed up with fellow shredders Jeff Loomis, Logan Mader and Gary Holt, who have been bestowed signature sets of their own.

Chief among the collection, though, are Von Frankenstein’s three sets: Abominators, Decapitaters and Monsters. The first is used by Von Frankenstein while playing with his own band, Doyle – whose first album is also called Abominator – and features a light top string and a heavy bottom string, with the set ranging from .010 to .060.

The other two, meanwhile, are used for Misfits exploits, with Decapitaters weighing in with a heavier bottom four strings (.010, .013, .018, .030, .042, .065) in comparison to the Monsters (.010, .013, .017, .028, .038, .052).

Four regular Von Frankenstein sets covering Regular Gauge, Light Gauge, Heavy Gauge and Medium Gauge are also available.

“These strings are far superior to anything I’ve used before,” Von Frankenstein boldly states. “We went through many different alloys and configurations to find the perfect combination of crushing tone, strength, durability, and most of all: feel.”

The Misfit maestro’s strings were all road-tested while he was on tour in March and April, and are handcrafted one at a time.

Joining Von Frankenstein’s own signature strings are three Jeff Loomis sets – the six-string Nemesis (0.011 - .056) and Sentient-6 (.009 - .046), as well as the seven-string The Seven Strings of God (0.009 - 0.062) – and two Gary Holt sets, the Toxic Rocks and Collateral Damage.

Both are, in essence, the same set, though the Collateral Damage swaps out Toxic Rocks’ .053 bottom string for a heavier .060 alternative.

A final set belonging to Logan Mader, the Low-G 7 String, covers the .010 - .064 range.

All the strings are currently available for a reduced price of $13.49 To browse the whole collection head over to Von Frankenstein Monster Gear.

Von Frankenstein is nothing if not entrepreneurial. His venture into the world of guitar strings is arguably the business venture we might expect of him, though the guitarist does have his own line in Vegan Monster Protein powder – just the thing to help build enough muscle while manipulating the heavy low strings on a set of Decapitaters.

Ernie Ball has partnered with Metallica's James Hetfield for his first-ever signature set of electric guitar strings, Papa Het's Hardwired Master Cores.

Developed over the past decade, the strings boast a “never-before-offered” 11-50 gauge combination – 11, 14, 18p, 28, 38, 50 – and come housed in a bright green metal tin with custom artwork designed by Hetfield himself.

Named ‘Master Core’ for their heavier core-to-wrap ratio, the bottom three strings in the set consist of an ultra-high strength tin-plated steel hex core wrapped with Ernie Ball-designed Paradigm plasma-enhanced nickel-plated steel. This design, EB says, means a thicker sound and added pitch stability.

“It's only taken 40 years for me to have my own strings,” Hetfield says in a new clip. “Come on!”

“With all the companies we're with, we're super-proud to be with Ernie Ball,” he adds. “For them to take on the challenge of, ‘Hey, I've got an idea, can you do this...’ they have stepped up to the challenge. I'm super-proud!”

Papa Het's Hardwired Master Core Signature Strings are available now from the Metallica.com Store at $34.99 for three sets, and will be available through domestic and international Ernie Ball retailers from May 10.

In other Metallica news, in a new interview with Metal Hammer, former bassist Jason Newsted revealed that during the making of the Black Album, he “struggled” with Nothing Else Matters, and thought Enter Sandman was “kinda corny” when he first heard it.

“[Nothing Else Matters] made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, it was undeniable,” he recalls, “but I was kinda scared of it, to be honest, because I still wanted ‘crunch’!”

But he says the track was instrumental in the band's subsequent success, as it “took down the biggest walls to allow our hardest songs ever to penetrate the world”.

Ernie Ball has introduced its 2022 lineup of Slinky and Earthwood electric guitar, bass guitar and acoustic guitar string packs, headlined by a new Zippy Slinky set that boasts the brand's lightest-ever gauge.

Clearly hoping to provide a license to thrill, the six-string Zippy Slinky pack flashes an ultra-light .007 top string, which is partnered with .009, 0.013, .020w, .026 and .036-gauge strings.

Ernie Ball has been knocking on .007’s door for quite a while now, having previously issued the .008 Extra Slinky and .0085 Mighty Slinky string sets.

Elsewhere in the drop, Ernie Ball has unveiled a number of other never-before-seen string gauge combinations in the form of the Hyper Slinky – .008, .011, .014, .024w, .032, .042 – and the wound-G-string-loaded, detune-friendly Magnum Slinky, which features .012, .016, .022w, .032, .044 and .056 gauges.

A seven-string pack, the Skinny Top Heavy Bottom Slinky, has also debuted, containing .010, .013, .017, .030, .044 and .056 strings, which joins the new-for-2022 Hyper Slinky Bass 40-100 pack.

In terms of composition, all sets feature the usual Slinky specs, meaning they come equipped with a nickel-plated steel wrap wire and tin-plated hex core.

In the acoustic guitar string department, Ernie Ball has introduced a trio of new sets – available in both 80/20 bronze and phosphor bronze options – which aim to provide players with more options for selecting their desired balance of tension, projection and playability.

Two six-string sets – Custom Light (11.5-54) and Custom Medium (12.5-56) – are joined by a 12-string set, which comprises 10-10, 14-14, 22w-9, 30-12, 10-18p and 48-28 string pairings.

Single pack prices for all of Ernie Ball’s new string sets can be found below: 

• Ernie Ball Zippy Slinky – $6.99
• Ernie Ball Hyper Slinky – $6.99
• Ernie Ball Magnum Slinky – $7.49
• Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom Slinky – $8.99
• Ernie Ball Hyper Slinky Bass – $19.99
• Ernie Ball Custom Light Earthwood – $6.99
• Ernie Ball Custom Medium Earthwood – $6.99
• Ernie Ball 12-string Custom Light Earthwood – $10.99

For more information, visit Ernie Ball. 

We’re all guilty of neglecting our acoustic guitar every now and then by leaving it far too long between restrings. Lucky for you, if you’re currently in the need to stock up on your supplies of acoustic guitar strings, Sweetwater is offering up to $11 off on a range of EXP coated string sets with this killer Black Friday guitar deal.

On offer are a handful of different gauges – meaning there’s something for everyone depending on your own playing style or instrument set-up – that come equipped with D’Addario’s EXP string coating, which prolongs the longevity of your strings and makes them sound better for longer.

Single packs of 12-53, 11-52, 10-47 gauge Coated 80/20 Bronze strings are available at $8.99 a piece, while 12-53 and 11-52 Coated Phosphor Bronze sets are currently going for $8.99 and $10.99, respectively.

Need more than one? A range of four-pack bundles are also available for $34.96 as part of the early Black Friday deal.

New strings not only do wonders to your overall tone, but they also give your guitar a good-as-new feeling. Having a high-quality set that lets you connect with your instrument is a must-have essential for any player. 

Coated acoustic strings are a great shout if you’re looking for a set that can fend off the unwanted impacts that temperature, sweat, humidity and other uncontrollable variables all have on your strings. D’Addario utilizes an effective ultra-fine layer of EXP coating that diminishes such effects, and ensures a brighter tone that lasts for longer.

Two different types of strings are on offer – 80/20 Bronze and Phosphor Bronze – which is also important to note depending on what sounds you’re after. The 80/20 mix is essentially brass, and provides a sound that is ever-so-slightly more bright, while warmer, mellow tones can be achieved with the regular bronze option.

Likewise, if you’re a fingerpicker, or if you prefer playing with a guitar pick, Sweetwater is slashing the prices on a number of different gauges, so there’s an option for all different styles.

Plus, having a well-stocked arsenal of acoustic strings is always recommended.

For more tempting offers, head over to our guide for the best Sweetwater Black Friday deals.

Elixir Strings’ Acoustic Phosphor Bronze with NANOWEB Coating strings are renowned for being the only coated string brand to protect the entire string with an ultra-thin coating, keeping gunk out of the gaps between the windings.

What that means for you, the player, is, among other things, great and consistent tone across the life of the string – and, to that end, a remarkably extended string life.

To demonstrate the excellent and long-lasting tone, Guitar World’s Paul Riario put a set of Phosphor Bronze with NANOWEB Coating strings to the test, with a freshly-strung Taylor GT 811E acoustic.

“You’ll hear me play the acoustic now with a fresh set of Elixir Phosphor Bronze with NANOWEB Coating acoustic strings, and then I’ll be back a few weeks later after playing this guitar regularly and we can hear how these strings have held up, and whether they still maintain that same crisp acoustic tone,” Paul says.

As for what he loves about Phosphor Bronze with NANOWEB Coating acoustic strings? “They have far more of a warmer and richer tone, which I find to be ideal for an acoustic,” Paul observes.

“The other great benefit is they're corrosion resistance. With normal phosphor bronze strings I find they get dull and worn out pretty quickly. What’s great is this NANOWEB coating is very light, and they also treat the strings with anti-rust plating. So if you have sweaty hands these strings are great from preventing them from becoming dull quickly.

“They also stay in tune better and feel pretty much the same after weeks of playing.”

But enough of Paul’s talking. “Let’s come back in a few weeks and hear if the tone still holds up.”

After demoing the guitar for us once again, Paul comes to his conclusion. 

“Honestly, I don’t hear much of a difference,” he says. “What’s striking to me is that for as much wear and tear as I put on the strings, to my ears they still seem to sound brand new and have yet to lose their luster and tone. They even retain that upper-end crispness. And they still feel the same as if I took them right out of the package.

“I have to say, I’m thoroughly impressed with Elixir Strings’ Phosphor Bronze Strings with their NANOWEB coating for their durability and fresh-sounding tone that is long-lasting.

For more information on Acoustic Phosphor Bronze with NANOWEB Coating strings, head to Elixir Strings.

String manufacturer Ernie Ball has announced a new set of its enduringly-popular Regular Slinky electric guitar strings, tailored to eight-string players.

The new 8-String Regular Slinky guitar strings set is “optimized for longer scale lengths and multi-scale instruments.” Each nickel-wound string is therefore 39 1/2” long and the gauges include .010 .013, .0165, .024w, .032, .044, .058, and .074”.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of news of John Petrucci's new signature eight-string Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty, so it makes sense that the firm is ensuring its flagship Regular Slinkys are available for its own instrument range.

It’s also another clear sign that – as most guitarists have known for a while – the seven- and eight-string guitar trend is not going anywhere fast. Heavy players remain, to paraphrase Meghan Trainor, all about that bass.

Speaking of bass, the firm has also announced the arrival of a new set of Medium Scale Regular Bass Slinkys. Again, they’re based around the usual nickel-wound, steel core construction but have scale-lengths tailored to medium-scale-lengths (up to 32 1/2”), as well as short-scale, string-through models like the Fender Mustang.

Head to ErnieBall.com for more information.

When it comes to tone, players can never spend enough time examining every last aspect of their gear – from guitars to amps to pedals – in search of the perfect sound.

But one essential determining aspect of tone that often gets overlooked? Your strings.

This goes well beyond string quality and string lifespan (nobody wants to play on a set of old, dead strings, right?) to the nuances of what you want to achieve in your sound, whether you desire something bright or round, mellow or cutting, soft or loud.

As a rule, bassists seem to be more conscientious than guitarists in their string material, construction, and gauge. But all of these qualities, and more, are relevant to guitar strings as well.

Rotosound strings are a mainstay of bass guitarists today, and it’s no wonder – the brand’s history and influence on rock ‘n’ roll stretches back to the music’s earliest days. For just a sampling of iconic records powered by Rotosound, look no further than the Who’s Who’s Next, the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin III and Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland.

But Rotosound strings are not just for bass. Whatever your guitar tone needs, one thing’s for sure: Rotosound's guitar strings has you covered, from roundwound to flatwound, nickel to monel to steel. Rotosound has the string for you.

Rotosound was founded in 1958 by James How, an engineer and violinist, and continues to be run by Jason How, an engineer and guitarist.

If you’re desiring for that classic sound, a la the Who, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, Rotosound stainless steel strings, which offer a bright, cutting tone with a lot of pick attack and strong magnetic output due to the large ratio of iron in the alloy, are the best place to start.

Pure nickel strings, meanwhile, offer another traditional string making material popular with blues guitarists, with a soft, warm tone, low magnetic output and a very smooth feel.

Want a “best-of-both worlds” option? Try nickel-coated strings, which provide protection against corrosion and create a smoother feel, with balanced tone and a magnetic output that is less than stainless steel strings but more than pure nickel strings.

From there, Rotosound also offers monel – an alloy of nickel and copper with a high tensile strength and a warm to medium tone – options, as well as Type 52 alloy, a high-tech alloy used in the aerospace industry that brings more pronounced midrange and strong output.

And that’s just the beginning: You can also choose from Rotosound’s pioneering Roundwound construction, developed alongside Who bassist John Entwhistle in 1966 for a punchier, brighter tone; Flatwound construction, a traditional method utilizing flat “tape” wire for longer, more consistent tone; or Contact-core, another Rotosound innovation first seen in the company’s Piano String Design (PSD 99) and then Superwound strings. This construction leaves the core wire exposed on the instrument’s saddle, producing a brighter tone and stronger physical output.

To be sure, Rotosound’s offerings will address the needs of even the most particular guitarist or bassist. 

Not sure where to start?

For a Standard/vanilla nickel-coated string, try Roundwound Roto guitar strings and Roto Bass strings.

A good stainless steel suggestion, meanwhile is Roundwound British Steel guitar strings and Swing Bass 66 bass strings.

Looking for a monel Flatwound? Try Top Tape guitar strings or Jazz Bass 77 bass strings.

A Type 52 Alloy? Check out Ultramag guitar strings or Ultramag Bass bass strings.

The options are endless. The choice is clear: Rotosound strings for all your tone – be it bass or guitar – needs.

We all know that Elixir Strings are some of the most well-made, dependable and durable strings out there. But they’re also incredibly versatile and wide-ranging.

Just ask modern guitar phenom Sarah Longfield, who put together this demo video showing off her “two favorite types” of Elixir Strings. And they’re very different strings, indeed.

First up is the Phosphor Bronze NANOWEB 10-47 Extra Light set, which she uses on her acoustic guitars.

The NANOWEB is the only coated string to protect the entire string with an ultra-thin coating, keeping gunk out of the gaps between the windings. The result is extended tone life and consistent performance, with a smooth feel that’s easy on your fingers and enhances playability.

As demonstrated in the video, Sarah’s NANOWEBs offer up plenty of detail and punch, from the lowest string to the highest, whether picking, strumming or even sounding false harmonics.

On the electric side, meanwhile, Sarah goes for the eight-string OPTIWEB 10-74 Nickel-Plated Steel set, which offer the same crisp tone as an uncoated string, only with a nickel-plated steel wrap wire that protects against common corrosion and debris buildup for extended tone life.

Indeed, Sarah says, “One of my favorite things about these strings is the long tone life. Especially for acoustic guitars, with the season changes, where it can be super cold one day and super hot the next. These strings sound the same throughout all of that and I really appreciate it, so I can just pick up my guitar and get back to playing.”

What’s more, “They’re also corrosion resistant, which is great. Especially if you live somewhere where it’s really humid. I’ve played other coated strings and I thought they sounded dead out of the pack. These are not like that at all.”

Sarah’s final verdict on Elixir Strings? “You put them on and they sound great. And they continue to sound great as you play.”

For more information, head to Elixir Strings.

Warm weather is (finally) upon us, but be careful not to get those summertime acoustic-guitar blues by putting poor-performance strings on your instrument.

We all know that the higher the temperature and humidity, the more you sweat. And the more you sweat, the more perspiration winds up on your guitar, and your strings.

How to combat this? For starters, get yourself a great set of acoustic guitar strings. And for this, look no further than Elixir Strings, which hold up incredibly well to heat and humidity. 

Elixir Strings feature numerous innovative design features that will keep you strumming all summer long.

First off, they’re corrosion resistant, with featherweight coatings and anti-rust plating that protect against tone-killing debris and stand up to sweaty hands and humidity.

What’s more, Elixir Strings are designed to withstand wildly fluctuating temperatures for reliable performance, every time. Playing in dry desert heat one day and oppressive heat and humidity another? No problem, as long as you’re equipped with Elixir Strings.

Finally, Elixir Strings offer great tuning stability as well as long-lasting tone – in fact the longest-lasting, when compared to any string, coated or uncoated.

And while great tone and performance starts with your Elixir Strings, it continues with proper string care, including wiping down strings with a dry cloth after you play to remove loose debris or moisture, and checking your fretboard for gunk buildup that can collect on the underside of your strings.

And always remember during these hot summer months to use a humidity detector and not to leave your instrument in a car or other warm environment.

So what are you waiting for? Sun's out, grab your Elixir Strings and get ready to rock!

For more information, head to Elixir Strings.

In our 24/7 obsession for all things tone and technique, it’s important not to overlook the importance of strings. Whether we’re talking the best electric guitar strings or acoustic guitar strings, these are what holds this whole guitar-playing malarky together. So if you’ve ever asked yourself, what difference do guitar strings make? We have the answers right here. 

In fact, choosing the right set of strings can make all the difference. So let’s pop open a few packs, engage in some cork sniffing, and think about some of the ways strings affect our tone and playing style. Ultimately, let’s discover how a new set of strings could enhance your entire playing experience.

Do guitar strings make a difference?

Regardless of whether you’re rocking one of the best electric guitars or you have both feet placed firmly in acoustic guitar camp, strings are your immediate connection with your instrument. They send your message to the guitar, transmitting it to the pickups, sending vibrations through the body and out the soundhole. That signal, those vibrations… that’s the music you play. Ultimately, how we manipulate the strings defines our playing style.

While there might be a certain commonality when it comes to how guitar strings are made – distinctions with few notable differences – all strings are not created equal, and neither are guitarists. Whether you play a beginner acoustic guitar or a metal guitar built for blazing speed, your string choice still matters. 

The right set of guitar strings can complement your style, allowing you to lean into those bends a bit more, or hit your chords harder. The wrong strings – so ones that are too heavy, too old, too light, too anything – can really get in the way of your playing. As ever, it’s a question of feel and tone, and with strings that invariably leads to a question of string gauge: how thick do you like ’em?

Does guitar string gauge matter for electrics?

String gauge is possibly the biggest consideration you’ll have. Measured in 1/1000s of an inch, string gauge has profound implications for your guitar’s feel, and can similarly have a dramatic impact on your instrument’s setup and tone. 

There is a general rule that can be applied across strings, on all guitars, and it’s this: thicker strings tend to have a fuller sound, with a more pronounced low end, a little more volume and a little more sustain. Thinner or lighter strings will have a little less acoustic volume and low end, and a bit more sizzle on the top-end.

There are more variables with electrics to mitigate string gauge as a variable in your tone – there are your electric guitar pickups, effects and the guitar amp to adjust the EQ profile of your tone – but all things being equal, you should hear the difference. Think ‘beefier’ with thicker strings, and ‘top-end shimmer’ with lighter sets.

If you’re going to make a big change in string gauges, be mindful of your instrument and its setup. Moving to a higher gauge of strings might require filing your guitar’s nut, a task not to be undertaken lightly (if in doubt, drop it in at your local guitar store for a tech to fix), while stringing up with a set of 9s after using 11s might require an adjustment of the truss rod to put more relief in the neck and reduce fret buzz.

Guitar string gauges and tone for acoustics

On the acoustic, your strings are doing all the heavy lifting. Sizing up and down string gauges can have a more noticeable effect on your tone. Will heavier strings always sound louder, boomier? They’d certainly be the sound option for strumming on a dreadnought or a jumbo, but it gets complicated on an instrument-to-instrument basis. 

Some vintage instruments don’t respond well to heavy gauge strings, as they place too much tension on the neck and bridge. Shorter-scale acoustics, such as parlour and travel-sized guitars, often perform better – that is to say, expressing more of the instrument’s natural voice – with a lighter gauge of string.

With nylon-string classical guitars, the strings are typically generalised into three categories: light, medium and hard tension. Hard tension strings can often be too much for the hardware on vintage instruments, as they place too much tension on the bridge.

With acoustics we can apply a general rule: thicker strings, 13s and upwards typically serve the flatpickin’ strummers better, while lighter strings, so 12s and under, with their brighter top end and easier feel, are a more natural fit for fingerstyle players. 

Classical players are not bending the strings as much, but string tension plays a big part in the feel of the instrument, with high-tension sets a little harder to fret than low-tension sets. That said, nylon is more forgiving to the fingertips than brass, bronze, steel or nickel, so it’s nice to be able to rule out masochism as a factor in string choice.

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Guitar string gauges of the rich and famous

Over time, you might find a preference for a hybrid or custom gauge set in which thickness of each string diverts from the generic gauges to perhaps go lighter on the top three strings, so you can make the most of the lower string tension and really bend them when soloing, and a heavier bottom three so you can dig into the chords more.

Finding your Goldilocks gauge can be an evolutionary process of trial and error. Other times, you’ll know what you’re looking for. Take Slash, for example. He was a guitar store veteran before he became a veritable rock icon, and his heavy-hitting style was leading to too many string breakages, so he sized up his top three and kept the bottom three relatively light. Slash plays Ernie Ball and his preferred gauge runs 0.011 to 0.046, which is like a typical set of Power Slinky Ernie Balls on the top three strings and Regular Slinky on the bottom.

Mitigating the effects of an industrial accident that took the tops of the fingers on his fretting hand, Tony Iommi, sized down his strings and tuned down, and invented an entire culture in the process. Necessity is often the mother of invention. He uses custom sets from La Bella, that run .008, .008, .011, .018, .024, .032 when he is tuned to D#, and 009, .010, .012, .020, .032, .042 when in C#. That said, if you tune down, you’ll definitely want to consider thicker strings. Those tuned down to C# or lower could be looking at a set of 12s to get the right string tension and feel.

What are guitar strings made of?

Electric guitar strings are always metal. They have to be in order for the magnetic coil of the pickups to process their vibrations into a signal that can be sent to your amplifier. Typically, wound strings will have a hexagonal or round steel core around which there will be a metal wrap. That is most likely going to be made of pure nickel or described as “nickel wound” or “nickel-plated steel”, while the top three unwound strings will be plain steel. 

Nickel is the vintage choice. It’s a little warmer, a little softer sounding with a more rounded low end, and gentler on your frets. Nickel wound or nickel-plated steel strings simply wrap a steel core with nickel-steel alloy, and they sound suitably brighter. Manufacturers such as Ernie Ball have used cobalt in their string construction. Optima used 24K gold in the steel alloy wrap for their signature Brian May strings.

As with all aspects of guitar gear, debate smoulders around the benefits of a hexagonal vs a more old-school round core, in which nigh-on 100% of the wrap is in contact with the core. GHS, La Bella and Stringjoy use round cores. It’s said to give the string ‘boominess’, a rather nebulous tonal quality for which GHS Boomers are named after.

Ernie Ball, D’Addario and other brands use hexagonal steel cores. They might not be as flexible as round core strings, but they’re brighter and hold their tune better. If you were to look at the transition from pure nickel to nickel wound, from round core to hexagonal core, you could say string evolution is heading towards more brightness.

Acoustic strings have a similar steel core construction, but to generate that extra treble and oomph they need a brighter-sounding wrap, such as 80/20 bronze, aka brass, or phosphor bronze. This was pioneered in 1974 by D’Addario to give a warm, well-balanced tone – and crucially to last longer. Therein lies an issue that has consumed the R&D budget of every string manufacturer: how to make guitar strings last longer.

Should you use coated or uncoated guitar strings?

Coated strings have grown in popularity as manufacturers like Elixir found ways of literally coating the string with a protective material to prolong its lifespan. At first there was a debate as to whether the process worked – some people complained of flaking coating, or that – and there could be the power of suggestion at play here – the strings did not have the full frequency range as uncoated strings.

But the technology has evolved. Now it’s a question of which coating you would like, and whether the extra outlay is worth it. A coated set might cost three times as much as an uncoated set, but if it lasts you longer – and many, such as Ernie Ball’s Paradigm strings, come with a freshness guarantee – it represents good value. Elixir offers three different coated options, each with its own tone profile. 

There’s the original Polyweb, which has a warmer tone and slick feel. There’s the Nanoweb, on which the coating is even thinner, leading to a brighter string, and then there’s the Optiweb, available only for electrics but offering a naturalistic feel. 

These premium sets from Elixir, plus the likes of Ernie Ball’s Paradigm and D’Addario’s EXP series, are well worth investigating. 

How often should guitar strings be changed?

Guitar strings are a repository for dead skin, dust and goodness knows what else, and all this gunk all serves to dampen the strings, taking some of that top-end off and making them feel dirty. Factor in the abuse from tuning and retuning, string bends and whatnot, and older strings tend not to hold their tune.

When you hear them going dead, or when they start to feel claggy, change them. Some players don’t like super-fresh strings, which is when they’re at their brightest. There can be a bit more string noise, a little squeak, and that can be difficult to record. But a little stretching and an hour or so of playing will dial back some of that tonal rambunctiousness.

On the other hand, some players insist on a fresh set before each show. The harmonics come easier, the strings feel quicker, and that extra articulation can make all the difference, especially to acoustic players. That’s why Tommy Emmanuel changes his guitar strings before every show. 

How to clean guitar strings

You’ll have to change your guitar strings a lot less if you clean them after your play. The best way is to remember to keep a clean cloth handy to wipe them down and get all those deposits from your fingers off each string. Better still, invest in a string cleaner such as GHS’s Fast Fret and you’ll find your strings last just that little bit longer.

• Drop it with the best bass strings for all budgets
• Want the best flatwound bass strings instead? Then here you go… 

For our money, Ernie Ball's iconic Slinkys are the best electric guitar strings on the market, bar none, while the EB Earthwood series certainly ranks highly as far as acoustic guitar strings are concerned. If you're in the market to try out some new strings, or you simply need a restock, Musician's Friend is currently offering up to 33% discount on triple packs of a wide range of strings - from Regular to Power Slinkys, plus a range of Earthwood models for acoustic players.

Just as an example, if you play Ernie Ball Mighty Slinkys, today you can grab a triple pack for just $11.98, compared with the usual price of $17.97. Elsewhere, you can grab 3 bucks off a trio of Regular Slinkys.

• More of the best Memorial Day guitar sales

Here are those string savings in full:

• Ernie Ball Mighty Slinky: Was $17.97, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Turbo Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Extra Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Primo Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Ultra Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Mega Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Regular Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Power Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Super Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Nickel Hybrid Slinky: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Earthwood Extra Light: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Earthwood Medium Light: Was $14.99, now $11.98
• Ernie Ball Earthwood Light: Was $14.99, now $11.98

Slinkys are some of the most easily identifiable and common strings known to mankind, but there's a good reason for that! No other string set on the market has the same blend of durability, performance, sound and price.

Ok, so it's not the coolest gear investment you'll make this year, and the savings aren't huge, but when your high E string gives in after some especially enthusiastic playing, you'll be happy to have a spare set of Slinkys knocking about. So, why not grab a few sets while they're on sale?

If you're looking for more great offers on guitar gear, we'd recommend keeping a close eye on our Prime Day guitar deals page, where we'll be sharing the latest news and deals as they happen.

Spector has introduced a new line of electric bass strings available in four-, five- and six-string sets.

The nickel round-wound long-scale strings are made in the US and designed, according to Spector, specifically to complement the unique tonal characteristics, including “bright, percussive attack and sweet sustain,” of the company’s basses. 

The strings were developed in partnership with La Bella Strings, with a custom formula that “achieves a balance between longevity, feel and the impressive attack and sustain that Spector is known for.”

The string bundles are now shipping, with the Spector 4-String Set (45-105) priced at $24.99, the 5-String Set (45-130) at $34.99 and the 6-String Set (30-130) at $39.99.

For more information, head to Spector Bass.