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I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
80/20 Bronze - excellent for projecting a penetrating acoustic sound with unsurpassed tonal range. These strings lose their initial super brilliance after a few hours of use. The remaining tone, however, is still pleasant and penetrating.
Bronze - a favorite of acoustic players because of their bright, focused sound. They are bright and brassy when you want them to be, with a clear, penetrating sound.
Phosphor Bronze - longer lasting tone than the 80/20 due to the phosphorus content. These strings provide about 80% of the brilliance of a new 80/20 set for a bright, rich tone that's not excessive.
Brass (85/15 bronze) - a warm, full-bodied tone with good depth. Heavy, louder and brighter and are often chosen by flatpickers and energetic fingerpickers.
Silk & Steel - offers the driving force of steel strings and the soft tonal properties often associated with classical strings. A center wrap of silk fiber provides easier fingering and minimizes the brilliance for a sweeter more mellow tone. Popular with folk guitar enthusiasts and finger-style players.
^ from juststrings.com
comments/thoughts/brand experiences?
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
They sound different; a bit less traditionally "acoustic" than bronze but they work well for me. If using a magnetic soundhole pickup you may find it needs the polepieces adjusting as they tend to come set up for bronze.
I have tried coated but I always chew up the coating with my plectrum.
My take:
Daddario PB, reliable all rounder.
Martin SP, good too, lifespan is debateable but I liked them on an OM
Newtone masters - Excellent, awesome
Martin Monel, Marmite and can be either dull/clangy or smooth & woody but inspiring when mated w the right guitar.
Less impressed
Dunlop - bad
Curt Mangan - bland
John Pearce - memory fails but perhaps not as good as Daddarios
At least normally. Strange but true… I tried a single string out of a set of cheap Chinese acoustic strings recently, when I broke one and was out of spare 12s - it sounded fine acoustically but the guitar had a magnetic pickup, and most bizarrely that string was very quiet compared to the others, even the wound ones! It must have been made from non-magnetic stainless steel - which does exist, but is normally quite expensive so it really surprised me to find a set of cheap strings made from it.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
On my Loar I've liked Martin Retro Monel very much. I think they suit a small-bodied, mahogany back/sides guitar very well, especially if you do any capoed fingerpicking. Amazingly, they seem to last as long as coated strings. Having said that, it's had Martin Lifespan on for a few months now - I think they sound better than Elixirs but last a lot longer than EXPs. I should try these on my Dread.
I still prefer D'Addario PB over anything though - DRs can sound great but they can also be inconsistent, which is something I've never found with D'Addario.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Using Elixir Nanos mostly - although they don't sound quite as good as the JPs they last for ages. My finger chemistry is really bad for uncoated strings!
as said - I've said them for many years - never had the 'inconsistent' issues - yeah I've read about then on State forums and I think there was suppositions that somewhere along the distribution chain to a big retailer they were being left in a very damp warehouse !, just what ya don't need.
Timmy - whats missing in that 'JustStrings' description - is -
1: quality of materials used.
2: quality of design
3: quality of manufacture
just like guitars spruce and mahogany guitars can have a lot of variety between them.
on top of all that you got the issue that certain strings sound 'good' on certain guitars add to that, what sound YOU consider is 'good' - usually your listening tastes will influence this.
Over the course I generally try out several different brands in both PB and 80/20 in several different gauges.
John Pearse and Newtone make excellent PB's, and their 80/20's are pretty good too. I find D'addarios to be a bit too bright but any slight reservations I have regarding their sound is offset by their long life - they definitely last a lot longer than any other brand I have used and always find myself coming back to using them on my 12 string and other guitars I don't play as much as some other guitars.
I would imagine there's not a lot of raw material string makers but it's the way the ends and windings are completed that differ between brands
Dreadnought: Either DR Sunbeams or Newtone Masterclass PB 13-56
OM & J45: As above but lights instead of mediums.
Also have recently been playing some ragtime on the OM and am enjoying John Pearse PB silks (like silk and steels but with PB instead of steel). They are really interesting - super warm, very playable, not much quieter than non-silk strings but they calm down the harmonics which can get in the way for the style. Not universally appealing though.
Have enjoyed the Tony Rice Monels in the past but I think they've changed something about them - the reason I stopped using them was because they actually felt stiffer to me than other sets, and when I looked at the Martin website sure enough the overall tension was shown as being higher. Looking again, it now seems to show as a bit lower and everyone says they feel slinky. So either I'm going mad or they've changed the core/wrap ratio on some of the wound strings......maybe I'll give them another go.
viz -
the Vinci strings were STEEL - core AND wrap with a nickel plating, TR used them and exclusively, previously they were made by D'Auquisto which went outa business. Thats what he played making all those recordings so when folks talk about Tony's trademark tone - they're talking about STEEL strings - literally (with a nickel coating). He started using 'Monel' strings relatively recently. You can read between the lines - but he ‘got into’ a franchise deal with another big company who, as I say - re-wrote history - very retro - very vintage - very authentic - I suppose a guy’s got make a buck though.
All part of the 'Monel' craze that's been manufactured over the past few years - prob something to do with the price of raw materials - ya gota admit - it's a laugh.
Dismissing something because of how it's marketed is as daft as using it because of how it's marketed. if people have tried the Monels and like them who cares what the history is or what the blurb says?