Cheapest way to buy strings?

BeardyAndy

Octafish said:

Philtre said:

D'Addario EXL110-3D XL Nickel Wound Regular Light Electric Guitar Strings, 3 Pack

Strings Direct: £19.96

Amazon: £14.70 (£11.96 when on offer)

Tough choice.

Yep, Strings Direct are really not that great on price these days. I use Gear 4 Music - they do the D'Addario EXL110-3D XL for £14.99 as do GAK. I've gone over to Fender strings, they really don't seem any inferior to D'Addario or other brands and £12.99 for 3 pack of 10-46.

I agree, never found strings direct to be that competitive but most of the big retailers are similar, i just got a 3 pack of XLs from RichTone because i needed to make up to cover postage and they were £15.93, usually use Gear4 or Andertons. Local guitar shop is similar price too i just dont often have the time to get to an actual shop.

guitars4you

Philtre said:

D'Addario EXL110-3D XL Nickel Wound Regular Light Electric Guitar Strings, 3 Pack

Strings Direct: £19.96

Amazon: £14.70 (£11.96 when on offer)

Tough choice.

You may well fine that when existing stocks are sold that the Amazon deal will no longer be available, at either 14.70 or 11.96 on offer - Amazon made an announcement a few weeks ago, that if they deal direct with the manufacture and purchase less than 10 million $ a year, then it is no longer viable on their part to deal with that manufacture - Based on logistics of storage, admin, stock turn etc - As such they will be looking for 3rd party companies to offer such products on the Amazon site and Amazon will just take their cut on each transaction

UnclePsychosis

The actual cheapest way is to find someone in the USA who will either post them over to you or put them in a suitcase for you. 

Last time I bought D'addario strings that way I saved about 40% compared to buying them here. 

Philtre

Octafish said:

I've gone over to Fender strings, they really don't seem any inferior to D'Addario or other brands and £12.99 for 3 pack of 10-46.

I also use Fender strings. They seem on a par with D'Addario. Good choice.

£11.25 here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fender-073-0150-310-Electric-Guitar-Strings/dp/B01G23P544/

YellowLedBetterMan

proggy said:

Go into guitar shops and nick them while no-one's looking.

People may laugh but that's something tried and tested. So much so that guitar strings are behind the counter in many guitar shops now to avoid theft.

Octafish

rico said:

Andertons do 4 for 3 on most packs of strings.

Yeah, but that free pack is all but wiped out by their rip-off £4.99 postage - £1.49/£1.50 on strings at Gear 4 Music/GAK.

Octafish

Philtre said:

Octafish said:

I've gone over to Fender strings, they really don't seem any inferior to D'Addario or other brands and £12.99 for 3 pack of 10-46.

I also use Fender strings. They seem on a par with D'Addario. Good choice.

£11.25 here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fender-073-0150-310-Electric-Guitar-Strings/dp/B01G23P544/

That's a good price, just edited my post with cheaper than G4M price from GAK. Is that free postage even without Amazon Prime, do you know if RST Music are reputable i.e don't sell fakes?

Philtre

Octafish said:

do you know if RST Music are reputable i.e don't sell fakes?

Yep, fine. I've bought from them a few times.

TINMAN82

I guess with strings direct you know they’re real. With Amazon I’m never 100% sure.

mudslide73

TINMAN82 said:

I guess with strings direct you know they’re real. With Amazon I’m never 100% sure.

I agree with this. I bought some bulk packs of EB and D'addario but couldn't swear they were real. Everything looked right but the D'addarios went off very quickly indeed (a couple of weeks) when usually I get at least 6-8 weeks even when we're gigging most weekends.

I've gone over to Newtone now and order directly. I don't mind paying a bit more as I really like their tension/gauge with my weak old hands

thegummy

TINMAN82 said:

I guess with strings direct you know they’re real. With Amazon I’m never 100% sure.

Why do you trust Strings Direct but not Amazon?

Philtre

TINMAN82 said:

I guess with strings direct you know they’re real. With Amazon I’m never 100% sure.

It's not really hard to tell if D'addario strings sold on Amazon "as sold by D'addario" are real...

Switch625

Years ago I did a bulk order from https://www.webstrings.com/ which worked out pretty well cost-wise. I'm not a connoisseur of strings so I don't know how they compare to what other folk use but for me they were good enough.

Rocker

If you are a gigging guitarist, strings are expenses so tax deductible.

Otherwise how much did your guitar & Amp cost?  Don't compromise either by using cheap strings.  Without strings your guitar is a plank of wood with a handle.  

ESBlonde

Bulk Buy.

You can get a decent brand like pyramid from several sources. Thomann do the nickel sets about £3.30 atm. You can then change strings without thinking about the cost.

Strings direct are about twice that price! If the Pound regained strength Thomann would be even cheaper. I tend to buy sets with another order to get free delivery.

crunchman

guitars4you said:

Philtre said:

D'Addario EXL110-3D XL Nickel Wound Regular Light Electric Guitar Strings, 3 Pack

Strings Direct: £19.96

Amazon: £14.70 (£11.96 when on offer)

Tough choice.

You may well fine that when existing stocks are sold that the Amazon deal will no longer be available, at either 14.70 or 11.96 on offer - Amazon made an announcement a few weeks ago, that if they deal direct with the manufacture and purchase less than 10 million $ a year, then it is no longer viable on their part to deal with that manufacture - Based on logistics of storage, admin, stock turn etc - As such they will be looking for 3rd party companies to offer such products on the Amazon site and Amazon will just take their cut on each transaction

Brexit may make a difference as well.  Amazon won't be able to channel all their UK sales through Luxembourg and dodge tax.  That is one of the reasons that Amazon can undercut British based companies on almost everything at the moment.

I've been using Amazon for strings, but only direct from Amazon, as I don't trust the third party sellers not to be fakes.  If they are no longer stocking D'Addario direct, then I will go elsewhere.

Lestratcaster

I use StringsDirect and have been a long time user (10 years + now). As I'm a guitar tutor I can claim those back on expenses as without strings I can't use my guitars!

I nearly always go for the 5 pack sets which work out a bit cheaper than buying one-by-one, not always the cheapest but at least I know they're genuine.

SlopeSoarer

Give Orphee (Chinese) strings a go, you get 4 packs for £5 delivered off eBay. I been surprised how good they are. I've has a couple of failures (small percentage) on the high E with 9's but otherwise seem good, 10's I've had no issue with.

At the price they are they are worth a try: )

robinbowes

UnclePsychosis said:

The actual cheapest way is to find someone in the USA who will either post them over to you or put them in a suitcase for you. 

Last time I bought D'addario strings that way I saved about 40% compared to buying them here. 

I do this. I get them delivered to our office in the US and either pick them up when I'm there or ask a friendly colleague to transport them for me.

I got 3 x Curt Mangan Matt Schofield signature 6-pack (18 sets in total) for $103.83 which was £82.91 at the time. That's ~£4.60 per pack.

R.

fendermadlewis

Some great suggestions guys! Looks like Amazon or bulk buying from the US is the way to go! Thanks