What are your favorite string brand and why?

[JeffB]

I have since switched over to Boomers as for whatever blasted reason, they work great with the current setup. Feel. Tone. Longevity. All there. Everything else I tried ( 10 different string brand/types) was a compromise. Then lucked into the dollar a pack deal on BB. First time since the 80s, I have preferred them on any of my guitars.

[ginormous]

For guitar and bass, I've tried almost every string on the market: flats, half-rounds, ground rounds and rounds; GHS, Markley, Fender, Ernie Ball, Rotosound -- and many that aren't in production any more (Kaman teflon-coated, anyone?).



I've stuck with nickel D'addario XL's. Guitar 110's, bass medium lights (in the enviro-friendly pack) for several reasons:

• They're as common as potato chips. Almost every store has 'em.
• Consistent sound and feel from pack to pack. If I swap a broken string for a fresh one, the rest of the set sounds reasonably close (allowing for finger oil, skin cells, etc).
• The string wrap on the wound strings stands up to slapping (bass) and bending (guitar, bass sometimes) quite well. Fabric under-wrap winding on bass strings never gives me enough definition.
• The enviro pack uses a UV-resistant plastic wrapping, which is filled with inert gas that resists oxidation. Great for stocking up on multiple packs when there's a sale. I buy mass quantities cheap and go long.

I wish only that the XL-K packs (welded ball end/core for Kahler whammy bars) were still being made. Those were almost impossible to break at the ball end! I used them even though I don't have whammy bars on most of my gear, Kahler, Floyd or Bigsby. The XL-k's had a little bit more mass, at the anchor point going into the bridge. Maybe it's just me, but to my ears and hands they sustained somewhat longer.

[jeremy]

for bass i like rotosound flatwounds and dr marcus miller fat beam roundwounds

acoustic i LOVE the snake oil 101's, dr sunbeams are good but since i play acoustic so little i use the nanoweb elixers. for recording acoustic, i always go with one of the others though.

electric is dr pure blues 90% of the time. i love the snake oil pure nickel strings but they are expensive and a pita to get. ive played around with some others recently and the ghs burnished nickels were nice

[Frantic_Rock]

I always used D'Addario 10-52 nickel strings.

But lately i just go to juststrings.com and buy 12 packs of individual string for like 4 bucks each.

I kind of stopped caring about strings. I think it's all about the chops now and the motivation to practice (which i don't have much of anymore).

[jeremy]

is the snake oil strings site dead?

[LesStrat]

I still use DR Pure Blues 9-46 on electric.

jeremy