TI Jazz Swings have suddenly gotten a lot cheaper at 2 online shops!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Both Just Strings and Strings & Beyond have cut JS prices to about $29 a set. There’s no indication of why, but this may be a good time to stock up. Bensons are $40.

Strings by Mail are still at $35 for JS, and MF is at $36. So it’s apparently not a cut from TI.

[Boze]

They've been that price at S&B since before their 15% black Friday sale and all four gauges are $25 or $26 on Amazon

[nyc chaz]

Both Just Strings and Strings & Beyond have cut JS prices to about $29 a set. There’s no indication of why, but this may be a good time to stock up. Bensons are $40.

Strings by Mail are still at $35 for JS, and MF is at $36. So it’s apparently not a cut from TI.

Talking to a friend of mine in music sales,thomastik was just not selling with the price being raised so high.People have the power of the purse,don't buy things at an exorbitant price and in most cases it will come down.

[skiboyny]

I like them probably about best of all strings, but personally I don't get the mileage out of them to justify the cost of 35-40. I know everyone else seems to get a year, but not to my ears. They stay in tune just fine but I have to clean them often and even at that, I don't feel I get any longer out of them than any other string.

[Stringswinger]

Talking to a friend of mine in music sales,thomastik was just not selling with the price being raised so high.People have the power of the purse,don't buy things at an exorbitant price and in most cases it will come down.

If demand brings price down to a point where a manufacturer cannot make a reasonable profit, the product will disappear from the marketplace.

[Stringswinger]

I like them probably about best of all strings, but personally I don't get the mileage out of them to justify the cost of 35-40. I know everyone else seems to get a year, but not to my ears. They stay in tune just fine but I have to clean them often and even at that, I don't feel I get any longer out of them than any other string.

I do not get any longer life from these than any other string, but the feel of the round core string along with their balanced tone makes them my flat wound of choice.

[skiboyny]

I do not get any longer life from these than any other string, but the feel of the round core string along with their balanced tone makes them my flat wound of choice.

No argument there. I ordered Chromes in like gauges (as close to like as possible) as a Benson set. One of the knocks on Chromes for me, was always the tension. To my surprise the tension is actually a bit less with like gauges. The chromes are real bright and loud to start out with, and seem to last way longer. I haven't killed them at all so longer than TI for sure. Custom ordered they come to around 22.00 I still prefer the nickel, to stainless but not at double the price.

[2bornot2bop]

.113 Bebop rounds are $23 on Amazon, Bensons $40, and Swings $25 with next day delivery. Cheapest I’ve found them.

[nyc chaz]

If demand brings price down to a point where a manufacturer cannot make a reasonable profit, the product will disappear from the marketplace.

Thomastik in Europe is like half the price of here in the states.Aquila which is another European stringmaker i use has their prices about the same on both sides of the Atlantic.What caused Thomastik to raise their prices here so high?I don't know the answer but if Aquila can charge the same price on both continents i don't see why Thomastik can't.

[drbhrb]

I bailed on TI years ago when the bensons went to $40 plus. I always hated chromes so I just went back to round daddario. Maybe I’ll try the swings for $26

[skykomishone]

I think they're great strings, and I use them a lot. I also think that how long a set of any strings lasts depends on a lot of variables. To name a few, things like your body chemistry, how much you play, whether you wipe them and the neck down afterwards, humidity, and I'm sure other factors. I can't tell you how long a set lasts because it varies. And I usually play them until one day I decide they sound like their time has come. I bought a box of 10 sets of Sadowsky labeled nickel round wounds from him when he decided to stop selling strings a couple of years ago at a screaming close-out deal that have kept me out of the buying mode, but $23 a set for rounds sounds about right for TI's when I bought them several years ago. I decided to buy a couple sets 2B. Thanks for the research. Glad I don't have a nickel allergy, cause I sure love the strings. I expect if scientists tested our blood for it, they'd find enough to plate a couple of tailpieces.

[AllanAllen]

Thomastik in Europe is like half the price of here in the states.Aquila which is another European stringmaker i use has their prices about the same on both sides of the Atlantic.What caused Thomastik to raise their prices here so high?I don't know the answer but if Aquila can charge the same price on both continents i don't see why Thomastik can't.

I remember reading on TalkBass that Americans think Thomastik are top of the line and Europeans think LaBella are the best. Because of respective import fees giving the illusion of luxury pricing.

[rolijen]

They’ve been under $28 for a while at Sweetwater. Access to this page has been denied
I’ve been buying my JS112s there of late.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

One of the knocks on Chromes for me, was always the tension. To my surprise the tension is actually a bit less with like gauges.

I think that's largely because of TI's round core and nickel winding. TIs are also a few thou smaller in diameter than Chromes of the "same" size, because TI converts their metric measured string gauges to our measuring system and there's a slight rounding error.

Stiffness is a measure of how easily you can bend them (which we do when we fret them). Tension is a measure of the pull exerted by a string on the end points to which it's fastened (tuning post and tailpiece, in most cases).

[sgosnell]

Tension and stiffness are related, but not identical.

[Cunamara]

If demand brings price down to a point where a manufacturer cannot make a reasonable profit, the product will disappear from the marketplace.

Thus is the dilemma of supply and demand, and why some products disappear from the marketplace while others thrive.

[voyage]

Thanks, I've always wanted to try TI but the price was a bit high and I like my Chromes. But I ordered some Swings in 13, and a couple extra 14s. Neither site had single 13s.

[jads57]

Even though I’m guilty of trying to find the cheapest prices out there. I think especially now with all of the grotesque excesses of Amazons Jeff Bezos,Elon Musk, the Waltons, etc.

I think now more than ever instead of being proverbial frogs in the water being slowly boiled to death. We need to support mom and pop shops as well as supply chains that allow people to make a living wage.
So maybe paying a bit more instead of always getting a deal,is t such a bad thing.

[nyc chaz]

Thanks, I've always wanted to try TI but the price was a bit high and I like my Chromes. But I ordered some Swings in 13, and a couple extra 14s. Neither site had single 13s.

StringsbyMail has Thomastik single13's for sale.

[deacon Mark]

I really like the Ti bebob 13-53. The round core and the strings feel very nice. They last me a long time. In fact, I am not really that hard on strings and frankly these can last a year playing pretty much daily. I was breaking in a guitar I bought 2 years ago that simply needed to be played. I put set of Ti on it and play the guitar daily for 7 months I guess 2-4 hours every day. They still intonate fine and played well but lost bit of zip.

One option I like that is way cheaper and probably just a good it the DR Pure Blues strings. These are a round core and pure nickel. I am not crazy about the .15 second string but it works fine. I swap it out sometimes depending but these sound great and play well. I might give the nod to the Ti but the price is 1/3 of them so really that make sense.

[jads57]

I can see buying Thomastik Infield brand strings, for their Flat Wound versions for sure! Not so much for their Rounds,at least here in the U.S.A.
I tried several different brands, and liked Pyramid Regular Wounds a lot. As well as Curt Mangan,and plain old Ernie Ball Slinky. D’Addario while the industry standard,kind of let me down a few times.
Maybe because they manufacture so many strings. But I definitely have had some bum strings more than a couple of times.

[Dennis D]

StringsbyMail has Thomastik single13's for sale.

Several things I recall from previous JGO TI discussions -

1. Should we be reminding folks that every stringmakers' plain strings are the same, so if TI's are more money than other builders, save your money and buy the others ? Is this still true ?
2. If buying TI's single wound strings, be careful with using TI's in other string positions than marked on their packages. We'd gone around on that before too. I moved wound D's as 4th strings, to 3rd strings and gave up after breaking 2 too many....TI replaced the 2 n/c, but I gave up after that. ( Correct ? )
3. For me, TI's has always made what it makes and only that, and sold only that too. So, if you wanted heavier wound strings in a set of flats -esp 3 & 4 strings, too bad. They have always sold, talked up, and promoted their reduced string tensions as secret sauce, and / or proprietary engineering. This just isn't so and as proof check their .50 low E JS tension vs .50 Chrome Low E tension. 23.3. vs 21.5.....
But the answer for me has always been simple - their strings / string sets are thinner, regardless of wraps and or cores. That recent comment about how they produce and measure their strings in mm's, so they are always 'rounding up' to the appropriate gauge, how would we know they're not ' rounding down' just as often ? But yes if you want to 'sell' a softer feeling string, and know you're making it a lower diameter when described in gauges, but still within tolerances, then yup, your string is going to be lighter and therefore have less tension.

But if you like them great. But maybe now the market is no longer buying their sales pitch for their softer, lighter feel, and the premium TI Corp. thinks it's worth.

MHO, of course.....correct ?

[nyc chaz]

I really like the Ti bebob 13-53. The round core and the strings feel very nice. They last me a long time. In fact, I am not really that hard on strings and frankly these can last a year playing pretty much daily. I was breaking in a guitar I bought 2 years ago that simply needed to be played. I put set of Ti on it and play the guitar daily for 7 months I guess 2-4 hours every day. They still intonate fine and played well but lost bit of zip.

One option I like that is way cheaper and probably just a good it the DR Pure Blues strings. These are a round core and pure nickel. I am not crazy about the .15 second string but it works fine. I swap it out sometimes depending but these sound great and play well. I might give the nod to the Ti but the price is 1/3 of them so really that make sense.

If you like Thomastik Bebops,you might want to try Newtone Archtop strings.They cost less than Thomastik and to me they sound and feel just as good.

[nyc chaz]

Several things I recall from previous JGO TI discussions -

1. Should we be reminding folks that every stringmakers' plain strings are the same, so if TI's are more money than other builders, save your money and buy the others ? Is this still true ?
2. If buying TI's single wound strings, be careful with using TI's in other string positions than marked on their packages. We'd gone around on that before too. I moved wound D's as 4th strings, to 3rd strings and gave up after breaking 2 too many....TI replaced the 2 n/c, but I gave up after that. ( Correct ? )
3. For me, TI's has always made what it makes and only that, and sold only that too. So, if you wanted heavier wound strings in a set of flats -esp 3 & 4 strings, too bad. They have always sold, talked up, and promoted their reduced string tensions as secret sauce, and / or proprietary engineering. This just isn't so and as proof check their .50 low E JS tension vs .50 Chrome Low E tension. 23.3. vs 21.5.....
But the answer for me has always been simple - their strings / string sets are thinner, regardless of wraps and or cores. That recent comment about how they produce and measure their strings in mm's, so they are always 'rounding up' to the appropriate gauge, how would we know they're not ' rounding down' just as often ? But yes if you want to 'sell' a softer feeling string, and know you're making it a lower diameter when described in gauges, but still within tolerances, then yup, your string is going to be lighter and therefore have less tension.

But if you like them great. But maybe now the market is no longer buying their sales pitch for their softer, lighter feel, and the premium TI Corp. thinks it's worth.

MHO, of course.....correct ?

When it comes to replacing the b and e string,i just buy bulk packs from Musician's friend that cost $2.50 for 12 strings.I really don't hear or feel a difference from Thomastik b and e strings,but that's just my subjective opinion.

[jads57]

I believe the plains from T.I. have different ball end winds? It’s been awhile since I had a set. But they might also have different grade of steel compound as well.