String Suggestions for Fingerstyle Guitar

[Dave325]

I am looking for a suggestion of strings to use on my jazz box. I started doing more finger style guitar and prefer a soft mellow tone with a light touch. Any suggestions on which string to try?

[cosmic gumbo]

acoustic or electric?

[Dave325]

acoustic or electric?

Oops. I forgot that part. I have an Ibanez arch top electric.

[omphalopsychos]

round or flat?

[helios]

People complain they feel sticky--run them through 0000-grade steel wool a couple of times BEFORE you put them on. Low string noise & mellow without being dull sounding.




Liveliest sounding flat wounds you'll find! The "Swings" all have a wound "G" which is what you want (other Tomastitik products with plain "G" strings are difficult to balance--G is too loud IMHO).

[Jabberwocky]

John Pearse Acoustic-Electric Pure Nickel Rounds.

[Jx30510]

I've heard about Thomastik "Bebops" that are roundwounds that fill the bill on hollowbodies?
Is that right?
I have the Epiphone Es 175 Premium since yesterday (very very happy with this guitar!) and I've put Pyramid Nickel Flatwounds 011 and they are really great, very bright sounding for flatwounds, and they bend easy.
I'm wondering about these Thomastik Bebop Roundwounds ... I'm not really sure about flatwounds for me, I sometimes find them a bit one trick poney.

[Jeff Mindlin]

I used bebops for years. They are great for...BEBOP! and not great for other things in my opinion. The have a great "snap" for bop but this can mean they lack softness. Also the sets have a particular balance which suits bop and can sound unbalanced for other things. The b string stands out in volume in particular but the high strings are generally very prominent. I compensated for this by playing small voicings with my right hand fingers.
They are unique strings and very characterful - sound fantastic to cut through for fast articulated lines but of limited versatility.



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[jorgemg1984]

John Pearse Acoustic-Electric Pure Nickel Rounds.

This.

[Dave325]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I am going to test out some of these sets on my guitar and see how they sound.


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[Cunamara]

I like the TI Bebop .013s. They seem to work for everything for me.

[omphalopsychos]

Thomastik for flats, John Pearse Nickel for rounds.

[Peter C]

Which John Pearse set are you guys using? The only 12s I could find on my usual supplier's site are gauged .012 .013 .016 .036w .040 .052. (no use to me) and go by the name John Pearse 2750 Jazz Swing Pure Nickel Wound.

[jorgemg1984]

http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/strin...z-medium-p2618

[Peter C]

Muito obrigado / Muchas gracias

[jorgemg1984]

It's the first one De nada!

[Campos]

I am using 13-56 NewTone strings on my jazz box and love it.

Newtone Archtop Masters | Electric Guitar Strings | Strings By Mail

[sandal90]

Theese are great
Dâ??Addario EXL 116 electric guitar strings 11-52
Dean Markley 2514PN Helix Pure Nickel Electric Strings - .011-.049 Jazz | Sweetwater
Check also George Benson signature strings.

[Gabor]

Nevermind, meanwhile I got it, just can not delete the message.

People complain they feel sticky--run them through 0000-grade steel wool a couple of times BEFORE you put them on. Low string noise & mellow without being dull sounding.

Hi, maybe it's my English, sorry. Could you explain "run them through 0000-grade steel wool a couple of times"
exactly what to do with the strings? Thanks in advance

[m_d]

I used bebops for years. They are great for...BEBOP! and not great for other things in my opinion. The have a great "snap" for bop but this can mean they lack softness. Also the sets have a particular balance which suits bop and can sound unbalanced for other things. The b string stands out in volume in particular but the high strings are generally very prominent. I compensated for this by playing small voicings with my right hand fingers.
They are unique strings and very characterful - sound fantastic to cut through for fast articulated lines but of limited versatility.



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You know I agree with this, I'm moving away from the Bebops after two years. From the comfort and manufacturing, as well as durability standpoints, they are incredible, they do sound fantastic, too, but there is an imbalance towards the high strings, although it's deliberate on their part - I don't know where that choice came from, who determined a jazz set needed to have that particular balance, who said that was the right balance even for Bebop music - and btw they do call it a balanced set - but I feel the lows to be lacking. Unless I'm mistaken those strings have remained the same over decades - maybe the company could start offering some different choices? At the very least, start offering a 12 set with a wound G because that plain G just won't do it on a 12 set.
I've purchased a couple of sets of Pyramids pure nickels which had the more common tension values. It's an 11 set with a wound G, which I had to order from Germany. If they sound good and last long, I'll keep them. Otherwise, I'll stop the exotic strings experiments and just go back to plain old D'Addarios EXLs. A semi-hollow I bought recently came with a set of those and they are just excellent strings.

[Jabberwocky]

Yeah, m_d, I've been using me noggin lately; the T-I Bebops have a loud B for the gauge. So, drop the plain steels down to one or two gauges lower or raise the wounds.

In an attempt to find a more conventional gauge and feel, I've been thunking about using a T-I Jazz Swing JS110 set, dropping the 10p, moving the other strings one up, and subbing a JS53 for the bass E2. You could drop the 18W and sub it with a plain. Plain steels are cheap if you get generic ones. That means you use 3 to 4 wound strings out of the original pack.

This raises overall tension but could solve the imbalance issue.

One could try that with a mixed Swing and Bebop string set, too.

What are your thoughts? Maybe stick with the Pyramid Nickel Classics and be done with it?

[Jabberwocky]

Which John Pearse set are you guys using? The only 12s I could find on my usual supplier's site are gauged .012 .013 .016 .036w .040 .052. (no use to me) and go by the name John Pearse 2750 Jazz Swing Pure Nickel Wound.

960L or 2700. They are Pure Nickel Wound. The difference lies in the gauge of the bass E2 string, 54 vs. 52 .

John Pearse 2700 Jazz Medium Acoustic/Electric Guitar Strings

John Pearse 960L Pure Nickel Acoustic Guitar Strings Light 12-54

[m_d]

I haven't never tried Pyramids yet and am hopeful. Though if I'm honest with myself I could probably just stick with D'Addario EXLs and be done with it - I realized this after some years of not buying them, playing them on my new T386 (my previous semi had Bebop 11s on it). Wow, those sound really fine, nothing wrong with them, was my spontaneous reaction. Bear in mind, I think the T386 is incredible in itself. Will it sound even better with the Pyramids? We'll see. I'm so happy I took the import route with the Eastman for instance, but it was trouble as Eastman no longer is distributed here. There has to be a balance. My musical level, relative technical incompetence (i.e. fine-tuning guitar setup after some change) and other priorities more mean I can only justify gear experiments up to a certain point. Mixing sets would be taking things a step too far in my case. I do plan to try the new Nickel Bronze D'As, replacing some Bebop 13s on my archtop as I almost never plug it in.

(Silly story but this is how I live these days: Pyramid has no distribution in Switzerland. Thomann will only deliver to Switzerland through DHL, and those guys will ring the bell at odd hours for a postal service, with a strange predilection for unpractical times such as my daughter's napping hours; they did this for the Pyramids, barking dog, waking daughter and angry wife, ensued. All of this for some goddam guitar strings, she said and she had a point, I can only agree that my daughter's nap is more important. When you're single, those considerations don't even exist. Patronizing some obscure custom string wizard with a three-week waiting list is not an issue. So unless the Pyramids make a substantial difference, I may decide they're not worth the trouble.)

[Jabberwocky]

Try Schneider Musik DE, m_d.

Yeah, I'm a singleton so I do not have to balance family domestic harmony with my music pursuits. That said, I understand the odd delivery hours. The doorbell always rings when I am sitting on the throne. When I bolt out of the toilet and get to the door I see the van just pulling away...It is like the deliveryman knows.

Intrigued by those D'add Nickel Bronzes but at $11.99 per set I am sticking with John Pearse Nickel or Bronze but not both in one string set.

[Gabor]

Here are my two cents...

- Two basic things to decide (regardless of manufacturer):
- Flat or rounded
- Heaviness, I mean: (0.011) 0.012, 0.013 or 0.14

I would prefer flatwound, partly because the warmer sound (dull could say a round wound lover), but mainly the flat feeling and ease of slide up and down to a note and _chords_. Besides of this the string noise what a round wound produce is stylish in rock and maybe in acoustic folk, but not in jazz.

I would prefer 0.013 or if you are brave 0.014. (I do not like the mousy whiny cin-cin of the lighter strings (I hear the nooo-s :-). Possibly you do not want to bend notes on an archtop. Except it is almost impossible with 0.014, there is no other backdraw. You will get used to it within days, or worst case 1-2 week, and you will not notice any problem playing on them. You will be praised with much richer and dynamic sound in the higher registers.

What I've tried so far:

Daddario ECG25 Chromes Flat Wound, Light, 12-52
Daddario ECG26 Chromes Flat Wound, Medium, 13-56
Thomastik George Benson GB112 (Flat wound) 12-53
Thomastik George Benson GB114 (Flat wound) 14-56
* Thomastik George Benson GR112 (Round wound) 12-53 *
Thomastik Swing JS113 (Flat wound) 13-53

(The George Bensons are almost double price than any other, approx $40)

I had to throw out the GR112, round wound because I was unable to play on it. My bad of course, I am not stating it is useless, I just sharing my experience.

All Thomastik is great, and I can not discover any significant difference between GB and Swing neither in sound neither in durability. So it's clear that GB does not worth the double price. I've settled with Swing. The only benefit of GB, that it is exist in 0.014 while it seems Swing does not come in 0.014 lately, just in 0.013

And now about Daddario: Similar than Swing, but much more quickly aging and became a _really_ dull boring puffs, especially E, A, D. So although it is slightly cheaper than Swing, the value/price ratio is worst It is worth to add $2-4 and buy a Swing.