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Anyone here use GHS strings? They are stable but rarely hear about jazz players using them. Years ago they made a Compound Wound set 1800 and 1810. They were really good and the strings that the late great Johnny Gray used on his Barker an Albanus guitar. They stopped making them I am sure demand was low. I am looking at maybe trying a set ot Boomers 12-52 with wound 3rd. They are nickel plated not the pure nickel so maybe nothing special. I would take any thoughts from players who use them.
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06-01-2023 11:48 AM
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I’m into nickel plated. Never played their electric strings but ghs makes high quality strings and sells them at a very low price. I’m sure you’ll like them. If you’re used to flats you might find them bright. Bright is good.
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I have a set on my 69 Telecaster and they are quite bright sounding and not really great for a traditional jazz tone.
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i like boomers a lot. not a fan of their flats.
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I’m the opposite. Some live in beautiful places, but their narcissism is hard to deal with.
Originally Posted by spencer096
;-)
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Tried Precision Flatwounds once, they were ok; not my favourite, though...
Might try them again...
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I use GHS Boomers on every electric I own. For almost 40 years now. If it ain't broke...
If I had a "proper jazz archtop" (I don't at the moment), I might opt for TI's instead, that's what I used on my Broadway when I had it.
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I like their “Bright Flats” a lot on some of my guitars.
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I was a GHS Boomers user exclusively for years until I was introduced to the new Dunlop Heavy Cores.
I've started using those on my main guitars for the Metal band but everything else is still Boomers on all my other guitars.
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I used the Pat Martino set on a suspension bridge I built.
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Ha! I bought a set of those a few years ago just because I like Pat. Then I looked at the gauges.
I still have them, unwrapped. I keep them around just to remind myself to remain humble. It works.
(Custom Light?)
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GHS Pat Martino Lights are my go-to jazz box strings. They feel balanced and I believe that they sound beefier on the high end. That's pretty subjective, though. I was practicing last night and caught myself thinking that they weren't sounding beefy enough, so I tweaked the amp. They're also inexpensive and I have yet to break one, both plusses in my book.
I like GHS Boomers too, but I don't know that I could pick them out of a lineup. The local shop I try to buy from tends to run out of them, for whatever that's worth. Most of their clientele are non-jazzers.
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My Holst came with GHS flats of some sort.
They sounded great.
Not sure what’s on there now but I wouldn’t hesitate to try them again.
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I've used the GHS burnished nickel 10-46 on all my electrics since the late 70's when I was a dealer and have never found anything that I like any better (except maybe Fender 150s). I recently got a set of 11-52 (biggest they make, I think) to try on one of my Teles that I wanted to detune ala Tim Lerch - will try to get them on this weekend. They make a quality product IMHO.
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They're about the only company I know who make (good, affordable) phosphor-bronze wound nylon strings
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I visited the GHS factory years ago and was surprised to learn that they make the strings for many of the high end boutique string companies. There were racks of strings that they were making for others that cost a lot more than anything GHS makes.
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These were also my favorite for my Soloway Gosling (Jim recommended them) but they are discontinued. I bought a few leftover sets from online sellers and don't know what I will use after the run out in a few years
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I used the 1810'a they went from .12, 16 24 30 42 54. The double wound was similiar to half rounds as such but still a completely wound string. for for the bottom 4 strings. Bill Barker would get a set of these from GHS with his own lable on the package. Johnny Gray like them for recording because they gave much more life to guitar than flatwounds but no string noise. These strings were the only ones I used up till the middle of 1990's. Now of course many other strings have came on the market so they may not quite ding like I remember but frankly they lasted a long time and intonated well. Barker like the .30 4th string a bit thinner than many that set but with 2 wraps of winding it made up for it in sound. This also helped intonation as Barker always carved the saddle as a single angle compensation in the tradition of D'angelico and Albanus. I personally find them to be more accurate in intonation that the compensated saddles that seem to be the norm on many guitars. Originally Posted by medblues
These were also my favorite for my Soloway Gosling (Jim recommended them) but they are discontinued. I bought a few leftover sets from online sellers and don't know what I will use after the run out in a few years
GHS is a top notch company for sure. Right now the Thomastiks Bebops are my set. I like them.
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Yes, I began using their Nickel Rockers Rollerwound because they bring out the acoustic quality of my guitar. I don't like rounds for the squeak and since LaBella stopped making their rollerwounds, I searched for an alternative. D'Addario round wounds are quiet but the GHS strings have better acoustic attack on the transients. I do switch brands and types a lot but for a clear acoustic sound on an electric, I do like the Rollerwounds.
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Sorry, but could you explain what that even means (beyond the fact that any sound we hear is by definition acoustic) Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Sure. I have two archtops that, although they've got magnetic pickups on them, are built and hand tuned lighter than a heavier topped Gibson. The response of the guitars are rich and balanced and there's a quality to their attack that's crisp and the notes ring out. When I went about matching strings to them, I didn't personally like a string that I felt dulled the decay of the note-something that I don't really like about flats. Originally Posted by RJVB
Sorry, but could you explain what that even means (beyond the fact that any sound we hear is by definition acoustic)
I play fingerstyle so there's a lot of nuance and acoustic blending of the strings and overtones that these guitars accentuate so I look for a string that brings out these harmonics and the guitar can bring out the decay of the overtones as the notes sustain. It's a quality I associate with a good classical guitar; woody, rich and changing as the note decays. These are qualities of the acoustics of the wood and the air within, so I'm picky about what strings can bring this out of the guitars.
Let me note that there are other guitars I don't string with the GHS, because on those guitars, they're TOO bright and open. But on my Jimmy D'Aquisto, and my own hand built, they bring out the gorgeous piano like quality of the guitar even through an amp.
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I use the Boomers on most of my electric solidbodies; I use their White Bronze strings on my squareneck resonator (with a Lace magnetic pickup), and on my Godin Kingpin (these White Bronze strings work perfectly with magnetic pickups, while keeping a whole lot of "acoustic" character), and I use a set of their nickel strings on my mandolin.
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Ok. I'm sure you'll agree that an electromagnetic PU doesn't pick up the acoustic sound of a guitar unless it's microphonic, but if you think you hear it anyway then who am I to contradict that Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
Funny you refer to classicals and piano-like sound quality. I've noticed that many classical guitar players seem to aim for a piano-like sound, as if that were the holy grail. I prefer my guitars to sound like guitars... plucked not hammered
I probably should give the GHS silk-and-bronze strings a try on my archtop. I also play fingerstyle with what you could call a classical angle and realised before I even got into archtops that I really prefer the sound of "silk-and" strings. GHS don't publish tensions for their strings though, do they?
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What I hear from the amp is a clearity in attack, a decay envelope that is rich in harmonics and a sustain that changes as the the overtones come into play. That, for me is the sound I go for, and it happens to be a sound I associate with the acoustic qualities of an instrument. Of course the pickup doesn't pick up the sound of the "air" coming off the top, but it certainly interacts with the body of a vibrating top and certain strings, unimpeded by extra windings that effect the natural vibrations of the string can, in fact vibrate more freely and accentuate the natural acoustic vibration of the guitar. Originally Posted by RJVB
Ok. I'm sure you'll agree that an electromagnetic PU doesn't pick up the acoustic sound of a guitar unless it's microphonic, but if you think you hear it anyway then who am I to contradict that
For example, even the flatwounds I do like, Dogals, can't make the natural harmonics of a string, and especially artificial harmonics, ring out the way a round wound string even rolled to take off the edges can.
It's these inherent overtones and the overtone signature of a string, a guitar, a clarinet or a trumpet that create the distinctive acoustic sound that allows us to identify an instrument playing the same note.
What I'm saying is that what sound I like in my acoustic guitars is brought out best by a freely vibrating string, and that's what I like. It's the acoustic personality of that instrument imparted by the builder, and realized through the right string, that makes for the sound I like.
I'm sure we like different things. That's what I like, that's what I need, and that was in response to the question on this thread as to the distinctive qualities of GHS strings different people have had experiences with.
As a note, I refer to a pianistic sound as a general descriptor. Just so you know, I'm not expecting my guitar to sound like a Bosendorfer, any more than I might refer to a nasal sound from a pickup and expect it to start dripping during allergy season. It's my impression of a general type of presence of frequency signature. Nothing more.
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
Undoubtedly, it's no secret that an e-guitar is an e-guitar and that I don't get why anyone would have a top-of-the-line carved guitar that is undoubtedly an exquisite acoustic instrument to play it through what's essentially a lo-fi channel.
But we do agree on the fact that strings wound with a round wire sound better than flat-wounds (even if the wire isn't perfectly round anymore).
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