First world problems - Guitar strings

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JohnnyGtar

JohnnyGtar

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Hey everyone,

I've got $250 in gift cards from Sweetwater and Amazon. While cleaning up my desk, I found an old WalMart Gift Card that I'd forgotten about and it still has 50 bucks left on it. Nice surprise. LOL.

I need your advice: Everly B-52's have been (and still are) my go-to strings for over 20 years and I love 'em. They feature Alloy 52 wrap and they last forever. I haven't bought or played "regular" electric strings for all that time but I'd like to grab some regular nickel plated steel strings to have a different "voice" to play with when the urge strikes. I'm leaning toward D'Addario or Rotosound, but please let me know which brands you like and if you've had recent problems with any brands, I'd like to know that as well.

I use the Floyd Rose tremolos on my guitars A LOT, including crazy pull ups and I play 9-42 but I may go to 8-38 because my hands are old. LOL
 
It doesn't matter. It's all the same now. Get the most sets you can for your money in the gauge you like.
 
japetus said:
It doesn't matter. It's all the same now. Get the most sets you can for your money in the gauge you like.
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In plain old nickel wound strings the differences are definitely subtle, although I definitely FEEL a difference between some and would say for instance D’addarios always seem a little brighter and more lively than Ernie Balls. It really doesn’t matter though as if you’re comparing any of them to a coated string, they’re all going to sound brighter.
 
acceptance said:
Maybe not the fanciest but I think these are overall a good value.
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I used those for many years. I like them better than Ernie Balls but I am a LaBella man now. I never go to music stores cause none of the stuff I use is ever sold there. So all my music store interactions go kinda like this:

 
VonBonfire said:
I used those for many years. I like them better than Ernie Balls but I am a LaBella man now. I never go to music stores cause none of the stuff I use is ever sold there. So all my music store interactions go kinda like this:

Click to expand...

put your guitar in double drop d and cover that blues song on there. Hard time killing floor blues
 
JohnnyGtar said:
Hey everyone,

I've got $250 in gift cards from Sweetwater and Amazon. While cleaning up my desk, I found an old WalMart Gift Card that I'd forgotten about and it still has 50 bucks left on it. Nice surprise. LOL.

I need your advice: Everly B-52's have been (and still are) my go-to strings for over 20 years and I love 'em. They feature Alloy 52 wrap and they last forever. I haven't bought or played "regular" electric strings for all that time but I'd like to grab some regular nickel plated steel strings to have a different "voice" to play with when the urge strikes. I'm leaning toward D'Addario or Rotosound, but please let me know which brands you like and if you've had recent problems with any brands, I'd like to know that as well.

I use the Floyd Rose tremolos on my guitars A LOT, including crazy pull ups and I play 9-42 but I may go to 8-38 because my hands are old. LOL
Click to expand...

I am also a heavy trem player and used D'Addario 9-42 for around 20 years now. Wow, getting old. That being said, I made the swap to Rotosound around 1 or 2 years ago. I keep A/B different variants of strings, and the Rotos sound best. I just did another test a week or two ago against Daddario again, multiple sets.

Rotos seem to let the voice of the guitar come through moreso than the sound of the string, if that makes sense, especially with thinner gauges.

I could not dial out the annoying 'plink' from the high E with Daddarios. I thought that sound was always just the way I set things up, but it was the strings. Went up a gauge and it helped but was still there.

Stringjoy were very cool and interesting sounding but not comfortable on my hands. Almost like a weird hybrid between an acoustic and electric string. Sound like nothing else, but if you do a lot of slides and slippery runs, I would pass on those as well, though overall tonally, they were the most unique. Think of almost a harpsichord as opposed to a piano.

I ended up trying to like 6 different types of strings and gauges and the Rotos came out on top every time.

So yeah, I actually play Roto Yellows now,.as the tension feels pretty similar to Daddario 9-42, but I get a sound I much prefer out of them. Hope this helps!
 
JohnnyGtar said:
Hey everyone,

I've got $250 in gift cards from Sweetwater and Amazon. While cleaning up my desk, I found an old WalMart Gift Card that I'd forgotten about and it still has 50 bucks left on it. Nice surprise. LOL.

I need your advice: Everly B-52's have been (and still are) my go-to strings for over 20 years and I love 'em. They feature Alloy 52 wrap and they last forever. I haven't bought or played "regular" electric strings for all that time but I'd like to grab some regular nickel plated steel strings to have a different "voice" to play with when the urge strikes. I'm leaning toward D'Addario or Rotosound, but please let me know which brands you like and if you've had recent problems with any brands, I'd like to know that as well.

I use the Floyd Rose tremolos on my guitars A LOT, including crazy pull ups and I play 9-42 but I may go to 8-38 because my hands are old. LOL
Click to expand...
Paul Gilbert is playing. 08s
 
Bardagh said:
In plain old nickel wound strings the differences are definitely subtle, although I definitely FEEL a difference between some and would say for instance D’addarios always seem a little brighter and more lively than Ernie Balls. It really doesn’t matter though as if you’re comparing any of them to a coated string, they’re all going to sound brighter.
Click to expand...
The Everly B-52's aren't coated. They last a long time due to their wrap material which is Alloy 52, a mix of nickel and iron. Everly also makes Cleartone, which are coated.
 
JohnnyGtar said:
The Everly B-52's aren't coated. They last a long time due to their wrap material which is Alloy 52, a mix of nickel and iron. Everly also makes Cleartone, which are coated.
Click to expand...
Oh, interesting. I haven’t heard of these, how do they sound compared to the usual nickelwounds?
 
Bardagh said:
Oh, interesting. I haven’t heard of these, how do they sound compared to the usual nickelwounds?
Click to expand...

If regular strings are Fender amps, Everly B-52's are Marshalls. Both sound beautiful clean, but they're different. That's the best way I can describe it. The "Alloy 52" wrap has more magnetic content which translates to stronger output from what I understand.

Quote from Everly: 52% iron mixed with 48% nickel is the formula for Alloy-52. This magnetically active alloy makes for an extremely durable, highly responsive string, with awesome resonance characteristics. It resists tarnish up to 3 times over its nickel-plated steel predecessor and delivers more sustain and overtones. Alloy-52 is a mysterious metallic substance found in the desert just outside Pahrump, Nevada. We think it probably fell from space.

Rotosound YouTube video on their UltraMag Alloy 52 strings:
 
I use a d'addario NYXL and an Ernie Ball RPS on a Floyd equipped guitars
 
I wonder, do coated strings reduce fret wear? You'd think that they would since it's not steel or nickel making contact with the frets, at least until the coating wears off.
 
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