Let's talk strings...

I use ernie ball .10 on my short scale and .09 on the longer scale.
I've used many other brands over the years. Most notable the EB and D'addario. I think they both sound great. But the D'addario seem to have something that makes the string less slick and my fingers don't glide as easily as they do with the EB. I have never noticed a significant difference in the life of the strings sound-wise. I change strings fairly regularly so maybe they never get to the point of significant degradation.
My Taylor has elixir strings. Can't say enough good abut them. They are pricy though.
 
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D'Addario EXL 10 for 9 years now on electric guitar.

D'Addario Pro Arte for the classical guitar

D'Addario something for acoustic.

Ordered La Bella 760FS for the bass yesterday. First bass string change for me ever. Bass was sounding weird. At the very end of the note dying, last less than half a second, it sounded like it was playing through a fuzz. Kids were on spring break last week. That means they are home while Mom is at work and, what Mom doesn't know won't hurt her. I know a guy that got in huge trouble with his wife, he put wire wheel hubcaps in her dishwasher. They came out great, took no effort. Wife found out, made him buy a new dishwasher. That's why I never tried the boil the bass strings, I know my wife and, she would never use whatever pot I used, again. So, last week, son tried it. The strings sound dead now.

La Bella's gauges are beyond confusing. I have no idea what gauge is on there now, whatever was on it when I bought it. So, I figured medium. I got 760FS.
 
Nothing but D'Addario EXL110 on all guitars. They sound great, last a long time, don't break and can be had for $2.50 a set if you catch a sale.

Win.

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D'Addario all the way. I don't see that ever changing. Been using them exclusively for nearly 30 years. I've tried others, nothing else appeals to me. GHS Boomers are just bloody awful. Can't stand the feel of coated strings at all.

Plus, when I was having an issue with my high E strings popping the ball end, D'Addario went above and beyond to address the situation.

I use 10s now on pretty much all of my guitars. Used 9s forever, but the 10s ended up working better once I got used to them. I have one Strat (somewhere around here) that is always set up for Eb tuning that I use 11s on.
 
Ernie Ball 10s on all of the electrics.

Have tried other brands in short "bursts" but always return to the Ernie Balls. Just find them more comfortable.

I did find an idiot proof way of breaking a D'Addario XL E string (10) a few months back btw. Do a minor third Gilmour-style bend at around the 17-19th fret on a 25.5 inch scale guitar, and the ball end will start unwrapping itself. Didn't actually physically break though, just lost all tension and then snapped when trying to tune it back up.
I could actually reproduce this on 3 different sets in under a month (on 2 different guitars).
 
The cheapest brand name strings I can find. For the last few years, I've used Martin Darcos that I buy from ZZounds for about $2.40/set in bulk.
 
Ernie Ball Super Slinkys (.009). A few years ago I bought a bunch of different brands of strings and put them on my guitars. I couldn't tell the difference so I stuck with EBSSs, which I've been using since the 70s.
 
D'Addario 10's on electrics, John Pearse 13's on acoustics. I have a couple sets of 16's for the dobro if I ever want to use them, but I tend to fret as much as slide on it I usually have it strung with 13's.

I tried Martin 13's on my Yamaha FG300 and hated them. Back to JP's.
 
Mostly GHS Boomers for my electrics. I have tested two sets of Elixir Optiwebs and may be switching to that.
Elixir Nanowebs for my acoustics
D'Adarrio Blues for my Classical
 
Dexter Inferno said:
I did find an idiot proof way of breaking a D'Addario XL E string (10) a few months back btw. Do a minor third Gilmour-style bend at around the 17-19th fret on a 25.5 inch scale guitar, and the ball end will start unwrapping itself. Didn't actually physically break though, just lost all tension and then snapped when trying to tune it back up.
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Holy poo, that happened to me twice lately with my SG and an 11 high e. I think they were both D'adarrios, I blamed the tailpiece.
 
Played Dean Markley 11-52s on everything for a long while, but I'm too lazy to fight with my guitar all the time so now I play Elixir 10-49 on my electrics. I don't really like the elixir strings on my acoustic, for some reason the piezo system sounds shit with them. I really don't know why that would be when they sound fine acoustically.
 
335clone said:
D'Addario 10's on electrics, John Pearse 13's on acoustics. I have a couple sets of 16's for the dobro if I ever want to use them, but I tend to fret as much as slide on it I usually have it strung with 13's.

I tried Martin 13's on my Yamaha FG300 and hated them. Back to JP's.
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I used to use the John Pierce on my acoustics too. I have no problem with them. They always sounded good had a good lifespan and were priced right.
 
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