Guitar Strings - Eletric and Acoustic Guitar Strings
including the DR, GHS, Ernie Ball Slinky & Daddario,

Electric and Acoustic Guitar Strings For Sale
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Hello. My name is Catfish. Thank you for visiting my page about Gibson Guitars. In my 7 years of working at guitar stores, I probably sold more guitar strings than any other one thing (even picks..lol). And in that time I heard A LOT of stories about which strings were the best and why. And of coarse I have been playing guitar for 18 years so I have a little first hand experience as well. The thing that makes guitar strings hard to evaluate subjectivily is that different brands of guitar strings perform differently for each guitarist. While it's true that certain strings have tonal characteristics that are somewhat different than each other, every person's body chemistry, their ph levels and how much they sweat are going to have an impact on the guitar strings performance. Not so much in initial tonal quality per se, as much as how long the strings will maintain optimal tonal quality, how long they last before they break and in some cases how fast they rust. The real bottom line in guitar strings is this, after all the marketing and hype, you really have to try different brands over the coarse of time and see which ones work best for your individual scenario. The brands that I prefer are DR strings, GHS strings, Ernie Ball Strings and Daddario Strings.

With that being said, here are some of my observations over the years on a personal level when it comes to electric guitar strings. Firstly, I play GHS electric strings with the high E beginning at .12. I play very thick strings in order to get the best tone possible from my guitar (and still being able to physically play it..lol). Most people use .10 or .09 gauage strings although some use .11 or even .08 and of coarse there are many hybrid sets that combine the various gauges of each string from different sets. So for example, I think Zakk Wylde currently has his own GHS set of strings where the high E, B and G strings are all from the .10 gauge set and the bottom D, A and E strings were all from the heavier .12 gauge set to get more bass response. The gauge of strings that you choose will have probably more impact on your tone than the brand.

As far as brand names go for electric guitar strings, here is the order of my preference: DR Strings, GHS Strings, Ernie Ball Strings, Daddarrio Strings followed by anything else that works...lol. DR Strings seem to sound the best for me as well as last the longest. It's really a no brainer to buy them except that they are hard to find in stock it seems for those of us that are too lazy to just order a box of guitar strings online. So when I can't find the .12 DR's in stock, I gravitate towards the GHS. First of all, anything good enough for Zakk and Randy Rhodes immediately qualifies in my book. The GHS are a little brighter than the DR strings or the Ernie Ball and Daddarrio strings as well for that matter. And a lot of people like them for that reason. I think the DRs give me a little more low end which is the only reason I would choose them first but I probably buy GHS more and am also very happy with those strings. The .12 GHS is way cooler for me than the Daddarrio .12 set because it has an unwound third (g string) which is easier to bend and is similar to other smaller gauge strings. The Daddarrio .12 set have a wound third which is perferable a lot of times when your playing jazz and for some hollow and semi hollow body guitars. But when that's all they have, I usually pick up a plain .20 to use as my g string. Ernie Ball strings are probably the most popular guitar strings. In particular the Slinky series has always been popular in my mind because the name somehow seems to imply that the strings are easier to play which of coarse is not true. But nonetheless its great marketing and the strings are pretty good. They don't seem to last as long as DRs or GHS for me but they sound fine and I would choose them over D'addario strings because for some reason Daddarrio strings seem to rust quickly for me. And for some reason they just don't feel as good to me the 3rd and 4th time that I pick up my guitar as say the DR strings do. But realistically I don't find a whole a lot of difference between Daddario and Ernie Ball strings except that I will give Daddario huge props for the enviornmentally sound packaging and the color coded balls at the end of their strings which makes it a lot easier for beginning to intermediate guitar players to keep their strings straight. Again, your milage may vary and I my recommendation really is to not take anyone's word for it but to actually try all the leading brands and pick the one that works best for you. But I would start with the DR strings and then try the GHS to get a baseline. In the end, as long as you have 6 strings, you should be doing fine.

For acoustic guitar guitar strings, I would again recommend the DR but I admittedly don't have the same kind of live experience in the acoustic setting so my acoustic recommendations do come with a grain of salt. However, DR Strings, Martin Marquees, and Dean Markley acoustic guitar strings seem to have the best results for me. Really as long as they are not Gibson acoustic guitar strings or Fender acoustic guitar strings, you should be ok. For some reason, my two favorite guitar companies make the worst guitar strings in my estimation. But as long as they keep makin Strats and Les Pauls, I don't really care. So again, try out different brands and see what works best for you. Start with DR strings to get a good baseline of quality. And always buy the same gauge strings or you will probably have to get your guitar professionally "set up" for it to play correctly as different gauge strings have different tensions which in turn requires the neck of your guitar to be set differently to achieve factory specifications.
The only other advice I will give about guitar strings is too always loosen them when taking your guitar on an airplane or
to high altitudes as the difference in pressure can cause your neck to shift and if the strings are tight, can cause it to break. Hope that helps.

If you would like to buy guitar strings online and not be at the mercy of what's in stock at your local guitar store, I would recommend ordering your strings through either Music123 or Musiciansfriend.com. Both Music123.com and Musiciansfriend.com have a 45 day 100% satisfaction guarantee and a 45 day price guarantee. That means you always get what you want at the best price.

Also, all the links on this page are affiliate links just so everyone knows. That means, if you buy guitar strings or anything else as a result from a link from this page, Dive Bomber gets commission. We would like to thank those who do buy through these links for supporting our upcoming CD release "Pin Ups and Parachutes" .

Electric and Acoustic Guitar Strings from Musiciansfriend.com

I hope this page helps you buy your guitar strings worry free and at the best possible price.

Catfish