Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Doadman on May 24, 2007, 11:04:34 PM
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I've used Ernie Ball strings for years now and never really felt like changing but a couple of makes are interesting me. One is Optima Gold and the other is Skull strings. Has anybody played these and can comment on what they're like, especially compared with Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys.
Another point is that my guitar has been set up for Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys; if I got the same gauge in either Optima or Skull, would I need the trem reset or would the tension be the same?
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Your guitar might need to be reset up. String tension can vary from brand to brand.
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I find the quality of Ernie Ball strings to be quite low - They rust quickly and break easily whenever I use them.
I stick with D'addario - They're cheaper too.
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I'm with you Noodle, D'addario are amazing quality for the price. I just been trying GHS, but I'm going back to the D'addario's because there just tons better quality
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I'm an Elixir man, they're so worth the little extra you pay for the anti-rust strings. I use them on my Ravelle, I'm going to roadtest some GHS Boomers on my Strat but I always used to be a D'Addario XL user.
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As I've just forked out some money to have my guitar properly setup and you reckon I'd need to alter it again to take the alternative strings, I'm inclined not to bother right now. However, the guy who setup my guitar said he would check it again in about six months so perhaps I could use that opportunity to change strings to an alternative brand. I'm still very interested in the Optima Gold and Skull strings if anyone's tried them. The Elixir sound interesting too.
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I find the quality of Ernie Ball strings to be quite low - They rust quickly and break easily whenever I use them.
I stick with D'addario - They're cheaper too.
+1
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And yeah, Ernie Balls are cr@p from the word go.
Worst strings I ever used were Dean Markleys, the only time I EVER broke a string while tuning up was with a set of shitety DM's on. Avoid at all costs.
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Go for Snake Oil Brand Pure Nickels - esoteric but well worth it.
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You could check out Newtone Strings (http://www.newtonestrings.com/) as well - excellent strings! :)
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i like rotosound...
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i like rotosound...
I use them too, but what attracted me was the free extra E string you get with every packet :lol: :oops:
Bought 5 packs for about £15 on ebay ages ago and I still have 2 packs left. Never snapped on me either.
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If they never break why do you need a spare one? :D
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I think I may be a bit biased in my choice : Feline (made by Picato)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v662/felineguitars/Feline%20strings/stringbanner600px.jpg)
But I chose a brand I really liked to make my strings and would be happy to stand behind.
Had used them for years in the workshop before getting them branded.
They are not unlike D'addarios - they last pretty well
And they're British made!
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I use earnie ball power slinkys on my Tele. Their ok but I fancy a change.
My friend at work has some nice 11's on an epiphone, they feel great to use and have diff coloured ball/ring bits at the end of each string. are these D'addario's as i seem to remember him saying something about them?
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I have been using d'addarios for ages and also find EB's to be pretty useless.
At the moment i am finishing up one of my basses and the client brought me a set of La bella strings for it - they seem very nice so i want to try some guitar ones at some point
I have also had some of Feline's and they where quite nice
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I use earnie ball power slinkys on my Tele. Their ok but I fancy a change.
My friend at work has some nice 11's on an epiphone, they feel great to use and have diff coloured ball/ring bits at the end of each string. are these D'addario's as i seem to remember him saying something about them?
yup try them they are loads better. strings direct have a good deal on their 3D packs.
i like 11's on my paul an 10's on everything else, although, I'm keen to experiment with some bigger gauges soon.
I bought a set of Feline legs 11 and I must say, so far so good.
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I switched to D'addario a while back as I had to borrow a set from a friend (it was 2 days before payday :( ). I'm currently using them on both 6 & 12 string.
M facourite strings are the Rickenbacker compressed roundwound, but theyre hard to get.
I have grown to intensely dislike EB strings (they go dead on me within 2 hours of stringing up on the 12 and 4 hours on the 6 string).
Rob...
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I'm a GHS boomers man, though I'll use Dean Markley Tites and Dadarios if the need arrises.
The boomers sound good to me, corrode slowly and I've only ever broken one. And I tried to. I hit that string pretty bloody hard. Several times. I put a rotosound on it to replace it (a 52), and it broke the next day with normal playing.
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Lots of good ideas but sadly nobody seems to have tried the Optima Gold or Skull strings :( . I'm also getting conflicting advice on the need to reset. So far half the advice I've receieved says I will need the trem reset and half says thaat as long as they're the same guage it won't matter. Very confusing for a non technical person like me :?
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I'm also getting conflicting advice on the need to reset. So far half the advice I've receieved says I will need the trem reset and half says thaat as long as they're the same guage it won't matter. Very confusing for a non technical person like me :?
IMO, it's difficult to predict whether the new set of strings will have the same tension as the old one. Materials, core-to-wrap ratio and core shape might vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
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Lots of good ideas but sadly nobody seems to have tried the Optima Gold or Skull strings :( . I'm also getting conflicting advice on the need to reset. So far half the advice I've receieved says I will need the trem reset and half says thaat as long as they're the same guage it won't matter. Very confusing for a non technical person like me :?
Your trem should be ok, i've switched brands before and had no problems.
It should be level once the strings are in tune. If not raise the tension of the springs inside.
Anyone know the brand Clapton uses? They're supposed to be really good.
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Anyone know the brand Clapton uses? They're supposed to be really good.
Johnny, I think it's gonna take more than the same brand of strings to make you sound like Clapton... PDT_008
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Anyone know the brand Clapton uses? They're supposed to be really good.
Johnny, I think it's gonna take more than the same brand of strings to make you sound like Clapton... PDT_008
:lol: I remember reading something about them once and he was raving about them. I don't like his tone much these days though, that cream reunion, he sounded too weak. Not like the days when he was playing a LP throught two Marshall stacks.
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Clapton uses Ernie Balls - has done for years. I've used EB's for 20 years and love them. 10's on Fenders, 11's on Gibsons. I like the tone, tension and durability. Seems I'm not alone - we sell many more packets of EB's than D'Addario's, Rotosound, etc..
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Clapton uses Ernie Balls - has done for years. I've used EB's for 20 years and love them. 10's on Fenders, 11's on Gibsons. I like the tone, tension and durability. Seems I'm not alone - we sell many more packets of EB's than D'Addario's, Rotosound, etc..
I think most people use Ernie Ball untill they try ANY other brand - I know that whenever I needed any strings I allways got EB then I tried some Rotosound and realised that EB really weren't that great - From then I started comparing and landed on D'addario - Which imo really are the best I've used.
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I've only tried EB, D'addario, Dean Markleys, and feline strings in the same gauge, but here are my thoughts. (I'm not a tone konnnasuuur (if it were gonna be spelt wrong, it were gonna be spelt wrong proper) and my amps not so great so they're mainly based on the life of the string and whether I liked the tone rather than what I thought of the EQ)
EB are below average- not atrocious, but just dissapointing in every area you care to mention, except for the first 5 minutes you play them.
I bought some DMs cos they were on offer, and although they weren't bad... they are the only brand I have ever had A string break on my Tokai. sounded nicer than the EBs, but not by a great deal.
I keep going back to D'addarios because they sound good for Ages: my hands sweat loads. I've never had one break, and I'll typically get a month of reasonable play out a set.
The Feline strings were covered in rust in 2 days... I can't understand This as I've never heard any bad said of them. I'm considering testing d'addarios, SIT, and the other brands mentioned on this page in a group test at some point, and I haven't written them off, as that isn't the norm surely?
WezV, I heard LaBella mentioned somewhere else, where do I get them? I couldn't find them (in the UK at least) when I looked.
EDIT: when I first started I used elixir for A while.... Can't remeber how they sounded, but they certainly lasted ages with no rust, but not 3 months, and they cost 3x as much as d'addarios.
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i like rotosound...
I use them too, but what attracted me was the free extra E string you get with every packet :lol: :oops:
Bought 5 packs for about £15 on ebay ages ago and I still have 2 packs left. Never snapped on me either.
haven't broken a high e in ages, lol.
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The Feline strings were covered in rust in 2 days... I can't understand This as I've never heard any bad said of them.
Hmm - that sounds odd - wonder if you somehow got a duff set
It is true that some people can rust strings faster than others - to do with sweat & body chemistry, but to be duff in 2 days - most odd.
Always worth wiping down strings after use - no matter what your tendency for rusting stuff
Give me a shout and I'll send you another set to try if you wish.
It may be that you don't get on with them for some reason , but I'd hate it to have been down to a dodgy set for some reason
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here is a Feline set on my Tele at the moment(Steve's borrowed it-he's has posted a great track of it in use in the players section in case anyone has not heard it). They sounded and felt great. When I was in the USA recently I took advantage of the rate of exchange and bought loads of sets of strings but I would certainly get more Feline strings-the packaging is the coolest too.
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The Feline strings were covered in rust in 2 days... I can't understand This as I've never heard any bad said of them.
Hmm - that sounds odd - wonder if you somehow got a duff set
It is true that some people can rust strings faster than others - to do with sweat & body chemistry, but to be duff in 2 days - most odd.
Always worth wiping down strings after use - no matter what your tendency for rusting stuff
Give me a shout and I'll send you another set to try if you wish.
It may be that you don't get on with them for some reason , but I'd hate it to have been down to a dodgy set for some reason
Mine on the other hand have lasted just fine! When I run out, I'll definatley be buying some more, the string tension is nice.
(I use Feline 10-52 btw)
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Clapton uses Ernie Balls - has done for years. I've used EB's for 20 years and love them. 10's on Fenders, 11's on Gibsons. I like the tone, tension and durability. Seems I'm not alone - we sell many more packets of EB's than D'Addario's, Rotosound, etc..
The ones I'm thinking of are not EB's, that's probably his name on the back of the pack along with lots of other users for an endorsement deal.
I use EB's too and can't see what wrong with them!
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Lots of good ideas but sadly nobody seems to have tried the Optima Gold or Skull strings :( . I'm also getting conflicting advice on the need to reset. So far half the advice I've receieved says I will need the trem reset and half says thaat as long as they're the same guage it won't matter. Very confusing for a non technical person like me :?
I did use a set of Optima Gold years ago. I bought them at the London Guitar show in 1989 for 10 quid! They did last a long time and looked cool.
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uggg, Ernie Balls :rock:, i tried those out once, i don't think i could have more bad things to say about them. Firstly they sound like shitee, even right after you get them stringed up, and tuned perfect. The amount of "after-the-string-up tuning" that i had to do was appalling, maybe it was just the pair i got, i dunno... but something tells me, especially from all of the bad things i have heard other people say about them, that they are bad regardless. Honestly i would go with D'Addario's, but i may have to look into these other brands some others have mentioned.
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Oh yeah EB's are AWFUL for retuning, Can't believe I forgot that.
I usually have to tune the d'addario high E for 3 days on my Tokai, and thats usually fairly small adjustments, to get it stable.
EB's took at least a week, and still didn't hold tune as well.
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I have to be honest and say apart from them going dead on me incredibly quickly, I havn't had any other issues with EB strings.
Apart from my old Hondo LP copy that wouldn't stay in tune back in the days when the local store only stocked EB
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The Feline strings were covered in rust in 2 days... I can't understand This as I've never heard any bad said of them.
Hmm - that sounds odd - wonder if you somehow got a duff set
It is true that some people can rust strings faster than others - to do with sweat & body chemistry, but to be duff in 2 days - most odd.
Always worth wiping down strings after use - no matter what your tendency for rusting stuff
Give me a shout and I'll send you another set to try if you wish.
It may be that you don't get on with them for some reason , but I'd hate it to have been down to a dodgy set for some reason
Mine on the other hand have lasted just fine! When I run out, I'll definatley be buying some more, the string tension is nice.
(I use Feline 10-52 btw)
True about the sweat thing. My fingers don't sweat and my strings typically last at lest two months.
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I'm also getting conflicting advice on the need to reset. So far half the advice I've receieved says I will need the trem reset and half says thaat as long as they're the same guage it won't matter. Very confusing for a non technical person like me :?
The truth of that is, no-one can give you a yes/no answer - trems are very sensitive things and no two guitars are exactly the same. If you buy the same gauge you'll probably be fine, it certainly won't make a huge difference. If you find the back of the bridge sits a bit higher or lower after changing strings, the spring claw screws will just need a tiny tweak.
In defence of Ernie Balls, I normally use D'Addarios but if anyone out there has a Kahler trem, EB RPS are the only "reinforced" strings that don't break after about 5 minutes (wonder what Kerry King uses?).
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d'addrio and DR hi voltage for me.......i have tried practically every string out there and these two came out top for me
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Someone told me yesterday that EBs and D'addario are made in the same factory-I have no idea whether this is true-perhaps some of you would know.
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wonder what Kerry King uses?
Dunlop 10-46s apparently
see for your self here... http://www.coastmusic.com/pdfs/news/2006/Kerry_King_Signs_on_with_Dunlop_Strings.pdf
http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page=products/strings&cat=5
:twisted:
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Dunlop 10-46s apparently
see for your self here...
I wonder if the plain strings are reinforced? Whenever I tried regular strings with the Kahler, it was tune up - touch trem bar - snap! The worst were Kahler's own strings, the high E broke before it was even in tune.
Then again, perhaps string technology has improved in the last 20 years...
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Oh yeah EB's are AWFUL for retuning, Can't believe I forgot that.
I usually have to tune the d'addario high E for 3 days on my Tokai, and thats usually fairly small adjustments, to get it stable.
EB's took at least a week, and still didn't hold tune as well.
Sounds like you aren't stretching your strings properly when you fit them. I'll happily put a new set of EB's on and gig them that night. Let the guitar get up to temp at the gig, tune up & check it again before the second set. No probs.
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i've always found Rotosound to make some great strings... I can't abide EB's, they sound dead after the first day to my ears. I love Fender strings, but same problem after a couple of days they mellow out too much. Rotosounds are constantly punchy... Dean Markley are great too but to brittle at first for me.
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I've never had any problems with EB's, but I've never tried any thing else so I've not got anything to compare them to. I think I may try something different next time.
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Another D'addrio user here, very good strings, dunlop strings are pretty good too.
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D'Addario's here too... for lower tuned 6 strings, i tend to use a pack of 7s and take out the middle (.24 i think) string, else it'll just be a set of 9s. I did have an 8 on the top a few times, and i really liked that, so i might pick up a few singles and make something like 8-46. The 8 did seem to snap easier, but i think that might have been down to technique of always playing on 9s.
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I use EB's, I think they are great. If you stretch them properly they have never given me any "awful" tuning issues. I made the switch to EB from Dr strings "hi beam electrics" and never looked back.
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GHS powered 8)
Underrated brand :roll:
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I use nickel Gibson strings on Gibson guitars.
I used to use EB nickelwound strings on Strats, until I made the mistake of going up a size from .011 to .012. Holy cr@p, was the string tension out of sight!
When I switched to DR pure nickel .012s everything went back to normal. I think the EB must have been designed with downtuning in mind or something.