Brighter strings.

[Alex]

GHS used to make progressive sets, that were quite bright. They also made a Dave Mustain set, that was 10-52. If its primarily the low strings you want chunky, that might be a good fit.

[Lew]

Got a set of Dunlops today for a change. They're meant to be have a bright tone, we'll see. 11-14-18-28-38-50+68ernie

[Dmoney]

With this thing in Eb I don't plan on playing too much lead and don't really want lighter tension on the unwound strings. It's cool to have a list of things to try but it'll take me a while to get through them.

one LP with 10's, one with 11's, and my Vigir was set up for hybrids (9 to 10's) and I really like how that feels, but that stays in E and I play totally differently on it than on the les pauls.

[Lew]

Well, the Dunlops are definetly brighter than Ernies and have a good tension. Couple of quid cheaper than Ernie too which is nice.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Interesting thread this. I've been using DR Tite Fits and Hi-Beams for a while now but perhaps it's time to experiment with some others. Anyway, I've used loads of strings over the years and here's my experience so far:

Ernie Ball - Sound great but die quickly.
D'Addario - Very solid and cheap string. Good tone for minimal expense.
GHS - I loved the tone of these strings but like Ernie Ball, I found they lost that tone very quickly.
Rotosound - Snapped too easily for me.
Elixir - Good tone and lasted forever but they don't tend to feel as natural.
Thomastik - Great tone and lasted well but not cheap.
Skull - Good tone and lasted well but almost impossible to get hold of.
DR - Great tone and last well though I've found that recently I've been getting more faulty ones.
Dean Markley - Not used these for years but I seem to recall that they were decent strings.

Of the strings mentioned so far in this thread, I'd like to try some Newtones as they seem to get an awful lot of love on this forum so I assume they're really good and don't seem to be hugely expensive. The Dean Markley Blue Steels also sound interesting. Are the nickel plated steel strings and are they roundcore? Anybody tried the Dean Markley Helix HD strings?

[JJretroTONEGOD]

Interesting thread this. I've been using DR Tite Fits and Hi-Beams for a while now but perhaps it's time to experiment with some others. Anyway, I've used loads of strings over the years and here's my experience so far:

Ernie Ball - Sound great but die quickly.
D'Addario - Very solid and cheap string. Good tone for minimal expense.
GHS - I loved the tone of these strings but like Ernie Ball, I found they lost that tone very quickly.
Rotosound - Snapped too easily for me.
Elixir - Good tone and lasted forever but they don't tend to feel as natural.
Thomastik - Great tone and lasted well but not cheap.
Skull - Good tone and lasted well but almost impossible to get hold of.
DR - Great tone and last well though I've found that recently I've been getting more faulty ones.
Dean Markley - Not used these for years but I seem to recall that they were decent strings.

Of the strings mentioned so far in this thread, I'd like to try some Newtones as they seem to get an awful lot of love on this forum so I assume they're really good and don't seem to be hugely expensive. The Dean Markley Blue Steels also sound interesting. Are the nickel plated steel strings and are they roundcore? Anybody tried the Dean Markley Helix HD strings?

I've tried blue steel but not the helix, I personally found dean markely are even better than d'addario and always consistent I think they are the best two brands. The problem is the increasing price in the UK of blue steels and lack of shops that stock them, in america I got 20 sets for $40 in 2005, yet here they are over £7 for ONE set, just ridiculous how much of a rip of it is... but that's another subject.

[pagan7]

Lately I've been experimenting with Ernie Ball Slinky Cobalt strings and have a set of 12 - 56's (described as " not even slinky " ) , on a Painkiller equipped hardtail RG (drop C tuning)   ,and a set ot of 11 - 48's on an Adam Black Orion Custom with Seymour Duncan P Rails (drop D ).
The RG gets the most use and even though the Cobalt strings cost nearly twice as much as the regular slinkys , so far , they have lasted 3 times as long and still haven't lost any of their clarity , brightness or dynamic abilities and sound just as good as they did when first put on and stretched and played in , despite considerable abuse from a metal tipped Dava pick.
I'll be interested to see how long they last with just an occassional wipe over with a lint free cloth and the retunings the recent heatwave has neccessitated , but well worh a try and so far , economical too.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I've recently put some Blue Steels on one of my guitars and so far I'm impressed with the results. I get the impression that they need more initial stretching than DR strings as I seem to have been retuning all the time in the last couple of weeks, though they are now settling down. With DR strings I generally just put them on, retune a couple of times and that's it. When I run out of Tite Fits for my other guitar I may well switch to a standard Dean Markley set as I suspect they'll be good and somewhat cheaper, though Pagan7 has me interested in trying Cobalts now  :shock: I've noticed them before but they are rather expensive at £11.95 compared to standard Dean Markley's at £4.50. I'd be interested to know how you get on with these Cobalt strings. If they end up lasting as long as Elixir strings I would be very interested.

[MDV]

My string experience summary:

DRs: Somehow both dull and thin sounding. Like a high and low pass filter is on the guitar. Moderate strength and life.

Dunlop: I like the tone of the heavycores I've used. Balanced, if a little tailed off in the highs but it seemed to be just enough to have less fizz frequencies. They die so fast it'll make your head spin.
 
EBs: Sound alright when fresh on. Die even faster than dunlops.

GHS: Boomers are boomy. Seem to give out too much low end. Decent life.

Newtone: Used these for ages for the thick core option. Dulled high end, but up to there they're alright. Fantastic life, break more often than you'd hope, not often enough to really care except that you have to wait 2 months for more.

Elixir: Only used them for one band I recorded a while ago, because the guitarists in that band used them. The feel is odd (slippery?), the lifetime is quite astounding, the tone is slightly strange in the high end - not in an unpleasant way, they just lack a bit of metallic bite that I like.

Rotosound: One pack to the next is a gamble and I think they might be made with weak spots intentionally built in they break so often.

Kerly Sinister: Good strings, I'd score them medium-high in every department, and would be happy to use them if the sets I wanted werent out of stock all over the place (while the strings I do use are the most common...)

Daddarrio. Some things just dont need to be $%&#ed with. Daddario make the best strings on the market, imo, in terms of tone and consistency. They also wear better than most and I dont think I've ever broken one. And they're cheap. The SM57 of strings imo.

[witeter]

MDV - I currently use Dunlop Heavy Core 10-48 for drop D and i really dig them; am hoping to try some D'Addario strings at some point, would 10-52 work for a 25.5 scale guitar with drop D?

[GuitarIv]

From my experience you can't beat D'Addario soundwise. Unfortunately they don't last as long as I would like them to so that's why I use Elixirs when not recording, they sound good and are very durable.

Btw anyone has some experience with Cleartone strings?

Witeter: from my experience 10-52 works great for Drop-D although the tension might be a bit too much when on a 25.5 scale guitar. I used to play in Standard-E with Elixir 10-52s and that would hurt my fingers a lot of times, needless to say the clarity and spunk I got was amazing though :P

[Keven]

I've got my paws on cleartones a while back. I have very destructive hands so all i can genuinely use is elixir or else they die after a week. (elixirs last me a month or 2 top... gives you an idea)

the coating on the cleartone is not up to par i think, i test driven one set for a week of teaching and by the 3rd day they were rusted to hell. YMMV but for acid sweat (and i do wipe the fretboard all the friggin time) it's definitely not as good as elixir

the cobalts i was pleasantly surprised with, they didn't rust and lasted very long, however my chemical warfare of a sweat doesn't agree with stainless or other alloys so my hands stung a bit, but definitely up there with elixirs and the tone was pretty beefy for just a set of 9-42 (i usually play with 11-48 and bigger)

[MDV]

MDV - I currently use Dunlop Heavy Core 10-48 for drop D and i really dig them; am hoping to try some D'Addario strings at some point, would 10-52 work for a 25.5 scale guitar with drop D?

Sounds about right.

[witeter]

cheers guys!

[Toe-Knee]

I have been using a set of cobalts for a few months which is a record for me. They sound great but feel odd under my fingers but i adjusted quickly.

Usually I have to change strings every 2-3 weeks because my sweat seems to just eat strings something wicked. The cobalts still sound fresh after a few months of abuse and I haven't had to retune my guitar after the first few days, it has stayed bang on.