Guitar Strings

[Lt. Bob]

their feel is perfect for a string bender ..... you have more control over them ..... I can make very tiny adjustments for expressive bends .......
I don't want slinky .... I want control and tactile feedback. They give enough pushback that I can tell excactly what I'm doing

[Bill L]

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[miroslav]

Maybe I just like slinky.

Not saying you can't do bends and such with the NYXL's...I just prefer the feel of my Curt Mangan strings...the NYXL didn't seem to work in sync with my fingers, where the CMs feel perfect when doing vibrato and bends.

Granted...I've been playing the CM's for a long time now, so it might be just a "getting use to it" kind of thing with the NYXL's

[Lt. Bob]

all these things are a matter of taste.

That's why it's stupid when someone says ALL (insert product here) suck or are awesome.
It's all whatever you're used to.

For example ..... I have a Hot Rod deVille ..... great amp even though you hear it ragged on a lot.
has a good distortion too even though you hear it sucks a lot.

OTOH, I don't care for pauls or single cuts in general even though many consider them the holy grail

Whatever works

[JD01]

I find scale length makes a bigger difference to bending than string gauge. Not sure if the physics supports that.

[miroslav]

So Ernie Ball has a new model out..."Paradigm"...they are offering a 90-day guarantee against breakage, and they claim this the least breakable strings out there.
Here's an article that mentions them and talks about why strings break.

https://reverb.com/news/why-do-guitar-strings-break

[JD01]

I can't remember the last time I broke a string. I can't have even been 20

[muttley]

I find scale length makes a bigger difference to bending than string gauge. Not sure if the physics supports that.

Yes it does to a degree. Thats why you also have a lot of players that use drop tunings on acoustics wanting longer scale length rather than a heavier string.

[muttley]

So Ernie Ball has a new model out..."Paradigm"...they are offering a 90-day guarantee against breakage, and they claim this the least breakable strings out there.
Here's an article that mentions them and talks about why strings break.

https://reverb.com/news/why-do-guitar-strings-break

A lot of that is snake oil. What they refer to as metal fatigue is actually work hardening and it's pretty irrelevant with regard to guitar strings. The most common cause of string breakage is poorly setup nuts, bridges and tuners. How many of you have ever broken a string at any other point? very rarely. Keep your guitar well set up and keep the strings clean and they will lose intonation stability way before they will ever break.

[Greg_L]

A lot of that is snake oil. What they refer to as metal fatigue is actually work hardening and it's pretty irrelevant with regard to guitar strings. The most common cause of string breakage is poorly setup nuts, bridges and tuners. How many of you have ever broken a string at any other point? very rarely. Keep your guitar well set up and keep the strings clean and they will lose intonation stability way before they will ever break.

This ^^^^^


There is something goofy about my Hallmark Mosrite where it sometimes breaks the high E right at the ball end in the vibrato arm if I use it too much. My lame ass solution has been to tin the winds around the ball end with a soldering iron. It's a goofy thing to have to do, but it works. I haven' broken an E string since.

[Lt. Bob]

those Paradigms offer a replacement if they break 90 days after purchase .... that's a no starter for me ..... I buy strings a dozen sets at a time and may not even put one on for 6 months.

My Stinnet breaks strings as soon as they hit the end of life.
It's very strange ..... first the small E suddenly goes extremely out of intonation ..... much more than I've ever seen a guitar do. And suddenly too ..... one gig it's pretty much fine .... the next it's WAY out.

About a week after that ALL the strings start breaking.

Having said that ..... I never break strings on any other git at all and I don't break them on the Stinnett until the strings hit their end of life.

[miroslav]

The most common cause of string breakage is poorly setup nuts, bridges and tuners. How many of you have ever broken a string at any other point?

Oh I agree...90% of my string breaks happen at the bridge...and it's usually on the new guitars, and then I'll lightly smooth out the saddle pocket with some fine paper...and that's kinda the end of it.

Maybe on poor quality strings you get weird break points, but I rarely see them. Even back in the day when I used 09 gauge, and played out all night...it was rare for me to break a string. Back then I was mostly using GHS Boomers. When I switched up to 10 gauge as my standard, I tried a bunch of brands for a couple of years, and then found the Curt Mangan strings and just stayed with them.

[JD01]

I used to string my ibanez with 8s. Never broke a string on that, but then there's no rough saddles or nut slots to worry about with a Floyd Rose and locking nut.

[JD01]

Just bought my first set of NYXLs. They'd better be good, they're twice the price of a pack of Ball's

[Tadpui]

I've been an NYXL convert for about a year or two now. I got 10 sets of them with my telecaster, so I've been using them on everything. 11s on everything except the jazzmaster, on which I use 12s. That bridge and trem system loves heavy strings.

[JD01]

Ok, had them on a few hours now. They're good. They sound good, they clearly sound different too, had to tweak a couple of things after putting them on which surprised me.

I've come from playing Balls hybrid 9 to 46. My NYXLs are 10 to 46 and they feel much lighter on the bottom, they feel easier to bend. Conversely they feel under much more tension on the G B and E. once I'd stretched them in tuning stability seems very good indeed,

[Roman]

I can see the NYXLs getting a lot of love here.

Me im a long time d'dadarrio user but the normal XLs.

I got turned on to the new ones about a year ago. Used lots of sets on different guitars.
A personal daily player has had a set of them on
it since last year.
They last, I'll give em that. Theyre good strings, that's a fact.

Are they double good over the standard XLs to justify the price?

Nope.
My supply is used up and I went back to XLs

For me they've been tried and true for 30 some years now.
Good enough for me.

[Lt. Bob]

well, they last twice as long so they don't really cost that much more but it's all what you like.

[Roman]

And an excellent ambassador you are.

[Lt. Bob]

well, it's actually pretty rare that I like a product enough to recommend it.

In general, TBH, I don't think it matters that much which guitar/strings/amp/pedal you use.

People tend to make anything they use sound approximately the same.

I remember saying at HR, many years ago, that I simply grabbed whatever guitar and amp that was closest to the door when I went to gig.
I got several responses along the lines of "NO professional would do that"
lol ...... I'm as professional as it gets and I don't really care that much what gear I use.

I do really like the NYXLs but I'm out right now so I'm throwing some Slinky's on there ...... doesn't matter ..... it's just strings.