A Guide to Guitar Strings

 

 

Deciding which guitar strings to use for your particular guitar can be a bit confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking for. To begin with, there are many different brands to choose from… Martin, Ernie Ball, LaBella, Augustine, Fender, D’Addario, Elixir, GHS, Guild… and the list goes on.

In addition to this, there are various designs, types, gauges and materials used in the manufacture of guitar strings.

So, where do you begin?

The first thing you need to know is what type of guitar you have.

When you walk into a music shop you’ll typically see a wide selection of guitar strings displayed along the wall. They are usually divided into two distinct groups, or types…

Types:

1. Nylon Strings – designed for Classical and “Flamenco” guitars.
2. Steel Strings – designed for Acoustic and Electric guitars.

Materials:

The materials used in the making of guitar strings are selected on the basis of their intended use…

Classical and Flamenco guitars are plucked with the fingers and originally used “cat gut” for strings. Now they have 3 treble strings which are made of clear mono-filament nylon, and 3 bass strings which have a nylon multi-filament core. The bass strings are commonly wrapped with a silver-plated copper, bronze, or some similar alloy.

Acoustic and Electric guitar strings have a steel core because they are commonly (but not exclusively) strummed or played with a pick.

Acoustic Guitars Strings – are commonly wrapped with bronze, or brass.

Electric Guitars Strings – are usually wrapped with a nickel-plated steel, nickel/iron, stainless steel, or other alloy (copper, bronze, zinc).

Bronze and brass strings have a bright, bell like tone. Phosphor bronze are very bright and have a quick response. However, I have noticed that they tend to loose their bright tone rather quickly.

Gauges:

When you pick up a box of steel strings at the music store you’ll see that they are identified as either…

Light
Medium
Heavy

This designation refers to how thick the strings are in diameter. The specific size for each string is usually provided in inches on the back of the box. When deciding on the gauge of strings to buy you will want to consider three basic things…

1. Volume
2. Tone
3. Playability

Light – are easy to play, but the tonal quality may suffer, resulting in poor volume and/or string buzz.

Heavy – produce more volume, but the string tension makes playability difficult, especially if you’re a beginner.

Medium – fall somewhere in-between, so they can provide a “happy medium” for you.

My suggestion is to steer clear of extra-light gauge strings. They are weird to play and don’t produce a good sound- at least, that has been my experience.

Nylon strings have two main designations…

Normal Tension – easy to play, decent volume and tone.
Hard Tension – harder to play, better tone and volume overall.

Below are the brand-names I personally prefer using on my own guitars…

Elixir on my steel string acoustic guitars:

 

 

 

D’Addario on my nylon string classical guitars:

 

 

 

Fender on my electric guitars:

 

 

 

* Martin, GHS, Earnie Ball, Augustine, La Bella and Guild are other brand-names to consider. Keep in mind when buying strings that you generally do get what you pay for.

Design:

There are 3 basic designs for steel strings…

1. Round-wound:  These produce a broad tonal response and sustain. They sound bright and have rich harmonies.
2. Flat-wound:  These are designed to reduce finger noise. They have a very smooth feel, but have a duller “mid-range” sound and less sustain.
3. Ground-wound:  These strings are the “middle of the road” and attempt to incorporate the features of both the Round-wound and Flat-wound designs.

Final Thoughts:

The Light-Gauge steel strings and Normal Tension nylon are a good choice for beginners in my opinion, but I recommend sticking with a “brand-name ” you recognize to insure better quality, sound performance and to guard against breaking, unraveling, etc.

I hope my tips come in handy the next time you need to get new guitar strings.  Perhaps they will help make your decision a little easier!

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 Learn More:

How to clean your guitar and keep it in good playing condition…

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