Help Finding a Brand of String PICS!

Rick Abbott · Post by **Rick Abbott** » 14 May 2012 2:42 pm

Boy, here's a good one for ya! I bought a Carter U-12 several months back. It is the guitar of my dreams, and my 4th Carter. It came strung as any guitar would and sounded absolutly great. I changed the strings...

So, I emailed the former owner as to the brand of strings; no reply. Seriously, what I put on it is the same as what I liked on every other guitar: GHS Roller Wound. I hate them on this guitar. I've used D' Addario stainless and nickel, GHS Boomers, Ernie Ball nickel and Whatever Carter used to put together their sets. The ones that came on the guitar looked different than any of these, almost a blue-grey color. Could they be S.I.T.'s? I really don't know. They remind me of Dean Markley Blue Steel strings. But I would love to put the same set back on it, the balance between the wound and plain was just perfect! And the low half had nice presence in the B6 mode. Help!

Like I said, they are darker in color than typical nickel, or stainless strings. They don't look like GHS, Ernie Ball, D'Addario or any other brand I've seen. Call it "battleship gray"?

I asked about this in the thread about Nickel vs Stainless and received only an advertisement in reply. So, I started a fresh thread.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 14 May 2012 4:48 pm

Do you have a pic of one of the old ones? Do they have some kind of coating on them? Colored maybe? Some of the guitar strings are available in colors now.

Rick Abbott · Post by **Rick Abbott** » 14 May 2012 5:46 pm

Jerry,

I tried to take a picture but it just wouldn't work. The strings are not coated at all, they're just a slightly blue-gray color compared to other strings. I'll try a few different backgrounds and see if I can post a picture.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 14 May 2012 5:53 pm

Yeah, I don't know if I can be much help but someone else may have an idea. Far as S.I.T's, I don't notice any difference in appearance from Geo. L's, GHS or others. The only difference I see is that wound stainless strings in general have a duller, grayer look compared to the brighter color of nickel. Particularly as they get some age on them.

How about the ball end? Any difference in color or appearance there?

I know what you're going through searching for specific sets. Good luck with that and hope you're able to determine the source.

Rick Abbott · Post by **Rick Abbott** » 15 May 2012 3:09 pm

Maybe they are old stainless strings?

Marc Jenkins · Post by **Marc Jenkins** » 15 May 2012 4:34 pm

Hard to tell, these both look bronze-colored on my monitor.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 15 May 2012 5:38 pm

Hmmm.... the one on the right appears to be nickel. The other could be tarnished stainless but it looks somewhat different from stainless....like really gray or almost green....sorry...still can't offer any help.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 16 May 2012 6:09 am

Is it possible you just like older strings? Not to the point of bad sounds, but just mellowed out a bit. I find brand new strings to be annoying, and I'm not alone in that.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 16 May 2012 7:05 am

One more vote for old stainless. I replace mine when they look like that.

Kevin Mincke · Post by **Kevin Mincke** » 16 May 2012 10:42 am

I know Carter put S.I.T.'s on their guitars and they do have a 12 string set available which are SS.

Maybe it's the Silencers.........?

Rick Abbott · Post by **Rick Abbott** » 16 May 2012 1:54 pm

Now we're getting somewhere...interesting. I did notice the clarity dropped when I put on the nickel strings, they must have been stainless.

Bobby Bowman · Post by **Bobby Bowman** » 16 May 2012 2:10 pm

Kevin,
I thought Carter used Ernie Ball strings. ?????
BB

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 16 May 2012 7:19 pm

It came strung as any guitar would and sounded absolutly great. I changed the strings...

Dumb question, I know...but if it sounded so great - why'd you change the strings???

The moral of the story is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I'll get serious. Try nickel or stainless, and with adjustments in your picking technique or amp settings, one or the other should be a workable solution.

MARK GILES · Post by **MARK GILES** » 16 May 2012 8:42 pm

Carters came with Ernie Ball strings. The color you describe sounds like SIT stainless that I use on my guitars.

Rick Abbott · Post by **Rick Abbott** » 17 May 2012 4:40 am

Well Donny,

When I bought it,the guitar was unused in it's case for a few years, then I played the heck out of it for 4 months and they were sounding deadish...I hate playing them till they break. I like fresh strings, but didn't realize how truly different strings can sound from one another. The GHS Rollerwound sound unfocused and mid-rangey...and I hate changing strings, so I wanted to see if anyone could identify what I took off by sight. I've not seen these strings before.