The Steel Guitar Forum

Keeping it brief - Cobra Coil. Excellent strings for tone and longevity at a good price.

common sense

Jagwires

On my first two steels, I used the S.I.T strings, and on my Jackson Steel, I'm not sure if they're Jackson Strings, but they are great strings and when I need to change strings, I'll switch to my new set of George L's strings

Soooooo Sid...... what are you trying to say here? . Just kidding, I also use your Live Steel Strings and love them!

Next thing you know, b0b will be complaining about using too much bandwidth with this thread!

George L's. Been using them since they changed from Bill Lawrence to George L's.

I've tried almost all other brands, but I like the George L's the best. I just replenished my stock with a dozen sets each of the E9th and C6th "Nashville" strings.

I'm treating my girl to a full set of E9 and C6 Live Steel strings tonight. I should have done it 3 weeks or so ago. Saturday night, when I was doodling around before a gig, I could hear my 5th string starting to sound real "tinny" and just didn't sound right when played with the 3rd string. I knew that it was going to break. Halfway through the first set, KABOOM!!! Live Steel Strings will break, but you have to be careless (I really wanted to say "stupid") enough to let them go longer than they should. My C6 strings are black from my arm resting on them and by my hand when I am playing that neck. They still sound good enough for the little bit that I play C6 these days. But it will have new ones for this weeks gigs.

I used ONLY Bigsby strings on my quad=Bigsby. Always played and sounded great. Minimal breakage.

What ever Emmons shipped on my 1972 p/p have been really great strings. Always stay in tune and only the G# string breaks..........occasionally.

For replacements I've found Sierra Company's strings to be really great strings for all the playing I do.

For my Ric Bakelites, I use nothing but GIBSON, Spanish guitar strings. They stay in tune; no breakage whatsoever; fabulous sustain........ I wouldn't change for anything.

Frenchy's nickle for me. Although I just ordered some jagwire stainless to check out. I have never used stainless before.

GHS Rollerwound strings. 6 string and Steel guitars.

Jagwire.

Jagwire Russ Hicks E9 - Jagwire C6 John Hughey
Cobra Coils are excellent strings imo
SITs & GHSs are good too
haven't tried Sid's Live Steel strings yet

I use metal strings, they come in a small square plastic or paper envelope.

And Sid..nice post !

GHS and S.I.T's for me. They last long and stay in tune.
The price is low enough for an old man like me to afford.

Ask and tho shall receive.

My SD Mullen had stock pickups, Live Steel sounded best. But with my D-10 Mullen with George L's they sounded terrible, so Cobra Coil is my choice. Type of pickup can make a big difference in string selection.

Jag-Wire.................the best there are.

All Z.B.est.

Bob.

Cobra Coils as My first choice and GHS Boomers as a very close second.
Billy

I alternate between GHS semi-flat wound nickel and their Super Steel strings.

GHS semi-flat wound nickel."pink package" They last a good while and sound good plus they are not that expensive..works for me.

I don't have a large data base of testimonials to what strings OTHER people use, thus cannot compete in the bandwidth sweepstakes, but as the OP's question was what strings do we each use personally this post will be short.

I buy D'Addario singles from local music stores, no sets, no mail order. If the locals don't have the D'Addarios that I need I will buy a few Ernie Balls to get me through the drought.

I'm sure Sid's strings are just over-the-top awesome, but until they can be found in every town I travel through they will not find their way to my guitars. This is not a slam on Sid or anyone else, I'm just happy with what I already have, any further improvements in tone and sustain will have to come from my hands...

Ernie Balls because they're easy to find, they have the wound 6th I like and they sound good on my old Fender..

I can’t really hear much difference between stainless steel strings of different brands, but there’s definitely a difference between stainless steel and nickel.

Just as no 2 people are exactly alike, (twins notwithstanding,) neither are 2 trees. Therefore, no two wood guitars are exactly alike. There will always be slight differences, even in 2 supposedly identical guitars made by the same people.

But the same cannot be said for the Millennium. The carbon fiber bodies all have the same resonance and tonal characteristics. I have 2 of them, with the same pickup in each. Cosmetics aside, they are absolutely identical.

I put Live Strings on both. Nickel on one, stainless steel on the other. I put them on, on the same day, so they were all fresh. I tested them side by side, with no volume pedal, going into the same amp, and compared the tone of the 2 sets if strings.
The inherent properties of the guitars are identical, so the only differences in tone came from the strings.

The differences are subtle, but noticeable. The stainless steel strings sound brighter, with more bite, and more twang. The nickel sound warmer and deeper.

They both really sounded good. I prefer the nickel.

Mike Perlowin wrote:I can’t really hear much difference between stainless steel strings of different brands, but there’s definitely a difference between stainless steel and nickel.

I thot the same until I tried Frenchy's "Silent Wound" strings. Its what you don't hear that's important with those, and you pretty much lose interest in other brands once you don't hear those things. He's got a website.