What strings to buy?
 

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this forum so I beg forgiveness if at some point I sound funny. I'm beginner guitarist hobbyist (about 9 months of everyday practice) playing steel string acoustic.

I would like to try classic guitar, I'm looking at Cordoba Iberia C5-CE which comes with Savarez Cristal Corum in High Tension 500CJ strings. I'm in particular interested in Rodrigo y Gabriela style and flamenco in general. Are the string suitable for that kind of music or should I order different type of strings?

Hi, and welcome.
Since you just started playing it probably doesn't matter too much, but if you're interested in flamenco, you might want to look around further for a guitar model better suited for that style, rather than one based on a more traditional Spanish classical guitar model.
Have a look here for more info:
Cordoba classical vs. flamenco
As far as strings go, the ones you mentioned are more the classical variety. There are strings available more suited for flamenco, like these:
Savarez flamenco strings
I'm sure there are more. I don't know enough about flamenco strings to recommend any. But the folks at Stringsbymail do. Just send them an inquiry.
Good luck, and enjoy your learning!

Thank you Andre, understanding the differences is exactly where I should start.

Hi HL, welcome aboard. I can't help you much regarding classicals but I would like to say that the two nicest classicals I ever played (with) were both Levins!

hälsningar, och välkomna

Ol'Andy

Thanks for suggestion Silly Moustache but it looks like this kind of instrument is hard to come by.

I did some research and right now eyeing two models - Yamaha NTX1 and Cordoba GK Studio Negra. After listening some sound samples I've notice small buzz on Cordoba but according to the description it is perfectly normal for flamenco guitar.

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Savarez 500CJ can work for that application, but the cristal trebles do have more sustain than a dedicated flamenco string. My thought is they come with those strings since they are very sweet and lyrical, making the guitar sound really nice.
But if you are after the traditional flamenco punch and short sustain, then check out our nifty string filter, (under classical strings) > Full sets > checkmark Flamenco > yields 36 available sets.
Our phone lines and email are open for questions you may have.

Here is the direct link to our flamenco string offering...
https://www.stringsbymail.com/index....by_filter=true

Thanks! I will definitely take a look.

I have a basic Yamaha C40 and play a variety of music, after trying Ernie Ball, Savarez, D'Addario, and now Hannabach strings I found Savarez to be the most spanish or flamenco sounding myself.

D'Addario are really mellow in between Ernie Ball (Which are louder and pure sounding) and Hannabach (Which are louder although more like classical strings).

Best steer clear of the cheaper 'student' strings, they are fine for beginners but found them to have no tone and didn't really enjoy using them too much.

About 18 months I bought an Alhambra 7fc (flamenco) after playing only steel strings for, er, forty something years. Though I don't play flamenco, I write my own material which has iberian/celtic influences.

Back in April, I ordererd three sets of strings to try to compare them. And just yesterday I put the latest set on. This was because I broke the D string. (What I usually find is that the D begins to unwind, shedding bits of metal, and that means it's time to change. In all 5 sets over 18 months. Probably I should aim to change every quarter.)

So, I bought:

Savarez 500AJ
Savarez 520R Classic Guitar Strings
Hannabach 500HT High Tension

The 500AJ were expensive, and pretty clean sounding. The 520R sound is a bit more dirty, maybe more flamenco, certainly has less bass-presence which to my ear makes them to thin, but would leave more room for, eg, a double bass. And the 500HT, which were the cheapest, well difficult to tell them apart from the 500AJ... pretty clean sounding.

I will not buy the 520R again, but I will try the 500AJ and the 500HT.

Cheers... your mileage may vary.

I saw a video on YouTube recently of a classical guitar maker who stated something like, "I only use medium tension strings now after (so-and-so) set me straight." I can find the videos of this luthier but I can't find the one where he makes that statement and I can't remember the guy's name he mentions. I wanted to look up the guy who thinks medium tension strings are the best to find out why!

Any guesses?

I just bought some Hannabach 815-series medium and low tension sets to try out.

I don't know, but it seems to me that "best" is determined by the user.
The D'Add EJ45 medium-tension set (basically) works for me, after trying
many, and I think they're most always worth a try.

Hannabach tend to be on the high-tension side relative to their labeling;
and the trebles from their "super-low" to "high" tension sets are the same,
unless they've recently changed. They have a nice sound, as I recall.