Strings for Acoustic and Amped Tones
 

What are some good strings for use on a guitar (Eastman AR905 - carved top) that is played both acoustically and amplified?

I am just exiting a multi-year 'classical guitar only' phase so don't have well developed sonic tastes WRT archtop tone. Just looking for suggestions as a place to start my own experiments.

Thanks.

dave

Hi, I'm no expert on archtops (although I have three!)
(d suggest nickel plated mediums (13-56).

EJ22s, or similar.
I've tried the D'add NBs which are fine for acoustic, I don't know if they work for electrics.

Martin Retro Monel MM13 set (13-56) - until LaBella marketed the first flatwound strings circa 1940 monels were the go-to for the pioneering electric guitarists, and if you're looking for Big Band-era tonal vibe in both electric and acoustic mode these would be a good choice...

I've had the best both-mode results with Thomastik BeBops, though the Martin Monels are OK for amplified sound. I've also tried DR Zebras and GHS White Bronze, but for various reasons I return to the Thomastiks.

Context: My play-out guitar is an Eastman 805CE with the stock Kent Armstrong-branded pickup, and that one wears Thomastiks. (Which wear very well.) My '46 Epi Broadway has a repro DeArmond with adjustable pole pieces, so I could probably get away with bronze strings if I wanted to tweak it for electric playing. I think it's wearing Monels right now, and while it's been out of rotation since the pandemic, I recall the Monels sound quite good amplified and decent acoustically, with maybe a tad less bark than bronze.

I use flatwound 11s on my D’Angelico exl-1a. Perfect.

GHS White Bronze work best for me for playing my Godin Kingpin both as an acoustic and an electric.

I have also tried D'Addario Nickel Bronze, but through the P90 pickups these sounded just as unbalanced as regular bronze acoustic strings.
Martin Retro monels were slightly better, but I had to raise the polepieces for the 4 wound strings till they almost touched the strings, lower the pole for the high E as deep as possible, and completely remove the pole screw for the B string, to get balanced volumes.

With the GHS White Bronze ones, much less extreme adjustments were necessary.

Supposedly, DR Zebra strings also work well, but I' ve never tried those myself.