Preferred Strings For Maple Guitar?

[FormerFoodie]

A recent post on someone's experience with 80/20's got me to thinking...

I'm a rosewood guy through and through and once I exposed myself to 80/20's, I never turned back. A couple years back, I had the fortune of getting my grubby mitts on a beast of a maple guitar and that has been my go to ever since. I've continued to use 80/20's because that's my default, but wondering what other people might prefer.

For those of you who have experimented with different strings with maple guitars, what say you?

[palsed]

Newtone Masterclass PB goes on my maples.

[virob]

Trying different strings is so simple, it’s worth experimentIng. I like 80/20 on my rosewood guitar and PB on my maple guitar. If I got a new guitar, regardless of what it was made of, the first thing I would do is try different string types.

[jrb715]

The maples I've heard strung with PBs have sounded pretty great.

[Martz911]

+1 for Phosphor Bronze. I used Elixir PB strings on my three Maple Goodalls.

[WiseAxe]

+n for Phos Bronze on the maples. They're bright enough. Got the PB's on 4 maple bodied guitars.

[marc515]

I have been using Thomastik-Infeld Plectrum's on my maple Baby, and really love them.
m

[dodge]

I've been using D'Addario Nickel Bronze on my J-185 very happy with them.

[Rosewood99]

So hard to say because it depends what you are looking for. Rather than ask what strings to use I would ask people what characteristics they think the strings they use have, and then see which of those matches your preferences.

[HFox]

My SCGC Maple/German cutaway LOVE SCGC lite tension strings.

[Brucebubs]

My H&D MJ Custom sounds good with PB's but even better with John Pearse Pure Nickels.
My Guild F-412 sounds excellent with PB's and Nickel Bronze.
My Epiphone EJ-200 punches way above it's weight with DR Sunbeam round-core PB's.

[alien]

My 2 Guild guitars are maple. I like PB on them, usually Martin brand.

[Wade Hampton]

FF, I don't currently own any maple guitars, but have owned several in the past. Most of them I strung with John Pearse phosphor bronze strings, which have a more complex tone and a bit more bass response than the D'Addario phosphors.

Then I tried using John Pearse Pure Nickel strings on the maple Guild jumbo I had, and it was a Road to Damascus experience for me: it was the best possible set of strings for that guitar.

It was kind of like this....

Seriously, it was a true revelation for me. The maple guitars I had were reflective enough that there really was a major difference between the sound when they were strung with phosphors or nickel wound. On one of the guitars I would switch back and forth between using those two alloys, but on the Guild once I started using nickel strings that's all I used after that.

So nickel strings are definitely worth trying. After trying these three brands, what I have found is that the D'Addario nickel-bronze strings have the most treble response, the Pearse Pure Nickels have the most bass response, and tonally the Martin Retro Monels are about halfway between the other two.

Which will sound best on your guitar will depend on your ears, your hands and on the guitar itself.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[jseth]

I've almost always used phosphor bronze strings on my Mark Angus #35, ever since Mark made it for me in 1979...

I did use Elixir 80-20's on it for a few years and liked it a lot. Then had the neck reset and found that, with a lot of saddle height, I didn't like those 80-20's on it anymore...

I usually use Elixir Nanoweb phosphor bronze, but I've used a lot of other brands over the years... I like John Pearse strings, and the Curt Mangan strings I tried were very good, as well.

For what it's worth, I don't like ANY strings on that Angus at first blush... takes a bit of playing time to get them where I want them...

[FormerFoodie]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. At the end of the day, it's all about me experimenting and seeing what resonates with my ears. But I definitely appreciate hearing everyone's experiences.

I think Wade's response takes the cake. He should be a rep for John Pearse Nickels...

Rest assured, I'll be trying both PBs and Nickels shortly. My challenge is that I don't sweat much AND my sweat isn't acidic, so strings tend to last me longer than average. Because of that, there's less of a need for me to constantly change strings.

Thanks again!!!!