New String brand on a Taylor

[Tone77]

Greetings. First post here; I am a longtime casual player who took some time off for family reasons, and just recently getting back into it.

On my Taylor sapele/sitka 314, I have been using Elixir Nanoweb Light strings, which are the OEM, and recommended string. Interestingly, I also tried the HD Lights, but did not like them; I could feel the increased tension on the soundboard, and while they were perhaps more even sounding, overall I liked the regular Elixir lights better.

Recently, I tried a set of John Pearse. These strings are musical and feel ok, BUT: My guitar doesn't sound like "my" guitar anymore. With Elixirs, the low end has a round, warm, focused sound; the Pearse bottom end is bigger, but less defined, and a bit more thumpy. The highs on the Elixers have a brilliance and clarity to them that I'm not quite hearing with the Pearse.

This has me wondering: Am I hearing the string, or the guitar? In other words, how much of the sound is the string, and how much is the string paired with the guitar? Does Taylor design the response of their guitars to pair well with Elixers in particular? Or is it simply that I prefer the sound of the Elixirs?

[BT55]

Personally I prefer JP string over Elixir’s on my Taylors but everyone has their own opinions.

[Tnfiddler]

I like JP PB and GHS LJ Signature Bronze strings on my Taylors MUCH better than Elixirs! More warmth and clarity from both brands over The elixirs. Elixirs made my Koa GS too Bright.

[DetroitDave]

I've been using D'Addario on my Taylors since the guitar tech at our local shop recommended them.
I've tried others, but I always come back to the Phosphor bronze. To my ears, they make the Taylors sound like they should.

[The Growler]

It's often a good idea to try something new and see how it goes.

Welcome to the AGF!

[Wade Hampton]

Tone77, the choice and recommendation of one string brand over another on a manufacturer’s guitars has everything to do with business agreements and relatively little to do with the sound. By putting a hang tag recommending Elixir strings on their guitars, Taylor gets a substantial price reduction from Elixir on the strings they get in bulk.

Coated strings have a practical advantage for guitars that are going to be hanging on the wall at a retail music store, because they’re much more resistant to being killed by string killer skin chemistry than uncoated strings are. Elixir, of course, is the company that invented the entire category of coated strings, and continue to dominate that portion of the market.

And many players genuinely love their sound, so there’s plenty to recommend them.

But there’s an entire world of other string choices out there for you to try. You might end up deciding that you like Elixirs best of all, but you might also find that you like the sound of some other brand and alloy better. This is something you can’t really know until you’ve tried a bunch of other strings and compared them.

Whenever I get an instrument that’s new to me I go through an R&D period where I try several different alloys in quick succession, leaving each test set on the guitar only briefly so that each set still sounds its best when I put the next set on.

If you leave them on until they’re good and dead, or even only half-dead, whatever you put on next will sound better, so for the sake of getting accurate comparisons I never leave these R&D tests on for more than a week, and usually more like four or five days.

Obviously, I don’t get my “money’s worth” out of each set, if “money’s worth” is defined as getting every possible day of use out of each set of strings. But to my mind sacrificing those strings during this testing process pays off in terms of long term performance, since it lets me figure out what works best on that particular instrument.

As it happens, I’m an artist endorser for John Pearse strings and accessories. You didn’t mention which alloy of John Pearse strings you used, but given your description of the sound and the fact that they’re more widely available, I’m going to guess that you tried the John Pearse phosphor bronze strings.

Which happens to be the set I used on the cedar top Taylor 714 I owned for a while.

What I would recommend you try next is a set of the John Pearse 80/20 bronze. It might seem counterintuitive, but the more pronounced treble response of the 80/20’s often makes the bass response seem more prominent on some guitars, because they give the bass strings better definition.

Anyway, the larger point I’m trying to make is that neither you nor anyone else is in any way obligated to use the manufacturer recommendations when it comes to strings. Those recommendations are simply the result of business agreements; it’s not as though the upper level guitar company employees with the best ears hold “listening panels” with their guitars strung with different brands of strings to determine which sound the best.

That simply never happens, however fervently some guitarists might want to believe that. The process is more like: “Which brand of strings will last the longest in the showrooms and what kind of price break will they give us if we put a hang tag recommending their strings on every guitar?”

Seriously, guitar company string brand recommendations have far more to do with business considerations than anything else.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[drawshot1975]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Tone77, the choice and recommendation of one string brand over another on a manufacturer’s guitars has everything to do with business agreements and relatively little to do with the sound. By putting a hang tag recommending Elixir strings on their guitars, Taylor gets a substantial price reduction from Elixir on the strings they get in bulk.

Coated strings have a practical advantage for guitars that are going to be hanging on the wall at a retail music store, because they’re much more resistant to being killed by string killer skin chemistry than uncoated strings are. Elixir, of course, is the company that invented the entire category of coated strings, and continue to dominate that portion of the market.

And many players genuinely love their sound, so there’s plenty to recommend them.

But there’s an entire world of other string choices out there for you to try. You might end up deciding that you like Elixirs best of all, but you might also find that you like the sound of some other brand and alloy better. This is something you can’t really know until you’ve tried a bunch of other strings and compared them.

Whenever I get an instrument that’s new to me I go through an R&D period where I try several different alloys in quick succession, leaving each test set on the guitar only briefly so that each set still sounds its best when I put the next set on.

If you leave them on until they’re good and dead, or even only half-dead, whatever you put on next will sound better, so for the sake of getting accurate comparisons I never leave these R&D tests on for more than a week, and usually more like four or five days.

Obviously, I don’t get my “money’s worth” out of each set, if “money’s worth” is defined as getting every possible day of use out of each set of strings. But to my mind sacrificing those strings during this testing process pays off in terms of long term performance, since it lets me figure out what works best on that particular instrument.

As it happens, I’m an artist endorser for John Pearse strings and accessories. You didn’t mention which alloy of John Pearse strings you used, but given your description of the sound and the fact that they’re more widely available, I’m going to guess that you tried the John Pearse phosphor bronze strings.

Which happens to be the set I used on the cedar top Taylor 714 I owned for a while.

What I would recommend you try next is a set of the John Pearse 80/20 bronze. It might seem counterintuitive, but the more pronounced treble response of the 80/20’s often makes the bass response seem more prominent on some guitars, because they give the bass strings better definition.

Anyway, the larger point I’m trying to make is that neither you nor anyone else is in any way obligated to use the manufacturer recommendations when it comes to strings. Those recommendations are simply the result of business agreements; it’s not as though the upper level guitar company employees with the best ears hold “listening panels” with their guitars strung with different brands of strings to determine which sound the best.

That simply never happens, however fervently some guitarists might want to believe that. The process is more like: “Which brand of strings will last the longest in the showrooms and what kind of price break will they give us if we put a hang tag recommending their strings on every guitar?”

Seriously, guitar company string brand recommendations have far more to do with business considerations than anything else.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

Will you adopt me, please?

[Wade Hampton]

After I prattled on about how guitar manufacturers tend to choose the strings they use on their guitars for business rather than tonal reasons, drawshot wrote:

Originally Posted by drawshot1975

Will you adopt me, please?

Draw, I’m sure you’re an adorable guy and would look great in our Christmas card photos, but my wife and I have enough on our plates with our biological children. I’m equally sure that you’re better-looking than any of us, but I have to turn you down.

Thanks for asking, though!


Wade Hampton Miller

[MikeBmusic]

Originally Posted by Tone77

Am I hearing the string, or the guitar? In other words, how much of the sound is the string, and how much is the string paired with the guitar? … Or is it simply that I prefer the sound of the Elixirs?

Welcome to the AGF!

The sound is: guitar + strings + the player. What you prefer for the sound is totally your brain + your ears.

[PorkPieGuy]

When I had my Takamine set up, I told the guy that I wanted a set of Elixir lights put on it.

When I looked at my guitar after set-up, I told the guy I wanted Elixir strings. The ones he put on were copper-looking. He said he put on a set of Phospher Bronze (PB). One strum is all it took. I've been using them on both of my guitars ever since. They are a little "warmer" sounding than the normal 80/20. You might like them!

[bls82261]

The sound is: guitar + strings + the player. What you prefer for the sound is totally your brain + your ears.[/QUOTE]

Yepper, and I would add pick to the equation (assuming you use one).

[SprintBob]

It’s an inexpensive and fun science project to play different string manufacturers with your guitar and explore the differences. For my Taylors, I like Thomastik Infeld Plectrums the best but have also had good results with DR Rares and Sunbeams, Martin Retro’s, and Santa Cruz Lo Tension Parabolics. The TI and SC strings are more expensive but I have consistently gotten at least 3-4 months playing life out of them. The Martin Retros if you like them are inexpensive and will also give you long playing time.

Have fun.

[sabatini]

Larrivee guitars have, over the years, come from the factory strung with various brands of strings. I don't know the complete history but know they used Cleartone for a while and now use D'Addario. These string changes were not made because of some design change in the guitars that required different strings.

My guitar teacher, a skilled blues player with years of performance and teaching experience, told me he uses DR Dragon Skin PB 12s on all of his guitars so, like a good lemming, I ordered four sets and installed one set on a guitar. Absolutely hated the sound.
Gave my teacher three sets.

Use what sounds good to you. Unlike Wade, I am too lazy to attempt to find the perfect string for each guitar (and wouldn't recognize optimal tone if it bit me) so I use less discrete criteria: this sounds pretty good to me/can't stand this.

[beninma]

How long has Taylor been using Elixirs?

I went through this experiment on mine and settled back on the Elixirs that Taylor ships.

There may be business reasons but I'm going to guess as Andy Powers is making prototypes he's putting Elixirs on them in the workshop. It only seems natural if they're buying 10s/100s of thousands of sets of Elixirs at rock bottom prices due to volume discount that those would be the strings they'd have around in the workshop and go to. So the guitar could end up being voiced with the Elixirs even if there are business reasons involved too.

I am going to guess it is less about a volume discount though.. any guitar manufacturer is not really concerned with the long term cost of changing strings. They're only paying for one set for the guitar. Elixirs are about 3X as expensive as most other strings. Choosing Elixirs is probably not saving them any money, cause they could get volume discounts on cheaper strings too. I'd be more likely to believe the business reason is that Taylors on the shelf with Elixirs sound better than competitors since the competitors often have dead strings in the store and the Elixirs aren't dead.

My feeling is much like the OPs... the bass is tighter on a Taylor with the Elixirs and the treble is less harsh.

[drawshot1975]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

After I prattled on about how guitar manufacturers tend to choose the strings they use on their guitars for business rather than tonal reasons, drawshot wrote:



Draw, I’m sure you’re an adorable guy and would look great in our Christmas card photos, but my wife and I have enough on our plates with our biological children. I’m equally sure that you’re better-looking than any of us, but I have to turn you down.

Thanks for asking, though!


Wade Hampton Miller

The most gentle rejection in history, right there.

Your post about builders, strings, and the relationship between them was spot-on...much like 99% of your posts on this forum.

The remaining 1%, clearly, is saved for letting me down, gently.

Moving on.....

OP:

I recently slapped a set of Martin Retros on my new 324ce, and they sound incredible. I keep Elixr Nanowebs on my GA Ltd, because they just sound the best on that particular guitar. I have JP Phosphor/Bronze on my GS Mini.

I'm all over the map with the strings I use...and I select what sounds best on the guitar, to me. I put little weight into a builder's "go to" string brand...until I try them for myself and compare them to others.

As others have said...trial and error wins, in this case. You never know, unless you experiment.