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  #1  
Old 06-09-2019, 08:23 AM
iSoft iSoft is offline
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Default Acoustic strings shootout video

Hello guys,

I've just finished a video comparing 15 phosphor/bronze acoustic guitar strings.
God it's been painful and long to arrange the video and change all those strings, but think it's pretty helpful
Let me know what you think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5EM6-0Ir4k
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  #2  
Old 06-09-2019, 09:00 AM
JBCROTTY JBCROTTY is offline
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Dude - nice work. That took some time and effort. Probably the most comprehensive string comparison I have seen.

What it taught me is that sitting in front of the guitar I cannot really discern significant differences between string brands when listening. I think the differences are more pronounced for the player than the audience. However, my ear is not very sophisticated in these matters.

That took a lot of work - you did a nice job.
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Old 06-09-2019, 09:20 AM
boneuphtoner boneuphtoner is offline
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Fantastic work - I could hear the differences in coated/uncoated but the differences between those groups seemed subtle to my ear.

As someone who hasn’t spent a ton of time on comparing strings this was immensely helpful - thanks so much!!!
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Old 06-09-2019, 11:15 AM
jaymarsch jaymarsch is offline
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Interesting and I appreciate the time you took to play with a variety of styles with pick, nails and bare fingers.

The easiest difference to hear is the coated vs uncoated. To my ears, I liked the Martin SPs, the GHS, and the John Pearse. Those are the brands that I use the most and what I am most used to hearing so familiarity and perhaps confirmation bias could be in play.

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Old 06-09-2019, 11:35 AM
baw3 baw3 is offline
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Thanks for putting the time in on that. It must have taken a little while to change all those strings. If I had to pick my favorites I'd have to say the Martins and the D'addarios. Thanks for doing this.
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  #6  
Old 06-09-2019, 12:19 PM
NoodleFingers NoodleFingers is offline
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Nice to see Ernie Ball Paradigms finally getting some love!

Their longevity is at least as good as any other sting I've ever used--including Elixirs--but without any feel or sound of a coated string. I wish they were cheaper than Elixirs, but they typically cost the same.
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Old 06-09-2019, 12:56 PM
vindibona1 vindibona1 is offline
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What a great demonstration. Thanks. BTW... The 224ce-K is one of my favorite Taylor guitars. Not only beautiful looking but beautiful sounding. It's one of those hidden gems in the Taylor line that sounds better than the (Taylor level) price.

As far as strings go,(surprisingly) my far and away favorite in all examples were the Gibson Masterbuilt strings. I felt that none of the others had the depth that these did. Without having to listen to all the examples to compare (or do, if you won't take my word for it), when the video switches from the Masterbuilts to the J-200's you can immediately hear the sound thin out (in comparison, of course). I'm not a fan of "boomy" bass, but the bass has to support the "stack" of notes in each chord.

I wanted to try something fun that seems a bit crazy, but in the first segment with the individual chord/strum, I went back and slowed the recording down to 50%, then 25%. While one typically doesn't listen at reduced speed to analyze sound, I found it quite interesting to listen to the distortion and beats and sustain that I could hear as the notes began to decay. And while we will never hear the weirdness at full speed, I thought to some degree it was telling. Again, the Masterbuilts tended to hold the tonal integrity longer than the others. Also, I noted that with many of the sets, the D maintained a prominence throughout the decay. While the slow speed playback isn't the arbiter of whether one should like a particular set or not, I still found it very telling.

I'm placing a good size string order tomorrow and will probably include a couple sets of the Masterbuilts... Until today they weren't even on my radar.
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Old 06-09-2019, 01:14 PM
rokdog49 rokdog49 is offline
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Many thanks for doing this. Excellent stuff!
I too found the Gibson Masterbuilts quite surprising.
On the other hand, I favor the Masterbuilt 80-20's over everything on my J45.
His choice of the GHS did not surprise me. I will say like the OP, my experience with them was they are tougher to play than many brands.
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  #9  
Old 06-09-2019, 03:18 PM
iSoft iSoft is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JBCROTTY View Post
Dude - nice work. That took some time and effort. Probably the most comprehensive string comparison I have seen.

What it taught me is that sitting in front of the guitar I cannot really discern significant differences between string brands when listening. I think the differences are more pronounced for the player than the audience. However, my ear is not very sophisticated in these matters.

That took a lot of work - you did a nice job.
Thanks really much for the comment
It indeed is more relevant for the player than the rest, and it is hard to capture those nuances on a video, but i did the bast to capture to most of them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by boneuphtoner View Post
Fantastic work - I could hear the differences in coated/uncoated but the differences between those groups seemed subtle to my ear.

As someone who hasn’t spent a ton of time on comparing strings this was immensely helpful - thanks so much!!!
Thank you for the comment It's indeed is pretty subtle and easier to catch when you're playing them than watching a video.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NoodleFingers View Post
Nice to see Ernie Ball Paradigms finally getting some love!

Their longevity is at least as good as any other sting I've ever used--including Elixirs--but without any feel or sound of a coated string. I wish they were cheaper than Elixirs, but they typically cost the same.
Indeed that really had a nice projection and definition, really great strings !
Can't hide i felt in love with the Martin SP (blue), way more than any other but the longevity is still an unknown to me now, will give them another try to see if i keep those or go with the Paradigm which were my 2nd favorites regarding their longevity and tone.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vindibona1 View Post
What a great demonstration. Thanks. BTW... The 224ce-K is one of my favorite Taylor guitars. Not only beautiful looking but beautiful sounding. It's one of those hidden gems in the Taylor line that sounds better than the (Taylor level) price.

As far as strings go,(surprisingly) my far and away favorite in all examples were the Gibson Masterbuilt strings. I felt that none of the others had the depth that these did. Without having to listen to all the examples to compare (or do, if you won't take my word for it), when the video switches from the Masterbuilts to the J-200's you can immediately hear the sound thin out (in comparison, of course). I'm not a fan of "boomy" bass, but the bass has to support the "stack" of notes in each chord.

I wanted to try something fun that seems a bit crazy, but in the first segment with the individual chord/strum, I went back and slowed the recording down to 50%, then 25%. While one typically doesn't listen at reduced speed to analyze sound, I found it quite interesting to listen to the distortion and beats and sustain that I could hear as the notes began to decay. And while we will never hear the weirdness at full speed, I thought to some degree it was telling. Again, the Masterbuilts tended to hold the tonal integrity longer than the others. Also, I noted that with many of the sets, the D maintained a prominence throughout the decay. While the slow speed playback isn't the arbiter of whether one should like a particular set or not, I still found it very telling.

I'm placing a good size string order tomorrow and will probably include a couple sets of the Masterbuilts... Until today they weren't even on my radar.
Thanks for the comment
I also really liked the Gibson MB, totally in my top 5 (3rd or 4th place i'd say), well balanced, nice projection and volume and very resonant.
Interesting the way you listened this ! I'll give it try slowing the vid speed to hear nuances i couldn't hear at normal speed, thanks for the tip !

Quote:
Originally Posted by rokdog49 View Post
Many thanks for doing this. Excellent stuff!
I too found the Gibson Masterbuilts quite surprising.
On the other hand, I favor the Masterbuilt 80-20's over everything on my J45.
His choice of the GHS did not surprise me. I will say like the OP, my experience with them was they are tougher to play than many brands.
Thanks for the comment too
I tend to use 80-20 also on jumbo/dreadnought or shorter scale guitars, but definitely not on Taylor guitars + those who have Koa Tops like this one, this is really harsh ! (at least to my ears)
If the video is loved on youtube, i'll do the same with 80/20 strings
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  #10  
Old 06-09-2019, 03:25 PM
boneuphtoner boneuphtoner is offline
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The standouts for me were the John Pearse, GHS, Ernie ball earthwood, and the D’Addario EJs (I know you didn’t like them but just going by what I heard). Big difference in the coated strings, but I agree that the paradigm were the best
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  #11  
Old 06-09-2019, 03:51 PM
mikef mikef is offline
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Nice job! Thanks for doing this, you spent a lot of time on it. My favorites were the Martin, Gibson and John Pearse. I've never been a real fan of coated strings.
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Old 06-09-2019, 11:20 PM
CylinderBear CylinderBear is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iSoft View Post
Hello guys,

I've just finished a video comparing 15 phosphor/bronze acoustic guitar strings.
God it's been painful and long to arrange the video and change all those strings, but think it's pretty helpful
Let me know what you think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5EM6-0Ir4k
Excellent stuff! Different strings do make a huge difference!

I can hear that some are better in the high end, some are deeper sounding, some with more zing.. wow huge difference.
Thanks a lot!
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Old 06-10-2019, 02:10 AM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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Congrats on your studied review.

I'm surprised that you think that light gauge are the most popular as many of us play dreadnoughts with mediums.

Your guitar is, I understand all koa, which is an unusual build factor.
I would have chosen a sitka/mahogany guitar myself, and as I am a Collings user, which I consider them the most balanced.

I listened (blind) to your hard strumming part, observing tat there was some overplaying there, (as one would expect on light guage strings.
Hardly any difference discernible apart from the familiar dullness of Elixir, and other coated sets.

My own recent tests on Hog and rose Collings dreads tell me that JP are warmer (favoured by many on the Collings forum) D'addario clean, clear and "neutral" and Martin SPs -a little thin/trebly
(which for Martin tonality is probably good.

Rotosounds are good but feel a little rough initially

I like dunlops for Dobro and mandolin as I suspect a slightly higher tension than D'addario - which is a good thing! however Dunlops are getting very difficult to obtain in the UK now - which is a bad thing!"
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Old 06-10-2019, 04:44 AM
Murphy Slaw Murphy Slaw is offline
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What a massive endeavor.
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  #15  
Old 06-10-2019, 05:23 AM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iSoft View Post
Hello guys,

I've just finished a video comparing 15 phosphor/bronze acoustic guitar strings.
God it's been painful and long to arrange the video and change all those strings, but think it's pretty helpful
Let me know what you think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5EM6-0Ir4k
That was very kind of you to go through all the bother.

My observation focused on the point of the cutaway vs the top of the microphone.

When the point of the cutaway was closer to the mic the sound was noticibly bassier/fuller, and as it moved away it was less so.

Other than that it was pretty evenly matched.

I would suggest a guitar stand, locked in place, so that the guitar/mic proximity can not move at all.

It doesn't take much movement on axis to greatly change what the microphone 'hears'.

Best regards,
Howard Emerson
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