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  #1  
Old 04-17-2021, 10:27 AM
dwasifar dwasifar is offline
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Default Trying out Sfarzo Alloy 5109 strings

People who followed the Giant String Experiment know I had to wrap it up with two sets left untested. One of them was the Sfarzo Alloy 5109 set. So I put them on the Taylor last night instead.

Greg Sfarzo sent me this set gratis to be included in the Giant Experiment. I asked him if they were substantially different from their Black Diamond product. He said they are different, and he spoke the truth. They are different, and better.

These are very nice strings. I like them a lot. Construction is 100% flawless. They are a tiny bit stiff, but not bad. The tone is excellent right out of the gate; well-balanced and bright but not jangly. The package says these are coated, but I would never have thought so from the feel and playability; they play and sound like uncoated strings. And for some reason they intonate better than some other strings I've used on this guitar. (Although that might have something to do with the fact that I smoothed some slight notches out of the saddle just before putting them on.)

I don't know if the coating is the same kind of thing as on Elixirs. I rather think it isn't, because I don't feel it, and they're priced like uncoated strings. Bargain priced, in fact; $4.99 at Strings and Beyond. I'll see how they hold up, but right now I give them a thumbs up. Definitely worth trying.

Construction: A+
Volume: A
Tone: A
Playability: B+
Flex test: B+
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Old 04-17-2021, 01:49 PM
Rosewood99 Rosewood99 is offline
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Nice review. I have never heard of these but I am intrigued. For that price I may give a set a try. What weight strings were you using? I noticed they had two versions of their light strings. One with a heavier low E string.
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Old 04-17-2021, 01:58 PM
dwasifar dwasifar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paulzoom View Post
Nice review. I have never heard of these but I am intrigued. For that price I may give a set a try. What weight strings were you using? I noticed they had two versions of their light strings. One with a heavier low E string.
These were 13s.
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Old 04-17-2021, 03:53 PM
Tannin Tannin is offline
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Interesting review, and not unexpected. I tried them myself (the 12s rather than the 13s) a few weeks ago, and wrote the following:

Sfarzo Alloy 5109 Light Phosphor Blend

These are made in five gauges: I tried the 12-54 but they also sell 10-48, 11-46, 11-50, and 13-56. Sfarzo claim the use of a "newly developed alloy" rather than the standard phosphor bronze, but they seem to claim this on all their many different strings, even electric ones, so take it with a grain of salt.

I fitted them to a Maton Messiah 808, replacing a set of the factory-standard Elixir Nanoweb PB 12-53s. I generally prefer brass strings to phosphor bronze, and am not all that keen on coated strings, but the Messiah plays so beautifully with the standard Elixir PB strings that I went for the same again for its first restring. Not this time around: the Elixirs are very good but not perfect: to my ear they lack a little something in the bass - call it "presence" - and have a slightly artificial, plasticy ring in the treble. Plus they are quite expensive here because Elixir plays consumer-unfriendly games with different prices in different countries. So I'm trying out alternatives, and first cab off the rank was these Sfarzos.

In one word, they are unusual.

They take a higher tension than most strings. (So maybe they really *are* a different alloy!) In standard pitch they feel like 13s, or like 12s tuned up to F. They are quite stiff under the fingers (which I rather like) and pull the action up a little bit in the same way you'd expect a set of 13s to do.

They are rougher to touch than the Elixirs, but not objectionably so. The coating may well extend the lifespan (too early to say about that) but it doesn't do much for reducing finger noise. On a smoothness scale of 1 (smooth) to 10 (rough), give them 6, and for squeaking under the fingers, 5 out of a possible worst of 10. A good point is that they don't *feel* coated - contrast with the plasticy feel of Elixir Nanowebs.

On first impression they sounded truly awful, but new strings usually sound pretty bad first up. After settling in, they sound bright and a bit tinny. It's quite a good sound in its way but on this guitar they don't work: they just sound shouty and try-hard. If you don't know Matons an 808 Messiah is spruce and rosewood with rich mids and a fine, glassy top end. If you've played a Taylor 714 or 914, you have the general idea. These are clearly the wrong strings for this guitar, and very likely wrong for any other guitar built around that classic rosewood sound.

I think the Sfarzos would go much better on a big dreadnought with lots of bass (something like a D-18), and maybe better again on a jumbo which is in need of a treble boost. (Think a bluegrass sort of sound.)

I have left the bad part to last. The set runs 12-15-25 34-44-54. Yes, that is *15* for the B string, not 16. Possibly there are other brands which do something similar in a standard 12-50-something set, but I have never seen it before. Basically, it's a very bad idea. The B string is under less tension than the strings on either side and it rings false frequently. When I ordered these I just assumed that a set of 12-54 phosphor bronze strings would have sensible in-between gauges. Yep, I didn't read the fine print. My fault. But what were they thinking?

Overall, I'll put these down as a fail. I won't buy them again.

However, given a sensible gauge for the B string, they could work well on the right guitar. I see that the equivalent 13-56 Sfarzo set uses a standard (for mediums) 17 gauge B, and the 11-50 set uses a standard (for 11s) 15. It is only the 12-54 set that has an undersize B string. If you use 11s - better yet if you use 13s on a big, bold dreadnought - and you are looking for snap and cut-through, Sfarzo Phosphor Blends are certainly worth a try. I suspect that they will be a long-lasting string, and at $6.49 USD they aren't expensive. If it comes to that, you could order a set of the 12-54s, plus a single plain 16, throw away the 15, and still only be out $7.24 US for a set.

Often, new strings sound better the second day, so I forced myself to leave them on overnight. In the morning they were somewhat better but still clearly unsatisfactory and they weren't going to improve much from there. I wanted my beautiful guitar back! So they came off after less than 24 hours (I've never done that before!) and I replaced them with Elixirs. Soooo much better.

I've put the Sfarzos to one side and I might order a proper gauge B string and try them on the deadnought one day. Weird B gauge aside, they are perfectly decent strings, I just don't like them.
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Tacoma Thunderhawk baritone, spruce & maple.
Maton SRS60C, cedar & Queensland Maple.
Maton Messiah 808, spruce & rosewood.
Cole Clark Angel 3, Huon Pine & silkwood.
Cole Clark Fat Lady 2 12-string, Bunya & Blackwood.
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  #5  
Old 04-17-2021, 06:20 PM
dwasifar dwasifar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tannin View Post
Interesting review, and not unexpected. I tried them myself (the 12s rather than the 13s) a few weeks ago, and wrote the following:
Well, you certainly went into a lot more detail than I did. You looked at things I didn't even think of. That's probably the most comprehensive string review I've ever seen.

I did in fact put them on a dreadnought, so maybe that's why I like them better than you did.

It's too bad you couldn't have left them on long enough to evaluate the coating.
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  #6  
Old 04-17-2021, 06:48 PM
Tannin Tannin is offline
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We will rely on your report for the coating life, DW.
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Tacoma Thunderhawk baritone, spruce & maple.
Maton SRS60C, cedar & Queensland Maple.
Maton Messiah 808, spruce & rosewood.
Cole Clark Angel 3, Huon Pine & silkwood.
Cole Clark Fat Lady 2 12-string, Bunya & Blackwood.
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