Aluminum Bronze Strings

[Wellington]

Does anyone here use aluminum bronze strings? I bought a variety pack of Earnie Balls and one of them is aluminum bronze which I've never tried.
Any fans of it here? Do they last longer? What do they sound like to you? I won't be getting that one for a few months, so I was curious.

[ohiopicker]

I have used them in the past exclusively on Ovations. They come out of the package looking like they are three months old (lol). They sound quite bright and metallic when they go on, but they “settle in” after a day or so. They project quite well and have some of the overtones I like in a string. They lasted for me about eight weeks or so, which is good. Give ‘em a try, and a couple days to settle in and see what you think!

[CoolerKing]

Originally Posted by Wellington

Does anyone here use aluminum bronze strings? I bought a variety pack of Earnie Balls and one of them is aluminum bronze which I've never tried.
Any fans of it here? Do they last longer? What do they sound like to you? I won't be getting that one for a few months, so I was curious.

I use them on virtually all my guitars. Love them. They sound like PB without the brand new zing, and last a long time for me. Maybe a little Monel woodiness coming through....

[YamahaGuy]

I just bought two (more) sets. One of the loudest if not THE loudest set of strings I've ever put on my guitars--and I have tried well over a dozen different kinds. Bright, loud, cut through the mix. Not prone to breaking. My only gripe is that they will look dirty within a few weeks and are likely to turn your fingertips brownish gray. That aside, I really like them a lot. As much or more than D’Addario Nickel Bronze.

[Wellington]

Hmm, sound interesting, I'm not a fan of bright strings, which is why I don't use 80/20, not on my rosewood anyway. But they sound really unique, I think ill try them on my D40 which is mahogany. The metallic description scares me a little, I really really disliked Monels on my rosewood because of that but I haven't tried them on mahogany yet.
Maybe I'll try the aluminum bronze next on my D40 instead of a few months down the road just to see. I don't hear a lot of talk about them so I'm so uninformed! Thanks everyone for your experiences with them

[EverettWilliams]

Originally Posted by CoolerKing

I use them on virtually all my guitars. Love them. They sound like PB without the brand new zing, and last a long time for me. Maybe a little Monel woodiness coming through....

Same here - I buy three gauges and use them accordingly, very few guitars on which I prefer other things (although Monels are the most likely alternate). I think they’re fantastic.

[steelvibe]

Love the sound. Hate the feel and look [emoji17]

[Mandobart]

I have a set of 13's on my archtop and 11's on my gypsy jazz Sel-Mac copy. These are both loud guitars, made even louder with these aluminum bronze strings.

They have a traditional arch top sound - loud, punchy, twangy. Great for boom-chick, Le pompe, or rockabilly.

[Ralph124C41]

There are quite a few reviews here about these strings.

They are easily the loudest strings I have ever put on one of my guitars. And I mean LOUD! In fact they are so loud they were loud just when I was putting them on and so not up to full tension.

However ... I went to a local acoustic jam (remember when people had them?) and I didn't like the metallic sound. The worst problem, moreover, was that the G string was unbalanced I thought and was much louder than the others ... so loud in fact that when I tried to play a lead the loud string broke my concentration ... which I needed when I attempt to play anything but chords. I even swapped guitars with a player just for the lead (a great Taylor btw).

However Part 2 ... but after I let the strings age in the guitar for a week or two the strings sounded much better and the imbalance with the G string had more or less evened out. Another two weeks, in time for the next jam, the strings were all sounding great. I played the same guitar at the same jam and was complimented by a local luthier,who makes his own brand of guitars, on how well my guitar sounded. My playing certainly hadn't improved ... but the strings had.

Do I recommend them? Yes ... but with the notation that I'd let the strings age a bit to mellow out. But if you are in a situation where you needed that extra bit of volume, I'd certainly recommend a set.

[Shadowfox]

I like them best on Martin. It seems to balance out the bass swamp nature of the lower series.

[mawmow]

They are quite resonant: I love them on some guitars,
like them on some others while some of my guitars banned them !

As usual, you have to make your own taste trials.

[wrench68]

I use them on Yamaha, Seagull, Epiphone, and Takamine. I tried them on a Larrivee, and they don't work there, probably because Larrivees produce native low E tone at 82 Hz. To me, they seem bass-heavy and unbalanced on a Larry. That said, however, Earthwood Phosphor-Bronze sound great on the Larrivee.

Two items of note are their longevity and the difference in tone from the first day. They last about 8 months on everything I use them on. They are super duper bright the first day, then become super warm thereafter. It's a pretty dramatic difference. I also don't think they are the most tolerant to frequent alternate tunings; that seems to make them die a little quicker for me.

I highly recommend them.

[Noff]

I use the EB Aluminum Bronze strings to tone down the 'zingi-ness' of my Martin 0000-1, where standard PB strings are a bit too much for my taste. They are not quite as bright as D'Addario EJ-16, which is my 'standard' string set for most guitars. I have also found that the Aluminum Bronze strings last long - I usually change out EJ-16s after 4, maybe 5 weeks. I regularly get 8 or 9 weeks out of these before I consider breaking a new set out of my string box. These are worth a try. The worst that can happen is that you change strings twice

[biotechmgr]

AB really projects. Have used on a few guitars, now they rest on my Taylor 314ce for better projection with the still newer guitar and sapele side, back.
Will use on D16 if I want to cut through in the band.

[Hollybrook]

I like them on my Yamaha FS830 where they seem to brighten the unwound strings.

Most of my other guitars wear Elixir PB or 80/20s.