Best sounding acoustic guitar strings?

nickcave

What's the best set of strings for overall tone on acoustic? I had a set of phosphor bronze Martin's and they were great. Lost their brightness after about 5 days but the sound was still good. Nice and thin and clear. I then switched to regular bronze Martin's and they lost brightness even quicker. I don't mind that so much but they've gone completely tonedead. It sounds like I put a pillow in my soundhole. So they're crap. Would it be worth my while buying long-life elixirs or something. Do they sound good even when they've lost their brightness? What's ye're favourite acoustic strings? It'll save me from trying them all...

Creamy Goodness

my favourites are the martin lights in the red pack

nickcave

yeah those are the ones I have now. I used to love them. Maybe the phosphor's just spoiled me. They sound like ass to me now anyway... Love that gauge though...

Eoin Madsen

Elixirs are excellent, any gauge. I've never looked back.

Regular bronze can sound great when being amplified from a piezo pickup, but I've always thought they sounded very dead on their own.

OSiriS

I used martin strings a few times but couldn;t stand them. About 7 or 8 years ago I found D'Addario strings, and haven't used anything else on my accoustic since.

nickcave

I think I'll try a set of elixirs. How are they for grime buildup? Or is that uniform for all strings? When that happens, the tone goes with it... Is there any special soap for this problem?

Myksyk

I went through a whole bunch and now I use Elixir Nanowebs 12s to 53s and they're really great. They actually sound better after a week or so when they've 'settled in'. The coating does come off them after a few weeks buit they still sound great (should do ... they're expensive). Also, they can't be beaten for single note playing, the coating really allows smooth playing. So if you're not Tommy Emmanuel (who changes his strings at least every day), then I can't recommend these highly enough.

nickcave

Whats's the difference between polyweb and nanoweb? do they really last the same length of time? i know nanoweb has a finer coating but would you even notice?

daram

IM an elixirs fan too. On acoustic anyway. Never tried the electric ones.

HusseinSarhan

Elixers are not nice on electrics. Wen I bought them, the coating on the D string stared flaking of after about 2-3 days. Felt OK but didn't sound anybetter than most strings thats for sure. On acoustics they are much better but I still believe they are a false economy just look here. I bought LOADS of ernie ball strings and paid not a penny tax. Shipping was 10euro exactly. Really good value. I reccommend GHS boomers for guitar (or EB slinkys) and for acoustics I'd say that d'darrio are a safe bet (the martins sound good only initally in my opinion) .

Try this:

Cheap strings