American Fingerstyle Guitar

The past few months has had me thinking deep thoughts about a very under appreciated part of playing the guitar-the strings.

Most of us fingerpickers spend hours thinking about guitars, hours investigating and playing guitars in shops, studios, homes, and ultimately investing thousands and thousands of dollars on guitars. In addition, many of us spend time obsessing about our nails, or our pickups and preamps, or if we record in either the studio or at home we probably obsess about microphones, preamps, and A/D converters. The list is endless. But one of the things you don’t here many folks talk about are strings. Even pros.

If they’re a pro they’ll tell to play the string they endorse; that’s part of the agreement, but privately they’ll tell you brand or alloy really don’t matter. Only gauge does-one strings sounds the same as all the others.

I couldn’t disagree more. Strings are the engine of the guitar. To me they are only slightly behind the guitar in importance to the overall sound of any instrument. I’ve endorsed Thomastik-Infeld strings since 1994 because they are the best sounding strings I’ve ever played. And that’s purely subjective. But from 1974-1994 I tried every type of string made for flat-top guitar. I knew instinctively how profound strings were to the sound of the guitar. But if you’re a player, think back to what it’s like when you put new strings on a guitar that haven’t had new strings in way too long. It’s like getting a brand new guitar for under $20.

What a steal. If new strings have that great affect, what happens when you change alloys? There’s 80/20, Phosphor Bronze, White Bronze, Red Bronze, Coated and un-coated strings of all flavors, polished strings, silk and steel, silk and bronze, and probably more. Phosphor bronze probably has about an 80% or higher market share. I HATE them. I find them trashy sounding with no nuance what so ever, and stiff feeling but one of my favorite guitarists sounds wonderful with them, and he doesn’t particularly like the strings I play, but loves the way I sound.

So, my pitch isn’t to make you use Thomastik’s, though I think you should at the very least try them, my pitch is to get you to try all the other strings out there too. If you’ve got the money, spend the next 90 days changing strings about once a week. It makes the most sense to keep the string gauges the same or very similar, but try all the different alloys, and try as many different makers as you can. If you have multiple guitars restrict your initial search to one guitar; try the one that you’re not quite happy with, the one that’s close to being right, but needs a little sonic help.

Take notes. What did you like, not like about each brand. Make special notes about how the string aged over time, did it feel stiffer or looser than another brand, etc. And if you can, record with each different type of string so you have a permanent, and objective sound file for each type of string. When the 90 days is up review your notes, review the sound files and pick your engine. You owe it to yourself and your guitar to find the best-sounding match you can.

Anyone ready to take the leap? To get folks started, I’ll offer a free set of T-I strings to the first 5 folks who commit to trying out at least 8 different string types over 90 days and hitting us all back with the feedback.