Strings. Often one of those things left not thought about. What’s a good price? What gauge do I use again? What did I buy last time? Were they good?

Normal questions all, and in my time in different guitar shops, I have heard all of them. Now with more folks buying online, and with guitar shops still locked down in my province of residence as I write this, there’s probably more confusion than ever, at a time when guitars are selling like hotcake sellers wish their hotcakes sold. Actually we call them pancakes up here, but you get the idea.

Different instruments take different strings and goodness knows that there are lots of choices, from simple steel strings, to fancy composites, to “all natural” (whatever the heck that means) to coated strings made with magic and unicorn spit.

Here’s The Deal

We all, if we spend the time and effort, will find strings that we like best in some cases, and care not a whit in other cases. All is fair in that regard. Let’s focus on acoustic guitars for the moment, given how much time I have spent on acoustics recently.

Many folks will say that uncoated strings sound more pure compared to uncoated strings and for them, that’s probably true. Others, including myself, will prefer the pre mid sixties sound of uncoated Monel strings, particularly on acoustic guitars. Some like the brightness of 80/20 and can live with the rapid falloff of the highs, while others like the more warm tone of phosphor bronze. Taylor Guitars ship all their instruments with the Elixir brand of strings, well known for their coated strings. Martin guitars ship with Martin strings, mostly their Authentic series as of this writing. Other makers ship with different strings, and some come with who knows what.

Different types of strings have different character and indeed different sound. Monel sounds like itself. Phosphor Bronze sounds like 80/20 Bronze after a gig or two. Nickel Bronze sounds like a bridge between Monel and Phosphor Bronze. Coated strings sound like their core strings, and there will be myriad arguments about whether the coating hurts or helps the tone.

The only way to find out what strings that you like best is try different strings on your guitar(s), to see what sounds good to your ear, what strings last better for you, and if your own body’s perspiration is harder on some strings than others.

Why Coated Strings

A coated string is coated with something to help slow the natural aging of metals due to corrosion. Corrosion can come from the environment, and your own sweat can kill strings pretty quickly, or less so. My distant friend JP Cormier says a set of strings might last him two gigs at most. His stated preference is Elixirs. Elixirs also come in different coating types and I do not know which work best for him. All my Taylor guitars came with Elixirs and while I still use Elixirs on a couple of the guitars, for my sweat and my fingers, I do not care for them in general. For me, they get a bit furry. Something in my hands reacts with the coating. This does not make Elixirs bad strings, just not optimal for me.

Monel lasts longer for me than any of the bronze strings, but even then they will go dead faster than a coated string, and while if you only have one guitar at hand, your ear may not recognize a string going dead, most all of us know by touch when a string has lived its days out. I recently reviewed a Recording King 000 series guitar and it would have been a lot better with replacement strings. I had (have) no idea what came on it, but what I received were in the words of Bones McCoy, they’re dead Jim.

So I went on a little project to find coated acoustic strings that I could like and live with. I tried the Paradigms from Ernie Ball and they were pretty good, but didn’t feel good under my fingers. I tried the D’Addario Nickel Bronze and found them okay, but not as good as Monel strings from Martin, and they died out as quickly. My own signature Monel strings from Curt Mangan are still my favourite Monels, especially on smaller body acoustics that I tend to favour. I tried the XT line from D’Addario and found that they lasted well and sounded good, warm on the smaller bodies but a bit thumpy on the jumbos and dreadnoughts. Please understand that this is very subjective stuff and your mileage WILL vary.

The New XS Strings

As regular readers will know, I was stunned and astonished by the sound and playability of the Martin SC-13E that I obtained for evaluation. I’m no fan of laminates in general and am still surprised how good the SC-13E is considering that it’s not a solid wood guitar. It came from the factory with Martin’s Authentic strings of 11 gauge as the guitar has a target market of electric players who would like the faster neck and easy access to the upper fretboard. Some people have said that it lacks bottom end when not plugged in. I can see that, particularly depending on your picking style. Regardless, in short order those factory strings had lost their zing and while they were not showing surface corrosion, they were sounding dull.

About this time, I read, that D’Addario were releasing a new line of acoustic strings that were coated, like the XT family, but with a new thinner coating, to be called the XS line. I’m generally a D’Addario customer because I find their products consistent for my use, and except for my Curt Mangan signature strings, I use D’Addario coated strings as a general go to. For electrics, I like the increased brightness of the NYXL series over the XT series, and I have not been a lover of the XTs for acoustics. So finding them in stock at an online seller (my preferred local shops are locked down due to government rules) I ordered a set of the XS in 11-52 gauge for the Martin SC-13E. At the same time, I ordered a set of Crosby natural bone bridge pins because I personally dislike the deadening effect of plastic bridge pins. I could have gone with Tusq, which I know to be excellent, but bone is also very good, and unless you are getting blown smoke about vintage dinosaur bone bridge pins sprinkled with unicorn pee for $500 a set don’t see the point. Bone has a clear resonance transmission curve, plastic does not.

So changing time. I removed the old strings and put the original pins away somewhere safe to ensure that I will never find them again. I used my preferred fretboard cleaner treatment which is the product from Taylor Guitars and did a quick fret polish (not needed really - just habit), and treated the fretboard. I let that settle for half an hour, and wiped it clean. The nut on the SC-13E is Corian, and so as I always do, used some nut lube to prevent binding and strung up the guitar with the XS strings.

I brought them up to below concert pitch with the winder and then went through my usual stretching process, along with a gentle tapping to ensure that my new bridge pins had seated properly. The Martin plastic pins were a bit larger than the Crosby bone pins but it all worked out ok. After the stretching, I tuned the guitar up to pitch using a headstock clipped Snark. The SC-13E includes a Fishman pickup and tuner system. The pickup is ok, the tuner while convenient rarely shows on mark, either slightly flat or slightly sharp, no matter how cautious one is. I had learned to dislike it.

Once tuned up, I gave the guitar some aggressive playing, jamming along to John Mellencamp’s The Lonesome Jubilee and realized that the album was now 36 years old. Feeling rather old, I gave the strings another stretch and went to retune. All were flat, but none were flat by more than a few cents. A quick tuneup and some more playing and a day later, they are still at pitch. D’Addario claims that the XS stay in tune longer, and in my experience this is 100% true, and one of the reasons that I do not like the Martin Authentic strings as for me, they never stay in tune.

The aforementioned lack of bass experienced by others is not there. The SC-13E could never be called boomy, but the bass is clear and articulate. The mids and the trebles are bright without being brittle or annoying and whether flatpicking, or finger picking, I am very pleased with the feel and the tone. I understand that my experience with the strings is still a bit new, but by the time this is published, I will have been at that guitar every day for a while as I keep it near my office for mental health breaks between video conferences.

XS strings are phosphor bronze over the proven NY steel hexagonal cores used in other D’Addario products. The plain strings are coated with a very thin film and the wound strings are coated with a proprietary polymer that is 10x thinner than a human hair. In my opinion, if you did not know that the strings were coated, you would not know that the strings are coated.

Conclusions

Yes, I am still new to the XS strings. I find they more playable than their XT brethren and they feel great under my fingertips. I do not get the sense of playing on top of something the way I do with Elixirs, and I don’t get the sense of third day deadening that I get with regular Phosphor Bronze strings. At about $24 a set CAD, they are twice the price of a set of Martin Monel strings and that may put some people off. Some folks find changing strings therapeutic. I am not one of them and would prefer to be playing or recording, or shaving than changing strings, probably because every string change includes a lot of other stuff being done as a result of my little bit OCD personality. My D-28 is now due for a string change as is my L4-C, so I have ordered a couple of more sets from the online store. I have stayed with the 11-52 gauge because I cannot hear a difference from heavier gauge strings and do believe that the great BB King was not wrong is suggesting that heavier strings may be more work than you need to do. The XS strings come in sets starting at 10s and go up to sets starting with 13s so whatever your preference, you can get there.

Give them a shot, and thanks for reading. Until next time, peace.