Originally Posted By: Pat Marr
Quote:
Through the years, I have tried many different brands and gauges. When the gimmicks came along, yup, I bought some of them too and tried them. I always tended to keep coming back to one particular brand and gauge.


come on Herb! You can't leave us hangin' !!!

what is your preferred brand?

And what brand did you give away?


Well, I have used many brands.

Fender Bullets.... they were the rage for a time. I tried them but they seemed to break easily at the "bullet" ....another guitarist in the same band at that time had the same problem.

I do not recall the brand that I gave away. I bought them because with every case of 12, you got a free fx pedal of your choice and I bought 2 cases. I was buying strings by the case at the time, and they were cheaper than my normal brand....so I went for the deal. I think I ended up selling the pedals on Ebay for more then the strings cost me....so I look at that as an experiment where I broke even. I didn't like the strings and the pedals were not very good either.

So... I started playing guitar with Black Diamond strings. Those things were like steel pipes. Probably heavy gauge... A friend I was jamming with at the time (1970) told me about a new string he was trying.....

ERNIE BALL SUPER SLINKY (.009- .042 ) The bright pink package. I tried them and loved them. I have been using them ever since. Of course, in the search for the "more perfect string" I wandered off the path of enlightenment and tried other, lesser strings. I always ended up coming back to the Super Slinks. For electric guitar, the way I play, and the way I set my guitars up, they work well and give good service.

On my Acoustics, I do use a heavier gauge string set, (starting with .010 or .011 going up from there) and really haven't settled on a specific brand like I have on the electrics. Heavier gauge on the acoustic means I can't bend as easily but the tone is so much better. So it's a fair tradeoff.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.