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How fast do you wear through your DR's? I find them to last extremely long compared to ernie ball's, but I haven't tried too many others. I get about 2-3 weeks out of the EB's, and over 1 month and a half or so with DR's.
I tried the coated DR's and I didn't really like them at all.. I've pretty much always used the DR either Tite Fit or Pure Blues (kinda switch between them here and there) and they seems to last pretty long for me. I broke one at a gig a few months back and everyone was commenting how they've never seen me break a string before.
^ wow really?? have you always gone through strings like that or is that since the stainless frets?
That is insane. It seems like you should get more than a couple of hours out of a set of strings.
I used to use Elixer's and then I switched to Wyres. They were very popular back in the 80's, but a local music store here started carrying them. I use a 2.0mm pick and every since I switched to them about two years ago, I have never, ever broken a string. I always end up swapping them out. Now of course, after saying that I'll probably break them like nobody's business, but they have served me really well. They are cheaper than elixer's as well, but I think their quality is pretty top notch. I've never tried DR's however, no stores carry them here.
I have heard that as well for the coated, and as such have never purchased a set. What gauge are you using?
Man the Elixir Nano Webs are really good. They last extremely long with barely any damage done, and they hold a pretty bright tone much longer than average strings. The money you save from them makes up for the amount of average strings you would buy anyway. I think those are as good as it gets as for longevity with strings.
DR Tite-Fits last me about 2-3 weeks, or 63 hours based on 3 hour practice a day, if I don't get acid fingers.
I've used DR tite fit .10s for a long time. When I used to gig constantly I noticed I would get about 8 hrs of play with them before I could hear the tone quality degrade, and would always put new strings on before every gig (which really was a pain when doing 3 gigs a week). Now that I'm not playing out (well hardly ever), I've been trying many different strings. The Elixers were too bright for my liking. D'addarios are what I've been using lately after meeting Pete D'addario on Phish tour in '09, who is a great guy and he sent me many packs of strings for my acoustic, electrics, and flatwounds for my jazz guitar. I don't like them as much as I liked the DR's but since I'm not gigging all the time I am happy with them. Plus the entire business is based in the USA so I like that aspect! I'm definitely gonna string my guitars again with DRs when I begin gigging more, and am considering using .10s on the 3 high strings and .11s for the 3 low strings. Anyone out here do that?
Quote from: IamWILSON on January 14, 2011, 02:47:58 AM
and am considering using .10s on the 3 high strings and .11s for the 3 low strings. Anyone out here do that?
No, but am interested to hear your feedback on this.
I too use DR 10's and love them. They do wear out quickly like you said, but to me, it's the price of having good strings.
Quote from: Walker done done on January 14, 2011, 02:09:07 PM
Quote from: IamWILSON on January 14, 2011, 02:47:58 AM
and am considering using .10s on the 3 high strings and .11s for the 3 low strings. Anyone out here do that?
No, but am interested to hear your feedback on this.
I too use DR 10's and love them. They do wear out quickly like you said, but to me, it's the price of having good strings.
My guitar tech has had a couple customers do it lately and I played one of his Teles that was set up that way. It felt kinda nice actually! Great low end tone! And you can get really low action so no real work to press strings. I only played it for a couple mins so I'd like to see what its like after a whole night of jamming. Plus, I'm a little concerned about when I will occasionally give a good bend on the D string. I'm on the verge of getting one of my guitars set up that way, if I do it I'll get back to you and the others here.
When I was in my serious SRV phase in the early 90s, I went with the Ernie Ball Skinny Bottom Heavy Bottoms, which were a .010-.052--kinda like a .010 set on the top, going to a .012 set on the bottom with that .052. Stevie had monster hands, so that was his bag, but I'm sure he was more .011-.056 or even more like .013s. It's a great feel and sound--easy to bend on top, but the low end is super tight and articulate without the slop.
Anyway, since then I've been a pretty devoted DR .011 Tite-Fit guy, with the occasional Pure Blues thrown in--and I'm sure I got into them after seeing that Trey played them and never ever breaks strings. I like the DRs, since they feel almost a whole gauge heavier (the 10s feel like 11s, the 11s like 12s), and they go on and stay in tune. Very responsive to your fingers, too, since they're so tight and snappy. I have, however, seen quite a few brand new strings out of the box (normally the two highest strings) with some black specs on them...nothing that ever really bothered me, though. For me, they always seem to last a long time, even when I was playing a lot, and I never broke any. The only time I saw them breaking a lot was my guitar player in college, and it was more an issue with the hardware than the string.
If you guys are breaking strings like crazy on a certain guitar, try to take notice of where the string is breaking. If it's down at the bridge, chances are that there's a burr somewhere rubbing on the string, and eventually when you go for that huge bend, it's going to snap right there. I've seen it a lot in Strats, where the string is coming up through the Trem plate...those holes, when they get chromed, often leave sharp edges--sharp edge + wicked extreme string angle + bends and trem = stringy no lasty. I see it even more on tune-o-matics that haven't been prepped too well...those saddle come to a point, and if they haven't been filed out nicely, they'll break strings all day. If you have a brass nut and you're breaking a lot of strings up near the nut, same thing. Sometimes, your hardware could develop those burrs after a lot of playing, so it's something to keep an eye on. Aside from that, if you were blessed with really acidic sweat, then you're just rusting through those strings right quick. Best thing you can do is wipe those strings down every time you put the guitar down.
And just to throw out my opinion on those coated Elixir strings...when they first came out, I loved them on my acoustic. They feel really cool, and you don't get as much of the string noise of your hand moving up and down the neck, and they lasted for a super long time (at least the bottom 4 strings, the top 2 are bare just like every other string out there). However, it didn't take long to realize that my tone sounded like a wet fish. It was terrible, and I found that it killed the sound of my '75 D-28. I went back to the d'Addario EJ-16s and the guitar opened right back up. Same thing with the guys that have me string up their electrics with the Nanowebs. I think they seriously compromise the tone of your guitar. Just my opinion.