GHS 1400 Nickel Wrap Electric Guitar Strings with Wound 3rd 12-54

I've been playing jazz for over 60 years, and I have 15-16 guitars. I mostly play a Gibson "Johnny Smith" model, and I mostly play with 26-pc jazz big-band. My go-to set was always the Gibson E240 set, but they don't make it anymore. I was looking for a good replacement, and GHS-1400 set really seems like a great replacement. The 12-54 gives me the ability to be heard as much acoustically as electrically since most of what I do is pound 4-to-the-bar "Freddie Green"-style rhythm.

GHS Nickel Wrap Set 1400: I recently moved to this set after my favorite GHS Compound Wound Set 1800 was discontinued. I experimented a bit with D'Addario Half Wounds but they sounded dead to me and had a strange feel, like they were already worn out or corroded. I had used GHS Set 1800 on my arch top guitars for over 30 years. IMHO if a string doesn't allow the acoustic properties of my arch top or any guitar to shine acoustically, there is no reason to think it will through the amp. With that old GHS Set 1800, anytime a player would ask to check out my guitar, they would comment on how much they liked the sound and feel of the strings, but players never seemed to know about them. I called GHS and they said was a jazz players set, but they just weren't selling enough...so they discontinued them. He recommended the Nickel Rockers as the closest string in composition, sound and feel. So far the GHS Nickel Rockers Set 1400 or 1500 seem like a consistent feel and tone to the Compound Wound Set 1800. I highly recommend these strings for players looking for a balance of benefit or trade off between flats and round wounds. I realize string choice and sound is a very personal subjective thing and hard to describe, so with that in mind... I would say I find flats too blunt sounding for chord solo work, to my ears they don't allow enough clarity, tonal separation or individuality through in performance. That said, I like a much darker fatter sound when soloing. These strings strike a nice balance between those two sounds with minimal squeak when moving around with chord solo work. I use an arch top guitar on a solo gig, so these work well for me in adjusting between darker and and lighter sounds, mids and bass for chord solo and single note soloing. Given there is no perfect solution for all playing situations, I hope this helps if you've been struggling with some of the same issues I have. My gear: 62 Johnny Smith, 85 FG100, Paul McGill Classical, 64 Fender Deluxe Rev, Acoustic Image Chorus

Great strings, esp. for DADGAD