Hannabach Titanyl 9507MHT Classical Guitar Strings, Bass Set

Probably the worst set of strings I've ever used. I've used about 7 sets of Hannabach Golds at this point and they are incredible. But the Titanyls are awful.

From the very first minute after using them, I could tell that something wasn't right. The sound was flat, not flat as in pitch, but flat as in a cheap old bicycle tire with no air. The nail sound revealed the softness of the metal, sucking the spark of out heavy attack and suffocating gentle, fleshy plucks.

The sustain was miserable and I often felt like it wasn't nylon inside the windings, but rather someone's old sock and the resonance reminded me of wet cardboard.

Worse yet, it *killed* a lot of the sympathetic resonance in the instrument. Although I only used the 3 bass strings, even the trebles were affected. This was especially noticeable when playing up around the 12th fret (ie the bit in the middle of HVL Prelude #1), where my double-top guitar usually *shimmers*. The shimmer was gone. The Titanyls turned my lattice braced guitar into something that sounded like a 44cm kid's guitar purchased at bottom dollar while they were on it.

I had this string on my guitar for 3 weeks and hardly played it before the E string self-destructed while I was writing an email... Oddly, in the 3 days before it ruptured, the strings had started to settle a bit and were starting to sound almost respectable (as opposed to horrible) and I managed to play a few pieces straight through without putting the guitar away in disgust.

I thought it might be isolated, but I did some checking (including contacting staff at stringsbymail) and found that my results were pretty much par for the course. You could literally not conceive of a worse set of strings. Terrible sound, ridiculously low lifespan. Zero redeeming features.

Worth a try if you don't mind tossing $18 bucks in the crapper for an experiment (I was - and still am), but if you want something truly delightful, stick with the Hannabach Golds for your bass strings.