Martin M265 Magnifico Silver Plated Classical Strings, Normal Tension

A colleague told me these strings were “life changing” & I can’t say I agree with that statement but they were far better than I had anticipated. Coming from a company that specializes in steel string guitars, I couldn’t imagine these would be worth it. Then I was told that they were developed by Aquila for Martin. The trebles are synthetic & and an odd grayish color. They are as thin as Savarez Alliance trebles but are far better regarding intonation. When you first put the strings on, they have a “rubbery” feel that stretches like crazy, but once they settle in they were surprisingly good. The most impressive quality is although they are normal tension strings, they have the power of a mid to high tension carbon string. Far more power than any normal tension string I’ve tried. Worth a look and they don’t cost a lot.

Arrived promptly!

For my Negra this set of strings brings out clarity, and a crispness that it lacked. The volume is balanced and as loud as I need it to be. The basses are basses, normal tension does not over load the bottom. The trebles are the clearest I've ever used. Strings by Mail is simply the best shop out there !

I've had these on my Godin Arena Pro for a few weeks now, and have played them a lot. Really different from any other string I have tried. The trebles are not as smooth as your typical nylon, more textured but in a good way. They also sound different than anything I've tried before, but again in a good way.

The basses are more familiar in tone and feel than the nylons. The basses have kept up really well, and show no serious sign of wear thus far even though they have been played a lot.

Worth mentioning is that the strings, nylons especially, feel stiff. I opted for normal tension, but I would have guessed hard tension if I didn't know. This guitar works very well intonation wise with D'Addario EJ46 and GHS Muriel Anderson strings, which both are high tension sets. These Martins work well in that regard also, but the intonation is a tiny bit flat high up the neck. I suspect the high tension set would probably be a better fit, but I'm worried about the tension being too high for my taste.

All in all a great offering from Martin!

Upon opening the box and realizing these are a coloured string (dark grey) I was worried. As I was tuning them they sounded like rubber, as opposed to the more traditional sound of Nylon with its plastic tones. However, after tuning I found that these are probably the best sounding strings I've ever played. I did A/B testing with 30 other sets (I record every set identically for testing), these are quite literally the best sounding strings I've ever put on a guitar. The tone is similar to that of an old fashioned harpsichord in some ways; they're older sounding, more historic. They're a bright string in some ways that accentuate the mid-range and low mid range, and yet they're still full and round sounding without ever being harsh or plasticy. They're not as "bright" on the top end past 10kHz as carbons, and their depth isn't quite as low or deep as some other brands, but the bass response is tighter and most focused on the low-mids that are ears are sensitive to. The end result is a string that sounds very "tight", dynamic, and responsive with all the right frequencies in the right places. I would not recommend this string on a particularly thin or bright sounding guitar, but it's perfect for a full-bodied guitar that has a lot of depth to it.