Optima 24K Gold Plated 2028 R Electric Guitar Strings 12-54

Sound and look great.

Excellent!!

My first thoughts when I found these strings : Why in the world would you use gold? Who are these for?!?! After a little research, I found that Zappa used them, as well as Brian May, I'm a Zappa fan boy so I was sold. I am so glad I tried them however, because they sound and play absolutely amazingly. The strings have a silky feel that is a joy to play, but the best part is the sound. The gold coating on the strings actually seems to deaden some of the extra harmonics that normal round wound hex core strings have. This may sound like *less* sound, but oh no, theres an even more pronounced fundamental tone, so your guitar sounds crisp and clear. This shortening of the harmonics kind of results in a supremely well balanced sound, it sounds brilliant (like you turned on a bright switch, or cranked on the presence) however its not harsh or too bright. They're also very warm, but I noticed my bass strings did not BOOM, and the balance between the strings is superb too, with even sound moving across the fret board. On clean setting these strings sound lush, full, warm, and clear.... I literally hit the jazz sound I've been thinking of with these strings (something I thought I would be tweaking).

So you don't play clean eh? No worries, these strings can bark with some distortion. Because of the string clarity, playing with heavy distortion still yields a clean, bright, clear note. I played a single coil guitar with heavy distortion and it was still clear, I could hear all the notes I wanted to play.

Theyre gold, yes it seems excessive, but holy cow, these strings are my new friends. I don't think I will ever use another string on this particular instrument (and I even remarked to a bandmate I may switch all my instruments over)

*For reference, I installed these strings on a reverend Club King 290 (white korina thinline body, spruce top, maple neck, and p90 pups. Amps played were a fender DRRI, a JC120, and a 8in fender mustang)