Optima No. 6 SCHT Special Silver, Carbon HT Guitar Strings, Full Set

We can now order individual strings from StringsByMail, and after I got a few A strings they stopped breaking! At least I have them now just in case. I still love the sound of these strings, and they are still good for my hands. I have tried other variations but these are still the best.

Never having used really expensive strings, I decided to try these because they were on sale. I was surprised by the resonance and overtones produced by the bass strings, much greater than other high-tension strings. The treble strings by contrast produce a crisp, clear sound that fades faster but is a nice blend with the bass. One way of describing this is that I only need to tune one string with a tuning device; I can tune all the others from that string because the sound is so deep it is easy to hear the precise tuning.

Besides the sound, I immediately noticed that thse strings are stiffer and thus harder to play. Fortunately I had put them on the guitar with the lowest action. If the strings were higher off the finger board they would be even more difficult. As I practiced with them I notice that my fingering had to be very precise because it is so easy to buzz a note. After a couple of weeks of practice, the callouses on my left (fingering) hand became deeper, and I even developed callouses on my right. My hands got stronger too: I went to play a gig with my other classical guitar and found I was able to play for nearly 4 hours without a break.

I plan to use these strings soon for a mini-concert that is supposed to be strictly acoustic, and I expect the sound will fill the room as much as a classical guitar can.

However, I will need to bring my other guitar along in case one of these strings breaks! Optima strings are supposed to last longer than cheaper strings, but the A string snapped at the head after only 4 weeks! I haven't seen a broken string in years. I wish I knew what I could do to prevent that happening again. And I wish that StringsByMail.com would offer the option to buy just the bass (or treble) set - I notice that Optima does package those but I have not been able to find them for sale. I had to buy yet another set just to replace the A string. Fortunately they were still on sale.

I do love these strings, not only for the sound but also because they are excellent practice, but if another string breaks I may have to give up on them.