All Product Reviews

These are my favorite strings right now for bossa nova and jazz. The basses warm and strong but are quite mellow compared to other sets such as the Corums, which makes these well suited for chords. The trebles are very different since they're rectified and have quite a bit of texture. But these trebles sound great for jazz! They have a very fat, pure tone with a lot of body and harmonics, and less of the thin "twang" that you would want for flamenco and classical. The texture feels weird at first and does add some extra noise, but with that extra friction comes a higher degree of control which makes them very expressive.

Awesome!!! These are the most stable strings I ever used, and for the price!!! Just to die for, excellent. The sound between basses and trebles are pretty good, very balanced. The trebles have a warm tone, and the basses a beautiful brilliant tone, besides they sense comfort and safe in play. Best strings I ever used.

An incredible richly photographed text with instruments from both Western and Japanese master luthiers. With multiple photos of each instrument this is a fantastic volume for the aficionado or collector.

This is the best pick I've ever used and sounds really nice on nylon strings. I get almost the same tone as my nails when using this pick. Even though it's a tad thick it has very little resistance and the thickness makes it easier to hold. Also, they last a long time before the tone starts to go away. I've tried just about every pick available and my search was over when I tried this one. I highly recommend testing out this pick. Buy a couple and see what you think. I did purchased 100 more the day after I tried them.

Great strings, especially if you have a fishman pickup, very well balanced.

Wonderful, clear, and bright strings. Beautiful sound. Trebles can be frustratingly, unreliably out of tune -- and there's nothing you can do about it but put on new strings. The strings are thinner and D'Addario. My favorite. I use the Sav trebles with D'Addario basses.

(SBM note: D'Addario trebles are nylon and will be thicker than the diameter of these Savarez carbon strings.)

Good, very reliable strings for the amateur and professional. The trebles are THICK, so if you prefer the thinness of, say, a brand like Savarez, you may not like these. The D'Addario sound is not as clear and bright as the Savarez-type string. The D'Addario strings are always in tune.

(SBM Note: This is a comparison of D'Addario EJ45 (nylon) to Savarez 540J strings. 540J are carbon strings which will be thinner in diameter and brighter.)

I was given a free set of this strings, personally by Maestro Serranito, when I invited him to one of my festivals in Nicaragua, and I must say wow! I really like a lot the sound of the strings when I put them on my guitar. It was a really completely new sound, very balanced with rich tones. I have tried several strings like D'Addario and Savarez, and some combinations too, but so far, these have been the best strings I could ever play. I would really recommend them, you will like them. Thanks Maestro Serranito for these strings, I will continue to buy them.

I use these strings on my flamenco guitar and they are the best! Very bright and responsive sound, specially the G composite. In other sets the nylon G sounds either flat or goes flat very quick, but not the composite in this set. I highly recommend them.

Silky smooth but, in my opinion, it is the best choice for only a few (and not most) of my electric guitars. The gauge is heavier than most guitars are set up for, and using a heavier set requires adjustments of the vibrato mechanism. On a guitar with a Bigsby vibrato the Bigsby is almost floored by this heavier gauge. On one guitar with otherwise strident upper-mid highs these strings are the best--and clearly better--than round-wound and half-round string. The smooth surface makes fingerpicking easier and less abrasive. It also causes much less wear on flatpicks. Sliding along the string is much easier. The downside is generally thicker gauge and higher string tension than is available on round-wound and half-round strings, making fretting distinctly more difficult. So, for some guitars this is my best choice, but for most guitars the half-rounds are best for me.


{Strings By Mail Staff would like to add: The 3rd string is wound on this set. An alternative is to buy a PL018 plain steel string replacement for ease of bending.}

Every electric guitar string seems to sound great, but the test comes in comparisons. I have many guitars and have tried many brands and types. These strings are my favorite for rock-n-roll and surf-rock, flat-picked or finger-picked, with most guitars. Fingerpicking is easier than with round-wound strings. D'Addario chromes are excellent too but their thicker higher tension makes them relatively difficult to fret. These have a rougher surface than the chromes--which are silky smooth--but smoother than round wounds; they're just about in the middle for friction.

My favorite set by now for my double-topped cedar guitar. Nice singing trebles and powerfull rich basses. Very cost-effective set, too. The trebles last for 2 or 3 bass sets.

My favorite set of carbon trebles so far. And I tried quite a few. Great volume, crisp bright sound. Great to add some brightness to a mellow guitar. May get too bright on some guitars, though.

I found the treble strings incredibly dull in timbre. The basses were robust but seemed to highlight the lifelessness of the trebles. The trebles took a month to wear in and by that stage everything was working better, I don't like waiting a month for results however. I think the EJ46 composites (using the composite G string) was much better as a set, not as loud but more balanced across the set and a far more intriguing sound to listen to.

Just the sound I was looking for. I cannot describe what I felt when I tuned my new strings and started playing.
Also, Strings My Mail are very efficient and kind people.
I´ll spread the word!!

M.

If you want to know what your guitar actually sounds like you cant beat D'Addario strings. Other strings may brighten the sound of your guitar some will warm the sound of your guitar. These strings sound very natural. The new and improved coating on these strings feel and sound just like uncoated strings.

After reading many glowing reviews for Alliance carbon fiber strings I tried a set of Alliance Classic strings. I loved the feel and the sound classic bass strings.The Alliance treble strings however were hard to the touch, hard on the guitar and far to bright. Next I tried Crystal Corum strings. The Cristal trebles sound wonderful. Soft and sweet like traditional strings but with a bit more volume and sustain. The Corum bass strings sounded warm and were easy to the touch but the lacked the snap and bite of the Classic strings. Cristal Classic strings have it all, a nice percussive bass and crisp clean highs while maintaining the soft sweet sound of a classical guitar.

These basses are the cat's meow ... they're Nylgut wound with pure silver, & have an incredible volume: as loud or louder than Corums.
They have the greatest clarity of any bass string I've come across. They trade this clarity for some of the warmness of other bass strings, but they have a growly-ness and decisiveness of tone which I find very appealing.
I have a love-hate relationship with Nylgut trebles, & I usually pair these basses with something other than Nylgut ... Augustine Imperials, Savarez Alliances or -- my favourite -- Savarez normal-tension Cristal trebles (not the "New Cristal"). Although they're expensive, they last forever (as long as you use some kind of string-cleaner to clean the gunk out of the windings). As well, the pure silver is great for battling vampires -- you should never be unprepared.
I should mention, tho, that I think that a Superior tension E-string works better with Normal tension A- and D-strings, so I usually buy them as single strings (I find the Normal tension E gets drowned-out by the A & D).

I don't know why these strings aren't better known ... they're incredibly loud & very clear. The basses are perfectly balanced -- tonally & volume-wise -- to the trebles. They have a very immediate response, and a kind of regally grand tone ... I'm sure that they're the strings Bream used on his classic recordings of Bach's A- & E-minor lute suites -- they're distinctive enough that I think I'm right about this.
Although I'm not using them right now, I think that they're much more interesting than LaBella's 2001 strings -- they're a premium string at a very low price.
Their only drawback is that, for some reason, I find the basses just a tad worse for string noise than most.

These medium-tension Cristal trebles are absolutely stunning ... they combine a beautiful, expressive, sweetness with an almost transcendental ... errr ... crystalline quality.
Although not quite as loud as Alliance carbons, I think their beauty more than makes up for it. They don't have as quick a response as the Alliances, but that might be because I prefer high-tension Alliances, whereas these are medium. Their durability is quite good for a nylon string.
The basses they come with are the traditional Red Card basses ... certainly nothing wrong with them, but not quite my cup of tea. I think that they pair better with medium Corum basses, or -- my favourite -- Aquila Alchemias.
I tried the hard-tension Cristals as well, but neither the basses nor the trebles were anywhere near as good (at least on my guitar). Also, don't confuse these strings with Savarez's "New Cristal" trebles, which are flatulently warm, as far as I'm concerned.