D'Addario Nickel Bronze Acoustic Strings

[GnLguy]

I finally decided to put the strings on the D’Addario had sent to me for beta testing – several months late, I have to add. I was pushing a set of Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze strings to the limits and didn’t want to replace them too soon.

Anyway, I have to give the D’Addario Nickel Bronze strings a solid 10 for tone and tuning stability.

I put them on my Alvarez 25th Anniversary acoustic and right at first, it seemed that they would never stop stretching out. Had to retune 8-10 times the first evening and then the next morning, all strings were probably a quarter tone low. After that, they seemed to stabilize and have been pretty much in tune since.

My Alvarez 25th Anniversary is made with a solid spruce top and solid rosewood back & sides; it has a burn stamp on one of the back braces that it was hand built so it is on par with Alvarez current Master Works series.
The D’Addario strings are loud and have a very well defined tone across the sound spectrum. These strings have back & sides of the guitar vibrating well which helps the projection of sound.

The D’Addario would be my 2nd choice of strings with Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze being my first.
2 reasons for this: 1) the D’Addario cost nearly $5 per set more than the Ernie Ball and 2) the Ernie Ball, being made with an aluminum alloy, which is a softer metal, are somewhat easier to fret than other alloys.
Plus, the set of Ernie Ball strings that I just took off to install the D’Addario – I had put them on the Alvarez on Memorial Day Weekend 2015 – 16 months ago – no corrosion on them, still sounded loud and clear. I only took them off b/c to try the D’Addario. Hard to walk away from quality like that.

I have a 2nd set of the Ernie Ball strings on my PRS and side by side, I strummed sine chords and asked my wife what she thought. To her, the new D’Addario sounded about the same as the Ernie Ball on the PRS that have been on for almost 14 months.
I plan to give the D’Addario a fair test to see how long that they will last. As Paul Harvey used to say, Stand by for news!!!

[Billy]

Standing by …I used to use nothing but D’Addario on my guitars, I found them a bit too bright and now favour Martin extra light Bronze strings which I buy in triple packs for around £10 (gbp) D’Addario’s are a more expensive choice at £14(gbp) per packet…Not as yet tried Ernie Ball Acoustic strings but will buy a pack or two to try them out…. still standing by..

..Billy..

[Steve]

I’ve been using D’Addarios on my tele for years, although when I experiment with other brands I only notice subtle differences. Been using Elixir on my acoustic and love ’em, pricey but last a long time if you take care of them. A guitar bud of mine once showed me how to stretch a set of new strings before tuning, which pretty much eliminates any issues after installation. I’ve also started using Big Bends Nut Sauce on the nut and saddle. Strings stay in tune for a long time!
My humble 2 cents,
Steve

[Steve]

I forgot to mention that there is a great video about string changing on the Taylor website.

[Jdub]

I like the D’addario NB strings they have a more mellow sound than 80/20 or phosphor bronze. Not sure how long they last. Martin retros are also good and are half the price.I have a set of Ernie ball earthwood strings that I have yet to try. My favorite method of changing strings is from Justinguitar.com seems to work the best for me.

Jdub

[GnLguy]

I like the D’addario NB strings they have a more mellow sound than 80/20 or phosphor bronze. Not sure how long they last. Martin retros are also good and are half the price.I have a set of Ernie ball earthwood strings that I have yet to try. My favorite method of changing strings is from Justinguitar.com seems to work the best for me.

Jdub

I agree that the Nickel Bronze strings have a more mellow tone than most other strings sets. Really like the overall tone of these strings, they are bringing out great sounds from my Alvarez.
After playing these strings for a week now, to me, they are more stiff than the Ernie Ball that I was playing but if you don’t mind that, they will give you some great tones

As far as string life, nickel doesn’t corrode like other alloys. DR Pure Blues strings are pure nickel and before they went to the sealed packaging, you would get strings that would have black spots on them, which was nickel oxide. A little string cleaner and it came right off. I doubt that corrosion will be a factor with D’Addario so it will come down to whether they go dead as some strings do.

With the Ernie Ball, I didn’t clean them and I kept the guitar hanging on the wall, just to treat them in all the wrong ways. I kept waiting for them to lose their tone and they never did.
I plan to treat these D’Addario strings in the same manner and see what happens

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