Jim Duff Music Blog

Growing up in Kentucky, Jim Duff counted the legends of traditional Country music as his heroes. Artists like Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Townes Van Zandt made a huge impact on the young songwriter and helped shape his sound. However, music was not his only talent and life took him in another direction for a while.


See Jim Duff bio for more...

Monday, July 11, 2011

Choosing the right acoustic guitar string





GuitarCenter.com

We understand how acoustic guitar strings are a highly personal product choice. We all have our own unique needs in terms of tonality, playability, durableness, afforability, and more. What may work for 1 guitarist, might not work for another. As such, our information is not meant to lead you towards our preference. Rather, we try to offer all the info you need to reach your own conclusion about what works for you. That seems fair doesn't it?

We are trying to give you information on the most common and preferred acoustic acoustic guitar strings on the market. You'll come across all of the major manufacturers in our categories list. Read through one or all of them, then make up your mind. After you read all of the info, you will be able to make the best decision as to the absolute best acoustic acoustic guitar strings for you.

Some of the primary considerations when selecting the best acoustic strings are:

Cost
Type of String
Gauge of String
Tone of String
Age of Your Guitar

Price - A higher cost doesn't always mean better quality of the best acoustic strings for your particular acoustic guitar or playing style. You should think about all factors mentioned above prior to making your choice. With that said, cost can still be used as one factor in choosing a guitar string. This might be true either because you would like a good string at a lower price, or because sometimes cost can be an indicator of quality. For instance, a hand-crafted string is more costly to create than a mass produced string.

Kind of String - Usually, nylon strings are better for the beginner player, ball end nylon strings are better for folk players, and steel and silk strings are better for finger pickers. Once more, this is a basic guideline to be utilized in conjuction with numerous other elements.

Gauge of String - The string gauge is the diameter of the string. When looking for the very best acoustic strings, you will discover four primary categories of gauges: extra light, custom light, light, and medium. The extra light gauge begins with a ten, the custom light with an 11, and so on. The gauge size increases as we move up the categories.

Tone - Tone, obviously, is subjective. You'll discover three main tonal categories based on string type. Bronze offers a bright and clear tone, with a briefer hold. Phosphor Bronze tends to give you a warmer tone having a somewhat longer hold than Bronze. Finally, Coated tends to give you a somewhat rich tone with the lengthiest hold of these three string types.

Age of Acoustic guitar - You should be careful what kind of string you choose based on the age of your guitar. For instance, if you have an old or vintage guitar, they're usually meant to be strung with a extremely light gauge string - usually a gut string. When you have a newer instrument, you can most likely use just about any type of string.

As we mentioned, acoustic guitar strings are a very personal choice. Nevertheless, when you fully consider all of the elements we've outlined, you will discover that you are in a much more powerful position to make the very best decision about what the best string is for your specific situation.







Jim%20Duff%20%26%20the%20Necessities


No comments: