Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

[FuseG4]

I was doing some rewiring on my jazzmaster and decided I would get a pack or three of the cheapest strings on there cuz I like to just take the strings off to get the pickguard off. And fresh strings are always nice. So why not grab some cheap strings cuz I would be changing them often during the rewiring, modding, and testing?

These are the strings that are the house brand of Musician's Fiend, at $2 for a pack of .010s, one might say "you can't complain!", but watch me.

Anyways, they are too short to install on a jazzmaster. The .010 E was over an inch too short to touch the tuning peg before any cutting. All three packs were like this. So I couldn't even use them for what I bought them for.
They feel completely unpolished/unburnished.
they have very little brightness, zing, harmonics, whatever you wanna call it. I hear the fundamental note like I never have before.
They are all the wrong diameter. Comparing with ernie ball of same gauge between my finger and thumb, the musicians fiend strings were noticeably really big.
Black residue sometimes ended up on my fingers after playing.

I ended up throwing them on my Epiphone and they hold pitch and sound the note, they are completely a chore to play.

IF you have a cheap guitar that you want to maintain neck tension on, these will work (excepting jazzmasters), they are still playable and damn they're cheap, but good lord there's some budget gear out there that rules and some where it seems you get LESS than what you paid for!

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

If you worry about the impact of constant removal of the strings relating to string breaks, grab some Ernie Ball RPS. They're reinforced in the place Jazzmasters destroy strings (the windings.)

 

[Xandeeno]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

I agree with Ernie balls, all of their strings are great quality and give plenty of length to play with

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

Yep... I reallly like EBs on the JM, it's what I'll probably stick with.
And really, if bought in bulk, EB is cheap.

I'll look at the RPS.

That reminds me of the somewhat bad design on the vintage modified JM bridge... They have the 3 bridge mounting screws as domed screws instead of flat countersunk. The low E windings right after the ball joint used to ride that screw head before I shimmed the neck and raised the bridge a little.

 

[dave74]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

If you ever want custom-gauged EB at a bulk discount try justrings,com "house" brand.
They're packaged as individual gauges in long sealed plastic sleeves of 12.

Cheapest way to order custom sets at under $4/set, and they're the same strings EB sells as "slinky".

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

The VM vibrato is a mess. I recommend replacing it with AV. US vibratos don't (at last check) have countersunk screws either, but they all want to pull high strings apart unless you use a reinforced string.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

I’ve been an EB user for as long as I can remember. They just sound and feel “right”.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

Same, I dislike Dadarrio.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

I like fender strings a lot too. They are cheap, consistent, and they have a sound that I think goes really well with fender guitars and amps. Especially with a strat, for me.

And yeah the AVRI bridge is on my long to do list

 

[Securb]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

I know there is a thread around here somewhere where people posted disapointment in Musician's Gear stuff from cases to stands. I had a stand fail after a few weeks and the tab on the accessory compartment in a case come off the first time I pulled it. Everything they make is absolute garbage. I challenge anyone to show me one quality product they make.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

My first amp was a crate gx20m, little 8" transistor amp.
Second amp was Musician's Fiend's "Rogue" brand amplifier. See this was back when I was like 15 and just assumed amplifiers all sounded more or less the same.
It was a loud SS 2x12 but it was soooo muddy and buzzy and aweful. I didn't know guitarists lived in the neighborhood but some stopped by cuz they heard the amp... when they got closer the first thing they said was "boy that amp doesn't sound very good!". I knew it in my heart too, but I had just dropped money on it and didn't wanna feel bad right away. Thank goodness for returns too cuz I seem to remember that it stopped working.

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

I know there is a thread around here somewhere where people posted disapointment in Musician's Gear stuff from cases to stands. I had a stand fail after a few weeks and the tab on the accessory compartment in a case come off the first time I pulled it. Everything they make is absolute garbage. I challenge anyone to show me one quality product they make.

I have two MG cases. One was bought because I couldn't find anything to fit a LP Junior right so I just grabbed the cheapest LP case I could find. It was also a blem. so it was really cheap. Not right for a Junior or a Gibson LP but would probably fit an epiphone fine. With a soft cloth under the body, it fits the Junior well enough for protection at home. All in all, it's fine for home, I wouldn't carry the guitar around in it. Shell is too thin, hardware is cheap and again, it really doesn't fit the Jr. right.
The second MG case was purchased for the same reason. I wasn't sure if a Godin Progression would fit well in a fender case so I just bought a cheap MG Fender style case. The "tweed" covering is garbage but the case is better than decent inside, and fits the Godin like a glove. It closes nice and square but the hardware is cheap. It wouldn't hold up long to travel and gigging. But again, it's only for protection at home. Bottom line I guess, is that I agree that they aren't good cases in the grand scheme of things. But the two I have are perfectly fine for protection at home. Still wish I could find a Junior case that actually fits right without getting reamed on one of those gawd awful 2015 gold cases that gougers are selling for way too much $ on ebay.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

I bought a case of the Guitar Fetish strings for the same reason
The plain strings are rusty right out of the pkg and they are flat dead
If anyone wants a set send me an address and I'll shoot them to ya

On the MG cases, I saw a ABS MG Les Paul sized case on sale for less than most gig bags
I almost pulled the trigger

But something told me it was junk

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

I have a few MG items. A guitar case and a mic stand and I think 2 guitar stands. I guess they serve the purpose but yeah, you get what you pay for.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Musician's Gear brand strings, what was I thinking?

Yeah, generally that's true that you get what you pay for. But whether something is good or crap depends on what its intended use/purpose is. A Farrari is crap for driving around town running errands, and a big SUV is crap for racing.

I've purchased several packs of MG strings for putting on new builds while I get neck angle, heel/pocket, bridge mounting, nut, etc dialed in...taking them on and off several times in the process. The cheapest strings available suit this purpose just fine. After everything is perfect I put on the good strings.

I'm not about to use $10-20 a set strings for this just to throw them away.

I agree with dave74 that juststrings.com is a good place to go to design your very own custom sets, buying individual sizes in bulk.