What strings for this baby? Acoustic

T

Thurisarz

New member
I have a brand new Ibanez AEL20 acoustic guitar at home and i'm looking for a special tone for it but i don't know what strings to get. I want a mellow sound so i first tried electric guitars flatwounds but those sucked up the character and left the guitar just sounding boring so they went of. Now i have "Django" type strings made of silk & steel. The gauges on these strings are so small i got to have a new nut made for them to be able to play them or else they will make more fret buzz. The tone is kind of boring to, the guitars character comes thru but i want bigger strings than 011 like 012-013 maybe.

I want a mellow sound without fret and string buzz and i don't want that "hands touching the strings" sound either. I have been recommended John Pearse folk strings which are nylon flatwounds, can they be the solution?

Thanks in advance!
 
Re: What strings for this baby? Acoustic

Not really sure what to recommend but at I'm experimenting with Elixir 12 Nanowebs on my new acoustic.

I like the worm in mellow tone and the nano coating reduces the zzzzz sound you get when sliding.

I also tried Martin SP+ but didn't like the feel.

I used EB Earthwood's 10's on my APX and I thought the step up to 12's would be huge but they don't feel that different.
 
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Re: What strings for this baby? Acoustic

Phosphor bronze.Ernie Ball Earthwoods. Cheap. Good.
 
Re: What strings for this baby? Acoustic

Thurisarz said:
I have a brand new Ibanez AEL20 acoustic guitar at home and i'm looking for a special tone for it but i don't know what strings to get. I want a mellow sound so i first tried electric guitars flatwounds but those sucked up the character and left the guitar just sounding boring so they went of. Now i have "Django" type strings made of silk & steel. The gauges on these strings are so small i got to have a new nut made for them to be able to play them or else they will make more fret buzz. The tone is kind of boring to, the guitars character comes thru but i want bigger strings than 011 like 012-013 maybe.

I want a mellow sound without fret and string buzz and i don't want that "hands touching the strings" sound either. I have been recommended John Pearse folk strings which are nylon flatwounds, can they be the solution?

Thanks in advance!
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Huh? Nylons on a steel string guitar?

I don't know if it's possible or not. However, nylon strings are exactly that: nylon (at least the three high ones are, technically speaking). Last I recall, nylon strings are for classical guitars, and steel string ("folk") guitars should use metal strings.

I wouldn't try that. I'd simply try to find a more mellow string in "standard" or "folk" or whatever it's called. Metal. There are brands of flat wound bronze out there, or should be, that have more of a mellow sound.

Have you ever played a classical guitar? Listen to some Segovia and come back and let us know if that's the sound you're after. It could be that you need to switch to a classical guitar, etc.

That's just my opinion: use the right strings for the right guitar. I tried electric guitar strings on my acoustic once because of something someone said, and I regretted it. They sucked.
 
Re: What strings for this baby? Acoustic

Thanks for your tips guys! I found these D'addario semi-flat acoustic strings in 012 which i'm gonna give a try!
 
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