GUITAR GUIDES

Guitar strings are the lifeblood of your instrument.

Each and every one of your interactions with your guitar involves plucking and fretting them, so it’s no surprise that stringing it up with some new ones after they snap can be one of the most important decisions you can make.

Still, it’s not as simple as walking into a store and grabbing a box.

There’s a huge variety of sizes and styles to suit individual needs, so we’re going to demystify some of the more confusing aspects of guitar strings and give you our personal recommendations for all levels of play. Whether you’re an absolute beginner or more advanced guitar player, we'll get you on the right track.

It’s not uncommon to spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars on a guitar (even smaller travel guitars can get pricey), and then spend even more on all the required accessories like amplifiers, foot pedals, and tuners.

The interesting thing is, some of us then gawk at spending 20 or 30 dollars on strings, calling it ridiculous. 

After all, they’re just a piece of fiber, right? Well, no.

Strings are crucially important - after all, they’re what actually produces all the sound you make!

Let's go back to the basics for a quick second:

At its most fundamental level sound is a series of vibrating waves whose frequencies create different notes and different tones. The human ear then "registers" these sound waves and translates them into what we hear and perceive as sound, music, etc.. 

This means that instead of the fancy rosewood body or dual pickups on your Les Paul, it’s actually your strings that are doing most of the heavy lifting. Speaking of Les Paul guitars, check out our Les Paul Guitar Kit Guide. 

Your lighter E strings vibrate much more rapidly creating your higher notes. Likewise, your thicker, heavier strings have longer wavelengths and result in deeper bass-heavy sounds. 

That’s all basic stuff, but the reason it matters is because acoustic guitar strings are always made and coated with different materials that enhance their durability and playability without altering the notes you’re playing.

Cheap strings (as opposed to "budget" strings - there's a distinction here) use inferior materials and coatings that can rub off or pick up dirt and oils from your fingertips. 

These contaminants weigh your strings down and negatively affect their vibration, which in turn destroys your sound quality.

That means you might be playing all the right notes, but you won’t be getting the clarity and tonality you’re looking for resulting in music that just plain sounds bad.

I don't want that, and you don't want that.

So let's avoid it altogether by looking at some high-quality strings that perform for the long-term. 

The most important thing you need to keep in mind when shopping for guitar strings is knowing exactly which kind of string material you need.

How do you find the right material, you might ask? Well, it all starts with the instrument!

Unlike electric guitars which use nickel or steel plated strings, acoustic guitars typically use copper. This is because the primary "driver" of your sound on an electric guitar is your pickup. 

The vibrating strings are registered by a magnet to produce the music you’re playing. This, in turn, allows manufacturers to use lighter materials when making  electric guitar strings. 

Acoustic guitars on the other hand don’t have electric pickups -- they rely on bridge tension to amplify the vibrations of the strings which are then fine-tuned by the open chamber in the guitar.

This is why acoustic guitar strings need to be substantially thicker and heavier to deliver the force necessary to put tension on the bridge and drive the action that generates your sound. 

It's not necessarily the best idea to be mixing and matching parts if you have multiple styles of guitars lying around.

If a copper-based acoustic string snaps, swapping it out with a nickel-based one might result in the string being too weak to deliver the clear, punchy notes you want from your guitar.

With that being said, when shopping for new strings for your acoustic guitar there are four main things you need to be looking for:

The gauge of the string refers to a string's thickness and weight.

As you might imagine, lighter strings are easier to fret if you’re a new player whose fingers haven’t yet been numbed yet by years and years of practice. 

Guitar string gauges come in five primary varieties: extra-light, custom light, light, medium, and heavy.

These gauges are also commonly thrown around in conversation by referring to the thickness of the lightest string, which range from .010 millimetres to .014.

This means that if a player at your local shop is recommending you some 13 or 14s, he’s actually referring to medium and heavy gauge strings respectively.

These are handy dimensions to know, since manufacturers often use their own labeling for the respective gauges.

“Medium” can mean different things to different companies, but 12s are always 12s, so keep that in mind.

As opposed to string gauges there are only a few material compositions that you’re going to be looking for when shopping for acoustic strings.

The first type is called “80/20” and that refers to strings made up 80% of copper, and 20% of zinc.

​This is the most popular type of wire wrap and offers brighter tones when plucked.

The second main type you’ll see in every store is called “phosphor bronze.”

The composition here is 92% copper with (roughly) 8% zinc, and these in contrast emphasize the lower end of the frequency spectrum.

That’s essentially the only real difference between the two, with one smaller edge to the phosphor bronze strings being that they tend to better resist both oxygen and your body’s natural oils.

This isn’t as big a deal as most would have you believe though, since you’re much more likely to experience snapping long before you notice any noticeable string corrosion, especially if you’re a newer player just purchasing their first set.

There are also a few newer compositions that are manufacturer specific, and while I won’t go into detail on the endless variety that you can find, one blend that’s been getting a lot of attention lately, and that you’ll probably come across at some point, is called “aluminum bronze.”

These were introduced by Ernie Ball, and are a surprisingly versatile option by combining the high note clarity of an 80/20 with the richer bass of the phosphor bronze strings.

While the strings may all be labelled as bronze right on the box, don’t be fooled because guitar strings aren't made of one solid piece of metal.

Instead, the named alloys we just looked at refer to the “wrap” of the string which is woven around a core made of a different material, typically steel.

These cores come in two different shapes. They’re either round, or hex shaped (like a honeycomb).

Round core strings were the first to hit the market and are considered today to be a more “vintage” technology -- but don’t write them off just yet!

Since round core strings fill up the entirety of the outer weave, each string is denser, which helps your bottom notes really boom.

This comes at the trade-off of being slightly less durable, but if you’re someone who really loves to drive home the bass, these can still be a great option for you.

Hex core strings are what dominate the string market today, and for good reason!

They’re more durable and serve to keep your high-end notes crisp and clear. For an acoustic guitar I’d typically advise you to stick with hex core construction since you’re not going to want the heavier sound of the round cores that dampen your playing.

As always that decision is yours to make.  

The final consideration you’ll need to make  is the coating of your strings.

This isn’t always applicable, but is becoming increasingly popular among manufacturers who are trying to add some value to your purchase and one-up their competitors by enhancing their durability and aesthetics.

Essentially, manufacturers will coat their alloy weave in a polymer coating of varied colors and sizes.

This coating limits the contact the actual string has with oxygen, one of the leading causes of corrosion (oxidation). It helps keep your strings sounding fresh and clear for a longer period of time, especially if they’ve been sitting there for months on the demo model you just took home from the showroom floor.

Polymer coatings aren't a bad thing to have around, but they’re not without their drawbacks. 

Coating strings evenly across the entire length is not an easy process.

Remember how we talked about cheap strings? Well one common problem plaguing lower quality strings is an uneven coating. A low quality coating throws off the balance and weight of the string completely ruining its sound quality in the process. 

To compensate, some strings will have an even thicker coating layer applied to the outside; unfortunately, too thick of a coating can arguably make the sound quality  even worse. 

The thicker the coating applied, the heavier and thicker the string. The thicker the string, the more it dampens the overall sound of your guitar.

Ultimately, if you want to look at investing in a quality coated set there’s nothing wrong with that.

You just want to abide by the “less is more” principle.

Less coating results in less interference with your sound. In practice, however, quality (light) coatings are much harder to achieve in the production process and typically cost more.

Make no mistake, there are still great deals to be had on quality coated strings -- we'll cover some of these below. 

Much like most things related to guitars, there’s no “best” model.

So instead of flatly recommending things you've heard a thousand times before, we're going to look at guitar strings by skill level.

I’m going to recommend a few options for beginners, several for intermediate players, and a couple for the advanced guitar players here in our midst. 

I'll also show you some potential next steps that you can take if you feel like you’ve progressed far enough and want to jump up into higher category (i.e. you want to go up from a set of beginner strings to a set of intermediate strings). 

Read through each of the following -- you might just find something that catches your eye!

If you’ve been following me along for the ride you should have a much clearer idea of what goes into choosing new strings for your acoustic guitar.

We looked at different alloys, core shapes, gauges, and coatings, and more importantly explained why they all matter.​

Whether you just picked up your new acoustic guitar from the local shop and want some higher quality strings, or have been playing for years and just need an upgrade, I’ve provided you with some of the best possible choices that you can make not only to improve the sound quality of your music.

Not only that, but these strings also give you a sense of what type of variety you can find out there.

Remember, if you only ever buy the same brand you might be missing out on an opportunity to take your playing to a whole new level with some great, quality strings.

So let's get adventurous -- feel free to try out a different set of strings for your acoustic, you might just find exactly what you were looking for.