So you should, how dare you! Now do it all again correctly! 😋😆😎

How about trying a lighter set of the paradigm strings to be closer to the others, I think maybe the added mass altered things a little.

Great stuff Paul. (Who did all the string changing? Torture)

what do you normally use? were they in the finals?

Well, they sounded like Nano's so you'll have to do it all again :) But I have still not seen the final and if the Roto's win, the nano/opti does not matter. I use nano's but, regardless of the result here, next strings I buy will be Rotosound, there is something pleasant extra in the sound they help create. Great video, must have been a ton of work and I appreciate that a lot. Millions of us guitar nerds get answers to questions we have asked ourselves for years :)

Yesssss, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze!

yeees 😁

The best I've found -by far- are Martin silk and steel silver plated

ong i need to know what are the best strings for acoustic

I guess D'Adarrio XS vs Elixir Nanoweb will be like France vs Argentina in the Final WC 2022

I somehow don't think he would've hired someone to change strings for him... Edit:nevermind, sorry

Its like a 3 minute job .. its so easy..

@@chriswebb383 You’re my hero. 🙄

And pulling curled strings through a string-through strat body no less! Imagine how a big a pain that would be

@@chriswebb383starts crying in Floyd rose

its incredibely impressive how round and complete your strings sound despite being so cheap, amazing work harley benton!

Whatta great sound!

Honestly, I've never played your strings, but after this video, I'll be buy a few sets for sure! The coated sounded fantastic to me. Thanks for making budget strings that still sound great!

I have been using the super slinkies for um... ever. Watched the video and decided to go on a " comment hunt." you are the winner! Imma give em a try.

I play the NYXLs too, even though it's hard to find the light top/heavy bottom gauge sometimes. I even liked how they sounded better than the others in this video!

I was so happy to see my precious NYXLs make the semis, only to be taken out by their slightly more expensive brother from d’Adarrio. If they were to lose, that’s how I would’ve wanted it 😂 though I might have to check out the XSs next time I feel like doing a setup 😅

I used to play EB's and then went to NYXL's and loved them, then I tried the XT because I was told that the coating is very minimal and they're my new standard. They feel just like regular strings, just a TINY bit more slick. And they seem to last a very long time before they get dull or start to peel or anything. I've had some on one of my guitars for a year or more without any sign of corrosion.

I stand firm with my choice of strings, NYXL’s are some of my favorite strings out there and I use D’Addario for both my electric and acoustic guitar. They’re a bit more expensive, but I change my strings maybe twice a year and they’ve never given me a problem. In the end, they’re super durable and great quality. They actually save you money since you don’t have to change them often if you don’t want to.

me, a bass player: what? 60 bucks is expensive?

Plus this is just one player. Pick choice, attack also will factor in.

Me niether

@@datutturugang666 How is that a relevant response to what they just said?

@@danielhutt3158 because there are bass strings costing over 150 bucks easy, on average a good set of strings goes for roughly 40 bucks

Why is it useful if you cant tell the difference? Just buy the cheapest strings and change when it doesn’t sound good or breaks.

@@nirhershkovitz2416 Because he’s describing different qualities to the sounds from each string, which is great ear training for me. At the current moment I can tell if I like or don’t like a sound, but it’s hard for me to pinpoint why - with his descriptions I’m learning a bit more about what makes up the sounds I enjoy in reference to guitar (and their strings) Also, the vid is just useful in general as a mini encyclopedia of different guitar string sounds

Oh that'd be great. Im so insecure what strings I should get next (which is probably soon xD).

@@brockmann4815 : Depends on what kind of music you play… I like D’Addario Phosphor Bronze and D’Addario Nickel Wound for electric.

@@brockmann4815my two cents, I am a big fan of Martin Retro 12’s and Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze

for acoustic elixir nanowebs last forever

I've never understood how something that's not so good, but is considered great for a low price, is a good thing? That just reconfirms the fact that cheap stuff sucks.

​@@SpaceCatttttthis is the dumbest thing ive ever read, the 3,90€ strings, holded up, and in this case he liked them better than the Gibson 10€ ones, so for 4 €, are really good for their price, they can charge you more for the strings if you want but, this shows you that cheap things arent always trash, in this case, the cheap ones holded up very well and won against more expensive ones, so, some "expensive shit" ones, were trashier than the "cheaper shit" ones, telling you, that cheaper, does not mean worse.

I have Harleys on different guitars, and except for the 1€ set, the HQ and coated sets are top notch

@@SpaceCatttttGood enough is good enough. I don't play concerts, I don't hear the difference myself all that well, I'm just plucking away in the privacy of my own room. So why pay 10x as much when there's no perceived difference?

@@paulnieuwkamp8067 If you don't hear or feel the difference, then no, there's no reason why you should buy good strings...

Or hammer on.

Low prices = China. That's all I need to hear. When is the guitar community going to wake up and reject the idea of supporting the CCP? They hate us and want to destroy us - what else do you need to know?

@@78tag Attempting to parse my purchases into what's built where is something I have neither the time nor the inclination to do. I seriously doubt that the Chinese are attempting take over the world via budget guitar strings. Lol. Have a great day!

The Edge uses rotosound

I'm in on the Yellows...great to hear your input on durability. Sold me 👊👍😎

My main strings are the Roto Ultramags, 10-46 on some guitar and 9-42 on others. They are super bright and stay bright for a long time which makes them perfect for the music I play (60's and 70's rock eg. Rush, The Who, Iron Butterfly).

Yeah, and compare the overdriven sounds straight into the amp.

Yeah, that company seems to be a screaming deal across the board relative to the $$$

Jup, thought the same. I quite like them.

Exactly what I thought as well. Don't know how long they last, but I guess I'm gonna try them out next time I need a new set.

Definitely gonna try those next

Yeah

Elixir Strings come in 2 very different flavors. d'addarios or GHS Boomers. No way to know which ones you have. I worked at the company and later the plant when these were developed and manufactured (17 years). Yes, this is 100% fact!

@@devinsinderwitcz9134 please elaborate

I second that … They do last extremely well. Usefully Elixir sell three different levels of ‘brightness’; Nanoewb, Polyweb and Optiweb. If you have a particularly bright guitar you can calm it down with the duller strings and visa versa.

As someone who also lives near the beach, absolutely agree, havent had any strings last as long 👍

So far, I've been lucky. My current acoustic guitar has the same factory strings that it came with late in 2017.

They sound spicy! Gonna buy some! (hope they last as long as the nyxls.. we'll see! ;)

Congratulations on the big win Rotosound!

England didn't win the football but they won the strings.

My personal favorite bass strings Rotosound RS66LDN Swing Bass 66 Nickel Roundwound

I'll always remember that one I used a set of Roto Yellows on a guitar for 4 years straight, 1 single set, never broke any of the strings and ok the sound did change but... 4 years... that alone makes Rotosound an absolute winner to me, I gotta find more of these here in FL definitely

Rotosound Jumbo King for Acoustic Guitar 👌👍💪

They didn't last long on my Jumbo, corroded and Went sticky and ergh! After 10wks with me

@@noname1st139 10 weeks isn't long enough....?

Me too, tho I'm using Elixir optiwounds alot too, but NYXL have been my favorite for a while now.

How did you like the Cobalt's?

@@bmoneybby wasn’t really a big fan actually. Hard to explain why. But they just didn’t really feel good. Almost like they’re heavier and higher tension than the same .010 gauge NYXLs.

What is that black tape on his guitar ?

Same. I had an es-335 with a naturally mellow, warm sound and wanted that in my other guitars. I added them to a goldtop p90 and it sounded incredible. Now they are my go-to strings.

DR have an impressive ‘squish’ so you can hit them hard but they don’t feel stiff. The magnetic core of the nickel wound string is round not hexagon shape. Fat sounding.

DR blues in my case have been very defective. I don’t recommend them at all.

These have been my go-to for years. The winding is pure Nickel instead of nickel plating. I feel it makes them more springy, also more heavy, and they don't corrode as quickly as Nickel-plated strings IME.

@@misterreality I haven't tried the Blues - I had some quality control issues with DR Tite Fits a few years ago, but the recent sets I've had have been great. For the money the Tite-Fits are very good IMO but they are darker so I generally use them with single-coils.

@@misterreality +1 on that. I used them for years on my Strat. I loved the sound and the way they felt, but they were unreliable and let me down too many times in a live situation. That's been 20 years ago, and I hear that things have improved. Watching this has tempted me to pick up another set, but once bitten twice shy. I'm currently playing NYXLs but I'm going to try the Roto-Yellows.

Well I suggest you try out a few different strings. Feel and sound can be very different. Especially on acoustic.

I have also had good luck with D'Addario as far as durability goes, but I wish that they would step up the gauge on the G string in these sets. Always seems one step too light to me.

@@vincent8736 I’ve been using D’Addario strings since 1985, very few problems. I’ve kept sets of these and the NYXL strings on for five plus years without issue. I just change them out when they sound dull. I haven’t broken a string (even with aggressive bending and trem bar dives) in over 20 years.

@@vincent8736 Elixir strings are damn good strings, I just prefer the feel of the D’Addario strings and like supporting a local company.

XL(9) really good, but damm they kinda expensive if you only break the 1st strings and second string only

@Vincent probably because the longer scale of Tele then. Now I just buy the first string separately and that's enough for practice and also I can save the money to buy more pedals. Did you change all the strings when you broke your first string?

Bare knuckle sends you a free set for each pickup ordered there. So now I've got a few Yellows sitting somewhere. Should try them on.

Guitar X sounds best because it has tone tape on it.

Seriously? Wish I had known they give an extra high E. My Tele was breaking high e's every few days a little while back. Turns out the set of five single 10s I got from D'addario must have been bad. If I used a normal set of 10s, high E lasted forever. As soon as I put one of the singles on, it'd break in 3 days tops. They sent me 10 free .010 strings as a replacement. 👌 No questions asked except for me to send a picture of the packaging.

How do you find them for staying in tune? I didn’t like rotisounds because compared to other brands they never seemed to hold their tuning well. And I don’t mean leaving it for a day and coming back. I mean while playing

@@xgreenjacket I've always stretched them in when new and had no problems at all with tuning after that. I use the hybrids on my 3 electrics and they play really well. I recently tried their acoustic strings as well, and I like those. I've not come across the tuning issue, but maybe you got some duff strings. I've used quite a few sets over the years and all have been fine.

Exactly my take. Using the 9.5s 7string though. The scream he didn’t like in them is part of why I love them and has become part of my sound. Total taste issue

Yeah..I love them. I was playing the Elixers on my Malcolm Young sig in my AC/DC band and I would break the D string with regularity...odd, I know. But when I switched to the NYXL's, I've never broken a string no matter how hard I smash the strings, and they sound great.

I love NYXL string, but String Joy strings better.

@@CerealDust-nStuff Never seen them in a store in California.

@@zublacus- online order only.

Sameeee I was sitting here literally cheering them on haha

- I read that D'Addario did something like "domestication of resources" with the NYXL model and they achieved better quality, more control & durability at a lower cost or something like that. And at the time I bought my 1st NYXL set they were "cheaper than Elixir, similarly priced to Ernie Ball Slinky's" etc at the local (non US) guitar shop here a few years ago. To me they last longer than the similarly priced/more expensive Ernie Ball's (and not to mention the more common D'Addario ones) while having a texture that's slightly easier on my fingers. As in the 10-46 NYXL set kinda feels like 9-46 Ernie Ball Slinky Hybrids here but sounds better than the 10-46 ones by both their own regular/olds and also Ernie Ball's 10-46 ones too... - I guess NYXL is the real winner here for most people for as long as they can keep the pricing under control and not let it fluctuate too much towards the higher side. - Btw did I say that they last a lot longer than both regular/classic D'Addarios and also the similarly priced Ernie Ball's? The real competition they may have with is the Elixir and tone-wise I feel like NYXL is the slightly more versatile of the two, for the price anyway (which I don't feel like going any higher than that).

@@ccelik97 Awesome information! Of course I started with Super Slinky’s and went directly to D’Addario XS, but they were entirely too expensive for me at the time. I have been using NYXL’s for years and I’m so glad to see them get the respect they deserve

Same here. But they're also coated so they'll last longer.

Yeah..they sound great and last quite nicely. I always play a gig with a new set and with sweat and more aggressive picking...they're pretty wasted. But reheasing and practicing? They last and last....which is really where they shine...since most strings are toast after a gig.

Cleartone sounds more natural and maintained the tone for a long long time, specially if you clean it with a flannel after playing

Stringing an Ibanez RG 550 with the Edge tremolo so durability is a factor. RG+ rarely needs tuned RG- a bitch to string

@@ponzo1967 I don't have that guitar, but I just re-strung 7 of my guitars. I don't care how "easy" it is, it's still not exactly fun to restring 7 guitars. haha.

Always used Elixirs because any uncoated string just rusty out within a week with my hand sweat even if I clean the strings after playing. Elixirs last like 6-7 months before they even start rusting bad with my playing routine. They’re more expensive outright but they save me so much money in the long run because I’d be spending £5 every couple weeks on strings if I used uncoated.

I think they're also the best sounding strings in this video. I'll have to try em

I agree wholeheartedly! Stringjoys Balanced 10-48 set would probably be the winner in this test (just my opinion...).

I fell in love with stringjoys

of course youd want those, theyre made for thrash and metal, but not for what Paul plays. they are throwaway strings, so changign themmonthly like you do makes sense.

@@uncledeadhead3674 Stringjoys are throwaway? I play blues and love them, and I haven't changed a couple of my daily players for over a year and they still sound and feel phenomenal. I use fast fret on them also, mineral oil basically, which keeps them lasting long.

@@sketchstuffs if you havent changed your strings in ayearm you need to learn more about guitars and guitar strings, they corrode after a month or two.

Though the non-X was felt to be the winner, and they worked to align each guitar, I think you are right there were still differences at play - perhaps inevitable. Maybe the last twist would have been to swap the stringguitar in the final to check the conclusion remained.

Not a large enough sample size to expect a 50/50 split. Maybe if he tried 1000 strings your point would be valid

It'd be about a 5% chance to choose 13 out of 19 with a truly 50/50 choice. There may be a slight bias, but I also do think that the guitar he chose 6 times did end up with more of the affordable strings that obviously wouldn't hold up as well. I don't think there was a very definitively clear bias in just the guitar, 5% is unlikely but far from unreasonable.

Not really. The sample size has a population of under 100 which does not meet the smallest accepted sample size for such a comparison. With 20 the error margin could be 5%. So that means that X could be as low as 9 or as high as 17 while the blank could be as low as 1 and as high as 10. Since the lowest error corrected value of X (9) and the highest corrected value of the blank was 10 there is 0 statistical information we can father

Check out the Elixir Optiweb's, they feel pretty good, almost like they are not coated. I hate the feel of the nanowebs and polys, way to slippery

A lot of work, sure. Buy I bet Paul had some help with stringing

I've been using the NYXL's for about 2 years now and love them

@@Angellus502 I did try the Elixir Optiweb's once. Still didn't like them. They felt a little stiff to me 🤷‍♂️

@@nate_ock I've been using NYXL's for a few years as well and I like them a lot.

Having used them since they came out, the XS last WAY longer (3-4x). Certainly justifies the price.

The Daddario XS that went to the finals can last you 5 months at least if you have a minimum care putting the guitar in it case, they are made exactly to last

Dude I use elixirs and I love them but my high E string is always popping on me like every other month lol.

The acoustic test would be much more difficult. So many variations in wood and tones it would be nearly impossible to find a clear winner. Rosewood, maple, mahogany and walnut sound different… as does the numerous spruce variations. And let’s not even talk about body shape. 😂

@@IAM_Reedy Test would simply be to find his preferred set of strings for whatever standard acoustic he chose. Would be impossible to actually say what is best but enough to separate good from bad, or identify certain characteristics at least.

Yep. I own 20 guitars and have been using Elixir Nanowebs for many years. I wouldn't consider an un-coated string set for the inconvenience and ...THE COST.

Absolutely second this. Don't know what's with the Elixier strings, but they endure my hand sweat and humidity better than some others, which for me is a good point to leaves them on longer when others have already stsrted to feel rusty and unresponsive

Yes. But in reality you only ever hear the strings.

I think we don’t like the feel of the guitar to ever change once we are used to it. But we can adjust to new strings and new necks fairly quickly if they are good fit for us. So it’s worth the initial pain.

What is your number 1?

@@ImpostorModanica Stringjoy Signatures. Makes your Strat- Stratey and your Les Paul- Les Pauley

@@jeffmartinez6073 lol sounds good. Thank you!

100000%. Polyweb 9-42s are my biggest love

yes!!! LP humbeckers

I quit using Ernie Balls 20 years ago because my sweaty hands made them rust so darn fast. Give DR strings a try and see what you think.

I find the Ernie Ball Titaniums are a good solution for this too - well, they work for me.

I like Nanowebs too, but after this test I think I'm going to have to try Optiwebs.

All I can say is me too. Definitely will try a set of the Rotos next change.

I have never broken a string literally smashing them as "Malcolm" in an AC/DC band.

Had the same experience. Hard to top Elixir when it comes down to sweat! The last for ages!❤

+1 for Elixir! Been using them for well over a decade because nothing I've played has ever come close to keeping the high end shimmery newness for as long as they do! Best strings for longevity hands down!

I prefer the sound of the XL's but the consistency of elixirs are second to none on any gig rig. They can be quite uneven tho, i had some set's with very high B strings for example.