CHANGE YOUR STRINGS
As gear editor dave burrluck wrote in a recent mod squad article, more than one guitarist has set out to buy a whole new guitar when all the old one really needed was a thorough clean, a setup and a new set of strings.
nickel steel strings are a balanced allrounder for electric guitars: bright enough to cut through but warm enough to flatter. we like d’addario’s premium-grade nyXl series, which have a lovely, polished feel and great durability. stainless steel strings have a bright, attacking sound: think of vic flick’s tone on the bond theme riff.
“Many guitarists set out to buy a whole new guitar when all the old one really needed was a thorough clean, a setup and a new set of strings”
pure nickel strings have a warm, rounded tone, making them a good shout for r&b, blues and jazz players, who might also want to try d’angelico’s vintage-voiced electrozinc strings, made to a 1930s spec. finally, flatwounds have a certain warm, blunt vintage tone that’s hard to nail with anything else (think early electric blues recordings) at the expense of harmonic detail and sustain.
for acoustic guitars, the standard choice is phosphor-bronze strings, which offer a warm-but-crisp, balanced tone. these are the standard choice for a spruce-top dreadnought or om-style guitar. if you want to brighten and tighten the tone of a dull-sounding acoustic, try 80/20 bronzenickel strings. nickel strings tend to shift the mids higher up the frequency range in a pleasant, breathy way. monel strings offer a mellow vintage take on this sweettoned theme, too. meanwhile, the tone and performance of coated strings by elixir and others has come a long way. for tarnish-resistant performance they’re hard to beat.
take time to stretch in each fresh string by giving it a little tug or two outwards from the body, as if drawing a bow, then retune to pitch. you can also use lubricants such as big bends nut sauce on the nut slots every now and then to make bending easier and avoid strings binding in the nut slots.
If you’re planning major modifications because you aren’t happy with the performance of the guitar, consider getting a professional setup done before you shell out for anything else. this will cover truss rod, nut, saddle and string height adjustments – plus you’ll have an experienced eye to inform you on fret and fingerboard wear and whether any adjustments to the guitar’s action are necessary, not to mention any failing electrical components. the value of doing this before modding is that it may correct any perceived shortcomings in your guitar immediately, obviating the need for further work.