Metropoulos Forum

Stay away from these strings guys. Overpriced Elixer clones. Luckily I got a set free to test drive. They are nice for the first day or so. Put a few hours of playing on them and as the coating starts to come off, they also begin to lose tension and are more of a pain in the ass to keep in tune. You could hear them go out of tune mid song. I am not talking slightly sharp or flat, but severely flat(talking 3/4-1 step flat).

Yes I properly stretched them out beforehand.

I really dig Snake Oil strings:

http://www.sobstrings.net/

They seem to last a VERY long time, and sound very "chimey". Also, they never go out of tune on my LP. I use the Original Nickel sets.

Highly recommended by me and many of the guys over at the LPF.

I use several types with custom guages to fit the job
Nickel alloy's - Rock
Nickel - Blues
Stainless Steel - Progressive Metal

Anyway, sounds like those Cleartone strings are for guys that play strings for one show and then toss 'em.

JimiJames wrote:I use several types with custom guages to fit the job
Nickel alloy's - Rock
Nickel - Blues
Stainless Steel - Progressive Metal

Anyway, sounds like those Cleartone strings are for guys that play strings for one show and then toss 'em.

Thing is that they are like $15/pack

I usually use DR Tite Fit, but Allen gave me quite a few packs of the Pure Blues so I am going through those right now. I kind of like these, but I am going back down to 9 guage as these seem to be a bit large for regular .010-.046

Those Snake Oils were really ruined for me. I bought a few sets back when you had to email the guy (I forget his name but he was a nice guy) and I had to wait. After months I found out they were sent but not received. Shit happens. He said he'd resend them. Waited. Never got em. Said fuck it. Bought a couple more sets. Waited another month or two for them and finally they came. I mustve been put back on the bottom of the list after explaining all this They werent cheap then. Bout $10 shipped a set and I bought a bunch total just to receive only a few months and months later. Anyway I put em on my guitars the day before a gig. Thought they sounded ok but I was bitter so maybe they were good but the next night at a gig I broke 1 string ever single set, 2 in one set. I was fuckin pissed. I wanted to flame em far and wide but the guy seemed nice just way too busy with emails which is funny because even tho I got that sense he still would give his life's story in an email when asked a simple string question.

Maybe Ill try them again as it seems their shits together with the site and everything and no more waiting I guess? Ive used Pyramids since.

Never broken any snake oil strings and they stay on my guitars for a very long time. In fact they have survived many de stringings/re stringings for pickup replacement/alteration etc and still sound great.

I've used Thomastik powerbrites for the last four years on my rock guitars and have been quite impressed with how long they hold their tone. For surf I have to make my own sets out of bulk strings to get the heavy gauge I like on my jazzmasters. Phil

Billy Batz wrote:Ive used Pyramids since.

Now there's a good reliable string. Like em' for Strat's & LP's.
They've been around for a zillion years.

On hand I have more spare strings than a music strore. When I lock-in to a set I order by the gross. Some are custom order and some come standard.
I order a shit load of E-B-G spares in different guages so that I can "tune-in" the right feel where the strings have an even tension.
I used to change strings every other week. Now it's roughly once a month. That's only because I don't play just 1 guitar...

Some people like SRV,Trower or a particular type of music genre are heavy handed where others are light.
So when someone says a particular string is good or sucks, I keep in mind the players own agressiveness in their technique. Whether your breaking strings or not.

The way I look at strings is the same way I look at picks.
Overall they're inexpensive and to try a new style string/set would be benificial.
You never know when you'll come across a string/set that "works' for you.
Man, I tell ya, you can have a beauty of an axe but with the wrong strings on there's no desire to play it...

marT wrote:Never broken any snake oil strings and they stay on my guitars for a very long time. In fact they have survived many de stringings/re stringings for pickup replacement/alteration etc and still sound great.

Yeah Ive agreed it was just a bad experience in a sea of good ones (for other people anyway) but if it happened to you youd feel the same way. But Im due to try em again. I feel like emailing him and demanding a few sets for free this time

Anyone try out any La Bella strings for electrics? Namely the Hard Rockin' Steel brand.

I have SOB strings.
I've only broken a couple over the course of a year, I play about 2 hours a day, play out n' stuff. I haven't done a full restring in about a year, and I don't think I've replaced a string in 6 months.

Do you lose sustain with using the same exact set of strings overtime?

I do

I wasnt trying to say that SOBs break a lot or anything. Just that look at how f'd up that 'trial' situation was for me. It took me like 3-4 months maybe to get 2 sets of strings when from the beginning I paid for 6 total (4 the first time I think and then was promised 2 then bought another 2 and was put on the back of the list each time it seems). Then bam, set from hell. I hate it when equipment goes haywire because it looks so unprofessional. 'Look at that idiot on stage, he cant get his shit together.' It was at a very big local club too.

I just bought 3 sets last monday. That was more then a week ago. Right after my first post. Thought I was due to try em out again and get a fair trial. I ordered them the same time with KT66s from Trampy, and Van Zandts from Musictoyz. The other stuff was here by that wed and thu. Oh well as long as theyre good and dont break on me in droves again. Before that gig I hadnt broken a string in a looooong time.