Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

I have e acoustic Celebrity Ovation CC047 western guitar. I've bought Ernie Ball medium light bronze strings. I have read many articles how Ernie Ball strings are one of the best ones and make less noices. Is that right? Thank you.

Here is Tomo's comment:

"For an acoustic guitar, I prefer D’Addario EJ-16 (.012-.053) strings. In general, I don’t like coated strings, because they don’t help me to improve my technique. Coated strings make it easy to press too hard (bad technique), without hearing finger noise."

These Ernie Ball cobalts are uncoated and sticky. they do sounds good but so much string noise. they are getting better with constant cleaning and fast fret.
-LaVoy

High maintenance strings are cumbersome. One of these days I think it would be fun to try a pair of flat wound guitar or pure nickel strings. Acoustic strings have always been a variety unless the gauge is specific to the instrument. These were last put on my babes acoustic, they seem to be bright.

Elixir Strings 11027 Nanoweb 80/20 Bronze Custom Light Acoustic Guitar Strings 0.011, 0.015, 0.022, ... E 0.012 B 0.016 G 0.022w D 0.031 A 0.041 E 0.052.

Coated strings I have not tried. Flat wound on a Bass ernie ball are sweet! Flat wound acoustic guitar.. Maybe.. (?)
-johno

Big D ’Addario fan here for acoustic. I play live about 3 or 4 times a month and nothing worse than strings breaking live. Had horrible luck with the overpriced Titanium's from Martin on my Martin lol.

One thing I learned recently is that changing string gauges changes Intonation.
It makes so much sense but I never thought of it.

My priority list is:
Don't break
Sound amazing (Have an almost bell like quality)
Stay in tune (Up and down the neck-Intonation)
Be easy on my fingers and hands (lights for me)

Thanks guys! I used to break strings all the times! (when I was a student at Berklee)

Funny part is I never break strings since I was endorsed by D'Addario!

Tomo

hi tomo,

are you currently still recommending
D'Addario XL EPN110 for electric guitar?

i am focusing efforts with stratocasters:

2022 fender avrii 1961 rosewood fb,
2023 prs silver sky, rosewood fb,
2023 mario martin s-style, rosewood fb.

I also have a
2021 g&l usa asat classic bluesboy 90, maple fb. (rocker :))

I have been using stringjoy 10-48's balanced tension strings but they are expensive.

i can change strings more often with less expensive strings i think.

thank you so much for your answer!
sunil

This is perhaps not worth so much thought to me, but maybe as a reference for someone - short notes on tried 10-46 sets:

-Elixir Nanoweb: general feel is great, both rhythm and soloing/single note lines. There is a good "bounceback" from the higher (thinner) strings with hammer on/pull off:s, and lifting off, which makes playing nicer than with strings that don't do that. (That is, generally very light sets). Round and bell-like, modern sound and slick feel because of the coating: barre- and triad slides etc. are a bit easier on the physics also. Great balance of volume on the whole set of 6 (lighter strings compared to bass side). Feels like a 10-set.

-Elixir Optiweb: same as above, but less coating. Sounds more like a classic electric guitar sound, less bell-like.

-D'Addario XS: Slightly coated. Sounds good. High strings feel a bit thinner than Elixir, and don't have the same bounceback. High string volume is a bit lower, and require slighly harder picking technique.
Set string tension is very similar to Elixirs, so only a light setup may be needed when changing back or forth.

-D'Addario NYXL: Well, this is a black horse. A completely different set. Very steely, straightforward and loud sound, in a good way. Guitar feels like a different guitar. No coating and a bit sticky feel (can be more demanding to do multiple string slides). Noticeably greater string tension than of those above, so a new setup us definitely required. Feels thicker than a normal 10-set. Not everyone's cup of tea, but a good set for what it does.

-D'Addario NYXL balanced tension: same as above, but with the peculiar balanced tension feel, which affects rhythm feel and bending feel especially with high strings.

-mysterious standard 10-46 set: the kind that used guitar shops usually put on their stock when doing setups. Baseline for everything else.

IDK if this is true or not, but since my fingers are getting strong, I find I'm preferring thicker strings. I started off with 8s, went to 9s, and now I'm at 10s. LOL :)

Personally I am very happy with 10s set for regular electric guitars.

You can try it. I think 10s set has a nice balance to me.

Tomo

Hi there, I'm new here, but very excited to explore. I found and made my own vintage Duo Sonic from parts on eBay - doing the research on constructing that guitar is how I found Tomo! Curious your advice for strings for the 22.5" scale. I've tried D'Addario 11s, which feel a bit floppy - and 12's which feel very thick under my fingers. I liked the medium Pyramid round core strings but one or more of them would go dead so fast, even when I strung them like the instructions said. Right now Im using 12-54 pyramid hex core which sound fantastic but still dont feel as comfortable as the lighter gauges. I'd love to just settle on a set that feel great and stick to it.

They look like little metal circles that stick up on the top of a Strat pickup, they're actually rod shaped magnets that go through the entire pickup. They're different heights on a Strat pickup to adjust the relative volume of the individual strings.