Monday, 25 January 2016

D'Addario EJ45FF strings

A few months ago when stocking up on strings (I'm sorry Local Music Shop, but I buy my strings online, because I always get exactly what I want and it is half the price even with delivery) I noticed my normal string of choice - D'Addario EJ45 - now come in a "Carbon" version. I finally wound them on and observed a few points:
  • The trebles are transparent. For some reason I thought they be non-transparent!
  • The trebles are thinner. In fact the 3rd string is about the same thickness as a normal 2nd string. But then on the basses, the 4th string is a tiny bit thinner, the 6th string is a tiny bit thicker, neither enough to notice, the 5th string remains the same:
String     | Nylon  | Carbon
1st string | 0.71mm | 0.61mm
2nd string | 0.82mm | 0.69mm
3rd string | 1.02mm | 0.84mm
4th string | 0.74mm | 0.71mm
5th string | 0.89mm | 0.89mm
6th string | 1.09mm | 1.12mm
  • The thinner trebles are noticeable, but did not cause me any issues.
  • The trebles a brighter tone than nylon. Note the "carbon" in carbon strings means that the filament is made from fluorocarbon, which is essentially a hydrocarbon where all the hydrogens have been replaced with Fluorine. The Carbon-Fluorine bond is apparently the second strongest bond known next to Silicone-Fluorine. Interesting. Nylon on the other hand is a synthetic long-chain polymer which makes more sense as a fibre, but we've just run out of my chemistry knowledge.
  • The basses are about the same tone as the standard EJ45's. Maybe slightly brighter, hard to say, you'd have to do a control test.
  • The trebles feel "silkier", maybe "slipperier" might even be a better way to describe them. The basses have the same touch and feel as nylon wound, I didn't detect any difference.
  • The trebles bedded in faster than nylon, as in, they stopped stretching and held their tune[1] in less time. The basses maybe the same too, I find the nylon wound basses bed in reasonably quickly anyway. Note that I have been re-stringing the same way for a while - basses one twist at the bridge, 2nd/3rd treble two twists, 1st treble three twists. At the tuner I pull the string tight and loop it over itself so a minimum amount of turns to reach tune. This has always been the best way to get a fast bed-in for me.
  • The tone lasted long enough, not double the time considering the double the price.
I played a few long gigs on this set of strings which deadened them quicker than if they were just in a practise rotation.  So the dynacore basses have a slightly better tone than the standard basses, and the tone hangs in there a little bit longer.  The carbon trebles have a nice bright tone that lasts but over time I found I disliked the thinner strings.  Will I use them again?  No, but in the future I will try the "dynacore" and the EXP coated sets. There's a web page showing all the D'Addario string variants here http://www.daddario.com/DADProductsClassical.Page
[1] No classical guitar ever holds its tune. Just you holding the guitar for a few minutes is enough to put a bit of body heat into it which changes the tuning...which you re-tune compensate...and then when done pack away...and then next time it is out of tune again because it is cold again...

JAW

2 comments:

  1. Been a while. I'll a;ways keep coming back though. Circumstances beyond my control (nothing sad) have prevented me from playing guitar or piano for months now... listening to your teen spirit and shine as i write this. beautiful stuff! Never quit Mr. Robot!

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  2. Good to hear from you RG! Don't stay away from your music too long if possible! Funny, just uploaded Teen Spirit, got "dressed up" for it too, ha ha :-) Would have recorded a few more songs ready to go but had places to be. Life is busy, but there is always time for at least a little bit of guitar.

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