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ORIGINAL: sean65 On one hand they feel pretty good and the trebles have a fair amount of spank when played hard but make my guitar sound brittle.
Yes these strings are famous for that, and that is one reason i like them. In fact i am searching for the maximum of brittleness on my guitar and the Alabastro strings made by Aquila are even better than LaBella for that purpose. (only talking about trebles) Well after 7 years of guitar playing i finally found a string set that i have nothing to compain about. Its unbelievable. And it took me 5 years to get the right nail shape. And probably will take 20 years until im happy with my techniques aarrgggg.
Sabicas used labella golden trebles and savarez red card bass. For what it's worth. I have several old programmes from his concerts, and several mention what guitar(s) and strings he is using. In every case, that was his choice. Of course that was the late 1960's, before a lot of the newer strings were available.
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"Flamenco is so emotionally direct that a trained classical musician would require many years of highly disciplined formal study to fail to understand it."
Reviving this thread to say, i just put some La Bella 2001 flamenco black trebles on my guitar, and had to take them right back off.
They were all intonating really flat. Its too bad, cause i like the feel and bright spanky tone.
But i knew i'd be taking that chance. I dont think i like them enough to intonate the guitar exclusively for them.
Anyway, i just replaced them with some Luthier medium tension trebles. Im liking them alot so far, but they have'nt even stretched in yet, but they intonate perfectly. In fact, even better than my standard D'addario pro arte which is what i intonated the guitar for.
Next im gonna try some Saverez Alliance medium tension next. 50 bucks says the high E won't intonate.
I hate that. Sometimes i want something different for trebles, but man, they never want to tune up!
Say you buy a guitar, and it comes with D'addario strings on it. They play perfectly in tune, but you decide you dont like them.
You try some other strings out, and decide you really like the sound of La Bella flamenca negra trebles, but they dont intonate.
Well, first, you might buy another set to make sure you dont have a bad set.
If they still dont intonate, then you must file the saddle appropriately for these strings, obviously, or they will not play in tune.
That's all fine and good. Not a big deal to do that, especially if you're skilled and have the tools to do it yourself, or have a good luthier near by.
But if not, its not so convienient to have to do all that. And if you decide you want to return to the D'addario's, you'll have to do it all again.
you might being saying to yourself, "Why do strings randomly not tune up on certain guitars??"
Well, GREAT QUESTION. Who knows. Its related to diameter and density of the string itself. I would imagine its a complicated answer.
Carbon strings are notorious for this behaviour because they're generally much smaller in diameter than plain nylon, and usually more dense.
I just put a set of 820b trebles on my guitar and they all intonate sharp. Does anyone else experience this problem and does it go away after a while(I put them on like one hour ago) or does it stay like that?
I had good luck with the 2001 on some classical guitars, and even like the sound of the 2001 flamencos. Its just to bad that the 2001 flamencos still aren't made correctly, don't play in tune, and aren't as improved as they say they are. As for 820s for me, forget about it. By the time they started sounding right on my guitar, it was time for a new set.
I still say that a guitar has to adapt when you change brands of string. It takes some time for adjustment for both instrument and player. I'll never put another set of La Bella on a flamenco guitar though, or at least I don't think I will.
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aarrgggg. 
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