Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland
String review
I recently had been using some D'Addario Pro Arte dynacore EJ45TT as oppose to the normal EJ45's. These are Silverplated wound Titanium trebles
So these I put a set on 2 different guitars and , despite my playing , I did notice quite a few things . Previous to this I have been using the normal EJ45's . on the same guitars so the comparison for me was directly one set of D'Addario for another.
For me the D'Addario range in particular has always been a good choice , one of the main things is the fact that they seem to last so much longer than other makes of string
and this includes the D string which inevitably seems to be often the first to snap. Therefore once again these are good value. I know many flamenco guitarists have tried all kinds of stirngs before they find the set that they stick with , and yet often when they change guitars the strings do not react
the same, and why should they .
So the first thing I noticed was that within a very short space of time they seemed to stretch in Ok , faster than most I though , always with a new set of strings there is that
first day of different strings going flat as they bed in and stretch . After a relatively short time I didnt notice that happening so much. For me this doesnt really bother me so much , but so much the better if it doesnt happen. The feel of the strings , especially the top 3 ( G,B,E) was the same or little difference. I have heard it said that some other makes of titanium strings feel a bit thinner and
the player may have to adjust his playing a bit fit with them .
Comparing the two types , TT and normal, I see the diameters are the same . Prices over here in Europe are ;approx .. EJ45 7.90 euro EJ45TT 12.00 euro
I noticed also a definite percussive type of sound from the trebles , and now that brings us to the personal side of things, whether you like that kind of sound or not will
determine in part how you will get on with them.
The first guitar I tried them on was the 171 SF , many here know this guitar well and many even here have one for themselves so its a well enough known sound. The other was a guitar I bought a long time ago in Cordoba although it has had a few changes and repairs since then ,,..
For me the sound was actually not so different on the factory produced Yamaha. Which brings me to the point of the guitar itself , if it is a hand made guitar the instument will be much more sensitive to changes such as stings etc.. but for the factory
guitar not so much , if any . perhaps merely due to thicker soundboard etc..
So all in all I would say that if you own a lower end, factory type flamenco you would do very well to stick to the good old EJ45's. If you have a higher more expensive or hand made guitar then I would say give them I try, I personally think that many players would like them. definitely I cannot find anything bad to say about them , it is of course in the end a matter of taste. They may not change the sound of the guitar out of all recognition but they do give it a bit of power and percussive treble quality ..
Would I use them again ..? one one guitar yes ..on the other maybe not .
Of course recording on one little normal inexpensive video camera will only give the sound it gives as basic , to my ears the sound is better in real life ...as to the the playing,... unfortunately not.
I have an EJ45TT set I've been waiting to try for a while now. They are supposed to be in between a standard nylon and carbon string in terms of brightness and feel which is good cause I can't stand carbon trebles. Hopefully mine will work out.
Not to be too skeptical, BUT, the only real difference in these graphs is the amplitude of the signal, which could easily be attributed to a lot of things (age of strings, etc). So while maybe interesting to look at, means ... Not too much.
Printable Version
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread