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.
"Roger" to Savarez 500J; I have tried dozens of strings and always come back to these for power, tone, durability, etc. The LaBella bass strings were better than their trebles.
I also like Savarez with the Alliance carbon trebles, but I find the high E string a little cold sounding and its very small diameter which is not so good for pull offs. Never liked LaBella but some here seem to like the 820 set. I heard LaBella just came out with their first carbon set, and they also make the Pepe Romero strings that are getting good reviews by classical guitarists. I have been experimenting lately and currently have Knobloch C.X. basses and Dogal Diamante trebles. The Knoblochs are the best bass strings I have used by a margin, really awesome I just hope they last. The Dogal trebles have that nylon sound but not too plasticy, very sweet sound and real nice picado sound and descent volume. They are really quiet as far as finger nail noise. I will be trying the Knobloch C.X. trebles next which are carbon but supposed to sound warmer than Savarez Alliance. Choosing strings is tough, so many different ones to try and to find one that suits your guitar, feel on the fingers and sound preference.
Good Luck
_____________________________
Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
I have found that which strings are best depends a lot on the guitar (hat-tip to Ricardo). I have a trebly blanca which sounds like a different instrument when fitted with LaBella 820Bs, but the same strings sound at best average on my other guitars. I recommend experimentation with a range of well regarded strings - e.g. Luthier 20s, Savarez, DAddarios - to find which compliment the tonal qualities of your particular guitar the best. cheers
As mentioned the 820's and 427 seem a popular choice The 2001 series - CLASSICAL medium tension - clear NOT black - are an under-rated set - trebles are sweeter than the 820 series IMO ( think juan Martin endorses this set )
My personal favourite set Savarez new cristal E and B Alliance G Corum bass set These work noticeably 'best' for my 86 media Luna
Luthier 20, Royal classics and Mari strings are also popular sets that sound and feel great As mentioned different guitars respond differently so you may want to Experiment for a few months Orhan Anafarta has some videos on you tube where he tries different strings - even through the compressed format differences are noticeable https://youtu.be/UhtwvhLrsxA
After a few nerdy questions thrown at some of my favourite players on face book the ones that responded seemed to favour Savarez Alliance - medium tension ( Miguel Angel Cortes, Paco Javier Jimeno, Juan Carmona use these )
quote:
Knobloch
Keen to try the basses very expensive bass $52 - they are becoming heavily endorsed and promoted at present
All you can do is try, and try and try. In my case I loved the La Bella basses but hated the trebles, but, they just came out with the Vivace which has same bass but with carbon trebles. These are now my string of choice, as they are a bit flatter sounding than the D'Addario Pro Arte Carbons, which have a richer sound, that I love, but perhaps a bit too complex for flamenco. YMMV.