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Posts: 271
Joined: Sep. 19 2011
From: Louisville KY
Luthier White Nylon Trebles
After seeing Paco and being reminded of the whitetrebles I thought I would give them a try. So this is my opinion, and mine alone, take it or leave it...
I tried these on my Castillo negra in place of my normal D'Addario J46C.
You may have noticed that Paco isn't using the 3rd string, (G), on his guitar. There's a good reason for that. The Luthier WhiteTreble G is perhaps the most disappointing string I have ever put on a guitar. This string would be a candidate for a replacement string for a cejilla, but not for use on a guitar.
The G feels like a slack rubber band under your fingers and has no tone at all. It is so thin that you will be hard pressed to distinguish it from the B string. As a matter of fact, you can use the thing for a B with no problems, it will tune up just fine and won't feel overly strong under your fingers. At first I thought that Strings By Mail had shipped me 2 B's and an E, but after getting out the micrometer I could tell that there was in fact what was supposed to be a G in the package. To some up my thoughts of the G, I would say powerless and lifeless. It reminds me of something you would have found in the sets of the Labella 820s which had the manufacturing problem.
The B and E are a different story. If you don't like carbon fiber, but you are looking for a brighter string, this may be the one for you. Its my thoughts that these strings aren't as musical as D'Addario, but they do pack a brightness not found in most nylon strings. Over all they feel pretty good under the fingers and seem to play in tune. They are a little 1 dimensional in sound, but its my opinion that "tone colors" isn't a important factor in flamenco as they are in classical, and these strings are probably geared for flamenco players.
The Luthier WhiteTrebles seem to settle in quickly and begin holding tune more rapidly than D'Addario and other popular strings. When I first put them on they seemed a little dull, but they brightened up within minutes. I decided to leave them on my guitar for a few days before putting my J46C trebles back on, just to see how I truly felt about them. So far I must admit that I like them pretty well. They for sure are brighter than D'Addario in this case. They don't have quite as much power and guts perhaps, but they will give you more of a blanca like sound/ boost in brightness if you need it.
Its a shame that the G string isn't better. If it had more mass/ tension, I would consider using the complete set on my negra all of the time. As it stands though I have J46C's on except for the B and E. So in the end I don't know if I'll use these strings all of the time. I don't have a problem mixing basses and trebles, but I would end up spending about $12 per set to use this combination.
The Luthier WhiteTrebles cost $3.39 from Strings By Mail. So if you are looking for an experiment, they may be worth your while. Just save back one of your normal G strings in case you are as disgusted with the G in their set as I am.
Posts: 271
Joined: Sep. 19 2011
From: Louisville KY
RE: Luthier White Nylon Trebles (in reply to Shawn Brock)
Aquila's Alabastro trebles may in fact be better. I have some on order and will try them out. I have to say, these Luthier Whites have something in them that I like. I'm not sold on using them all of the time, but they are better than I expected.
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