The Best Electric Guitar Strings: Tone and Value Compared
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The Best Electric Guitar Strings: Value and Tone Compared · Source: Ira Berger / Alamy Stock Photo
Let’s look at the best electric guitar strings for your axe. Do you go light or heavy? Cheap or expensive? Here are your options.
Types of Electric Guitar Strings
Key Information about Electric Guitar Strings
- Electric guitar strings are the make-or-break of your guitar tone. They also affect your feel, intonation and playability. Other things to consider are sustain and wear.
- Performance vs cost. Will you actually get good results from an expensive set of strings, or are you better off going slightly cheaper?
- Coated vs uncoated is a huge debate amongst guitarists. Do you risk long-term corrosion for instant results? Or go coated and have fresher strings for longer, that may sacrifice tone?
The Best Electric Guitar Strings: Function Over Form?
What are the best electric guitar strings? For me, that seems like a loaded question. Every player has different requirements for their strings. Whether they’re playing one show per string change, or are looking to put the strings on for a long time. Maybe player A needs a bright sound, whereas player B prefers something less intrusive.
The factors don’t stop there. As a teenager, I was playing guitar more than ever, and therefore burning through strings on a regular basis. However, I couldn’t afford to buy the best electric guitar strings. Consequently, I had to get creative and seek out better value options.
Here, we’ll be checking out cheap and expensive strings to see which is really best. Furthermore, we’ll also look at the tonal benefits of varying string gauges.
Value Strings
Until last year, I had never even considered buying cheap strings. When I say cheap, I mean really cheap. My usual attitude is you get what you pay for. That was until I discovered *Harley Benton’s Value Strings.
Let’s just get cost right out of the way. Whether you’re going light or regular gauge, these strings are £1.32 / €1.51 per set! That’s a whopping 75% cheaper than the next cheapest brand. Do you know what’s even better? The more you buy, the cheaper they get!
Like you, I had my doubts. Worry not, these are actually great strings. Sure, they’re not as bright as some of the premium brands, but they feel nice under your fingers and don’t snap if you think about string bending.
What are the disadvantages of buying cheap guitar strings? Longevity is significantly reduced. For me, I can get two gigs’ worth of use before I replace them, which is about 3 hours of playing time. But when they cost so little, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
Light Gauge
From being good for your wallet to being good for your fingers. Overall, lighter gauge strings are considerably easier to play compared to heavier examples. However, does it really matter?
In theory, the lighter the string, the less effort you have to put in to play, resulting in a better sound. Just take B.B. King, he played lighter strings, and sounded fantastic. I’m not exactly the Hulk, but I know I’d snap strings that light if I even looked at them.
Moreover, lighter strings could also be beneficial for players with arthritis, or even younger learners who are just starting to take the first few steps with the guitar. If you keep snapping strings, I’d recommend upgrading to something heavier.
Regular Gauge
What are regular gauge guitar strings? When looking at the best electric guitar strings, it’s not always about cost. 0.10 gauge strings are the standard when it comes to playability and tone. A lot of guitars come out of the factory with this gauge of string.
Unless you’re a diehard lightweight kind of guy or a faithful follower of heavier strings, anybody would be comfortable on a set of 0.10 gauge strings. They suit standard tuning on electric guitars such as Stratocasters and Telecasters. Amongst others, of course.
There are some limitations, though. Although the somewhat heavier gauge provides a fuller sound, the increase in weight can result in limited playability for some guitarists. Bends or faster licks could be an issue. All of this comes back to your own preferences and experiences as a player.
Custom Gauge
You can also get custom gauges. Whereby, the bottom strings, most commonly used for bending, are lighter. Whereas the top strings, used for power chords, are heavier.
Heavy Gauge
Next up in our look at the best guitar strings, we’re going heavy. Popular with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, heavier guitar strings wield the thickest tone of them all.
Despite their impressive credentials, heavy strings come at a cost. You shouldn’t just switch from a set of light strings to a set of 0.13s overnight. Your guitar will need to be set up accordingly! Moreover, your fingers will notice the difference too.
What else are heavy guitar strings good for? Heavy by name, heavy by nature, thicker strings are good for guitars that live in dropped tunings; going from Eb all the way to C standard.
Expensive Strings
Concluding our look at the best electric guitar strings, we move on to string royalty. Do expensive strings actually make a difference? Let’s find out.
Like anything in life, there are named brands that charge more just because they can. However, there are features that command a higher price tag. Such as with *coated strings. These are designed to help with tuning stability and longevity. Personally, I have a set of these on my super strat, and they’re not for me. They feel too heavy, and don’t give me the sharp results that I’d prefer.
The main lesson to learn is that you should buy the best that you can afford, and then channel that into what they’re being used for. If you’re just a regular player that only needs strings as a basic requirement, you can’t go too far wrong with some middle-of-the-road strings. However, if you’re playing a rare and expensive guitar, then the guitar police will come and get you if you use cheap strings on an expensive guitar.
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