Shipping String Weight

[lpa53]

What string type does Guild ship its dreads with?

Would that have been the same weight in '74?

Are the dreads specifically designed to sound best with a certain weight?

and...

What do LTGers think of the quality of current Guild strings?

 

[West R Lee]

Not sure about now, but for decades Guild shipped the overwhelming majority of acoustics with light gauge strings.

West

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

As far as strings go, my rule of thumb is this.
If you want the fullest sound out of your guitar, use medium gauge strings.
I like phosphor bronze mediums on dreds and jumbos that have rosewood sides and backs and 80/20 bronze mediums on mahogany and maple guitars.

If you have trouble playing medium gauge strings, then lights will be the best fit for you.
Light gauge strings are also nice and easy to play, if you are not competing with a lot of other instruments.

Lately, I have been putting DR Rare medium guage strings on my wife's guitar.
They are the same size as other brands lights but sound very nice, play soft and sound full and loud.
I would recommend them to anyone that likes light gauge strings.

I'm not a fan of coated strings.
They do last longer than uncoated strings but you loose some sound to them IMHO.

My favorite strings are D'Addario medium gauge phospher bronze.

 

[chazzan]

I have tried Guild Acoustic Strings in the past two years; the 12 & 13 gauge acoustic phosphor bronze.

The strings in almost all the sets for the both 12 &13's were old, and slightly corroded!

They didn't sound bad (or I would have returned them) but I was not impressed at all. FYI I believe I must have bought about 4 sets of both the 12 and 13's (from a few different dealers, so it was not the case of the strings being VERY old and lying around for years). At best they had a brighter "janglier" feel, but IMO not worth the money.

From LTG members RX I am now using JP phosphor bronze- I like the strings!

 

[West R Lee]

I use John Pearse 80/20 lights on everything but my maples, there I use Thomastik Plectrum lights.

West

 

[jte]

In the '70s they shipped the guitars with M-450, the medium gauge phosphor bronze strings (which were D'Addario J-17).

jte- a former Guild dealer