Anyone Use ELixir PB Lights on their Guild Acoustic ?

Ron from Texas

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I just put some Lights on my D35NT . I usually use Guild Med but they hurt my finger tips after a long period of practice so decided to try the lights . I only messed with it a little before I took it to the shop for bridge repair so not sure how helpful they will be . Anyone else ever try the Elixir lights and if so how do you like them ?

IMG_8137 by Ron Hodges, on Flickr
 

davismanLV

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I've used those very strings many times on ALL of my guitars. Elixir makes really good strings. They have the "coated string" thing going, where they won't be as brilliant at the beginning, or as dull at the end, but maintain a more consistent sound all the way through their life. Easy to play and consistent. And they last a long time. A bit longer than uncoated strings anyway. That's my take on them.
 

txbumper57

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The Elixer Nanoweb PB strings seem to be a bit too Jangly for my taste on my Guilds. Years ago I used them religiously but the quality started tapering off and I would get sets that had a dead string or wouldn't intonate properly. After a few bad sets I switched to Daddario PB's and have used those ever since.

TX
 

Big-Al

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I've got Elixir 80/20 Nanoweb light gauge strings on my GAD50 right now. They have been on there about a day. I find that Nanoweb strings need a bit of playing-in to bring out their full bass response. I'm guessing that the coating binds up the windings a bit and it takes a little shaking to loosen them up. Even so, I like what I hear already. The GAD50 has bass to spare anyway.

This is the last set of Elixirs in my string stash. I would use Nanowebs more often, except that I can't seem to resist doing an excessive bulk buy of D'Addario PB lights every year when GC has them on their Black Friday sale for $2 a set. I have 24 more sets to burn through before next Thanksgiving . . .
 
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Ron from Texas

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Wow , as I said this is my first time to use Elixir strings . Since it's been so long since I played and bought strings and I couldn't find any Guild strings , I just didn't know exactly what to buy . But before I joined here I had googled what people were using on Guild guitars and most what I found were using Elixir so I decided to try those . When I get my Guild back from the shop I guess I'll see how they work for me .
 

Neal

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For what it's worth, your D-35 was designed to take light strings.

I use Elixer PB lights on mine. They are jangly and overly bright for a few days, but then mellow out.

They last a long, long time without losing tone.
 

jeffcoop

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Like Neal, I use Elixir 80/20 lights on just about everything I own. They may not be the absolute best sounding strings at their peak, but they're excellent, and they last a long time.
 

Ron from Texas

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For what it's worth, your D-35 was designed to take light strings.

I use Elixer PB lights on mine. They are jangly and overly bright for a few days, but then mellow out.

They last a long, long time without losing tone.

Like Neal, I use Elixir 80/20 lights on just about everything I own. They may not be the absolute best sounding strings at their peak, but they're excellent, and they last a long time.

Thanks for the info , glad to hear that . I look forward to trying them out soon I hope .
 

adorshki

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Wow , as I said this is my first time to use Elixir strings . Since it's been so long since I played and bought strings and I couldn't find any Guild strings, I just didn't know exactly what to buy .
When your guitar was made Guild was actually having D'Addario make their strings for 'em, at least the PB Lights, as D'Addario had introduced the formula in '74 and Guild was one of if not the first to actually make guitars with 'em as standard equipment.
Sometime around the move to Corona, Fender dropped D'A and used a Mexican maker they owned (Squier, IIRC) and those strings weren't quite as good.
On close of Tacoma they got out of the string business altogether for a couple of years before getting back together with D'Addario in New Hartford.
On close of New Hartford they got out of the string business again, (why they're gonna be hard to find) and I'm not sure what Cordoba's installing on new guitars.
When your guitar was built, the set would have been the Guild version of D'A's EJ-16, uncoated PB light .012-.053, with a quirk: Guild's version, known as "L-350" used an .025 G whereas EJ-16's use an .024.
When they got back together with D'A in New Hartford, they started using D'A's "EXP" series coated PB's, and actually went to mediums on dreads and jumbos, but that was following a lot of spec changes to things like bracing (went to red spruce, actually carried over from Tacoma designs) and top radius.
It's possible your bridge lift was aggravated by using mediums on a guitar designed for lights as Neal said.
I've been using D'A's EJ-16's ever since I put my last set of L-350's into "reserve", and buy an extra .025 single which D'A still offers to replicate the original Guild gauge selection, and my dreads' necks still have spot-on alignment with the bridge and no bridge lift.
Bridge lift is also partly a result of the way Westerly built 'em: they lacquered the top before installing the bridge and left a bare spot to glue the bridge on afterward, but that spot was a little smaller than the actual bridge outline, so there was always a little edge of finish underneath and surrounding the bridge.
Because the hide glue bond to the bridge is stronger than the finish bond to the top, over time excess stress on the bridge can cause the glue to pull the finish up and create that gap at the back of the bridge.
I actually have that problem on my F65ce, curiously, on a guitar designed for extra lights .010-.047.
 
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Ron from Texas

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Thanks Adorski for that valuable info on the strings ! I would have never looked that up :( but great info to know . Hopefully the lights will keep my fingers from hurting so much . But when I need another set I'll consider the D'As' .
 

adorshki

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Thanks Adorski for that valuable info on the strings ! I would have never looked that up :( but great info to know . Hopefully the lights will keep my fingers from hurting so much . But when I need another set I'll consider the D'As' .
:friendly_wink:
I doubt the history info could be found anywhere else but here and it's scattered through a few threads as it is.
Some of it was pieced together from circumstantial evidence, like when I saw the change when they switched from D'Addario during the Corona period, I noticed the gauges had changed.
The G gets a lot of use from me so I always preferred that slight extra thickness.
I went looking for another supplier that offered that .025 G and it was D'Addario. Even the color of the windings matched the "old" L350's.
Got the confirmation years later when I joined here.
The Squiers used the .024 G too, even though Guild's spec charts still showed the L350's containing an .025 G all the way through Tacoma.
Fender got a little lax about updating specs around that time.
 

walrus

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Al, whenever you do your "what strings came with Guild guitars from the factory" lecture, I realize why I keep going back to the EJ16's. I will NEVER deviate again!

Seriously, you've posted that before, but I always enjoy it!

walrus
 

adorshki

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Al, whenever you do your "what strings came with Guild guitars from the factory" lecture, I realize why I keep going back to the EJ16's. I will NEVER deviate again!

Seriously, you've posted that before, but I always enjoy it!

walrus

:glee:
I always said if they're good enough for Guild they're good enough for me. (At least from Westerly)
NO disrespect intended to anybody else's favorite brands.
 

Westerly Wood

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Al, whenever you do your "what strings came with Guild guitars from the factory" lecture, I realize why I keep going back to the EJ16's. I will NEVER deviate again!

Seriously, you've posted that before, but I always enjoy it!

walrus

Oh, by far my favorite lecture by Al on the LTG. I now use lights on all my dreads as it makes so much longevity sense...Santa Cruz just sent me a complimentary set of their Low Tension strings to try on my Sc dread, as it has some issues caused by medium gauge tension original owner used since 2008. I plan to get a reset on it one day, but that could be years from now. It plays awesome! SC does not care about gauge but tension across each string. Some ethereal theory no doubt Hoover and team came up with. I look forward to the test. I know their dreads are suggested for Medium tension but the luthiers there suggested I stick with Low Tension. No doubt, Al must have called the shop and gave similar lecture :)
 

bluesypicky

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I was wondering when you'd catch the smell of barbecuing string thread wafting over the fence.

Smell of joy, triggering in me thirst and eagerness for cultural enrichment! Incomparable and potent...... I would catch it laying down inside a decomposing whale carcass, seconds before explosion.
 
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