What are your favorite strings for mellowing an over-bright guitar?

[Ed-in-Ohio]

What are your favorite string sets for mellowing-out an over-bright acoustic guitar? So far, my favorites are:

• GHS Vintage Bronze
• GHS Silk and Bronze
• Martin Retros
• SIT Silencers

What are some others worth trying?

[sbpark]

I would actually try different picks for an overly bright guitar. Maybe try a Dunlop nylon pick. DR Rare strings would be my suggestion though if you're dead-set on switching strings.

[Brucebubs]

D'Addario Silk & Steel.
Thomastik-Infeld 'Plectrum'.
Also try tuning down a 1/2 step or more.

p.s. Ed, Elderly Instruments have a special on all GHS strings at the moment, enter code #GHS316 for a 15% discount.

[travisbrown]

Eat fried chicken with your fingers before playing.

You might think I'm kidding.

[Racerbob]

Also try Newtone Master Class double wounds
or D'Addario Flattop Phosphor Bronze, listed as "warm, semi-bright tone" plus the are the "quietest" when it comes to string noise you'll ever play.

[Tico]

...........

[Wild Bill Jones]

I have had great success using round core strings like Newtone or Pyramid. Also you might try going up a point on the gauge of the first and second strings, say 12 to 13 and 14 to 15. This has worked for me.

[steelvibe]

Interesting thread. I'm trying to do this very thing with my RainSong. So far my favorites have been D'addario Flat Tops (+1 Racerbob) and John Pearse 610LM Silk Phos Bronze- which are on my Shorty right now. They have mellowed nicely and have a nice feel to them.

Next up are Retros, but I have never thought that beefing up the trebles would mellow the sound. Schmaybe I should try the Tony Rice monels? Thanks for the tip Wild Bill

[Wade Hampton]

Strings are definitely one way to mellow out an excessively trebly, harsh-sounding guitar, but they don't always work just by themselves. But to answer your question, normally I start by using John Pearse phosphor bronze strings. If that doesn't tone down the high end response enough, next I'll try John Pearse Pure Nickels.

As SB mentioned, the pick material has an impact, to which I'll add that saddle material probably has the biggest impact of all.

Some folks have found that - for them - bone saddles are always the best choice, regardless of the guitars they're put on. But while I have bone appointments on most of my instruments, there's a significant minority of them that don't sound as good as I'd like with bone saddles.

So when that's the case and bone just isn't right for a given guitar, first I'll get a Tusq/Graphtech saddle installed. If it's still too harsh, then I'll go with micarta. I think I've got two or three instruments with micarta saddles and three or four with Tusq. All of the rest have bone.

Any time you read a post on this or any other guitar forum describing exactly what kind of tone you can get from a specific saddle material, view that with some distance and healthy skepticism. Different guitars will respond in different ways, and while the person who's written the overly specific post is probably entirely sincere, they're still inevitably basing what they've written only on a handful of experiences.

If a longtime repair tech who's had thousands of instruments cross his or her workbench, like Frank Ford, writes down a description of what you can expect, that's different.

Otherwise, take what you read with a grain of salt, including my posts. It's all pretty subjective.

Complicating matters further is that the single biggest influence on a guitar's tone is the player's right hand attack. (Or, if she or he is a lefty, left hand attack.) You and I could take turns playing the same guitar and get very different sounds out of it.

So your choice of strings are the easiest and most obvious place to start when attempting to tame the treble response on a guitar. But they're just the start.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[BrunoBlack]

+1^^^^ I think Wade has provided a great answer. The simple first step is using the PB strings as he suggested, but the rest of his comments are good and important in my opinion.

[Goodallboy]

Yeah, use coated strings. Or coat regular strings with Bar-b-cue sauce.

That will tame 'er down!

[guitararmy]

My favorite mellow strings are:
DR Rare PB
Martin Retro Monel
Elixer Polyweb

[bitraker]

try a thicker pick, 1.00 ++

and Monels

and yes, bear grease does work in a pinch

[JMW01]

Originally Posted by guitararmy

My favorite mellow strings are:
DR Rare PB
Martin Retro Monel
Elixer Polyweb

The Elixer Polyweb strings tamed the brightness on my J-35 and the tone is really sweet and mellow. A perfect fit for this guitar.

[jpmist]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

D'Addario Silk & Steel.
Thomastik-Infeld 'Plectrum'.
Also try tuning down a 1/2 step or more.

I think that last one bears repeating. Tune down a step and put your capo on F.

You'll get a definite softening of your treble with slacker strings and unless you hate the idea of using a capo on F to get back to standard tuning it really is worth a try.