Martin Retros on Maple Guitars?

[thegreatgumbino]

Anyone have experience with Martin Retros on maple backed guitars? They are my go to strings for mahogany guitars because of the sound and longevity. I ordered a used J150 from GC today. I'm curious to know if anyone has tried them on their J100/J150/J200 (or other maple baked guitars) and what you're thoughts are?

[Wade Hampton]

Gumbino, I recently sold my maple Guild jumbo, but nickel alloy strings were the type of strings that I preferred on it. Martin Retros are one of the sets that I used and liked on that guitar, so by all means give them a try once your new guitar gets here.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[thegreatgumbino]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Gumbino, I recently sold my maple Guild jumbo, but nickel alloy strings were the type of strings that I preferred on it. Martin Retros are one of the sets that I used and liked on that guitar, so by all means give them a try once your new guitar gets here.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

Thanks for the real world feedback, Wade. It's greatly appreciated.

[Hasbro]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Gumbino, I recently sold my maple Guild jumbo, but nickel alloy strings were the type of strings that I preferred on it. Martin Retros are one of the sets that I used and liked on that guitar, so by all means give them a try once your new guitar gets here.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

I agree on hog sound great, although they didn't go so well on a laminated back/sides guitar I tried them on. I can also attest they sound really good on african blackwood / moon spruce guitar I have, which surprised me for no logical reason...

Thread hijacking alert... Wade, was that a california made f55? very curious about those, but don't like the 1 & 11/16th nut width....

[Wade Hampton]

Happy to help. Something I’ve always done whenever I get a new instrument is test several different string alloys in fairly rapid succession (so each set is fresh and suitable for comparison.). For the past five or six years nickel strings have been one of the alloys tested. In fact, the next set of strings that will be going on the Eastman guitar I just bought will be nickel.

I’ve found that I dislike them on most guitars, but they sound good on enough instruments that I include them in the test.


whm

[Wade Hampton]

Hasbro (and his Frisbee-making brother Wham-O) wrote:

Originally Posted by Hasbro

I agree on hog sound great, although they didn't go so well on a laminated back/sides guitar I tried them on. I can also attest they sound really good on african blackwood / moon spruce guitar I have, which surprised me for no logical reason...

Which strings will sound best on an individual guitar is often surprising. That's why I always test several sets before deciding on which set to use on a guitar.

Originally Posted by Hasbro

Thread hijacking alert... Wade, was that a california made f55? very curious about those, but don't like the 1 & 11/16th nut width....

No, it was a Chinese-made GAD model. I don't remember its exact model number, but it was a blond maple jumbo that I dressed up even further by putting black Gotoh tuners with ivoroid buttons and a Gibson firestripe teardrop pickguard on it. It was a very handsome instrument, with ebony fingerboard, headstock veneer and bridge but rosewood binding.

Anyway, regardless of how good-looking it was, it sounded its best with nickel strings.


whm

[Brucebubs]

I haven't tried Monels on maple yet but do plan to soon.

I've had great success on one maple guitar with the John Pearse Pure Nickels that Wade recommended and DR Sunbeam round-cores are outstanding on another maple guitar. D'Addario Nickel Bronze also work well.

[fngrpck]

Martin Retros were the best string on my Larrivee LV10 quilted maple guitar. I tried most everything before.