thomastik strings

[mandosonthemarsh]

Anyone out there have any feedback on the 3 gauges of thomastik strings. They are offering hard, soft and medium. I am currently using j74

[Stephen Lind]

the stark or heavy is actually a bit lighter than the J74's

[Tavy]

Personally I can't speak too highly of the "stark" or heavy TI's: absolutely beautiful to play on.

John.

[Tim2723]

Another satisfied stark user here.

[JEStanek]

I use the Mittels. I'm not a hard (grasser) player. They are quite comfortable. I don't think they are that much better than the LaBella ones Ted sells on the JazzMando site (JM-11s).

Jamie

[Steve L]

I play Irish music and use mediums on my Breedlove KF. I really like them.

[woodwizard]

I'm sold on "Starks". They are GREAT!

[grassrootphilosopher]

Folks,
what´s the difference between D`Addario (the mediums I use [Grisman and Skaggs endorsed], the heavy I tried and liked too [Ronnie McCoury endorsed]) and the Thomastik stuff y´all talk about?

I used Thomastiks on my stand up bass and they were good and now I use D´Addario and they are good also and cost me about half as much (good Hank Sr. tune). The guy that showed me my first guitar chords allways played Thomastiks on his Martin guitar.

I´m looking forward to you fellas to elaborate some more apart from just liking.

[Steven Clarkson]

I like the life of the Thomastik - they seem to hold up about twice as long as the J74s - also they are a lot easier on the fingers for sliding and long practices or performances - they definitely have a different tone, and I think the jazzmando strings are also a good option.

[MandoSquirrel]

Another lover of TI starks. Since the JazzMando E string loop slipping problem is supposedly over, my only objection to them is I prefer the wound A string of the TI's.

"what´s the difference between D`Addario ... and the Thomastik stuff y´all talk about?"

All the difference in the world. The TI's are flatwound chrome-steel rather than roundwound bronze(or brass). Flatwinding makes them smoother under the fingers, with tension close to that of a heavier roundwound. They don't yield as much high end, which some of us prefer for instruments that tend to be strong on the high end, or not strong enough on the lows. They do tend to lose a bit of volume relative to the roundwounds.

[Jim Nollman]

I traded mandolins for a few tunes, 3 weeks ago, with a very good player I meet once in a while at a local jam. I always enjoy picking on his old Flatiron A. But he couldn't do diddley with my F scroll, strung up with expensive flat-wound strings. He laughed to tell me he absolutely needs the bumpy friction of round-wounds to keep his fingers in one place while playing at speed, My strings made his fingers slide all over the fingerboard. Finally he clamped down hard, and apparently used the pick commensurately hard at the same moment. It was the first time I'd seen either of us break a string in over three years of getting together.

I do love the slippery slidey feel of my flat wounds.

[violmando]

Having been an upright bassist for over 30 year who's almost always used flatwounds, I've found that I do best with flatwounds on everything if I can get them. My fingers last longer, I can play faster, and I just feel more confident. And I DO think TIs last longer for the price. But if you don't mind the friction of roundwound, maybe it doesn't matter to you....On my Larson/Stahl cello, I haven't found anything that has as good of ring--the tone is INCREDIBLE, it pings!
Yvonne in Ohio

[grassrootphilosopher]

Elrod and all,

there you go, that´s what I wanted to know. So we are talking about apples and oranges in this case. Since I am pretty conservative I might as well stick with my roundwound phosphoric bronze D´Addario J 74 strings. I liked the Homespun tapes D´Addario strings best.

Reading about strings I found out that in the "old days" steel/nickel strings were the state of the art. So I´m never too old to learn new things.

[grassrootphilosopher]

Folks,

I have been looking the Thomastik strings up. Am I getting old, is my eyesight bad or does a set really sell in the 30,- USD range? For that money I´d get 6 sets of J 74´s.

This does not mean that the strings are bad. Just my thought about strings. If I were a working musician making sufficient money to consider tax deduction, I might try them out. I would even try them out if one set of strings would outlive six sets of j 74´s which means half a year of picking if I´m not giging (in that case 1 set per show).

Elrod, how are the Thomastiks holding up and are they really that expensive?

Mind you, I turned on to guitar bulk strings because of the price (Martin bulk instead of D´Addario regular strings). The bulk strings are only minimally inferior to the "regular" strings. The price-difference makes up for the lifespan of the guitar-strings.

[Tavy]

I have been looking the Thomastik strings up. Am I getting old, is my eyesight bad or does a set really sell in the 30,- USD range? For that money I´d get 6 sets of J 74´s.

This does not mean that the strings are bad. Just my thought about strings. If I were a working musician making sufficient money to consider tax deduction, I might try them out. I would even try them out if one set of strings would outlive six sets of j 74´s which means half a year of picking if I´m not giging (in that case 1 set per show).

Elrod, how are the Thomastiks holding up and are they really that expensive?


This depends upon whether you like to change your strings regularly or not - I've tried D'Addario J74's and TI heavies - and I much prefer the feel of playing on the TI's. I've also had the current set of TI's on for 11 months (!) playing at least an hour a day and around 1 gig every two weeks. So far I can't detect any change in sound or tone from the strings, and they still feel great. One thing to note however: I don't chop much, but when I do you get visible "dents" on the G strings where the pick hits them, so maybe heavy users of the chop would get through a set much more rapidly.

HTH, John.

[dulcillini]

I really like the Thomastiks. I use the 154H (heavy). However, I do not play chops and heavy percussive style. I like the long sustain, clear notes, and easier fretting. Also, they feel real nice. I have also used the JazzMando set by LaBella and franky, I could not tell the difference and they are 15-20 bucks cheaper. I only tried the Thomastiks because I had read so much about them. They are very good, but not sure they are 20 bucks better than the LaBella-JazzMando set. When my current Thomastiks wear out, I will probably go back to the LaBella-JazzMando--saving enough to buy my wife a chicken dinner !!:))

Mike:mandosmiley:

[John Flynn]

I like T-I's, but I have had breakage problems with the wound A strings of the medium set on two different mandolins that have not had breakage problems before or since. I have them on a third mandolin with no problems. I have also tried the JM-11s. I like the tone almost as well as the T-Is, but my impression is that they don't have the incredibly long life of the T-I's. If I tried T-I's again, which I probably will at some point, I will use the heavy set for two reasons. First, I'm pretty sure the core of the wound A strings is slightly heavier than the mediums, perhaps mitigating the breakage issue. Second, the tension is closer to the sets my mandolins were designed for, perhaps improving on the volume.

[dj coffey]

I tried the Jazzmando strings on my Bridger - I will have to agree - I really like the feel of the strings...unfortunately, I wasn't as pleased with the impact on the tone of my mandolin. It seemed less bell-like, more muffled than when I used the EXP J-74's. I really wanted to like these sound of the strings, because they felt so nice. Alas, I'm back to the EXP's.

I do plan to try the Thomastiks at some point, but I'll go for the heavy's.

[John Hill]

Yes, the TI's are expensive relative to J74's but they last an exceedingly long time so by the time you change several sets of J74's it equals out in my mind.

The only way to know if you'll like them is to try them. Compared to a mandolin a set of strings is a cheap way to alter/improve/change your tone.

[MandoSquirrel]

Yeah, the TI's (or JM11's) will last lomg enough to possibly offset the cost. I've tried both, & prefer the wound A on the TI's.

[Trip]

the TI starks do last about 10 times as long for me....the beauty is the wound A.....and if I could get a wound E, I would be in heaven,(I wonder if you could take a wound A from a "soft set" and use it as the E instead of the plain string on a set of Starks, since the E is the only string that seems to die........and I actually like the tone more than round wound Bronze......maybe not as loud, but much more friendly tone

[John Hill]

the TI starks do last about 10 times as long for me....the beauty is the wound A.....and if I could get a wound E, I would be in heaven,(I wonder if you could take a wound A from a "soft set" and use it as the E instead of the plain string on a set of Starks, since the E is the only string that seems to die........and I actually like the tone more than round wound Bronze......maybe not as loud, but much more friendly tone

Perhaps. The a in the TI soft set is .14 and the heaviest guage for an e I've ever seen is the La Bella heavy mandolin set with an e at .12

You can buy individual strings from http://www.juststrings.com/

[Michael Cameron]

No wound E-strings that I could find. The single A's are almost $13 apiece.