Silk and Steel for OT

[doanepoole]

Just strung up my old Gibson A with some silk and steel strings, and gotta admit it blew me away. Of immediate note is there is far less difference in tone between the wound and unwound strings than is the case with bronze and phos. bronze strings. The wound strings have a very warm, lively tone. I really like em!

[Sellars]

I play with lenzners on my flattop mandolin. they have silver and silk strings. It really suits old-time, because the tone is not as harsch as the phosphorbronze strings.

in short: I like 'em too http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[8ch(pl)]

I use them on my mandolin-banjo. it makes a lot of difference in toning down this "Brash" instrument.

[mandolooter]

love 'em!

[bluesmandolinman]

I use silk $ steel on my old ´27 Ajr too ...

[Loren Bailey]

Sellars,

Where do you get your Lenzners? I've heard great things about them but can't find any place on the web that sells them.

Thanks
Loren Bailey

[WV Mike]

I may give them a try on my old Gibson some time. I put some TI softs on it. I really like them and they seem to last forever.

[Sellars]

Sellars,

Where do you get your Lenzners? #I've heard great things about them but can't find any place on the web that sells them.

Thanks
Loren Bailey
The music store in my town here in the Netherlands has them. I believe they sometimes pop up on the German Ebay site (www.ebay.de)

In the classical forum there are some discussions on these strings. I believe Alex, who is a frequent poster there, also sells them. If you use the search on Lenzners, a couple of topics should pop up.

best,
Roel

[John Flynn]

I really like the GHS S&S strings for OT. I have them on my travel mando and they seem to tone down the "tinny" "nasal" sound that travel mandos tend to have. I have also had S&S's on my Parsons Flat Top and I am probably going back to them. I tried T-Is on the Parsons, but while they had great, mellow bass, the treble just faded out to nothing and the volume was poor. I have also tried D'Addario FT's on the Parsons and while they are loud and woody, they have a hint of that "nasal" quality. So it will be back to S&S's on the next change.

[mandroid]

GHS S&S sets are E.011 A.016 trebles, kinda heavy for some instruments, the others feel a little lighter than their diameter in bronze wound, still wonder if another company offers .010-.036 set of S&B, or S&S(silvered copper)

[Dolamon]

Mandroid - Black Diamonds (New Series) are .0095 to .036 and are silver wrapped G and D courses. I've used these on Larson's, Gibson's and for the heck of it, tried them on a 14 inch KM 110 solid top. They worked on all of them - very well too. Just Strings stocks these.

Most recently I've been patching some sets of strings for a new Octave and a Mandola with GHS LJ .050, .032, .022 and some plain .014's. These are listed under the name, "Laurence Juber" (Guitarist for Paul McCartney / Wings) and have a cryogenic core with a smoother, Phosphor Bronze wrap. The jury is still out on these but they just sing out of the box and are the same tension as PB. As far as longevity goes ... too early to tell yet but they were designed for a longer playing time between changes.

The individual string listing at #Just Strings - (http://www.juststrings.com/laurencejuberghsguitarsinglestrings.html) There is quite an assortment of guages - so for those special instruments, these might be worth a try. (Ball ends only at this time.)

[doanepoole]

Thank you Dolamon for that lead on the Black Diamonds...I'm also a little nervous about the plain steel gauges on the GHSs on my old mando...think I'll try a set of the Black Diamonds next.