kaydee
Strummer
Posts: 28
My main instrument is: tanglewood TW45VSB
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Post by kaydee on Feb 24, 2022 22:57:07 GMT
I agree Surfguy13,and I do like to buy british wherever possible,I still buy from Newtone but for dadgad strings.As far as the cost is concerned I do feel the Santa cruz strings are worth it,I was on a discussion on the AGF,(not a forum I am desperately keen on for several reasons.)The discussion was in regard to how often people change their strings.I have had a set of the santa cruz strings last easily for 18 months without any noticeable deterioration or tarnishing,Again Newtones are my first choice for dadgad and my second for standard tuning ,I have found the newtones don’t last quite as well with a couple of 3rd and 4th string breakages or the outer coils breaking,something I have not experienced on the Sant Cruz strings.On that basis and the fact that I have had them last for twice as long as the newtones (in standard tune) they are more or less the same on a cost per year basis. all the best Blimey, if the Santa Cruz strings are giving you that much life without any noticeable reduction in sound quality of degradation then it really is a no brainer. I will definitely buy a set! Where did you buy yours? I change my strings quite regularly as a matter of course and find that 4-6 weeks is about right, so 18 months is just mind-blowing. I have to be honest and say that I have had a set from both Newtone and DR that had slight tarnishing on the high E and B out of the packet. Also, and quite bizarrely, I have noticed a strange smell on the fingers after playing Newtone strings. Never had this before with any strings and I religiously use Fast Fret after playing. Also seem to get far more black residue on my fingers with Newtones. Really appreciate the heads up re Santa Cruz Parabolics....I look forward to trying them and I'll let you know how I get on. Guy I get mine from Steve at Fretsounds,including postage they cost about £18-00 but as I said they last really well,funny you should mention the black residue,I noticed that too,not something I get with the SC strings.I had a mix of strings on my guitar for a while,just happened to have 3 santa cruz and 3 newtones,and it was interesting that after about 4 months the SC strings looked new,but the newtones were very dull and tarnished. All the best and good luck with your continuing quest, Kevin
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Post by surfguy13 on Feb 25, 2022 9:28:11 GMT
Thanks Kevin, I shall get in touch with Fretsounds and give the SC a whirl. It is interesting that you have also had the black finger syndrome with Newtone strings, no idea why that residue is there. You always get some residue over the first few days of a new set of strings but I was finding that it actually got worse the more I played the Newtones. That is a bit of an eye opener if the Santa Cruz strings were still going strong after 4 months and the Newtones were pretty much knackered. I've never had a set of Newtones on a guitar for more than 8 weeks max as, by then, they really did need replacing. The DRs were still pretty fresh after 8 weeks and sounded bright and definitely not in need of changing; seems like the Santa Cruz are just getting played in by that point!! Guy
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Post by fatfingerjohn on Feb 25, 2022 10:11:33 GMT
I get mine from Steve at Fretsounds,including postage they cost about £18-00 but as I said they last really well,funny you should mention the black residue,I noticed that too,not something I get with the SC strings.I had a mix of strings on my guitar for a while,just happened to have 3 santa cruz and 3 newtones,and it was interesting that after about 4 months the SC strings looked new,but the newtones were very dull and tarnished. All the best and good luck with your continuing quest, Kevin Re Santa Cruz Parabolics. Interesting that it's difficult to find out what string gauge options are available. If you go on Fretsounds site it doesn't mention gauge, just low or medium tension. In fact the picture of the packet says 'Gauge means nothing. Tension means everything'. As they say on exam papers 'Discuss'
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kaydee
Strummer
Posts: 28
My main instrument is: tanglewood TW45VSB
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Post by kaydee on Feb 25, 2022 10:24:43 GMT
I get mine from Steve at Fretsounds,including postage they cost about £18-00 but as I said they last really well,funny you should mention the black residue,I noticed that too,not something I get with the SC strings.I had a mix of strings on my guitar for a while,just happened to have 3 santa cruz and 3 newtones,and it was interesting that after about 4 months the SC strings looked new,but the newtones were very dull and tarnished. All the best and good luck with your continuing quest, Kevin Re Santa Cruz Parabolics. Interesting that it's difficult to find out what string gauge options are available. If you go on Fretsounds site it doesn't mention gauge, just low or medium tension. In fact the picture of the packet says 'Gauge means nothing. Tension means everything'. As they say on exam papers 'Discuss' You are quite right,I like the fact that you buy just low or medium tension and I have to say after decades of experimenting with different makes and guages I agree with SC ,the guage is irrelevant,the strings just feel nice and easy to play,the one fact I slightly dislike with almost all other string makers is the huge range of string guages,I dont really care what the guage is until it feels too heavy,so for me it is simply too much choice and similarly too many chances to pick the wrong guage.
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Post by Onechordtrick on Feb 25, 2022 10:42:01 GMT
I get mine from Steve at Fretsounds,including postage they cost about £18-00 but as I said they last really well,funny you should mention the black residue,I noticed that too,not something I get with the SC strings.I had a mix of strings on my guitar for a while,just happened to have 3 santa cruz and 3 newtones,and it was interesting that after about 4 months the SC strings looked new,but the newtones were very dull and tarnished. All the best and good luck with your continuing quest, Kevin Re Santa Cruz Parabolics. Interesting that it's difficult to find out what string gauge options are available. If you go on Fretsounds site it doesn't mention gauge, just low or medium tension. In fact the picture of the packet says 'Gauge means nothing. Tension means everything'. As they say on exam papers 'Discuss' I agree; as long as the strings intonate and you like the sound and feel then the gauge is irrelevant. However it would be useful to know the gauge to establish whether they will fit in the nut. Having said that I doubt the gauge is so radically different from other brands to make it necessary. fatfingerjohn (or anyone else who uses them) what’s your experience? Can’t see the DADGAD set on Fretsounds website. May ask my brother in law to bring a set over for me.
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Welshruss
C.O.G.
Posts: 477
My main instrument is: Turnstone, Wandering Boy & Santa Cruz
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Post by Welshruss on Feb 25, 2022 11:33:40 GMT
I’ve never tried Newtones but my 3 acoustics are strung with Santa Cruz low tension. I’ve been using these for a long time and I find they really last and work well with my retuning. My Bashkin lives in Open C with them. I’ve tried lots of strings but so far these are my favourites and are worth the money.
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Post by surfguy13 on Feb 26, 2022 9:10:10 GMT
It seems strange that Santa Cruz don't offer any info on string gauge. It seems to me that it would do no harm to list the gauge of each individual string, and string tension, in their low and medium tension packs.
I have to say that I would not buy a set unless I knew the gauge of each string if for no other reason than comparing them to existing strings. It's all very well saying gauge means nothing, and that may well be the case, but just using the terms Low and Medium tension doesn't offer a potential buyer with any information on the string they are buying. Newtone goes the extra mile with their Heritage low tension strings and not only provides the gauge of each string but also the tension of each string in lbs and the total tension of the whole set. They have 5 different sets of low tension strings as well as the DADGAD sets so I feel I am making an informed decision when buying a particular set.
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kaydee
Strummer
Posts: 28
My main instrument is: tanglewood TW45VSB
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Post by kaydee on Feb 26, 2022 14:47:05 GMT
It seems strange that Santa Cruz don't offer any info on string gauge. It seems to me that it would do no harm to list the gauge of each individual string, and string tension, in their low and medium tension packs. I have to say that I would not buy a set unless I knew the gauge of each string if for no other reason than comparing them to existing strings. It's all very well saying gauge means nothing, and that may well be the case, but just using the terms Low and Medium tension doesn't offer a potential buyer with any information on the string they are buying. Newtone goes the extra mile with their Heritage low tension strings and not only provides the gauge of each string but also the tension of each string in lbs and the total tension of the whole set. They have 5 different sets of low tension strings as well as the DADGAD sets so I feel I am making an informed decision when buying a particular set. All I can say is that in terms of the thickness of each string they ,to my eyes,look the same as the newtones,they fit the nut perfectly and play more easily.I realise this is not what you are after surfguy but my fingers tell me that they bend more easily than the newtones and that suggests the overall tension on the neck is lower.I have had no fret buzz and can only assume that the neck relief hasn’t changed so for me the actual measurable guages and the actual measurable tension on the neck is not something that bothers me.Good luck again in your research all the best Kevin
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Post by otis1960 on Feb 26, 2022 18:49:42 GMT
OK Y'all You have piqued my interest (0.5% before tax, apparently)and I've ordered a set of SC low tension and Sunbeams 11s to try; I may have my GAS under control (for now at least), but clearly my SAS can still be exercised. Not sure how low/medium the SC are, I was surprised by the comment that if you are using the medium tension set on smaller-bodied guitars then you should ensure they are set up for the extra tension (without specifying what that might be). Every new guitar that I have ever bought, irrespective of size, seems to have been strung with stock 11s or 12s, so cannot imagine that the SC medium tension would be significantly above these stock sets - if anyone knows otherwise then please share!
Thanks
Andrew
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Post by vikingblues on Feb 26, 2022 19:11:21 GMT
Worrying to see the comments about black finger syndrome and tarnishing on Newtone strings. I hope nothings been changed in the way they're being made. I have 3 sets that are still to be opened in my drawer and all three are in new style packaging. I've been using up my stock that were in the original style packaging until now. If they have changed for the worst I'll be having to look for a different sort of strings for 4 of my 5 steel string acoustics! Mark
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brianr2
C.O.G.
Posts: 3,056
My main instrument is: Brook Lyn guitar
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Post by brianr2 on Feb 26, 2022 19:21:23 GMT
Worrying to see the comments about black finger syndrome and tarnishing on Newtone strings. I hope nothings been changed in the way they're being made. I have 3 sets that are still to be opened in my drawer and all three are in new style packaging. I've been using up my stock that were in the original style packaging until now. If they have changed for the worst I'll be having to look for a different sort of strings for 4 of my 5 steel string acoustics! Mark I have used several sets of Newtone Heritage strings from the new foil packages and have not suffered at all from any tarnishing or finger discolouration. Brian
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Post by vikingblues on Feb 26, 2022 19:24:13 GMT
Worrying to see the comments about black finger syndrome and tarnishing on Newtone strings. I hope nothings been changed in the way they're being made. I have 3 sets that are still to be opened in my drawer and all three are in new style packaging. I've been using up my stock that were in the original style packaging until now. If they have changed for the worst I'll be having to look for a different sort of strings for 4 of my 5 steel string acoustics! Mark I have used several sets of Newtone Heritage strings from the new foil packages and have not suffered at all from any tarnishing or finger discolouration. Brian Good to hear - thanks Brian!
The fact that you have used several sets from the new foil packages probably shows just how infrequently I change strings.
Mark
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Feb 26, 2022 22:18:05 GMT
I too have had the black finger thing on the odd occasion with Newtones, but also in the distant past with various other strings. I wonder if it might be more to do with the state of the fingers than the strings? Amounts and acidity of sweat and oils on the fingers vary considerably from day to day and throughout the day.
Have never had any tarnished Newtones, wound or plain. In fact I have had only two duff strings from them in over 20 years of using them almost exclusively. The first was a dull sounding A string on installation - yes, I did fit it correctly - I sent the string back to Malclom (it was some years ago!) and received a written apology plus two replacement sets. More recently, though still a while ago, I had a D string that didn't intonate properly - it was almost a semitone flat by the 12th fret when first installed. The rest of the set was fine. I detuned it completely and retuned - same result. As I had a spare odd one I put that on instead and all was well. Didn't bother to "complain" - it was obviously a one-off incident as other sets from the same batch were had been fine. I'll forgive them.
Keith
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brianr2
C.O.G.
Posts: 3,056
My main instrument is: Brook Lyn guitar
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Post by brianr2 on Feb 27, 2022 9:00:57 GMT
I too have had the black finger thing on the odd occasion with Newtones, but also in the distant past with various other strings. I wonder if it might be more to do with the state of the fingers than the strings? Amounts and acidity of sweat and oils on the fingers vary considerably from day to day and throughout the day. Keith Being somewhat OCD I usually wash my hands before playing. This may explain the purity of my fingers after string fondling.
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Post by surfguy13 on Feb 27, 2022 9:06:23 GMT
It seems strange that Santa Cruz don't offer any info on string gauge. It seems to me that it would do no harm to list the gauge of each individual string, and string tension, in their low and medium tension packs. I have to say that I would not buy a set unless I knew the gauge of each string if for no other reason than comparing them to existing strings. It's all very well saying gauge means nothing, and that may well be the case, but just using the terms Low and Medium tension doesn't offer a potential buyer with any information on the string they are buying. Newtone goes the extra mile with their Heritage low tension strings and not only provides the gauge of each string but also the tension of each string in lbs and the total tension of the whole set. They have 5 different sets of low tension strings as well as the DADGAD sets so I feel I am making an informed decision when buying a particular set. All I can say is that in terms of the thickness of each string they ,to my eyes,look the same as the newtones,they fit the nut perfectly and play more easily.I realise this is not what you are after surfguy but my fingers tell me that they bend more easily than the newtones and that suggests the overall tension on the neck is lower.I have had no fret buzz and can only assume that the neck relief hasn’t changed so for me the actual measurable guages and the actual measurable tension on the neck is not something that bothers me.Good luck again in your research all the best Kevin Thanks for that Kevin. Wasn't in any way rubbishing Santa Cruz parabolics, it is just that when you are trying to determine the right gauge of string to suit your guitar, and your dodgy arthritic hands in my case, I really need to know exactly what gauge each string is or I am potentially not comparing like for like....if that makes sense? I have a digital caliper which I have used for years to measure bass strings et al and it works perfectly, but find that it's OK for the low E and A on a guitar, and will give me a fairly true measurement but for the D,G, B and high E but it is not as precise. Probably due to the fact that the calipers were reasonably cheap! So, I
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