NZGuitars.com

Buying a set of strings at a guitar shore guarantees guilt-free admission to the rest of the store. You can try any guitar, because you have spent less than twenty dollars on strings — which shows you are a real customer and a real guitarist, not just some dreamer with time on his hands.

JoeBlow wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:58 pm I like the longevity of elixirs, but they feel like they have more tension under the fingers - more resistance, like they're tuned a step up.

Interesting, what gauge do you normally run? It may sound weird but I run their 10s on my Strat and on my 335 copy and the 335 has more string tension than I remember on a Gibson scale… hmmm…

jeremyb wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 6:52 am

JoeBlow wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:58 pm I like the longevity of elixirs, but they feel like they have more tension under the fingers - more resistance, like they're tuned a step up.

Interesting, what gauge do you normally run? It may sound weird but I run their 10s on my Strat and on my 335 copy and the 335 has more string tension than I remember on a Gibson scale… hmmm…

I always use 10-46.

I've never put them on myself - they've been on guitars bought new (Tom Anderson are strung with them, new), or from the previous owner.

They feel totally different. Stiffer. You get used to it, but for me, it's noticeably a very different feel, particularly when bending.

JoeBlow wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:11 am

jeremyb wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 6:52 am

JoeBlow wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:58 pm I like the longevity of elixirs, but they feel like they have more tension under the fingers - more resistance, like they're tuned a step up.

Interesting, what gauge do you normally run? It may sound weird but I run their 10s on my Strat and on my 335 copy and the 335 has more string tension than I remember on a Gibson scale… hmmm…

I always use 10-46.

I've never put them on myself - they've been on guitars bought new (Tom Anderson are strung with them, new), or from the previous owner.

They feel totally different. Stiffer. You get used to it, but for me, it's noticeably a very different feel, particularly when bending.

It’s not as noticeable on the Strat cause of the trem, but yeah on the 335 for sure!

If you chicken out of AliE try Dave's guitar stuff Ziko brand, I bought a pile of them and to me they are great and cheap.

matman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:00 pm Yeah I get the point about buying local. The main reason for giving the cheap route a crack was that one of my boys has been getting right into playing (which is awesome) but he seems to sweat battery acid and we've been going through strings like tinfoil at a vaccine protest (which is unawesome).

For a while I was going through a set every week or two.

Even with international shipping and no coupon, I couldn't find anyone in NZ who could beat the price of buying 12 packs of Slinkys from https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/

Found some of them had rust on the strings though, so switched to similar priced but vacuum packed dunlops.

They can take a very long time to arrive.

If you like d'addario, then I think the local 10 packs are pretty hard to beat on price.

https://www.guitarstuff.co.nz/daddarioelectric1.html
https://www.rubbermonkey.co.nz/D-Addari ... 10-46-10pk

Also yeah, fast fret, wipe down strings and palm rest/muting location after playing.

jeremyb wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 8:01 pm Its likely there will be some OEM leftovers on there so some legit ones... but apart from packaging fails how else would you tell? best to just buy local, if you don't play much its not like its an expensive thing to replace

The Ernie Ball ones have markedly different packaging....ALL of the AliExpress EB strings are fake,.

JHorner wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 8:23 am If you like d'addario, then I think the local 10 packs are pretty hard to beat on price.

https://www.guitarstuff.co.nz/daddarioelectric1.html

Interestingly it's cheaper to buy a couple of triple packs from The Rockshop, think I pay around $30 for a triple pack. So a couple of packs (6 sets of D'Addario's) would be pretty much the same price as 5 sets from that site. From memory the ten pack is around the same price

Aside from supporting my local music shop I enjoy having a wander round and checking out the gear, never know what might catch your eye and ignite the GAS

I usually buy from Dave at Guitarstuff, hes a GC.

I bought some Elixirs off AliExpress once, can confirm they were definitely fake. Packaging was reasonably convincing in pics but looked off in person, and they weren’t even coated like real elixirs. That was a few years back but I always get strings locally now.

MiniForklift wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 8:32 am

JHorner wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 8:23 am If you like d'addario, then I think the local 10 packs are pretty hard to beat on price.

https://www.guitarstuff.co.nz/daddarioelectric1.html

Interestingly it's cheaper to buy a couple of triple packs from The Rockshop, think I pay around $30 for a triple pack. So a couple of packs (6 sets of D'Addario's) would be pretty much the same price as 5 sets from that site. From memory the ten pack is around the same price

Aside from supporting my local music shop I enjoy having a wander round and checking out the gear, never know what might catch your eye and ignite the GAS

I was referring to the 10 pack (10 sets of 6 strings) which is 86.95 and has free shipping

The 3 pack from RS is 29.90, so that is 89.70 for 9 (9 sets of 6 strings), so not cheaper.

The RS does have a cheaper price ($80) on the 10 pack though!

https://www.rockshop.co.nz/daddario-exl ... lec-010-52

GrantB wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 8:26 am

jeremyb wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 8:01 pm Its likely there will be some OEM leftovers on there so some legit ones... but apart from packaging fails how else would you tell? best to just buy local, if you don't play much its not like its an expensive thing to replace

The Ernie Ball ones have markedly different packaging....ALL of the AliExpress EB strings are fake,.

I guess those are going on the boy's guitar then!

Meh, I'm still not convinced the packs I got were fake (if they are, it's exceptionally good fake packaging).

But I won't be making a habit of buying strings that way. For the few bucks you save, how long you wait and the risk they never show up (happens a lot with AE) is not worth it.

Miza wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 1:53 pm Meh, I'm still not convinced the packs I got were fake (if they are, it's exceptionally good fake packaging).

But I won't be making a habit of buying strings that way. For the few bucks you save, how long you wait and the risk they never show up (happens a lot with AE) is not worth it.

Same experience here. I compared the locally bought Elixers packaging with the AE ones and unable to see the tiniest of difference. Played the same too...

In the past I’ve placed 4 or 5 orders through AE and not one of them ever turned up. Never had any issues with eBay regardless of what country it’s being sent from