How to Choose Guitar Strings for Your Playing Style

Few things affect how a guitar sounds and feels as directly as the strings on it. Yet string choice is something many guitarists never think critically about beyond buying whatever the shop has in stock. Changing to the right strings for your playing style and instrument can make a significant improvement to both tone and playability, often without touching the guitar's setup.

Gauge: the starting point

String gauge is the diameter of the string, measured in thousandths of an inch. A set might be described as "10-46" or just "10s" - referring to the thinnest string in the set. Heavier gauges are thicker, produce more volume and sustain, and require more finger pressure. Lighter gauges are easier to press, bend and play quickly, but have less output and body.

Common gauge groupings for electric guitar:

Name	High E	Low E	Best For
Extra light	.009	.042	Lead playing, blues bends, beginners
Light	.010	.046	Most electric players, versatile
Medium	.011	.049	Rhythm playing, lower tunings
Heavy	.012+	.054+	Drop tunings, jazz, slide

For acoustic guitar, the equivalent categories run from extra light (.010) through medium (.013) and heavy (.014). Acoustic guitars need heavier strings than electrics to produce adequate volume, so the starting point for most acoustic players is light (.012) rather than extra light.

Material: the biggest tonal variable

Electric guitar strings are almost always nickel-plated steel or pure nickel. Nickel-plated steel is brighter and more common. Pure nickel is warmer and darker, preferred for vintage blues and jazz tones.

Acoustic guitar strings have more variety:

• Phosphor bronze - warm, balanced, long-lasting. The most popular choice for most styles.
• 80/20 brass (bronze) - brighter than phosphor bronze, with a more immediate attack. Loses brightness faster as the strings age.
• Silk and steel - a softer feel with much lower tension. Good for players with sore fingertips or for delicate fingerpicking on a lightly built instrument.
• Coated strings - any of the above wrapped in a polymer coating that prevents corrosion. Elixir is the leading brand. Last significantly longer at higher cost per set, but lower cost per month of playing.

Classical and flamenco guitars use nylon strings, which are a completely separate category. Never put steel strings on a classical guitar - the tension will damage or destroy it.

Winding: plain vs wound strings

The three or four thinnest strings in a set are plain steel - a single wire. The thicker strings are wound: a core wire wrapped with a winding material. Roundwound strings (the standard) have a round cross-section winding that produces a brighter tone with a texture you can feel under your fingers. Flatwound strings have a flatter winding that produces a smoother feel and a darker, more muted tone used in jazz.

Half-wound or ground-wound strings sit between the two. They start as roundwound and are then ground flat on the outside, producing a smoother feel with slightly more brightness than flatwound. Used by some jazz and vintage-style players who want the comfort of flatwound without losing all the brightness.

When to change strings

Strings wear out. The signs:

• Difficulty staying in tune, especially after bending
• Dull, lifeless tone without brightness or sustain
• Visible corrosion, particularly on the wound strings
• Visible kinks or flat spots where the string contacts the frets regularly
• Intonation problems where the string plays in tune open but sharp at the 12th fret (worn strings sometimes)

A rough guide: change strings every month if you play daily; every two to three months if you play a few times a week. Change before any recording session where the strings need to sound their best.

Breaking strings: causes and prevention

Strings break most often at stress points: the bridge saddle, the nut, or the tuning peg. Common causes:

• Sharp edges on the saddle or nut slots - have a guitar technician deburr or reshape rough slots
• Winding too many turns of string around the tuning peg - two to three turns is enough; more creates overlapping layers that cause the string to kink and break
• Bending too aggressively relative to the string gauge - lighter strings break more easily under vigorous bending
• Old strings that have work-hardened at stress points

The G string intonation problem

The wound G string (on sets with a wound third string) is notorious for intonation problems - it tends to play slightly sharp at the 12th fret compared to the plain strings. This is a known issue with certain guitar and string combinations. Solutions include switching to a plain G (many sets offer this option) or having the bridge saddle adjusted. If your guitar consistently plays sharp on the G string, this is likely the cause.

Finding the best string prices

String prices vary more than you might expect between retailers. Buying in bulk (packs of three or ten sets) is consistently cheaper per set than buying individually. Thomann, Gear4music and Amazon all regularly discount strings, particularly around seasonal sales. Check GearDeals before buying to see the current best price across retailers.