As guitarists and bass players, we need our strings to be reliable, they need to sound great and they need to stay in tune. Three very simple requests that mean so much to us as musicians and something that the team at D’Addario think about every day when they’re crafting their NYXL strings. The D'Addario NYXL stringshave been designed to work harder, bend farther and stay in tune longer than any other regular string you’ve played, and they deliver on that promise! D'Addario are one of the most popular string masters in the world. They have built up a reputation of making incredible stringsthat not only last a long time but sound and feel great as well. This new set of NYXL 10-46strings are set to be even stronger and even more stable than any other D'Addario string yet. Certain bass guitar string sets may also undergo a process called “coating.” Coating adds a chemical substance to the outside of the strings to prevent corrosion. D’Addario bass guitar strings are currently available with our XT coating, which offers extended life with a natural feel, to provide more time between string changes. Things that can affect this include temperature and humidity changes, sweat and other corrosive materials, and your own playing technique. With that in mind, let's take a look at some of the best electric guitar strings on the market today.

You can trust Guitar World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing guitar products so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. Stainless Steel, which you’d find on ProSteels, is brighter, which affords more presence and crunch to cut through the mix. With classical strings, the material of the top three treble strings may differ from the material used on the bottom three bass strings. The wrap wire, or winding, used to make D’Addario bass guitar strings varies from set to set. The alloy used gives the set its unique tonal characteristics, as well as its name. An additional caveat to the above explanation is that some windings have a different texture, not merely a different alloy. So, while standard bass strings are round wound, we have a few sets which have been ground down or polished in some way to change the tone and feel. These include flat wound sets, like Tapewounds and Chromes, and half round sets, like Half Rounds.Read more about our rating system, how we choose the gear we feature, and exactly how we test each product. Related buyer's guides For years now, string manufacturers have been experimenting with coated strings, designed to add longevity to their existing products. The idea is to make them feel newer for longer and thus like a better value proposition to the army of guitarists out there who hate changing strings but love the sound and feel of a fresh set. But coated strings have historically dulled the high-end tone, and feel very different to regular strings thanks to their ‘slipperiness’ and increased tension. As such, many players have shied away from them as too much of a compromise, preferring to settle for more regular string changes than altering their precious tone and feel.

D'Addario plain steel strings are most often made with high carbon steel. This high carbon steel also forms the core wire of wound strings. The wrap wire, or winding, for D’Addario electric strings varies from set to set, and often gives the set its unique tonal characteristics, as well as its name. An additional caveat to the above explanation is that some windings have a different texture, not merely a different alloy. So, while standard electric strings are round wound, D’Addario has a few which are flat round or half round, meaning they’ve been ground down in some way to change the tone and feel. Flat wound sets like Chromesor Tapewounds, afford a warmer, more mellow tone to blend into the mix.I noticed a difference in the studio and hopefully that difference comes through to you. String gauge is the same as the standard set of 10's. In a straight-up comparison, to my ears the NYs sound brighter, with better tonal consistency across the range, whilst also delivering more bite and punch. I also noticed a difference in output, this is probably due to the fact these new strings have 6% more magnetic permeability for higher output, essentially making them a little louder but still maintaining dynamic control.

D’Addario bass guitar strings are made in the USA to the highest standards of engineering, ensuring the best sound, feel, and strength, no matter how you play. Sets of D’Addario bass guitar strings include four wound strings, unless you specifically buy a 5- or 6-string set. The term winding comes from the way the strings are constructed—using a hexagonally-shaped steel wire at the core, with another type of metal wire wound around it. Tuning stability was fantastic right from the off, a couple of initial stretches when putting them on and it was plain sailing form there, even my best attempts at Gilmour style tone and a half bends didn’t shift their stability! They got a good amount of abuse in those two weeks, including sweaty gigs, and I purposely didn’t wipe them down after to see how they would last, and whether the tone would be affected. There was hardly any tarnishing at the end of those two weeks and the tone stayed consistently bright. I'm normally a bit pedantic about changing my strings, on average around once a week, but I would have been more than happy to leave them for another week or so. The only reason I did change them was to do the A-B test for the video review.Ever listened to a record and wondered how they got their sound to be so bright and snappy? That would be a mixture of fresh high quality strings and a small EQ bump between 1khz and 3khz. With these strings however that bump is no longer required as they already have a peak built in at these frequencies. This means better and brighter tone night after night. Here's what D'Addario say about their NYXL guitars strings. We love the Elixir Optiwebs too - these have to be some of the best electric guitar strings on offer because of their unique coating which helps them sound fresher for much longer. Recently, the D’addario XT range have made some pretty great strides as well, offering a protective coating on all six strings, as opposed to just the three or four wound strings. What are electric guitar strings made of? Read our feature showing you how to restring an electric guitar. Can you use electric guitar strings on an acoustic?