D’Addario EXP38 Coated Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings, Light, 10-47 – Offers a Warm, Bright and Well-Balanced Acoustic Tone and 4x Longer Life - With NY Steel for Strength and Pitch Stability

Very pleased with the strings.

these play easy sound their are alot of good strings on the market these are my go to when someone is getting tired of thier guitar i put a set of these on its like magic thier playing again.

I've been playing guitar for only four years although I've progressed in skill very quickly, and these strings made a MASSIVE difference in my sound quality. I thought that I needed a really expensive guitar in order to get great sound, and, although that's true to an extent, strings are just as important if not more important. I was using the D'addario Phosphor Bronze Custom Light (two levels smaller than medium gauge) because of recommendations from friends, and they just dulled so quickly and got covered in dead skin. The strings also weren't very easy to maneuver on with slides and chord changes.I was pretty frustrated with D'addario, and I switched to Dean Markley Alchemy GoldBronze Medium Gauge strings, and they were definitely better than my previous strings I mentioned as using. I tried these strings because I had heard that Andy McKee uses them, but then I found out that he had switched to these strings, the EXPs, and I was skeptical at trying them at first because of my prior experience with D'addario and the fact that the Dean Markleys I was using at the time were better than my old D'addarios. However, I figured that, if Andy switched from the DMs to the EXPs, then I would follow suit. Andy McKee personally told me on his facebook that the EXPs were better in his opinion, so I took the plunge, and I don't regret it one bit.These strings are absolutely amazing. Their sound quality is amazing, full, balanced, and long-lasting. I can maneuver much more easily on these strings. I'm just so pleased with them, and I don't see myself switching any time soon unless I somehow find better strings. Hopefully I will, but I think these will be my strings of choice for now.

Great product

I can’t believe these are still available for sale. Every decent guitar seems to come with these, but they don’t sell them in stores anymore. Amazing tone and comfortable to play.

This opinion is based on my small body guitars, a Gibson LG-3 and Eastman E15-SS, w/ Adirondack top, Rosewood back/sides and a 24-3/4" scale lengths.. I flatpick, fingerstyle and light strum on these without any issues.My usual strings are D'Addario EJ16, But I don't like the way they sound at first. Too bright, then perfect after a few days of playing them in.This is the string I settled on after bouncing around from Martin, Elixir, Ernie Ball etc.... Basically, I've been searching for a couple years for strings that match this guitar and I'v finally found them.These EXP16, are amazing right out of the pack.The strings are easier on my fingers and the squeaking from slides is less pronounced. The only thing I'd note, is that they are a little sticky when bending, but it's not a deal breaker. Again, I can't believe how loud and clear my little guitar is with these on it.I love this (Eastman) guitar a lot, and this made me appreciate just what a special guitar it is. I mean, this thing is already a little boom box, but with these strings it got even louder and clearer. I could't imagine getting a better sound than what I've got going with these strings.We'll have to wait and see how long they last, but if my experience with this manufacturer is any indicator, I won't be disappointed.

I have used both these strings and the ones that are a step higher from them (blue label EXP 16) which have a brighter sound to them, almost bluegrass-y compared to these. My breedlove came with these pre-strung and they last forever! One of the women I play with really hammers on her strings and she can still get several months use out of them before having to change. I play less frequently and managed to keep on pack on for almost a year before I noticed a quality difference. If your hands sweat a lot when you play, you may notice a bit of discoloration on them where your fingers lay the most frequently (for me it's around G on the low E and C on the A string). I haven't noticed a difference in sound, just color. These are not much thicker than the EXP16's however they do not feel as flimsy in your high strings. The sound difference between these and the 16's is that these have a bit of a richer sound and louder bass. If you have controls on your guitar you can change the balance a little bit, however these will still feel lower and fuller than the 16's even if they are balanced differently. If you really hammer on the strings when you are strumming, I'd recommend these over the 16's just because I feel like they are less likely to snap. The coating doesn't disturb your playing at all. These are probably my favorite strings I played on including elixirs.

I've purchased coated strings from other manufacturers as well and they've all been good. For me, coated strings only have one advantage. They reduce string noise when sliding up the neck. The coating slows corrosion and can make the strings last longer if you don't play that often or have a guitar you seldom play. But I play the same guitar about ten hours a week and still wear these, and other coated strings, out in 5 - 6 weeks. And, coated strings don't sound as good to me. It comes down to preference and need. I prefer to change my strings more often for about half the price.

By far the most important part of any guitar is surprisingly not the guitar body itself, but the strings. While a guitar can increase volume and modify the tone it cannot add anything to the strings vibration or make the notes and harmonics sound any clearer. In the same way that sending a poor signal to the most amazing speaker system in the world will sound bad, bad strings on the most amazingly crafted guitar in the world will still sound bad. It is therefore important that you get the highest quality guitar strings you can feasibly get your mits on, and at an affordable price. In my opinion D'addario is the best string brand that fulfills these requirements. Why am I rating these strings with 2 stars then?I am a massive fan of D'addario uncoated strings, so much so that I struggle to play with any other brand. D'addario has become part of my sound. As soon as I tried them years and years ago I just knew that these were the strings for me. Strong, consistent, with great feel and above all else fantastically bright, clear tone and excellent sustain. You can see the strings vibrate forever when you pick them, and they produce beautiful tones as the vibration decays. In my opinion, D'addario gives a guitar player the full tonal and volume range of his or her instrument. I can never understand why players would ever want to buy "mellow" strings when all they have to do is play lightly, with a softer plectrum or with their fingers to get a mellow sound. Why not have those lovely high end frequencies and amplitudes for when you really need them? Granted some string types such as plain steel are too bright and so phosphor bronze is perhaps the most pleasing string to listen to. That aside, the biggest problem with uncoated strings is that you have to replace them quite frequently, which is why I decided to give coated strings another go. Elixir nanos do sound good for coated strings, but I find them incredibly slippy, which makes complicated chords and string bending/ vibrato harder. I like strings to have a good grip! The EXPs seemed like a good alternative, as the wound is coated before winding which preserves the feel of uncoated strings as best as possible. I also thought that the reduction in tone and sustain would be minimal, like the elixirs. Unfortunately this is not the case. Here are the problems I had:- There is a significant reduction in tone, the coating seems to dampen the higher frequency overtones much more than the Elixirs, probably because it is coated throughout the entire string. The strings sound too mellow for phosphor bronze. Unbeknownst to me D'addario knew this and rated the strings as mellow on their website, when phosphor bronze is supposed to be bright? Why isn't this communicated to the customer on the packet or in the initial product description?- There is a massive reduction in sustain and volume. Even when picking furiously hard (which is bad in itself as it sharpens the note you are trying to play), the strings still sound quite quiet, and cannot sustain notes any better. This is particularly disappointing on the high notes, which have a hard enough time sustaining their volume as it is when uncoated. When played on the EXPs the high notes die off almost instantly. Perhaps this loss of volume and sustain is advantageous for heavy handed players, chord strumming, and staccato arpeggios, but it is awful for lead playing, melody, and allowing chords to ring out particularly at the end of a song.- The strings cannot resonate with each other due to the dampening, meaning I cannot achieve natural reverb when playing single notes; a lovely technique which only the acoustic guitar can really achieve.- When finger picking, the strings tend to squeak against my skin as if they are coated in rubber (I do have very dry skin). It sounds awful! Lol- the B and e string are coated in tin, a soft metal which mellows the high end. Not desirable.- They are still a bit slippy, but not as bad as the elixirs.- Controversial: they eliminate string noise as you slide up the wound strings. I personally like to hear this noise as it reminds me that a human being is playing the guitar, and scraping a pick against an uncoated wound string produces a nice percussive sound. The guitar is a percussive instrument as well as a melodic one!So...lots of negatives for me. One thing I do really like about these strings is the NY steel. They hold their pitch incredibly well and seem to be much more flexible, meaning they are kinder on the wrist, fingers and forearm, and I imagine they will be very hard to break. D'addario strings have always been the strongest, most consistent strings. There is no differentiation between the harmonic frequencies. I would love to see D'addario put NY steel in the uncoated phosphor bronze and 80/20 bronze range, as I will be reverting back to that range, and no doubt those would be incredibly popular with performing musicians who cannot compromise on sound quality. I am also sure that the tone the EXPs start with will be maintained indefinitely, but this doesn't matter to me anymore if the tone is completely unsatisfactory. The set is well balanced in that none of the strings overwhelm each other. I know D'addario mean well and many people love these strings so how are they to know where these strings fall flat from an objective level? Perhaps some stringent research and development is required at D'addario to improve the design of the EXP range. Taking this into account I can forgive them for misleading me slightly on how close these strings would be to uncoated phosphor bronze.I now know that coated strings just aren't for me, and will now make an extra effort to maintain uncoated strings better. I have recently purchased some micro mesh abrasive cloths which may work wonders for cleaning uncoated strings along with some rubbing alcohol (they are also excellent for cleaning the fretboard and the frets but don't use alcohol on the fretboard!!!) Perhaps you should try this first before buying coated strings. Then if you're incredibly frustrated with string maintenance, try these strings out to see if they are for you but only buy one packet or you may be wasting your money. If you are just starting out on your guitar playing journey, DO NOT start with Elixirs or EXPs. You won't know what you're missing! Ignorance is not bliss in this instance. Elixirs are shipped with new guitars so that the strings don't corrode in the shop, not because they necessarily sound the best. DO start with standard D'addario phosphor bronze as I highly recommend those. Also use the gauge and tuning your guitar was designed for to preserve the intonation. Hope this review is helpful!

J'utilise habituellement des D'addario EJ 12/53 mais pour faciliter les bends j'ai voulu essayer ce pack en hybride. Je suis convaincu depuis longtemps par cette marque qui est ma préférée à égalité avec Ernie Ball. Du coup j'ai pris un model en EXP pour les tester.Les EXP possèdent une protection, une sorte de film qui enrobe la corde. On le sent un peu sous les doigts, en bien puisque le toucher est agréable et le son pas altéré. De plus pour les débutants ça fait moins mal aux doigts et cela maintient les cordes intactes plusieurs mois il parait. Je ne sais pas encore mais depuis plus d'un mois que j'ai monté celles ci, elles sont encore comme neuves pourtant je joue tous les jours plusieurs heures. c'est prometteur !Je suis entièrement satisfait de ce produit et je le recommande

El sonido es cristalino pero se deterioran rápidamente. Se oscurecen relativamente rápido, en un mes aproximadamente ya no lucen tan brillantes y el sonido se vuelve un poco más "opaco". En un mes eso suele ser normal, pero yo suelo lavarme bien las manos antes de practicar y limpio las cuerdas con una microfibra seca al terminar para mantenerlas en buen estado.No es una pérdida demasiado significativa, ese ligero "opacado" se nota en las cuerdas entorchadas y en lo personal no me desagrada, pero es algo a tomar en cuenta si buscas el sonido de cuerdas.La tensión puede llegar a ser molesta después de unas horas, pero es normal en este calibre de cuerdas, aunque claro, es algo que se toma en cuenta incluso desde antes de comprar la guitarra.Las cuerdas son excelentes, en general son más agradables que las Fender (obviamente del mismo calibre). El punto negativo es el precio tan variable que tienen. Las compré cuando costaban $157, un precio genial, incluso debí comprar más teniendo en cuenta que ahora cuestan al rededor de $400, pero no esperaba que me fueran a gustar tanto.

I have used D'Addario strings for some 35 years on both acoustic and electric guitars. When coated strings first came out I tried some of the first brands only to find that I could feel the coating, especially as it wore, which put me off. They lasted perhaps twice as long as my uncoated D'Addarios which, given their added cost, didn't really make them cost effective.Then D'Addario brought out their EXP Range and, succumbing to the advertising hype, decided to try some. What a revelation! Not only do they feel like uncoated strings, they last for ages!As a gigging acoustic blues player I give my strings some hammer. In addition, I use several alternate tunings so I'm constantly retuning the guitar during my set. This has always taken a toll of my strings, especially the lower ones. I initially purchased one set of EXPs and kept some unwound strings in my case as spares, thinking I would need them. My main guitar is a Lowden O32c and one 'problem' with top end guitars is that whilst they can make good strings sing, they can also make tired strings sound worse than they are. (And no I haven't got it the wrong way around; put the best strings in the world on a budget guitar and it still sounds like a budget guitar.)I have had the EXPs on now for 15 MONTHS! That's about fifteen times longer than I used to make unwound strings last. I wipe them down after practice/play with a microfibre cloth and clean them occasionally with a string cleaner. Each time the bottom strings start sounding as if they are on their last legs I give them a rub with a cloth very lightly soaked in white spirit (keep it off the fretboard by using greaseproof paper under the strings) and then wipe them with a damp cloth, dry them off and get an extra couple of months out of them. Truly unbelievable.No I don't work for Planet Waves or D'Addario, I just want to sing the praises of these strings. If you've held off buying them up to know, don't worry, they do exactly what the makers claim on the packaging. Money well saved.

I've tried quite a few types of guitar strings for my Jumbo Acoustic and I can't find any to match the fantastic brightness and volume of the EXP 42's. These aren't for the feint hearted as they are very heavy gauge and take a little bit of getting used to. You might also need to adjust the setting of the truss rod since the tension of the EXP 42's is greater than the more standard medium and light string gauges. The first set of these strings I bought took a lot of playing in. They were still annoyingly squeaky after two weeks of playing an hour or two every day. But since then the new sets I've had play in much quicker. And they last. I'm always switching tunnings and I've never had one of these strings break yet.String tone is very much down to personal preference and its worth noting that not all guitarists rate this string range highly. They are more expensive than most strings and are probably not for the beginner or guitarists who want to bend notes extensively. But these suit my guitar perfectly and give the loudest harmonics of any strings I've used.They took me a little while to get used to them but it was well worth persevering. Definitely worth trying; but if you do, you might not fall in love with them straight away. Give them a little time to work their magic.