Optima strings and John Pearse armrest-review

Buco

Me being an eternal tinkerer and modifier (for the lack of being able to keep buying guitars) and got a few packs of Optima (Germany) strings, their Gypsy jazz line: Hot Club Gypsyfire Acoustics. I ran across them and was curios but when I saw that Dario Napoli is their endorser I knew I had to try them. I got a few packs directly from their rep in the US (there isn't a website where you can order them as of yet AFAIK).
They say they are designed from the scratch, specifically for the Selmer style guitars. Come in the vinyl packaging with each string in it's own envelope. They come in either loop or ball end. I got the ball end. Red wrapping at the ball end. What's kinda cool is the metal ball end is black. Distinctive looking and different, nice touch.

Once I strung them up, first thing I noticed is that out of pack as brand new they were pleasant sounding. As in that brand new shimmer wasn't overbearing. When I first started playing guitar, I couldn't wait to swap the strings and hear that brand new shimmer, now I can't wait for it to go away. But with these, they have that brand new string sparkle but it's pleasant somehow. For me at least.
They held up well and it took some time for that sparkle to completely go away. That's relative though, as I only play about an hour a day on average. I would've kept them longer on the guitar but I wanted to oil the fretboard and polish the frets so I swapped them after about 1.5 months. That's relative too because on these type of guitars I don't mind the sound of dead strings. On the flattop, when I used to play it, I'd swap them more often, but on the Selmer style guitar I want a quick decay of older strings and the absence of overtones that new(er) strings come with, it makes for a better attack and projection I think.

They sound good on my guitar overall, I'm happy with them. I have a second set on the guitar now and I think I'm gonna order more (I still have a few sets of Lenzner Fisoma left which were my goto strings prior to these so it'll be good to compare). Problem is I don't have a good baseline anymore, since I changed things around so much recently by adding the adjustable bridge and making the soundport. Both very positive changes but it changed the sound of the guitar enough and to the point where I can't really rely on my old experiences with strings. Especially when the fretboard on my guitar had to be replaced and up to that point I went through almost every available GJ strings on the market. But when I got a guitar back, it responded completely different to the same strings with a rosewood vs ebony fretboard. The guitar was on the bright side with ebony, much more rounded with rosewood (maple back and sides guitar).

For example, before adding a soundport I was using John Pearse strings, liked them a lot. After making a soundport, with Pearse Nuages strings the guitar became boomy in the bass register. I was concerned that I messed with it too much this time, but when I tried different strings the bass completely cleared up. I used to think string is a string is a string. As in there can't be that much difference, but I was wrong.

What I can compare Optima to, is Argies and Lenzner Fisoma. Argies, on my guitar keep in mind, are very non-exciting. They do everything well but I don't look forward to them. Lenzner Fisoma are great sounding but as I said I was using John Pearse because they had better punch to them than Lenzner.
Now Optima is best of all worlds: pleasant sounding, good treble snap and clarity on the high frets, balanced bass, good punch, no overbearing sparkle when just installed, last a good while and have that cool signature style black ball-end just to set them apart in the looks department.

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John Pearse Armrest: as I mentioned in another thread I got this a few days ago. I decided to try it because recently my arm would start to go numb after a longer practice while resting on the edge of the side. They have a template that you can download from their website to help you decide which model to get. They have a few different ones with different curves and length. The one I got according to the template was going to follow the curve of the guitar perfectly but in reality it wasn't so. Still I think it was the best choice among the rest so I kept it.

Now, I could swear the guitar sounds more open with it. I keep telling myself it can't be, I just wanna think that. Which is most likely really. If somebody says "hey man your guitar sounds different" then I might have a proof (unless someone says it at DiJ for kicks as a joke...)
On a flattop with that style of picking I can see it that your arm is dampening enough of the top where it impedes the top from vibrating to it's full potential (supposedly Doc Watson used them in recent years on all of his guitars), and the armrest does improve the sound. But the way we play our guitars there's very little contact from the arm with the top (although people recommend the armrest for that same purpose on the classical guitars and technique so go figure...)

But anyway so far it seems it helps with comfort and I like the look of it. Comes in a nicely presented old school packaging (clear reclosable plastic box with golden stamped lettering, but it wouldn't pass the environmentalist stamp), it's very well made and polished, and it's super fragrant piece of rosewood, looks like Indian rosewood. Also interestingly, it comes with a written guarantee that it was imported before recent changes in the CITES agreement.