Comments

• bbwood_98 Brooklyn, NyProdigy Vladimir music! Les Effes. . Its the best!

  November 2025 Posts: 739

  Oh, regarding 11's vs 10's - As a rhythm player, I prefer the 10's quite a lot - they have more overtones and complexity to me on my current guitar and in general. @lorenzop I'd try the argie 10's as well - they are great sounding IMHO!
• pdg ✭✭

  November 2025 Posts: 663

  Some of the other brands (e.g., Galli) have different sets, some of which are silk and steel. If you use those, the sound will maybe sound duller. So it's important to know which type of strings you're trying.

  
• voutoreenie "the good land"New

  November 2025 Posts: 410

  @bbwood_98 I've posted this in other string threads before but I once compared D'addario, Galli and La Bella GJ strings - only set that I really liked was the La Bella but they were also like 2x the price of Argies so didn't pursue them any further. Galli's were definitely kinda like you took Argies and removed the "sizzle" while D'Addario seemed misplaced sounding.

  That said, this was also like 5+ years ago and both my la pompe and rest stroke technique are far better now so I should probably do another comparison.
• bbwood_98 Brooklyn, NyProdigy Vladimir music! Les Effes. . Its the best!

  November 2025 Posts: 739

  @voutoreenie interesting. The Labella folks here in NYC seemed interested in getting me some sets, but they don't really make the right gauges (and in their brand the silk and steel are the 'Gypsy jazz' strings - the silverplated don;t come in 10 gauge, only 9, 11, 13 - and the lower end is too big 50 instead of 46 - even on the 9 gauge). @pdg truth! Also I find my ability to destroy a set of silk and steels is around 45 minutes of playing as opposed to several hours/days for steel cored strings.
• voutoreenie "the good land"New

  November 2025 Posts: 410

  Ahh, I bought the La Bella 11s because that's what I use (for Argies) on my guitars except for the Gitane - didn't realize no 10s, that sucks :( can't say I noticed any issues with the higher gauge low E tho, from memory no discernible difference in feel.
• MikeK Asheville, NCNew Altamira M-30 D-Cedar, Gitane DG-320 John Jorgensen

  November 2025 Posts: 549

  https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/123741#Comment_123741

  At the risk of making a relatively complicated thread a bit more complicated, I'll throw this out there since you asked: Brother Buco once sent me some Optima GJ strings and I thought they were as close to Argies as anything else I've tried.

  
• voutoreenie "the good land"New

  2:15PM Posts: 410

  Bump.

  So I ended up buying an Eastman DM3 from Michael (great axe btw, left a review but it got all chopped up so if anyone wants to hear more, DM me). Anyway, it came strung up with a new set of D'Adarrio 11s on it and I wasn't about to waste a set of strings for no reason just because I prefer argies.

  Anyway, I haven't played on D'Adarrios in 7 years and tbh, I've improved so much that I should really discount any opinion on gear I had from back then because I'll be honest, they really don't sound bad at all. In fact, they sound perfectly fine. However, they're still not close to argies in terms of feeling....just waaayyyyy stiffer and where you really notice that especially is on vibrato, where they also just don't have the same "sizzle" either (if that makes sense).

  So in conclusion, I'm certainly not going to rip on them anymore and while not my preference, they're entirely serviceable strings.
• voutoreenie "the good land"New

  3:53PM Posts: 410

  And now I'm going to somewhat immediately contradict myself...just swapped out the D'Adarrios for some Argies and hot damn, the argies are better. Like so much better in every possible way it's not even funny and they ain't even broken in yet lol.