Strings Direct

Acoustic Guitar Strings 13/07/2019

What are the best acoustic guitar strings for beginners?

When you walk into your local music shop or scour our website searching for your first set of acoustic guitar strings, you’re met with a multitude of choice. As somebody who is new to the guitar, a huge number of options can feel quite overwhelming. We can sympathise as we’ve all been there and asked the same questions; “What on earth is a gauge?” “What do all these funny numbers mean?” “Should I just choose a set that’s called ‘Medium’ ” “Are the ones with colourful packaging better than the... Read More

GHS Nickel Rockers Low Tune 05/07/2019

What are the best guitar strings for blues?

The blues is such a broad genre of music that it would be difficult and wrong of us to say there is just one set of strings that are the best guitar strings for blues. Instead, in this guide we’ll offer up some thoughts and suggestions on the numerous facets of electric guitar strings and look at how your choice can help to benefit your development and style of playing the blues. Without further ado, let’s get into it…… Gauge Arguably, the most significant thing to consider when selecting a... Read More

Martin Monel Wound Acoustic Guitar Strings 29/05/2019
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What are Monel strings?

Monel….wasn’t he an impressionist painter? Hhhmm, close, but not quite! You’d be forgiven for asking what on Earth Monel strings are exactly? Well, below we’ll be running you through what these lesser-known strings actually are and see what all the fuss is about… so, let’s get cracking! So what is Monel? There are plenty of alloys that dominate today’s guitar string market so there’s a good chance many players will never have tried (or even heard) of Monel strings before. Monel is an alloy made from a mix of Nickel... Read More

Glass Bottleneck Slide 02/05/2019
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Slidin’ into the weekend like….

Forget the scorching temperatures of the 4-Day Easter Bank Holiday weekend, this past weekend was the one the Strings Direct team had been looking forward to for some time. Why’s that you may ask!? Well, a few weeks ago saw the return of the fantastic Tedeschi Trucks Band playing two sold out nights at the London Palladium and a few of the staff here were lucky enough to head there on Saturday night…. It was a real treat! Whilst these guys are no doubt a world class band, the real... Read More

Fender Bullet End Guitar Strings 17/04/2019
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What are Fender Bullet strings?

If you’ve scoured our site in the past and taken a look at our electric guitar sets section, you may have come across Fender’s range of electric guitar strings and in particular their Bullet strings. You’d initially be forgiven for thinking the term ‘Bullet’ is yet another adjective adopted by a string manufacturer to help describe the “Punchy”, “Penetrating” or “Explosive” tonal power of their strings, however, if you open up a set, you’ll soon see that there’s more to the Fender Bullet strings than just a name. So what... Read More

28/03/2019
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Are my strings wearing down my frets?

Hello and welcome back to the next instalment of the Strings Direct blog. In this entry, we’re going to talk about the relationship between your frets and your strings and in particular how they can affect one another. Your frets and your strings are like two best friends. They have a very close relationship… after all, they make contact with each other every time we play our guitar. However, whilst these two parts of the guitar are best buds…like many friendships, they can sometimes rub each other up the wrong... Read More

DAddario Electric Guitar Nashville Strings 14/03/2019
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What is Nashville Tuning?

Have you ever wanted to achieve the unique sound of a 12-string guitar but don’t actually have a 12-string to hand? Or, perhaps you often find yourself wanting to add unique guitar parts to your recordings to help create something a little bit ‘different’. Well we may just have the solution for you. Allow us to introduce you to ‘Nashville Tuning’. So what exactly is Nashville Tuning? In a nutshell, Nashville tuning takes the octave strings within a 12-string set and puts them on a 6-string guitar. This particular tuning... Read More

22/02/2019
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Absolutely buzzing! Why am I getting string buzz?

“Absolutely buzzing” has recently become a popular phrase to explain a heightened feeling of happiness, excitement and elation. However, ‘Absolutely Buzzing’ is certainly not something you want to hear when describing the way your strings sound on your guitar :-/ This usually occurs when the string doesn’t have enough room to freely vibrate and its path of travel is interrupted and usually manifests itself as an irritating buzzing noise. This buzz can occur when a string is played open, or it can also occur when the string is fretted. If... Read More

Paige Cradle Style Capo 18/02/2019
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The ultimate guide to buying your next capo

Next to plectrums, capos are probably one of the most common guitar accessories that we hear are either lost (or stolen) from gigs. We’re convinced that what your local pub loses in pint glasses, they are almost certainly gaining in their stockpile of picks and capos!! Whether you’ve lost your capo, have never used one or have no idea what that crazy contraption does, we’re here to help you navigate the capo landscape. Buckle up! So what exactly is a capo and what does it do? If you’ve been playing... Read More

Acoustic guitar player with soundhole pickup 24/01/2019
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What acoustic strings are best for a magnetic soundhole pickup?

When it comes to making your acoustic guitar louder, there’s a whole host of pickup options available on the market including magnetic pickups, microphones, soundboard mounted, piezos and in some cases a combination of two or more of these things. A magnetic soundhole pickup is a popular solution for many acoustic players (We’re sure you would have all seen these before… these are the ones that are mounted across the soundhole and sit just beneath the strings). Due to their relatively simple design, many are priced well and can be... Read More