One of the most frequently asked questions by guitarists is what kind of strings we recommend for our guitars. So, today we are going to answer this important question.
Ramírez Guitar Strings
The first thing to keep in mind is that strings are a very important element that can improve or not your guitar’s sound. Thinking on price by sacrificing quality is often more expensive, both for durability and comfort. Within the brands with recognised quality you could choose any of them. It doesn’t make much sense for us to recommend something that has to do with the tastes of each one of us (you like blue and I like green and neither colour is better than the other): “Aguila”, “Augustine”, “D’Addario”, “Hannabach”, “Royal Classic”, “Luthiers”, “Savarez” or “Knoblock”, any of them can be good for our guitars, it depends on the guitarist’s taste, as there are people who like carbon because it gives more brightness and others prefer nylon because it gives more sweetness.
Our strings
We use strings that have been specially designed for our brand and made in Europe. They have the third string in carbon, because we like that there is not such a sudden jump between the third and the fourth, which is solved in some way with the carbon.
We are currently researching to create strings for our cedar top guitars and our spruce top guitars, taking into account the sound characteristics of each material to achieve the best result.
How to choose the tension of the strings?
Then there is the issue of tension. We recommend high tension on our handmade or professional guitars, but it depends on the taste of the player. If it’s too uncomfortable, there’s no point in using a high tension, which is supposed to give more projection, but if you can’t handle that tension, you won’t be able to play at ease. The most important thing is that the guitarist finds the strings that are good for his comfort and for what he wants to achieve in terms of sound.
Finally, there are several types of materials. Traditionally, gut strings were used, but they were quite unstable, out of tune, often broke and were very expensive, so other materials emerged and have now become popular on the market due to the comfort and stability they offer. It is true that those who want gut strings are looking for a more natural and old sound (in a way they try to imitate the vocal strings) and they are usually placed in historical instruments. Nowadays many use a synthetic material called Nygut which tries to imitate the sound and feel of gut strings and maintains the tuning much better.
Type of materials
Over time, materials were added that were much more durable and much more effective. The first strings to replace gut strings were nylon strings in 1946 and are attributed to Augustine, popularised by Andrés Segovia. This material has a sweeter sound and its tuning and durability made it a market leader. Then came other materials such as carbon or titanium, which give a different kind of nuance. Carbon gives a slightly brighter shade and is often used with spruce tops to awaken their sound, remember that this wood in a new guitar needs to be worked much more than cedar to achieve the expected result.
As a general rule the trebles (1st, 2nd and 3rd) are smooth and the bass strings (6th, 5th and 4th) are wound with nylon on the inside, although there are variations such as silk, smooth touch (just as you can find the 3rd wound), etc… There are also strings indicated for studio recordings, others that have different tunings… There is more and more variety offered by the brands to get closer to the ideal sound of the musician. We invite you to experiment and try, as playing has always been a good friend of creation.
