Boutique Strings?

So, of course boutique guitar gear is better than regular guitar gear. It just goes without saying……right? Ya, unfortunately, I fall into that category too many times. It should be about what sounds good, not about what has the coolest stigma. But you gotta admit, it’s really cool to have a pedalboard loaded with sweet, sweet pedals nobody’s ever heard of. You know, the ones you can tell people were handmade in communist Finland in 1941 with parts taken from a secret military facility by some hermit who lives on top of a mountain. Now that’s tone, you can say. hehe Some people will actually believe me……if, of course, the pedal looks cool enough. Looks equals tone, my friends. Looks equals tone. (Typed sarcasm is difficult.)

(These are some of the ZVex pedals. Not only boutique and handmade, but handpainted, too! I mean, look at those…..how can they not sound good?! Although, these pedals do sound really, really good.)

But in the end, I find that it generally falls (at least for me) somewhere in the neighborhood of around 75-80% of the boutique handmade stuff sounding the best. Vintage stuff can sound really good, too, but it breaks down a lot (at least in my experience). And every once in a while, you run across something mass-produced that just sounds incredible.

But what about strings? It’s a usually overlooked piece of the tone chain, but maybe the most important. I mean, that’s where the sound is actually coming from. Akin to the voice of a vocalist. And yet so many times we really don’t care about our strings.

So the other day I decided to care. And for those of you who know me, when I care, I really care. I have trouble doing things in balance. I’m either all in or all out. What? U2 uses delay? And suddenly I buy 8 delay pedals. Some of you are laughing…..those of you who know that’s actually a true story are not. In fact, you’re probably crying at the wall of delayed mush my tone used to be. Anyway, I went all the way and bought me some boutique, handmade, oven-cured in the dark of Alaska (not really) Snake Oil Brand Strings. A lot of people adore them……and going for that ‘real’ sound, I bought the vintage set, made of real nickel. And the moment I put them on my guitar, I knew something was wrong. The punch was just gone……and that was while playing the electric unplugged. You could tell even then. And sure enough, I played the set at church that night, and our sound tech (who does have a great ear, by the way) says, ‘Where’d your guitar tone go?’

(Maybe I should have tried the ‘rock’ sets instead of the vintage. But I did like the idea of pure nickel, just like they were made in the ’60’s. And seriously……look how cool that package looks! That even looks like tone.)

So I come home that night, put on a new set of Ernie Ball’s, and voila…….highs are back, punch is back, tone is back. (And to be fair, some people get great tone out of these strings……I guess just not me.)

That’s one of the very, very rare instances of stock beating handmade, at least in my experience. And then, inevitably, I’ll be at some show and hear the most killer tone ever, and then look at the guy’s board and he has some stock (!) Line 6 pedal (no!) and is getting better tone than me. And the journey continues.

I am curious, though, to know what strings everyone is using, though, on electric and acoustic, and if anyone uses boutique strings. And, of course, whose Line 6 pedals are getting better tone than me!

Splendid.
Karl.