Heavy strings?

scot

When I got my guitars back in '93, you could not get Argentine strings in the USA. And the ones you could get in Europe often began to unwind and go dead in only a few hours of playing - that's no exaggeration. I think that most people used light steel strings before the arrival of the "New Concept" Argentine strings. I used Pearse jazz lights which are .011-.050 for years without any damage to either of my guitars. I think that back then most people used these kinds of strings - I mean, you had to use some kind of strings. And they do have a pretty good sound. Tony Green still uses D'Addario bronzes of some kind, which he's been using for years on his Dupont.

If you've never used those old Argentines, you wouldn't believe how crappy they really were. You couldn't use them to play a gig. Based on my experiences, I wouldn't hesitate to put steel strings on either my Favino or my Dupont. But I wouldn't use any .013s - I'd want them as light as possible with a wound G.

BluesBop Harry

Maybe some of you might be interested in knowing there's a mexican brand of guitar strings called "Cometa" and they are Silver plated copper 11s. They can be found around here at any hardware store and they go for about $4 a set, but they don't last long, just a couple of days or a week at the most and don't sound nearly as good as Argentines. I wonder if the original Argies were something like these.
I use them for 3rd string spares (around 70 cents) on my Gitane, but I would never be caught dead with them on my Dupont.

http://www.realdelosreyes.com/marcas/cometa-eng.html

Philip Gustavson

Wow, you all have some great help to offer. A Thousand Thanks.

It is true, I was not going to put the heavy strings on a Gypsy style guitar, but I might have considered it in the future without the warning...

I will try out all of the suggestions and keep reading the threads!

Thanks again.