20 Best Guitar Strings For Les Paul (2023 Updated)

In reviewing these strings I’m prompted ‘how do you use them?’ I use them well. Now part of that is on the player but without good strings, you can only sound so good. People will fill your head with talk of bone nuts, “tone wood”, “X” bracing, ladder bracing, pickup systems, crypto currency, all of that, but NOTHING, and I mean nothing, my cap lock didn’t break, will make your tone change like different strings.

That’s the single most critical element to your acoustic guitar’s sound. There are some obvious choices in strings. Coated for instance. I never liked them. These strings feel like you’re a pro. These are the ones you pick when your guitar hero asks you to sit in on a recording session and you want to shine.

They are balanced, they have a nice feeling, somehow smoother on the low strings, and compliment every guitar I’ve tried them on from my Martin to my Hummingbird to my Takamine beater. They even helped me escape a Chechnya prison once but that’s a story for another time.

I don’t write many reviews but I will say, I’m happy I found these and I stocked up on more after my first set. If you’re stuck in your ways using the same old strings, give a set of these a try and see if I’m right.

And be nice to Chechens, they’re wonderful people and I’m not just pondar-ing. (It’s a 3 stringed instrument, never mind). Also, let them stretch out a bit first. Enjoy!.

I recently had some repair work done on my 79 Peavey T-60 and the tech recommended these. I haven’t played my T in years, and back when I did, it was in my garage band where we cranked out a lot of Zeppelin and Hendrix stuff.

The T-60 offers coil splitting via the tone knobs. At 10, you get single coil. Below that, you get a variety of full humbucker tones. It has a 25. 5 inch scale. It’s a perfect cross between a classic Fender Strat and a Gibson Les Paul, with some Telecaster tossed in on the neck pickup.

I’m finding this time around with the T that I’m really enjoying the clean tones I’m getting, playing through a Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue, as well as playing through an overdrive pedal (to get some dirt without scaring the dogs out of the room).

I’m never sure with strings how much is sales talk and how much is legit technical merit, but I am finding I am enjoying the feel and the variety of tones I’m getting – single coil or bucker – from myT with these strings.

I’ve got about six hours play wear on them so far, and there is no visible discoloration so I’m thinking they should last as long as they claim, to justify the price, which is the only reason I don’t give them 5 stars.

If they do last a good while, I will come back and update my rating. So far, I am happy.

I usually buy Martin strings for my Gibson Songwriter and SJ-200 but the specific string set has been replaced and I wanted to try something else. I put on some other brand strings but they were too tinny and not what I wanted to hear for live or recording sessions.

So I tried these Gibsons and, man, so far I am impressed. Nice bold, rich sound and feels really great. I may have to rethink my “go to” string set from now on.

This is the first time I tried these D’Addario NYXL strings. I got the nickel wound electric strings, regular light. I think these strings are one of the best I’ve used. I started playing guitar when I was very young so I’ve been playing for a lot of years.

These nickel wound electric guitar strings are easy to play. The strings are nice on the fingers. Some strings make my finger tips get tuff, but tuff to the point that it affects the preasure I use on the strings.

These nickel wound strings don’t do that. I have had them on for some time now and none of them broke. I like the tone of the strings. It made tuning the guitar very easy after I strung it. There is something to say about having strings that are easy to string, tune, and have a great tone.

If you are playing out some where and a string breaks you need to work kind of fast to get up and playing again. These strings do the trick.

I compared these nickel wound strings to pure nickel strings for tonal consistency, and the nickel wound strings sounded much brighter. They gradually lose that tone over the weeks or months, depending on how you attack your strings and how often you play, but you’re probably changing your strings every month anyway.

Comparing the feel of nickle wound vs pure nickle, nickle wound strings feel thicker and more resistant. For my “spankier” guitars, nickel wound strings definitely beat pure nickel, and are my personal preference.

These nickel wound strings give you crisper, brighter tones, and on top of that they produce a sweet mid-range that you just can’t get from the old pure nickel strings.

I ordered 10 packs of these on the St Patricks Day sale. What a fantastic bargain! I’ve been buying these Rev Willy’s for a few years now and Strings & Beyond sale price with free shipping is the lowest price I’ve ever paid.

The strings were shipped quickly and packaged nicely. They showed up in my mailbox faster than expected. The Rev Willy’s are superb in tone and the. 07 – 38 gauge are the lightest strings I’ve ever used.

As a player with some hand pain these are a godsend, so, so easy to bend notes even down on the highest frets. I plan on using only the Rev Willy’s for the rest of my days. These strings do require a very light touch however, if you fret hard you will bend them out of pitch but the side effect is you will develop a lighter touch and more speed with less effort.

Great strings and superb service from Strings & Beyond!.

Strings are all about personal preference so I can’t recommend them to you as I don’t know what your preferences are. All I can say is for ME they’re ideal. I played 009s or 010s for most of my career but once I tried these there was no going back.

For me and the way I play now they are the perfect string: light, slinky, easy to bend but stable in terms of tuning (I tried the 007s but even though it’s only 0. 01 difference they feel much less substantial and are much harder to keep tuned and intonated – due partly to how easy it is to change pitch by fretting too hard), they don’t rust and, in 4 years, I’ve never had a single broken string.

They’re also cheaper than the brands I used to favour (Elixir, Thomastik-Infeld).

Being a neophyte to guitar, all I initially cared about was the durability of the strings. So I ended up gravitating to Elixer, and they did the job. However the more I played my Epiphone DR 500 Mastercraft, which IMO is a brite sounding guitar to begin with, I thought the guitar was a little too brite.

Since I was, and still am, a neophyte I was more concerned with learning chords, strumming and timing. So I put the strings on the bottom of the list. About 8 months ago I bought a Yamaha FGX5 and didn’t like the strings it came with.

I went on a search for strings that would bring out the warmth, intonation, separation and clarity of the guitar. I think I went through 6-8 different brands. Even tried the D’Addairos in the all black packaging and was pretty disappointed.

I reluctantly bought a set of D’Addarios SX’s, in the all white packaging. I went to 11’s to try and damper some of the briteness of the Epiphone DR 500. The Epiphone is still a little brite, but that is the nature of that guitar.

The strings made a noticeable difference, in a good way, IMO. So I put a set on my Yamaha FGX5. On the Yamaha, the SX’s sound great and the people I play with noticed it right off. I’ll keep 11’s on the Epiphone, but I’m going to go to 10’s for the Yamaha.

So far I am very satisfied with the SX’s and will use them until I find something better. Everyone’s taste is a little different, but I think these strings are definitely worth trying.

As a long term user of Elixir Brand nano coated bronze 80/20 strings, I have long searched for their competition in that regard. I purchased 3 sets of XT’s. In the 80/20 bronze I bought one set of ‘regular lights’ for myself and one set of ‘custom lights’ for my duo partner.

We put them on the night before a performance and we both agreed that we liked the initial sound and feel of the string. The gig was outside, hot and we sweat like hookers in church, but out of the pack the strings sounded as pleasing as the Elixirs we have used for some time.

Show was 3 hours. We both have other guitars we play acoustically at home, so these strings sat untouched in the 10 day interim till our next show. Imagine opening the guitar cases to see noticeable corrosion on the wound strings (of both guitars) and further discover that both sets now sounded dull and lifeless, at least the wound strings in the sets.

It was a short, disappointing life for both sets of these strings. I was fortunate to have some Elixirs with me, but my partner was not so lucky. We started show a few minutes late as I swapped all the dull, lifeless wound strings out.

My poor partner had to suffer the gig with them, He mentioned that they had also lost the ‘slick’ feeling they presented for the first show and just felt ‘sticky. ‘. As a result of our experience, I could not in good conscience recommend them to other working musicians.

I had hoped for an experience to rival the Elixir brand strings, but these strings did not offer it. Bummer.

Use these strings on my stratocaster and find they have a long, lively sounding life span. Good feel under the fingers. Takes a little while to go through the new stretch of the strings but after that the tuning stays well.

For me I choose these strings because of the newish tone they continue to have even after they have aged.

The sound of these strings is seimply amazing, definitely the best strings I’ve ever used under this aspect (I’ve been playing for about 26 years so far). They also seem to be very durable. I live in the north-eastern region of Brazil, where the climate is extremely humid.

All the other strings, except Elixir Nanoweb and Optiweb get rusted in one week or less! Now I can add the NYXL to the short list above. I put them on two of my guitars about one month ago and they still sound and look new.

I’m not sure whether they last as long as the Elixir, but they do last certainly very long. The only reason why I gave 4 and not 5 stars is the tactile sensation: they feel a little bit rough to my taste, definitely much rougher than the Elixir Nanoweb I’ve been using in the last years.

This is my go to set of strings for any guitar. I really love the NYXL series as a whole. I especially love them on single coil guitars because they have great brightness about them and really help with sustain.

The 9. 5 gage is perfect for those who think 10 gauge is too heavy and 9 is too light. It’s all up to preference. I highly recommend!.

I have these on a 2007 Epiphone Les Pul Custom Ebony that’s bone stock, tuned to C standard and Drop A# to learn and play songs by In Flames. It’s basically the same guitar setup that Bjorn uses, except I don’t have a nickel allergy so regular strings are fine.

I did have to file my nut, and completely change up the intonation due to the wound 3rd string. The guitar is a 24 and 3/4 scale, which isn’t ideal but it’s what Bjorn uses, and I personally dont mind the extra slinky it has.

The gauges are in my opinion pretty good for the setup, but if I were to change anything in particular, having the 3rd and 4th strings just a half gauge heavier, and the 1st and second strings a half or whole gauge lighter would really light this off as playable.

The bends are much easier on 3rd and 4th vs 1st and 2nd. The 5th and 6th are perfect. Absolute chunky tight rhythms for that fast metal riffage.

f you want your sound bright and sparkling and still have deep low-end then these strings are for you. I switched from D’Angelico just for the heck of it and now I am staying with Ernie Ball Regular Slinky.

The D’Angelicos are pretty plain sounding compared to the Earnie Balls. The brightness of the EBs is long-lasting as well. I enjoy changing my strings about every three months so I can’t speak for the long, long-longevity if you are the kind of player that changes only on your birthday.

The feel is smooth and not brittle on the fingers, even with the lower strings. You will have to adjust you tones if you pop because your high strings will come through like a ricocheting bullet if you don’t bring the high end down a little on your bass or your amp.

I have used Ernie Ball Slinkys since I started playing guitar (time that can be measured in decades, that’s all I say). I have been through other top brands, and just don’t like them. I have gotten to know EB strings to the point where I can nearly predict when they’ll break.

That’s good in my book. The lively tone and intonation stays for a LONG time. And they’re good enough to scrape clean and, in the word of Billy Idol, Start Again. Well, that beats boiling them (RIP EVH).

What’s even better is all these new, attractive hybrid sets, allowing you to easily find your groove without having to get two packs for your ideal set! EB just keeps getting better.

A colleague of mine turned me on to these, and in particular to this strange gauge of 9. 5 – 44. I had struggled in the past with standard 9s on a guitar with high output pickups and a warble-happy whammy bar.

I find these strings to handle really nicely, a perfect amount of slick and grip (finger contact) and they positively scream in my current configuration. I’ve put them on a guitar that I don’t play live often, and I find that the strings don’t deteriorate over time with the guitar being left in the case.

This is very subjective and a question of personal chemistry. I mean, I’ve seen players go through a pack of the best “long-lasting” string on the market in one night, so it’ll always come down to which material lends itself to your handling.

Despite the price tag, I am not sorry that I’ve purchased those, and I just picked up a few more packs to tide me over the months of session work.

After not having a “Ball” with another popular brand that came pre-rusted in the packs I tried these. I had used them years ago and for some reason stopped, not sure why? These strings compared to the other brand are REALLY SLINKY! I mean really, I had to tighten my floating Floyd up for the same gauge strings.

And they LAST and LAST and LAST. One axe that is my daily player has 8 months on one set!! Insane I know! I did a recording test before I changed them and with distorted tone the 8 month old ones sounded so similar to new, my days of obsessing over fresh sets every time I go work on recording were over.

I can now go back in and overdub into a session and not worry. I get consistent good tone no matter how old. Maybe on a clean tone you’d notice? Not paid to say this, all I can recommend is you give these a try if you think your current brand are awesome, you might be surprised like I was, these are the great strings for me!!.

I’ve tried Every “Latest, Greatest” set of strings over the last 25 years !! If you own a Vintage Les Paul or a Custom Shop Re-Issue Les Paul, you owe it to yourself to try a set of these !! They provide 100% classic rock tones !! Super Warm and Very Aticulate !!.

10 years ago I bought a les Paul supreme and wanted to find a specific brand of strings to use. Eventually found these and loved them. these strings hold their tone longer than any other set I found.

The life of these strings is phenomenal and I literally have never broke a string. 10 years later these strings still adorn my beauty and always will.

Strings sound incredible and are extremely easy on the fingers. They feel great. Just break easily when bent. Can’t do full bends repeatedly. Broke 2 high E strings within 4 hours of playing. Otherwise I would buy more.

Need to be available in gage 10 with similar elasticity and great tone.

This past October I ordered a brand new Epiphone Limited Edition Peter Frampton Les Paul Custom PRO Ebony from Musician’s Friend. Best axe I have ever owned, and I have owned many guitars since I began playing in 1977.

After two months, it finally needed new strings. I tried to find the original make and model of strings that were on the guitar and I was told they were the Gibson 09 Ultra Light Mediums. These are the 09-46 gauge strings.

After changing strings tonight, I am happy to say these strings sound fantastic. After its initial tuning, I let the guitar set for 30 minutes, and the strings were still in tune, except for a few minor adjustments.

I am a rhythm guitarist and bassist, but I understand basic lead such as what follows bass guitarists and as a 2nd lead for backup. I have played rock, blues, concert band, orchestra (cello), jazz, country, pretty much everything at one time or another.

The right guitar is totally dependent on the player, not the price. I recommend these strings. Nice brite sounds, with a good bottom end, but not tinty and cheap.

I am a guitar player for bout 60 years now, no strings really best Bright Wire strings by Gibson. I live in a small town that really offers nothing so I buy them via ebay. The clarity and goodness that bright wire strings provide is second to none, I can’t embellish the goodness part enough – they are “feel me strings” that’s what I call them, buy a set and experience that for yourself.

Yours truly, Memphis.

Excellent sounding Strings! They stay in tune very well and feel great!

Strings to heavy for me I will buy some lighter one’s right away and

I originally purchased these strings in error. I really intended to fit nylon strings on a recently purchased second-hand Greg Bennett guitar to improve the sound quality, but I mistakenly ordered these, which happily arrived in double-quick time from a premium five-star supplier – Richtone Music.

The guitar itself is quite well built and has a steel reinforced neck, so I thought, what the hell, let’s try the bronze strings and see how it goes. Although not strictly recommended, in essence, their use has revolutionised the guitar’s output.

It is now very bright and each note I pick out has a good level of sustain. The gauge is light enough not to hurt the fingers of inexperienced players. I shouldn’t have had any doubts about these Gibson strings really, as I use these on a 1972 vintage Kiso Suzuki Hummingbird, and the sound quality on that guitar is exemplary.

Even giving the original Hummingbird a good run for its money. In the final analysis, it is down to taste and the type of music one chooses to play, so every review is subjective, but I try to be honest.

I have no regrets and would recommend them and my usual supplier very highly.

Just put a set of these on a 2013 Epi AJ 220S, it was like an epiphany. With these lighter Gibson strings this particular guitar plays like butter, silky feeling, with excellent tone and sustain. Have played a lot of acoustic guitars over the years, and each has its own personaltiy.

Tried the Gibson MB 12s and 11s previously, and these 10s are my (and this guitar’s) favorites by far. It just sounds and plays right. Easier on the older hands, less stress on the guitar, little less volume, but would install a pickup if playing out with this guitar anyway.

These Gibson 10-47 striings are definitely worth a try.

After 40 years of playing the guitar I have been fortunate enough to be able to afford a Gibson SJ 200, a Martin d41, and a Taylor 800 series guitars. I went on a painstakingly search for the best strings I can put on these guitars.

These Gibson masterbuilt and also the John Pierce both in phosphor bronze are the best strings 4 overall sound quality and longevity. You can keep your elixirs, they are just dull.

Great strings, gives a great mid-ground between 10’s and 9’s. Good tone and feel more flexible than other brands. A bit expensive but supposed to last.

I’ve been using Ernie Ball super slinkys since 1974 . Tried others long ago , but none better . These PRS strings are just as good !

Personally my favorite set of GHS strings ever made. They sound so mellow and full on all humbucker equipped guitars. Best of all they’re burnished giving that smooth feeling especially when bending or using vibrato with your fingers.

I love the 11s on my humbucker equipped guitars and 10s on those with mini hbs, P90s and single coils as they are a warm sounding set. The only downside is these aren’t in a 10-52,11-54 or 12-56 as that would be a dream.

I play both slide, in open tunings, and normal rhythm and lead, in standard tuning. I work with three guitars or more every time I play, all in various tunings, and I often change the tuning of my guitars during a show,or practice.

In my 40+ years of playing, I’ve tried just about everything out there, trying to find strings that hold up to the strain of constantly changing tunings, and my somewhat aggressive playing. I discovered GHS Strings years ago, and have used them for years because of their consistency and excellent tone, playability and durability.

The Big Core sets are absolutely fantastic for lower tuning, slide guitar or just simply adding some heft to your sound. I highly recommend GHS Big Core strings to anyone who is looking for a good durable set, anyone who plays more aggressively, wants a little thicker tone, or slide players who like somewhat lower action.

They also help my guitars stay in tune better. My favorite strings for everything I play.

In 40 years of guitar playing, I’ve never used a better set of strings. I like the more mellow tone of nickel, and these strings deliver that tone in spades – right from the start(usually I have to wait for a couple of weeks for regular nickel strings to ‘break in’ and mellow out).

Also, the difference in the way these strings feel when you play them is a profound improvement over non-burnished strings. My fingers slide easily across the strings. There are less ‘whistle’ type sounds when I do so.

Bending seems easier, as the strings do not rub as hard on the frets when doing so. And, for some reason, these burnished strings stay in tune better that regular nickel strings. I never thought such an improvement could be had, simply by improving string design.

Thank you, GHS!.

Recently, after several decades of playing, I became weary of my own subjective randomness when choosing string brands, and decided to attempt a more controlled comparison in order to determine whether I could discern any objective preferences.

I’ve always preferred 10s to any other gauge for electric guitars, sometimes using heavier gauges but never anything lighter, and in the past few years I’ve used pure nickel strings almost exclusively.

Accordingly, I selected ten different brands of pure nickel 10-gauge strings for my comparison, using the same guitar (an American Vintage ’52 reissue Telecaster) throughout. The Dunlop strings fared very well in my ten-brand comparison.

I was pleased by the way they feel — smooth and supple. More importantly, I was pleased by the way they sound. Most of my current playing relies on clean tones through Fender tube amps (a selection of ’65 blackface reissues).

The Dunlops produce a well-balanced sound, with good presence across all six strings. I like the well-rounded creamy chime of the high E and B strings, and the crisp but resonant bass tones of the low E and A strings.

The packaging of these strings boasts “warm, smooth mid-range,” but what pleased me most was the presence and balance of the highs and lows. The strings come well-packed, each string inside its own paper sleeve and the six sleeves inside a sealed plastic wrap that also contains an absorbant packet.

(Dunlop also includes a peel-off sticker in each set; I’m not sure what I’ll do with all those stickers, but I’m accumulting enough to start using them as a wall covering. ) On the negative side, I noticed that sometimes one or more of the unwound strings appear to have some tarnishing fresh out of the package.

Moreover, now matter how obsessive I am about frequent hand-washing and string-cleaning, my body chemistry wreaks havoc on guitar strings — including these Dunlops. They last longer than several other brands I assessed in my recent comparison, but not as long as coated strings (which I have often tried, but never really liked).

I change strings frequently, always preferring the feel and sound of fresh strings; a total of about twelve hours of actual play is as much as I give any set of strings. Fortunately, these Dunlops are sufficiently inexpensive to allow me to keep a good supply on hand and change them often.

They might not emerge as my all-time top-of-the-heap favorites, but they are definitely on my favorites pile and I will continue to use them alongside a small selection of other brands.

I like these electric guitar strings because not only do they sound great but they are fairly inexpensive. Great product sold and shipped by to me, the best seller of everything music. SAM ASH music.

If you need anything to do with music, I suggest you go through this seller! Thank You Walmart.

I have never been a huge fan of Dunlop strings based on a single experience I had on a single guitar some 6 years ago. The same strings but for a 6 string set came out of the package with some rust and broke within hours of setting them up.

Since I’ve recently purchased an 8 string I was willing to give anything a try in an attempt to find my ideal tone and feel. These strings by all means blew my expectations out of the water. I figured for the cheapest 8 string set these would be very poor quality strings and I could eliminate them from the large list of options for an 8 string set.

When I received these strings by mail I wanted to go ahead and strap them on and tune them up. They tuned relatively quickly and did take about an hour of playing time to actually break in and reach their sweet spot.

I would say for tone and feel these strings are slightly above average. Price is exceptional. Life span and tuning stability are both slightly under par. I am not much of a hard picker but I would notice that for certain songs if I was really focusing on the low B string or even the F# from time to time they would go out of tune after a song or two.

Overall not bad at all for the price range but not absolutely ideal. In my opinion you should get what you pay for and these being the cheapest set of 8 on the market you get more than what you pay for which merits the 4/5 star rating.