D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by Haddock » Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:06 am

I hear you, I was using D'addarios (roundwound 11s), had to stop after the 4th time the high E string broke at the ball end on my main guitar at the time (a '94 CIJ Jazzmaster). And I'm also a light player. The few packs I had left ended up on my Strat. And I stopped buying D'Addarios, no trust in the them anymore.

Maybe there is a poor finish condition in the tail end part on same Jazzmasters, rough edges around the hole that's holding the string at the ball end, grinding away at the string ? But then again, I've not had the same issue with other brands.
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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Tue Mar 19, 2019 2:14 pm

I love d'addario strings. I became a better player once I switched from slinkies (which are awful, sound dead within minutes, and usually pitted/worn fresh out the packet ime) to dadds

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by mackerelmint » Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:14 pm

Haddock wrote:
Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:06 am
I hear you, I was using D'addarios (roundwound 11s), had to stop after the 4th time the high E string broke at the ball end on my main guitar at the time (a '94 CIJ Jazzmaster). And I'm also a light player. The few packs I had left ended up on my Strat. And I stopped buying D'Addarios, no trust in the them anymore.

Maybe there is a poor finish condition in the tail end part on same Jazzmasters, rough edges around the hole that's holding the string at the ball end, grinding away at the string ? But then again, I've not had the same issue with other brands.
It's a thing. There have been threads about ball end strings and offset trems, and I've even gone in and filed mine all smooth just to mitigate that potential point of failure.

And the d'addarios I tried still came all apart, so like you I just don't trust them.
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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by timtam » Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:59 pm

One other possible consideration. D'Addarios are commonly faked. If you're buying on ebay from unknown sources you're possibly getting fakes. Differences are particularly at the ball end.
http://www.daddario.com/upload/DABR_Cou ... _15727.pdf
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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by daemon » Tue Mar 19, 2019 5:19 pm

In 30-some years, the only string I've ever had come apart at the ball end was Electro Harmonix, which I never bought again. D'Addarios have been fine, but I mostly stick with Ernie Ball's now, aside from the Thomastik's I've had on my JM since October that are still going strong.

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by RoséBear » Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:12 pm

Im the OP, as an update:


I spent the last few days trying different brands. I’ve been playing D’addarios for as long as I can remember. I used to love dean markleys but my stores stopped selling them. At that point I just wanted something accessible. I tried d’addarios, and stuck with them.

I tried GHS Boomers and I didn’t really like them. They felt great, the tension felt a little less, but under the fingers they felt great, a lot like d’addarios. When it came down to sound though, they lacked character imo. Maybe I just got a bad batch, but I felt they didn’t have that sparkle and top end most “new strings” do.

I always hated ernies, but I figured I’d give them another shot. Right on the guitar, they sound and feel absolutely amazing. I noticed that they do feel brittle, and felt even more brittle the next day. Nope.

So my answer right now? D’addarios. Ha, but this time I’m using NYXL. They’re 3x the price of regular XL’s, but they’re supposedly stronger. They SOUND and FEEL incredible. Like the regular d’addarios, but more frequency response. I’m praying these don’t have the same issue, as I’m absolutely loving these strings. It says stronger on the packaging, but I suppose we’ll have to see...

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by JagWire » Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:54 pm

I recently bought myself a set of pyramid maximum performance (green pack) and I gotta say..they sound great, hold tune better than d'addarios, and the ball end is wrapped in silk so the term screw breakage will likely not be as big of an issue.

They are really pricey but maybe worth checking out.

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by 601210 » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 am

FWIW I think there are "reinforced" D'addario 10s, EKXL110s or something where they're otherwise identical to the usual 10s but with the ball ends already soldered.

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by timtam » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:23 am

601210 wrote:
Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:16 am
FWIW I think there are "reinforced" D'addario 10s, EKXL110s or something where they're otherwise identical to the usual 10s but with the ball ends already soldered.
So it seems ... D'addario rep posted here in 2013 ...
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... 0#p1083460

http://www.daddario.com/DADProductDetai ... ced__10_46
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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by mynameisjonas » Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:12 am

I've had problems with D'Addarios on all trem equipped guitars I've owned. They were absolutely crap with the Hagström Tremar unit. If you so much as looked at the wiggle stick, the high E would unwind. It's easy enough to solder the unwound strings when you put on a fresh set, and after that they last as long as any other string brand. But I prefer not to have to do that, so I switched to GHS many years ago, and I'm much happier with them. I do sometimes still use D'Addarios on my non-trem guitars though, depending on what's available when/where I need to buy new strings.

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by tune_link » Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:35 am

This thread is blowing my mind a little bit. I've had D'Addarios on all my offsets for years and never had a problem.....until recently. I got a Mastery trem for Christmas and threw it on a partscaster Jazzmaster that I'm playing while replacing the parts with nicer ones over time (got an OTM American Original body arriving this afternoon that's replacing the Squier one it started life with). At any rate, in the last three months I've had the high e unwind on me at the ball end three times. And I only mention the Mastery trem for two reasons, 1. it was brought up by the OP and 2. the trem screws are flush with the metal plate of the trem to prevent that whole thing of strings rubbing against them. Now I'm wondering if there really is something about the Mastery trem that's causing this. I'm sure it's possible that I got a bad batch of strings (these were all from the same D'Addario multi pack). Maybe they aren't very good strings to begin with. My bandmate swears by Ernie Ball, but I switched from using those and GHS back in the late 90s and never really had an issue with any of my D'Addarios until just now. I have a set of em on another Jazzmaster and two different Jaguars and haven't had any of the string unwinding issues on those guitars - which are all outfitted with AVRI trems.

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by aliendawg » Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:42 am

Been using Daddario 11s for a long time now. Never had any problem. But I always buy them from the store to avoid fakes
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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by ncarey13 » Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:10 am

I used D'addario for years with no problems at all. I only switched to GHS recently when I got a new Jazzmaster because they have a 10.5-48 size that I really like. I still have D'addario 11's on my jag.
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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by BobL » Wed Mar 20, 2019 12:27 pm

Zero issues with d'Addario .011s.

I just switched to .010s on one JM so I could pull off pedal steel licks w/o crying... so far, so good there as well.

I do think they sound better than other brands, IMHO - been using them for decades.

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Re: D’addario- horrible for offsets? Just me?

Post by Larry Mal » Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:21 pm

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