I can say during the last 25 years I tried most of the brands on the market, from budget “store branded” to high price coated strings. As feel is very subjective and will not necessarily give you “The Tone” you’re looking for or make it long lasting, I’m going to concentrate my review on overall quality based on tone and durability.
My first proper guitar was a Strat I bought in USA during a trip back in the day and they offered me a box with some 150’s string sets, but I also got my first pack os GHS boomers as the price was quite attractive.
The originals 150s were pure nickel and offered a very balanced sound without much tonal change over time, but I used to brake a lot of strings. When I finely swapped them by the GHS, I was impressed straight away, they sounded slyly brighter out of the box which would change only a little after long hours of playing, still the tone would remain consistent, clear and punchy. And the durability is just amazing, yes I do manage to break a high E once in a while, but they last ages and take serious playing and bending without suffering much!
Comparing to other famous brands, some have a great “new” tone but when broke in for just a few hours they sound dull, some are just cold due to the steel nature and it doesn’t justify the durability and those coated ones can be tricky, the feel (yes, I know) is quite plasticky and when it starts peeling it just becomes a mess. It could be my playing style, but although I would agree with the extra durability of the coated strings, the trade offs and higher price tag didn’t convince me.
Funny enough, every so often I buy other strings to try and/or because I found a good deal, as a musician and also a guitar tech it’s always good to have other options to try and offer to customers, but all my personal guitars end up strung with GHS.
They sound good out of the box, they last a long time and they feel (oh, not again!) smooth!! Another thing that’s worth mentioning is the tension, although we are given the gauge for each string, brand to brand will have a specific tension or offer custom sets to compensate for this. I found GHSs to be a good mid tensioned set offering a lot of sustain.
Buying 5 set packages with an extra set included is a no brainer and only makes an already good deal extraordinary!!!
Every time a shop at Thomann I throw one or two packages in the basket and happy days!!!
