D’Addario Strings – Coated Vs Uncoated
I had some experiences with coated and uncoated phosphor bronze strings for western guitars by D’Addario that I want to share with you.
The so-called EXP strings are specially coated strings. This special coating provides a protection against corrosion, and is supposed to make the strings dirt-resistant, more durable and keep their brilliancy. However, the normal EJ strings are uncoated and ‘natural’ if you will, but otherwise they are basically identical to the EXP strings.
The EJ strings sound quite warm after one week or so when they finally lost that unpleasant metal or steel shape of sound that you always have with newly stringed guitars. They are quite durable in comparison to strings of other producers, and it’s a pleasant feeling playing them. They are not too rigid, but they are not particularly soft either. Well, I’ve played that kind of strings for a long series of years, and I’ve always been content. Not Enthusiastic, but content.
One day I went to my local guitar shop in order to buy a new set of EJ strings with which I always had stringed my western guitar. It was the first time long since that a string had broken, and since I didn’t have no more strings left I wanted to get new ones. But when I actually got there with the packaging of my old string set, I was told by the owner that D’Addario was producing new strings of that kind, and that he sold these instead of the ones I used to play. Well, of course I was wondering what the difference between these two sets was — actually I wanted my old strings as I didn’t know what I had to expect of the new ones, but I knew that the old ones had worked for me.
The owner told me that the EXP strings were a lot better than the EJs in many aspects. He said that they had a special coating which not only made them dirt-resistant, but also would keep the strings’ brilliancy.
The first thing that popped into my mind was: Why the heck would I want my strings to be dirt-resistant or protected against corrosion? At least I don’t keep my guitars outside in the rain or in the mud. To me it seemed especially ridiculous for I had never had issues with that sort of things at all, and I simply couldn’t imagine that anyone else really had.
But as I urgently needed new strings, I bought a few sets hoping their special coating wouldn’t disturb the strings’ sound and that it wouldn’t lead to more rigidity.
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