Do expensive strings sound better? (The Ultimate String Test!)

I test and compare guitar strings in a head to head tournament!

▶FOLLOW ME◀

▶MY COURSES◀

▶GUITARS◀
Squier Classic Vibe 60's

▶AMP◀
Kemper Profiling Amp

0:00 Intro
1:28 Round 1
2:09 Round 2
2:48 Round 3
3:19 Round 4
4:10 Round 5
5:00 Round 6
5:35 Round 7
6:21 Round 8
7:26 Round 9
8:29 Round 10
9:19 Q-finals 1
10:16 Q-finals 2
11:08 Q-finals 3
12:25 Q-finals 4
13:04 Q-finals 5
13:58 Semi's 1
15:31 Semi's 2
16:47 Semi's 3
17:43 The Finals
22:19 Interesting results

Hi, my name is Paul Davids! I am a guitar player, teacher, producer, and overall music enthusiast from the Netherlands! I try to inspire people from all over the world with my videos, here on YouTube.

Thank you for watching!
Paul

Below is the gear and services I use to make these videos. They redirect to websites and provide me with a small kickback should purchase any of these things.

▶GEAR LIST◀

▶SFX & Background music◀

▶MICS◀

▶SOUND◀

▶VIDEO GEAR◀
50mm:

[PaulDavids]

Corrections/Additions:
- The right guitar at 15:35 is strung with Elixir Optiweb, instead of the labeled Nanoweb. My dearest apologies!
- We concluded that 4/5 strings in the semi's where coated. But neither the Rotosound Roto Yellows, nor the D'addario NYXL's are coated which makes it 3 out of 5.

[Majerly_Annoyed]

Shout out to the person changing the strings for you. An absolute legend in my books! I really despise changing strings but to think they had to keep swapping out the strings and then keeping track of which were which etc... what an incredible job!

[pabloblue]

Very interesting. Would love to see an acoustic strings test.

[shouldireviewguitars]

I was absolutely not expecting the tone differences to be this significant!

[Kiirxas]

I played ernie ball slinkies for so long, but when I tried the NYXLs I just fell in love. Many times I find myself just playing unplugged when they're new since they sound great even by themselves

[vanguard]

I bet the video took an enormous amount of work. It was fun to watch, and I watched through the end. Thank you.

[Oreologyst]

This video is insane… SUPER useful, especially for someone like me that has a very basic untrained ear/just a casual with guitar. Major props to you and your team on all the strings swapping and planning that went into this! I’d love to see an acoustic version sometime in the future as well

[LloydPerryMusic]

Every guitarist watching this is gonna be massively grateful to you! Would take some of us years to reach these kind of conclusions. Never heard the XS before and soon as I heard them in this video thought they'd win, but the rotos do sound fuller with really nice low end

[kq_sam]

This video was super informative and so much work. Thanks Paul 🌟

[anthonymorales]

They way you describe the different strings is so brilliant. True professional.

[clemensberkenhoff]

Could you please do this video again but for acoustic strings? Keep up the awesome work Paul!

[ugosmith]

While not my favorites, I am extremely surprised and impressed about the harley benton coated strings. For the price, they are phenomenal

[johnplainsong]

I love the way you performed this test. Not an easy thing to pull off. Thank you!!

[shoresaybow]

Interesting that the low budget Harley Benton strings did not get kicked out straight away. They did a great job for that price point. In the end the winner is also very affordable. You could also repeat that shoot out in a mixing context, how the strings help to cut through the mix and sit well :-)

[RussClarkRocks]

Was pleased to see my two brands (D'Addario and Elixir) fared very well. Also surprised to see how well the Harley Benton strings performed at such a low price. Great video my friend!

[nathanclk]

That was interesting. Thank you for taking the time to do all that work! I would love to see this again with humbuckers (particularly on your SG).

[matthewlee]

Been rocking the DR Pure Blues for over 10 years now. I just found what I liked and never looked back.

[rickypayne]

Thanks Paul for validating me being a Rotosound yellow guy for years :) They last long as well. I used to use them in a hard rock band and they also work great today for my post-rock/space rock project I'm in.

[UmasPapa]

I switched to DR strings a couple years ago, and I love how they sound and how they age. More presence without being too harsh. Brings out overtones in the guitars and inspires my playing. Especially in acoustic. I'll have to try the roto strings

[johnmc]

I think all of us appreciate the huge amount of work this represents. Thanks so much for the dedication to the craft!