Ernie Ball Medium Light Aluminum Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings, 12-54 Gauge (P02566)

These are some great strings. They have a nice smooth feel to them, not as smooth as Elixirs mind you, but smoother than most of the others I've played which have included almost all the coated and non-coated Light variations (12-53/54) of D'addario's and Martin's. They also hold their tune very well. I've had them on my guitar for 3 weeks and have put roughly an hour on them each day and they still feel and sound very similar to the first day I put them on. The other brands are fine, they aren't bad but they aren't great on my guitar, either.The magic, folks, lies in the tone these bring to my Taylor 414. With the other Phosphor Bronze strings I've tried the guitar sounds very "flat". My guitar is a little too balanced sounding and sometimes doesn't seem to want to jump out and grab your attention. The bass always feels a little reined in and the mids tend to dominate. All the 80/20's I've tried were a little too "crispy" sounding and the uncoated ones didn't last very long. I admire the Ernie Ball engineering team for keeping some of that "crispy" tone from 80/20's while adding longevity to the string by blending some Aluminum into the mix. A very clever way indeed to make the strings last longer while not having to coat them. Even after 3 weeks of daily play for 1 hour, there aren't even any dents on the underside of the strings where they hit the frets or color changes on the played parts of the strings. That definitely speaks volumes about the quality of the strings. Ernie Ball also claims these strings are louder than other strings and they are, that isn't marketing bs. The lows are very powerful, tight, big and very three-dimensional sounding and I can only imagine how these would transform a Martin D28!For the price of these strings, they're definitely worth a try in my opinion. I am not endorsed by Ernie Ball either, I'm just an amateur strummer trying to get the best tone I can from my Taylor :)

These string sound the best to my ears, they have very nice projection & clarity all the way through. They sound great on the low end, but where these really shine in the high/mid range. The sound is superb & they feel really nice to play. They are also very nice for finger picking, and they sound just as nice using a pick.

Without question, these are the best guitar strings I've ever played, by a long shot. I play mainly fingerstyle and my primary guitar is a Breedlove Concert body with cedar top and rosewood back & sides. This instrument has great bass response, sustain, and note articulation, but sometimes leaves me wanting a bit more treble and projection.After a week and a half of playing, all I can say is these strings are unreal. They make my Breedlove sparkle while retaining the bass and sustain I love. They have a fantastic treble projection without sounding harsh or metallic like regular 80/20s. While I could imagine these being a touch too bright on a maple guitar or a cheaper Taylor, anything built with cedar, mahogany, or rosewood -- or any warm-sounding guitar, for that matter, will surely improve with a set of these strings.The extra-lights have incredible volume and projection and handle dropped tunings well without losing any tone or volume. The strings bend extremely well, and project better on hammered, tapped, and glissando notes than other much heavier string gauges. After a week and a half of regular play, there is very little noticeable tone decay -- 80/20s or any other uncoated string would be almost totally dead in the same time span. Also, the aluminum in the strings seems to impart a great matte or "grippy" surface texture. You know how coated strings feel greasy and make your fingers slip off when you're fretting complex chords? These do the opposite - even with very sweaty hands, the unique surface texture seems to make the strings easier to grab and hold on to, especially when you're stretching across 4 or 5 frets. If you don't play fingerstyle you may not notice this, but I did.Every string brand on the market claims to be "revolutionary" - but these actually are. For less than $10, you owe it to your guitar to give them a try.

I have a Martin OMC16e. Being all ovangkol hardwood it has amazing tone but is very, very quiet. Playing with a friend on his on his D-42 and me with Earthwood Light's I can't even hear myself so have to plug in. Put on Earthwood medium lights and it was an improvement but still too dark and quiet.Are they louder:I setup a test with 1 week old Earthwoods of the same 12-54 size. Sat in the same distance from my phone's mic, recorded levels with a decent DB meter app. Obviously I can't be super accurate in my strumming but average strumming with the Earthwoods was 72-74, with the Aluminum Bronze 76-78. Pretty subjective but the meter averaged around 4 db higher.Next test was strumming as loud as I can with a G chord. Earthwoods avg 80-82 db with a peak at 86.7. The Aluminum Bronze were 85-87 with a peak at 90.6. Louder to my ears as well.Lastly, I compared to a decent solid spruce top dread that's MUCH louder than the OMC. To the point my wife asks me not to play it when she's working or watching TV in the other room. The OMC with the Aluminum EB's is now almost as loud as the dread though it has with the "light" 11-52 weight Earthwoods (they peaked at 91.8db).Subjective test:They sound brighter than the (admittedly "earthy") Earthwoods. Significantly so. On the less good news, they feel very tight and are pretty hard on fingertips. I play a lot and can't remember the last time I even thought about my fingertips! Played side by side with a D-42 strung with Martin SP lights, sounded much more on par with the D-42, overall a huge improvement.Overall, if you need to brighten up a guitar and increase volume, these are a great way to go. Feel isn't my favorite as they are pretty tight feeling but the sound quality improvements are significant on this particular guitar.