Thomastik AC110

First a little warning: Most people will want to buy the .011 set instead, this very light set is just for those of us who are electric players first and foremost, and who want our acoustic to feel and play like we're used to. This set is really too light and wobbly to make a strumming guitar justice, it's only suitable for light picking and expressive lead parts with bends and vibrato. Don't put these strings on your big dreadnaught strummer, put them on a 000 or even parlour size.

And most of us electric players will want to exchange the G with a .016 plain steel!

This is for two reasons:

1. To get back those wild bends we love so much. Because really, if you aren't going to bend, why not just pick the more sensible .011 set to begin with?

2. Because the G string in this set is extremely fragile and wears out super fast. This makes many reviewers criticise Thomastik for "poor quality", not realising manufacturing a round core flatwound string with silk inlay that's only .016 thick is pushing against the laws of physics! No other manufacturer even attempts to make a similar string. And quite frankly, Thomastik shouldn't attempt it either, they should just put a plain steel in there in the first place and LOWER THE PRICE!

With that out of the way...

These strings sound fantastic, feel great to play, and minimise fretting noise. Don't worry about the thin bass strings, they really do sound great, they just can't take as much playing force as thicker strings, that's all. The only downside with these strings is the high price, and the sublime but in the end essentially useless G string they come with. But if you care about tone and comfort, these are some lovely strings indeed!

As a final note: anyone who bends a lot should keep a few spare high E strings around, just in case. For this purpose, I recommend Elixir over all others. Elixir and D'Addario NYXL take a little bit more bending before snapping than other brands, but the NYXL plain steels feel a lot stiffer than Elixirs and are less fun to play for that reason.