I have always hated buying strings for my guitars…

When I was young, it meant taking a bus all the way to my nearest guitar store, and then hoping they had the strings I wanted – which they almost never did.  There’s nothing quite as disappointing as taking a bus 40 minutes out to your nearest guitar store and then being looked at oddly because you asked for 7 string set.

Even now, 10 years later in 2016, people at my local guitar store tell me I should be playing bass instead of guitar because I ask them for a gauge thicker than 52.

Assuming the store you go to does have the gauges you want and you didn’t have to settle for less, the strings you’re buying usually aren’t arranged in any logical thickness.

Strings you use right now might feel “fine” and they are definitely “usable”, but the strings you’ve been using are the same as eating stale old cookies for 20 years and never experiencing the joy of warm fresh baked cookies.

Yes, you can eat stale cookies that taste “fine” and are “edible”, but why would you do that when you could be eating fresh baked cookies every day?

In this case, the warm fresh baked cookies are our progressive tension strings.

Wondering what the @$&! progressive tension is?

Lower strings have more tension on them and higher strings have less tension on them but it’s not quite that simple…

Here, let’s break down the benefits of our progressive tension strings:

-Lower strings are tighter, and don’t behave like spaghetti.

-You don’t have to worry about low strings going out of tune when you get aggressive with your playing.

-Higher strings are easier to bend.

-They feel more ergonomic by replicating the effects of fanned frets/multiscale guitars.  The strings you’re using right now likely have a tighter D or A string than the low E, which makes no sense unless you’re a massive corporation churning out strings and only being concerned about profits.

As you can see, progressive tension solves the age old dilemma of having to choose between easy bending or lower strings that don’t feel like spaghetti.  Woohoo!

…but if it makes so much sense, why aren’t big string companies offering progressive tension sets that avidly?

Why do you rarely hear about progressive tension?

Who really killed John F. Kennedy?

I can’t answer the last question, but I can answer the other two.

Basically, it’s cheaper for big companies to stick to the status quo.  They usually aren’t big fans of changing what they are doing anyways, because if something has been printing money for you for 30+ years, why change it?

Look at the Les Paul guitar model. Despite countless complaints about the design over the years, including the now infamous snapping headstock, there has been little to no change to the Standard model, and when they do try something new, it’s just a marketing gimmick, not a tangible improvement.

It makes sense, and I don’t blame them. Especially when they are doing just fine with their sales so they technically don’t have to change anything…

We however, aren’t afraid of changing the status quo if it means better results.  That’s why our upcoming strings being offered through Wired Guitarist String Drop utilize progressive tension…

As great as progressive tension is, it still doesn’t solve a problem the extended range guitar community has been facing for years – dead sounding thick strings!

If you’ve ever played a guitar string thicker than a 62 you will know what I’m talking about.  They sound round, kind of warm…almost like you’ve been playing them for 4 months.

I’m simplifying things when I say this, but the reason that thicker strings have a tendency to sound dead out of the box is because of the way they are wound.  Plus the alloys used kind of suck.  By the way, “kind of” was an understatement, they are horribly outdated in most cases.

That’s why we worked alongside a scientist (who is also a lifelong guitarist) that specializes in materials science & metallurgy to ensure our strings sound exceptional in low tunings.

Was it cheap?  Nope.

Was it a good business decision?  Probably not, the ERG market is tiny.  Spending all that time & money on satisfying the extended range guitar community probably won’t pay off.

Are we glad we decided to spend the money on research and development that we did to get our strings sounding better than anything else you’ve played in lower tunings?  Yes, because it turns out these strings also help boost clarity substantially when playing in standard tunings and low tunings.

On top of progressive tension and enhanced low end clarity, our strings are manufactured to ultra rigorous tolerances.  They are checked 4 times during the manufacturing process and are made right here in the US!

String Drop is more than just cutting edge strings though…

We have teamed up with Winspear to bring you plectrums that are unlike any normal guitar pick available at your local guitar store.

They are made with advanced materials that last incredibly long like ultra high molecular weight polyethylene which is used in spinal implants.

These plectrums are carefully crafted by Tom Winspear by hand in Britain for maximum ergonomic benefit.

Due to their added mass and tougher material, they deliver enhanced attack and clarity – making your guitar sound louder and more present than ever before.

String Drop doesn’t stop there though, we want to make String Drop an experience for our community that goes above and beyond, just like our community guitar store…

Anyone who subscribes to String Drop at launch will also receive a number of complementary discount codes that can be used to get guitars & gear at discounts, and even software like Guitar Pro!  These discounts save you more than the cost of String Drop – so it pays for itself right away. 🙂

I do have some bad news… but I’ll give you the good news first…

String Drop will open on November 17th worldwide, with free US shipping.

If you’re not in the US, don’t worry, we heavily discounted the base price for our international customers to offset shipping costs – meaning you aren’t paying much  more than someone in the US would!

The bad news is due to the overwhelming and unexpected amount of interest in String Drop, we will have to cap off the amount of initial subscriptions to make sure there are enough strings for monthly fulfillment.

We hope you all enjoy this strings as much as we do on November 17th, as we’ve poured a lot of our time into making them as great as possible.

Thank you for reading,

 

Mehtab

About The Author