I finally changed the factory strings on my 20th and its like a new guitar lol

[AlkyHauler]

The factory strings on mine were excellent I must say. No black stuff or any of the issued noted here by quite a few people with 20th's. They stayed in tune perfect and looked brand new. Anyway I finally but my standard Boomers on there and wow its like a new guitar lol. Although the factory strings were in great shape they sure were dead compared to new boomers. The pickups REALLY scream now. Guess my point is change the strings immediately.

[LonePhantom]

Gee I played the RFR one I put on layby for about 20 minutes yesterday and I had black stuff all over my fingers afterwards. You must have been lucky! I never had that happen before either.

[IbanezGirl]

My factory strings sound toneless even though they looked ok. I'm still waiting for my store to get their hands on some DR strings. Seems like they aren't that easy to get here. My local store is having a huge sale over the next few days and they have D'Addario strings in a box of 10 with a free tuner for a very,very, cheap price. If my DR strings aren't there by this weekend i'll get the D'Addario's because i can't stand the stock strings anymore.

[70Seven]

When I buy a guitar first thing I do is change the strings. I love the feeling of new strings, I change mine about every two weeks and use GHS fast fret to keep that "new" feel.

[JJEMMER777]

Ummmmm.......duh

Good rule: any time you get a new guitar,

ALWAYS change the strings immediatly and set her up. Otherwise you are wasting precious time

[LonePhantom]

Yeah well my store is doing a set up on the guitar for me as a part of their service which is good.

[no1spretty]

Speaking of strings on the 20th, what brand of strings do you recommend? I've always used D'Addario's on my other guitars but i still dont know whether i should install the same strings on the 20th. I usually use .09s

[JJEMMER777]

Lol....it's a 20th, but still just a guitar. No need for different strings

Stick with your proven winner!!!

D'Addario's XL120's. I'm sure it's set up with (.009's)

I used to use the GHS Boomers until I tried the D'Addario's. I won't go back

[Dee]

Yeah, they come with D'Addario, but recent D'Addario's have been terrible. You only gotta tune up and they go black!

[JJEMMER777]

Originally Posted by Dee

Yeah, they come with D'Addario, but recent D'Addario's have been terrible. You only gotta tune up and they go black!

Hmmm....really? I haven't seem to have run into that problem. They've always been good strings for me. IN fact I just checked the strings on my Vrmr. Month old and lots of play time and still nice and shiney

(I know, lol....I should never go a month without changing strings on a heavily played guitar, but sometimes I get lazy )

So you'e saying the quality is declining??

[andy7jem]

Maybe they are really old sets from the factory or something, as i have recently put on two sets and had no problems!

[Dee]

I'm not sure about quality declining, Jim, or whether I just got a bad run of strings, but in 20+ years of using D'Addario I had never seen it happen. I had 3 bad sets in a row, then I changed to DR Hi-Beams. I couldn't be happier with the DR's, btw, they are lovely strings. They stay brighter and keep their colour longer than any D'Addario's I've ever used. Easier to bend, too, so less tired fingers.

[JJEMMER777]

Originally Posted by Dee

I'm not sure about quality declining, Jim, or whether I just got a bad run of strings, but in 20+ years of using D'Addario I had never seen it happen. I had 3 bad sets in a row, then I changed to DR Hi-Beams. I couldn't be happier with the DR's, btw, they are lovely strings. They stay brighter and keep their colour longer than any D'Addario's I've ever used. Easier to bend, too, so less tired fingers.

Well cool. I'll have to give the DR Hi-Beams a try, but I'm not just ready to give up on the quality strings that have carried me for the last few years either

Lol...Dee! If you DID get a bad batch, then I'm tellin ya man, you seem to have pretty crappy luck

Maybe you better repent

[Dee]

Yes, I am trying!

I wasn't ready to give up on the D's either, but a change is pretty cool though.

[JJEMMER777]

"change" remains constant!!!

I will try them and let you know what I think

As always, thanks for the useful input/info