Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
They pretty much do. It's all the same machinery located in countries where labor is cheap. New techniques and machinery costs a lot and that cost will be passed to you the consumer. How much are you willing to spend for a set of strings? So machinery might get replaced if it breaks down or might get upgraded to remain competitive but I doubt it's anything revolutionary. Occasionally, some company comes up with something new that isn't too expensive and the public loves it and that forces a change in the industry but I don't think that's really happening. I've used the coated strings and while they do sound very good at first, like any string, they succumb to use and to temperature and humidity changes. They last a long time but most of my strings do anyway.
My only two rules of strings is:
-Always change the strings when you buy a new guitar or uke or what have you. The factory strings really are low-grade crap.
-Always buy round wound. People are going to argue that but why would you buy some clunky sounding flat wound thing?
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This isn't quite an accurate depiction of the string industry. My name is Don Dawson and I work for D'Addario. We have our own in-house engineering team, as well as our own milling and machinist division. We design and manufacturer our own machines, which are truly cutting edge from the standpoint of technology and design. Many of our competitors purchase machines that are available commercially and then rework them to their specifications but our machines are truly our own and unlike anything available in the general marketplace. This allows us to have greater quality control. We are also the largest string manufacturer so the need to have increase quality control capability is essential. We produce over 650,000 strings a day.
Additionally, Rotosound, Thomastik and a few other string makers are located in the UK and Europe - each with their own machinery and most importantly, their own core to wrap ratio, which gives the strings its feel and tension. So there are differences.
That being said, many string manufacturers do make strings for guitar makers as well as other string companies who choose to not identify that they "purchase" strings from another party.
Hope this helps
Don Dawson
Product marketing specialist
D'Addario / Planet Waves
08-12-2013, 09:52 AM
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