Martin MA130 Authentic Acoustic - SP - Silk & Steel Custom ( 11½-47 ) 41Y18MA130

Iv used these for years on all my guitars, due to the silk core they are very easy to fret, so if you have delicate vintage instruments, you may want to try these out of if you dont play guitar every day so you dont build up the calouses on your fingertips and you want the string to feel easy under your finger tips these may just be the strings for you however obviously they are not as loud as regular guitar strings, in my opinion they work well on 12 string guitar, i have 12 fret to body 12 string which is quite difficult to play with regular12s on it so i swapped to silk and steel and found it so much easier to play it was like night and day

I bought these in march (it's now late October and the high e has just broke) and they've been great. They have a beautiful, clear, warm sound. They're very durable, I play a mix of fingerstyle and regular, and a lot of the songs I play are very rough on strings, but they survived through everything until now! They're really great on my fingertips too, a lot less painful after playing for hours straight. They hold their tuning really well too and have been fine being tuned up and down too! I'm really impressed and will definitely be getting again :)

I have been buying these strings for about 10 years now on a regular basis. Some reviewers state that the strings quickly loose their sheen and I can confirm that after 3-4 hours of vigorous strumming, that they do indeed loose that "Newly strung" sound and a little of the volume that comes with it. Having said this, I have tried various other brands over the years, sometimes for up to £12 a pack, and I have never played/ listened to any particular strings that were much better than these Martin's. I would also suggest that the loss of sheen and how quickly this happens with any set of acoustic strings depends heavily on the playing style of the owner. I also re-string on a very regular basis (before every performance) and having these quality striings at such a great price enables me to do that! Also, I have never experienced the strings being packaged/labelled wrongly for as long as I have been buying them. It wouldn't bother me much if they were labelled wrongly, as long as I still get all six strings in some order, but I can imagine that this would annoy some people!

Out of all the strings I've ever tried, these are hands down my favourite. Bought them out of curiosity, but they are simply wonderful. This obviously going to depend entirely on the guitar you use, your playing style, and your personal preference, but I must say I love them. Being the first silk and steel strings I've tried, I'm now curious to try some other brands, to see if it's the general silk and steel concept that I like so much, or these specific strings...The ease of playing factor is certainly a bonus, and if you're coming from nylon or electric then I can see why these would be nice, but for me it's the sound that does it.For context, I have these on a solid spruce topped dreadnought with plenty of projection. I expected them to be kind of muted and nylon-y, but that isn't true at all It's true that they are darker than bronze strings, but they aren't at all "muddy" sounding. For one thing, they still have that "shimmer" that steel strings have when playing open chords, which steel guitarists often miss when playing a nylon string and finding a all their G, Cadd9, em7 etc. chords just sounds dull.On the other side, nylon players usually find that the raw power of open chords is lost as soon as you move much past the 3rd fret. In that sense, even though the tone is very different, I can see why people compare these to nylons because what they share is an even-ness throughout the neck, meaning you can play open chords and closed higher up the neck chords in the same song and not feel like you either have to hold back on your open chords, or that the closed chords lack "power". In this respect it's kind of like playing a nylon guitar, except that the open chords are still great.In terms of their tone, it's a more pointed, midrange-y sound. I think that's perhaps why despite being less bright, they don't lose any clarity.People often advise getting these strings for fingerstyle playing. That may well be true, but I've been playing them almost exclusively with a pick. I've found their tone is an absolute pleasure for single note playing, they're pointed, and clear, and you can "shape" each note. I actually find myself playing "lead" guitar all the time now, on an acoustic!. I think the light gauge and ease of vibrato adds to the appeal here, but I've played with super light bronze strings before and not enjoyed it nearly as much!My main advice would be try them, for under a tenner, if nothing else they'll give you a new experience playing, and if you don't share my enthusiasm you can always switch back.One last thing, if you're a lead player, try putting on these strings and using a really thick pick, like a >1mm tortex or something, you'll be surprised as to the tone you can get.

I bought these on a whim whilst auditioning some different strings. Spent out on some Thomastik Infeld Spectrums, a range of DRs, the new D’Addario coated doodahs and some others. I’m not a big user of signature products as they’re usually just a rebadged cash cow version of stock strings, but Tommy E is a picker I respect and I appreciate that he gets great tone from a simple setup. I use AER amps also, and figured that adding strings to my rig that jive so well with TE’s setup had to be worth a try.I put them on my Gibson Advanced Jumbo Flame Deluxe (a maple slope shoulder dreadnought) and was instantly impressed. Sweet, ringing brightness and quick response, good balance and silky overtones that are present but never overbearing.That was last September. I played a couple of gigs with the guitar in between Covid shutdowns, and then spent a couple of months in hospital in October and November. I picked the guitar up when I got home from hospital and to my delight the strings were still sounding great. Eventually changed them in April this year!Feel wise, these are marginally more flexible than standard Martins, but don’t expect them to be noodles…they still have some fight and bite, but are a little more pliable.I love ‘em…will put them on more of my guitars from now on.

I do like these strings and they are reasonably priced.Great sound so if you’re thinking of purchasing get on with it!

good martin strings