Gear Review: d’Addario Pro-Arté Carbon Strings

Nicole Neal1 Comment

You may or may not be aware, dear reader, that my usual “go to” strings, for both my cedar and my spruce top guitars, is a good, ol’ trusty set of d’Addario Pro Arté high tension strings. These strings, as I’ve said before on the blog, I find to be very reliable in terms of their tuning and sound quality sticks around for a loooong time too.

Well, the nice people over at d’Addario heard that I was a bit of a fan, so they sent me a new set of strings to try out – Pro-Arté Carbon strings. Yup, carbon. Not nylon.

I’d heard about carbon strings a while ago, a couple of years ago in fact, but not gotten around to trying them yet. Well, here was my chance! And so I’m sharing my thoughts and feeling on the strings for your benefits too folks.

d’Addario Pro-Arté Carbon

Stringing up

The first things I noticed whilst stringing the instrument (and I chose my main concert instrument, my John Price cedar top, to test the strings out by the way) was the thinness of the treble strings as compared to the nylon EJ46s. Given that carbon is a much tougher material than nylon it figures that d’Addario are able to manufacture the strings using much less material. Environmentally sustainable at least which is definitely a plus in my book!

Settling in

After having re-strung my guitar with the EJ46FF carbons I was interested to know how long the strings would take to settle into their initial tuning and how they held that.

Well, to be honest, I was a little disappointed. The nylon Pro-Arté EJ46s I’ve always found to settle into their tuning very quickly and holding that tuning well within the space of 24 hours. Unfortunately I didn’t experience that with the Pro-Arté EJ46FF Carbons – the initial tuning took, I’d estimate, around 50% longer to achieve than I’d normally get with the nylons and holding the tuning took longer as well, around 2 to 3 days as compared to around a day for the nylon.

Playability 

I was intrigued to how the slightly thinner treble strings were going to feel to play, especially the G string which is considerably thinner in the carbon format. It did take a couple of minutes just to recalibrate my fingers to the marginally changed sensation of fingertip on string.

But once I’d gotten around that I didn’t look back! The thinner trebles actually make for easier left hand slurring I’ve found. Similarly with the right hand, slightly less energy input is required through the thinner strings to produce a similar volume in the nylons. The EJ46FFs are an eminently playable set of strings.

Tone quality

The EJ46FF Carbons are great tonally. Quite different to the tones I’ve been experiencing with the nylons, but a good different. The trebles are particularly bright – possibly a little too bright in initial couple of plays for my taste (almost steel string like). This is unsurprising however given that d’Addario rate them as pretty much their brightest set of strings in their classical range. However, they soon mellowed out a touch after a bit of playing in and became more rounded.

Their tonal range sitting on the John Price is pretty good, with a nice spread and choice of colours from the dolce tasto playing area to muted trumpet bright ponticello playing. This is still improving even after around 8 weeks of playing in.

Projection

My initial reaction when playing the guitar with the Pro-Arté Carbons on whilst playing with the guitar orchestra I’m a member of was “flipping heck, this is loud!”. I really felt like I had to turn down the volume on my usual playing and level of energy in to the strings to ensure appropriate balance with the rest of the group. And that’s a good thing, as it means I’m using less energy to achieve the same level of dynamic as previously.

I’ve found them to be a very responsive string too. As well as producing a crystal clear and full fortes, in the trebles and basses, the EJ46FFs also produce equally crystal clear and delicate pianos.

Overall

At the time of writing I’ve had the Pro-Arté Carbon EJ46FF on my guitar for around 8 weeks, and have played them in a variety of conditions, including a cool practice room, and a stinking hot concert hall. Given that I believe these strings are still coming into their own after 8 weeks (say 4 weeks under “normal” conditions, given that I’ve been travelling around the country here, there and everywhere recently), these are strings with some serious longevity.

I’d not pop them on my instrument within a week of a concert performance as the initial brightness is a little too much for my tastes. The time to settle in is perhaps slightly longer than I’m used to, and that’s probably my one criticism of them. I personally would not use that as a reason to avoid these strings. Quite the opposite in fact. I do think I’m convert to these carbon strings now (so I’ll just have to adjust my re-stringing habits accordingly).

All in all, crystal clear strings that pack a serious punch, require less energy input from you as a players as compared to nylon and great value for money in terms of their lifespan.

Playing Classical Guitar with Joint Pain

Nicole Neal6 Comments

I’ve been emailed a couple of times recently by readers (thanks for that – keep them coming!) asking about playing with joint pain related to arthritis or similar. I’ve also taught, in the recent past, a couple of students with arthritis pain in their hands. So I thought some of my thoughts and advice would be a good share for all.

Now I’m not a doctor or any other kind of medical professional, so my first piece of advice is if you’re experiencing any kind of consistent or chronic pain in your hands go and seek the advice of a doctor.  And if you don’t like what they’re saying seek a second opinion!

Whilst not having experienced directly (touch wood) the frustration and sometime debilitation that can be caused by finger, thumb and wrist pain, I do have an appreciation and understanding of it through my mother having this quite severely. So I can empathise with you, dear readers, that are similarly afflicted!

Anyhoo, here are my thoughts and tips on playing with chronic pain in the joints of the thumbs, fingers, and wrist.

  • Seek the advice of a good teacher (at the least a handful of lessons or so, if not regularly) who can watch how you play, understand and assess your physical movements and provide some specific direction for you. It may be that your current technique adds undue pressure in certain areas (such as the left hand thumb, for example, behind the neck) or that your technique can be adapted to meet changing physical requirements.

 

  • If that’s not possible, then the next best thing is to examine your own technique (you might like to give this a try anyway). Be aware of where you’re applying pressure. With good technique you should be able to playbarré cords,for example, with zero pressure from your thumb. Are you squeezing the life out of the neck with your left hand? Are you attempting to play arpeggios, scale runs or other passages a little too fast for your right hand? Build things up slowly and minimise pressure and tension through the right hand.

 

  • Keep things moving with practicing a little and often. If you’re having a relatively good day where pain is minimal or even non-existent don’t fall into the trap of overdoing it or trying to “make up for lost time”. That will only come back to bite you! Keep practice as consistent as possible and do try to do just a little.

 

  • Warm your hands up well prior to practicing, perhaps with the aid of some pocket warmers or bowl of warm water. Keep an ice pack handy for soothing and reducing inflammation in joints post practice.

 

  • Ideally you don’t want to practice with any pain at all, but this is not always going to be the case with arthritis in the fingers and hands, so be aware of you body, what causes flare ups and always stop if pain worsens.