Ernie Ball COBALT slinky strings?
 

So I was at Guitar Center picking up my RG321E and I thought it would be nice to get some strings to accompany it. The employees there persuaded me to get the Ernie Ball COBALT slinky strings over the coated Elixer strings I was going to purchase. They told me they will sound much better under distortion and give me a nicer tone.

I got home and installed them a few hours ago and they honestly do not sound that great under distortion, and they create a lot of string buzz. They sound very rough.

Is this normal? Does anyone else use these strings? What do you guys have to say about them? I bought a set of regular slinky's just in case I didn't like these.

I have, and they are pretty good sounding and feeling when you first play them, but wear out like nobody's business. Twice as fast as normal EBs. Too fast to warrant a $6 price difference of typical Slinkys (give of take a few bucks)

What was your guitar in for at GC? They might have done a good ol' GC setup and messed it up.

It wasn't in for anything, it was brand new in the factory box. I'm a beginner so I don't know much about setting a guitar up. All I did was unpack it and change the stock strings. I'm going to throw on some normal EB's now and see what I think of those.

Should I have it set up somewhere professionally?

You might have used a guage other than what came one it and that MAY be presenting a problem. However I've never liked EB's to start with.

Whats your guitar? I suggest you read the ultimate setup guide and do it yourself instead of paying somebody. Its easy.

If you're a beginner, you might want to take it in for a pro set up (NOT GC) or try it yourself if you're confident enough. But if you are careless you might screw up your guitar.

Experiment with different types of strings once you found a gauge that feels good to you. Make sure that you use only the gauge that the shop sets up your guitar with (I'm assuming will be 10-46, though most guitars ship with 9-42s), or else you might end up with buzzing or intonation problems, to name a few.

i like their sound but they really deteriorate faster than anything ive ever played and the set on my sg is the last my sg will see not worth 10 dollars every month for strings

the strings aren't causing the buzzing on a new instrument. The guitar is set up poorly, or set up for a very different gauge of strings.

Yeah, looks like it isn't the strings after all. Tried a pack of Ernie Ball Regular's and it has exactly the same issue.

Anyway, I am going to take the guitar to Guitar Center tomorrow and have it set up. I called like 5 guitar shops in the area and they charge anywhere from $60 to $120 for a complete set up, with GC being the cheapest at $60.

So once I get the guitar set up this one time will I need to have it set up again or something when I want to change my strings? It will be the same gauge strings though.

Don't let GC do it, they don't know a truss rod from a meat rod. If you are willing to try it yourself I'd reccomend that, otherwise see if you have any friends who can help. I mean I've set up a couple floyds for my friends completely free of charge

Does GC have a bad reputation or something?

The interesting thing though was that they told me the complete set-up would take just over an hour, while the other places I called told me that I need to leave my guitar with them for a few days to a week tops.

i really do not think they offer much over regular slinkys for twice the price. they might tweak the tone a tad but not really.

i think any faster wearing etc, is all a placebo effect. we have a new toy we are skeptical of, so we find reasons in our head to think of something.

"oh wait, i need to see if they wore faster....wait did i just, hear, i think i di.....yeah it wore out faster!!!!"

what im trying to say is i bought a pair and it really isnt much different than playing regular slinkys and i spent a bunch of time feeling up my strings and looking for rust instead of playing.

* you know what i tried for the first time and they rock??? BOOMERS. Im hooked*

Do fat babies fart?

Are bullfrogs waterproof?

Is a pig's ass pork?





Just so there's no confusion, that would be a 'yes'...


Where do you live?

Near San Jose, CA.

They sold you a new guitar and now they want to charge you $60 to set it up so you can play it? How could you think Guitar Center was anything but womderful?

Marks Guitar repair - (408) 378-6007
279 Dillon Ave, #4, Campbell, CA.

Good Reputation and reasonably priced. Call and talk to them.

They suck ass. I really hate those strings. After literally a month and a half of medium use, the low E and A came unwound at the bridge and tore up my palm while I was playing.

I went in and bought a pack of D'addario 10s and went on with life. I don't think it's worth the extra money for strings that wear out so fast and that IMO don't sound that great.

10$ a month? my d'addarios wear out in a week. i wish i only had to change strings once a month :sad:

60 bucks for a setup? Damn bro. That sucks. I got my first guitar set up at gc for like 55 bucks. And they didnt even intonate it.

If you play for an hour per day, you should be changing your strings at least every two weeks to keep them fresh.

As for Cobalts wearing out faster, I was pretty optimistic about them, but after trying them I agree. Honestly, though, Dunlop sells string cleaner that fixes that until you're ready to change them. As for a tone difference, I recorded my Power Slinky's, then changed to Cobalt Power Slinky's and recorded a similar demo. There's definitely a fairly obvious difference. I mean, the Cobalts were fresh, whereas the normal ones were a week or so old, but there was still an obvious difference in output, clarity/articulation, and brightness aside from the differences of having new strings. If I can find what I did with those two recordings, I'll see if I can't put them up on my profile and post a link on here. I personally prefer them over regular Slinky's. I think they have a small durability issue, but not enough to worry about. If you don't put a new set of strings on for every gig, you're doing it wrong anyway (unless you have two gigs on back to back days)