Hi All-
This my be a lame question but...
Last week I strung up my CW with a set of John Pearse Phosphor Bronze strings. I Love the strings, but from the start these dang things leave my fingertips black.
I play between 2-3 hours a day, and the strings have been on for a week. I also think that any residual oxidation would have worn off by now.
Is this common to Pearse? Hope not, I bought a 10-pack and they sound great.

I just put a set on my D2HA a couple weeks ago after a long time of exclusively using D'Addarios. The JPs sound good on the D2HA, but they leave my fingertips black too after a while. D'Addarios don't leave them black. I might stay with the JPs on my D2HA. They sound warmer on that guitar than the D'Addarios. Although I perceive a little drop off in volume with the JPs vs the D'Addarios. Might just be my imagination though.

Thanks Allen-
I thought I may have a bad batch.
I really like the JPs and I change strings about every 10 days and also before I play out.
As a result I've tried all kinds of different strings and never thought to look at my fingertips. But, on this guitar the PBs sound great, so for now I'll keep using them and try not to touch my face.
Paul

Strike what I said about them turning my fingers black, Paul. Those were the GHS strings on my electric guitar that turned them black yesterday. I just played the JPs on my D2HA for a while and noticed no discoloration.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Allen White,

No problem. I left a message with the JP folks on Friday afternoon and I'm sure they will help.

I put a set of Pearse PB lights on my 000 on Saturday. I did this at the same time as lowering my action a hair. After I got them on I couldn't believe I was holding the same guitar...and not in a good way It was horrible what I was hearing. I immediately started kicking myself that I didn't use an already tried set of strings to evaluate the action work, but based on what I had heard, I just had no idea that these strings would sound so much different than the other common ones. Well, I decided to tune it, set it back in it's case and slowly walk away. When I returned about 6 hrs later it was starting to sound like itself. By that evening I was really starting to enjoy the tone and balance and to my ears, they are still improving.

I just couldn't believe that first impression. I would of never imagined that my precious little guitar could create such horrible tone.

Just for the record. I mostly play fingerstyle and these strings turned the tips of my fingers on both hands black, mostly my picking hand. I guess I had itched my face while playing and had black smudges on my face. My wife thought I went out and worked on the car.

This is often an individual thing and isn't necessarily JP's fault. Different strings agree better than others with one's skin chemistry, and it may be JP strings aren't for you. Every kind of PB string I've ever used turns black under my fingers, though not quite as fast as you described. Fortunately I don't have this problem with 80/20s ... fortunately because as it turns out I like their sound better.

Over the weekend at Mass St Music I heard Collings have gone away from EJ-17s and are now mounting GHS true mediums on all dreads leaving Austin now, anyone else heard an update on that? Allen ?

Tom S

quote:

Originally posted by TStop:
Over the weekend at Mass St Music I heard Collings have gone away from EJ-17s and are now mounting GHS true mediums on all dreads leaving Austin now, anyone else heard an update on that? Allen ?

Tom S

Collings Switches Strings

Here's the link to a thread that was on the board about a month ago. I believe Christopher Good got confirmation that Collings had stopped exclusively installing D'Adarrio EJ17s on their new guitars and switched at least some models to GHS.

JPs leave my fingers black, too. But they also seem to last longer than any others I've tried, so am unconcerned.

I used JP phosphor bronze for years, then converteed to Firewires, which sounded better and lasted longer. At Winfield, the new Elixir Nanoweb PB's were out, and I tried them. I'd never been fond of coated strings, but these sound terrific and they last forever (well, longer than anything I've ever used anyway).

The only negative is that the Firewires go on and stay in tune from the start, the Elixirs stretch for a while, but settle in after an hour or two of playing.