Do Guitar String Brands Make a Diffrenece

I believe so, but for me it also comes down to material. Not sure what brand is used on my Epiphone Firebird from the factory (they don't make information easy to find), but before I played it initially and after each session I use GHS Fast Fret to clean and condition. Believe it or not after one weekend they're starting to rust! I didn't have this problem with Dean Markley Blue Steel on my Jay Turser and don't remember rusting strings on any of my other guitars in the past.

<...snip...> Not sure what brand is used on my Epiphone Firebird from the factory <...> Believe it or not after one weekend they're starting to rust!<...>.

There is no telling how old the strings on your Epi are. When was the guitar manufactured? How old were the strings before they were put on the guitar?

BTW, as an Epiphone Casino owner and a participant in the Epiphone forum, I have read many posts that advise people to replace the strings delivered with the Epi right away. I suppose when the guitar is basically the same as the Gibson of the same brand, but sold for a fraction of the price, they have to cut corners somewhere. Strings are a good way, after all they will be replaced soon anyway.

There are other ways they cut the corners as well. The wood isn't as good, the pots, switch and usually the pickups are cheaper, instead of real Mother-of-Pearl inlays on the neck, they have Mother-of-PVC, instead of a nitro lacquer they use poly. Not to say they are bad guitars. My 2001 Epiphone Casino is 90% of the guitar my 1970 Gibson ES-330 is. When they are plugged in, the difference in sound is insignificant. And the Gibson is valued at 10 times the price of my Epi.

The Epi is good value for the money, and is a very worthy gigging instrument.

But they do come out of the factory with cheap strings (or so I've read time and time again).

Insights and incites by Notes

Good point; I'm going to a new set this afternoon. I should have done it as soon as it arrived but they won't go on until my pickup replacements arrive, which should be tomorrow.

I wanted to have the inlays on my Turser replaced, good thing I waited since I won't have it much longer :lol:

But this will happen on the Firebird.

I wanted to have the inlays on my Turser replaced, good thing I waited since I won't have it much longer :lol:

But this will happen on the Firebird.

I considered that on some of my guitars, but one day realized the inlays -- whether abalone or clay or featureless plastic or MOTS-- were part of the original vibe of the guitar. Same with plastic tuner buttons. Sometimes cheap is okay as is.

Personally, I really don't care if the inlays are MOP or MOPvc, how the guitar plays and how it sounds are most important to me. After how it plays and sounds come the looks. While I think the MOP looks better, it's a minor thing to my eyes (YMMV). I did change the white pickguard and gold knobs on my Casino to black ones, because I thought the guitar looks better that way.

I bought the Epiphone Casino because my Gibson ES-330 has become a collectors item. Since I double on saxophone, wind synthesizer, guitar, flute, vocals, drum controller, and occasionally keyboards, and since I sometimes have to switch instruments very quickly, I'm afraid sooner or later the guitar is going to get a big ding in it. Since I can buy 10 used Casinos for the price of one used ES-330 (they don't make the 330 anymore), I decided to get a Casino for on stage work. So I play the Casino on stage, and the Gibson at home.

To tell the truth, I was surprised with the quality of the Epiphone. I thought I was going to be making a compromise by buying the Epi, but it turned out that for on-stage purposes, the Casino is as worthy as the ES-330.

OK but I guess I'm hijacking the thread -- so let me get back on topic.

I don't know if you know this or not, if you do, please ignore it.

When putting your new strings on, rub a little pencil lead (graphite) in the slot of the nut before the string goes in the slot. This will help you tune up and will also help keep your guitar in tune. It lubricates the nut so the string doesn't bind in there.

To Sid's questoin:
I use Elixir Nano Webs on my LP. I love the feel of them and nver had a problem at all. Great tone as far as I'm concerned. I play everything from blues to metal on the same set of strings. :D

Ibanez strings are cheap and awesome to shred. VStrong and take a load of punishment whilst still sounding fecking insane. :twisted:

Ditto on the corroded strings. Don't know how long they have been on there. I have gotten new guitars with rotten strings as well. Change them and things will be fine. It's nothing wrong with the guitar.

Kind of a shell game that lures you into a false sense of security; the guitar ships with a checklist noting a string change, but true there is no date stamp on it.

Change the string asap.

To tell the truth, I was surprised with the quality of the Epiphone. I thought I was going to be making a compromise by buying the Epi, but it turned out that for on-stage purposes, the Casino is as worthy as the ES-330.

OK but I guess I'm hijacking the thread -- so let me get back on topic.

I just got my Epiphone Les Paul, plan to gig wth it so my "real" Les Pauls stay home. Flying on the hijacked thread ... I concur. It is worthy or standing in for my Gibsons while playing in bars. I don't want it to take a beer bottle ... but if it happens ... it aint my Gibson.

How did you find the quality of the Epi LP compared to the Gibby LP?

Notes

Folks, my post was supposed to be its own thread. I believe Nick was being efficient and placed it here. But since its hear and in this section I going to run with it. So I appologize up front if anyone think I jack the thread.

I love the new Epi LP standard I just bought. However there is one tiny issue with the neck. When I went to 9's the strings sounded thin and I also picked up this tremedous rattle in the neck on just about every string. I have been setting up my own guitars for sometime now, even own a set of nut files. Well I popped the trussrod cover off and quickly discovered that the rod was completly loose, the nut and rod were rattling in the neck. I grabbed an hex wrench and tightened it down till the play was gone the gave it an 1/8 of a turn more(still way, way too loose).

The problem is with the 9's and with the neck almost as loose as it will go the neck is almost dead flat, maybe .003 relief.

Just for giggles i tossed a set of EB rock classic solid nickel 10's and reset up the guitar. Now the relief is at .010 the sound is back. Granted I have just a bit of fret buzz, but the neck is almost dead flat and the low E is set at 4/64th the high
E is at 3/64th

Should I take this guitar back?

Oh and for the question of strings. EB's never let me down. They're cheap, they stay in tune(on all my stuff) very well, and I don't change my strings very often, maybe every 6 months and they still sound great.

he heh. Yeah, you kind of got buried, didn't you?

You've had some of the most horrible luck with guitars recently, eh? 'Oy!! I don't know what to say about your Epi. My first reaction is that now that you've set it up, stringed and had it for a bit and it's doing great, I'd keep it. My second reaction might be to have a 2nd eye, maybe a profressional, to take a look at it just in case something is there that you can't see. Piece of mind, maybe?

As far as the string brand thing goes, I wouldn't know. I play the TR card and buy the 10-packs D'adds for everything now. I have a couple sets of Gibson Brites left over from a multi-pack sale that I use exclusively on the Epi LP. When I run out, I will try D'adds on it. I use 10's on about everything except my MIM Strat, where I use 9s.

Speaking of Strat, my only bad story of a string brand is for the Fender strings I used. I never broke them or anything, but they would go bad quick and sound just awful. I can't remember which ones. I went to the D'adds last change (and had to do set-up with guage change) and it's pretty good.

I must confess to looking at the MF and Sam Ash mailers' string sections and get some curiosity pumping to try some other brands. Some pretty impressive marketing going on that I feel like rewarding. :)

Oh, and for acoustic, my low-end Taylor is sounding SOOOOOOO good these days that I'm too afraid to change strings. Last set on were D'adds. 12s. Got 8 left out of a 10 pack. Should last me 15 years at this rate. :lol:

How did you find the quality of the Epi LP compared to the Gibby LP?

Notes
I am very happy with the Epi LP. Poly finish, mother of toilet seat inlays, nylon nut, pots and togle switch are a little cheaper built, outside of that, it's the same guitar. I got no complaints at all and as a matter of fact the Epi LP is the only guitar I have played since I got it. :shock: