Lowden Strings v D'Addario XT Phosphor Bronze

GTC · February 2020

I've used both recently and they seem very similar in tone and feel - each with a very thin coating to preserve the natural sound of uncoated strings.

The packaging is very similar and I wondered - are they the same string repackaged for Lowden? They each have colour coded ball ends (but use a different coding) and the sets have similar gauges. Lowden has Baritone and DADGAD sets, D'Addario has an extra-light set (10's) - the Lowden extra-lights are 11's, same as the D'Addario custom lights. The D'Addario sets are about £5 cheaper.

Any views?

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brucegill · February 2020

Think Lowden’s are made by cleartone.

Personally I haven’t found the two to sound the same. Lowden’s go dead quiet quickly for me and the bass strings sounded like rubber bands. I’ve tried a number of sets now and won’t be buying them again. The Xt I’ve just put on last weekend. Seem to take ages to mellow out and sounded awful on a small bodied all hog lowden, so bad I had to take them off (I should have waited as I think they mellow out), They had loads of horrible mids. (It’s a middy guitar anyway). That said they’re ok on my F.... time will tell.

Coming to the conclusion I hate any treated string apart from the Santa Cruz ones. Put some Ej16 on the S and it sounds fantastic again. Also, the XT seem to have more tension than a standard Ej16 as I needed to adjust the truss rod after the change

strangely I don’t seem to kill non coated strings that quickly, so I can’t work out why the lowden strings don’t last for me.

brucegill · February 2020

I haven’t got a set of Lowden’s here any more, do they match these codes:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/510Rv5ahBbL._AC_.jpg

GTC · February 2020

I haven't got a set to compare with but, from memory, the colour coding could be the same as the Lowdens - it is certainly different to the D'Addario coding. I've got a set of the XT lights on my S32 and they sounded great from the off. For me ,I've found Santa Cruz strings good for small bodied guitars but have been disappointed with them on anything larger. I've got the D'Addario XT lights on my Sheeran W01 and they are good on that too.

brucegill · February 2020

GTC said:

I haven't got a set to compare with but, from memory, the colour coding could be the same as the Lowdens - it is certainly different to the D'Addario coding. I've got a set of the XT lights on my S32 and they sounded great from the off. For me ,I've found Santa Cruz strings good for small bodied guitars but have been disappointed with them on anything larger. I've got the D'Addario XT lights on my Sheeran W01 and they are good on that too.

Maybe I didn’t like them because of the mahogany top.... did you try Santa Cruze Medium tension? I have those on a Dread at the moment and they sound good. Don’t feel like 13’s but more tension than a normal 12 set.

GTC · February 2020

brucegill said:

Maybe I didn’t like them because of the mahogany top.... did you try Santa Cruze Medium tension? I have those on a Dread at the moment and they sound good. Don’t feel like 13’s but more tension than a normal 12 set.

I've never tried the SC mediums but I've heard that some notable guitarists, like Eric Skye, prefer them to lights on a small-bodied (00) guitar

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Lowden Strings v D'Addario XT Phosphor Bronze

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