Ernie Ball Earthwood Medium Light Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings - 12-54 Gauge

Review précis: These strings are from one of the worlds best string manufacturer – stick them on and see what you think!The Full ReviewToday is the twelfth day that these stings have been on the guitar I restrung with them. They are on a solid spruce topped VGS Root 10 (from German manufacturer GEWA – a wonderful European built guitar).Kind of going off at a bit of a tangent here, but I thought I'd mention something I did differently this time. Usually I would apply a tiny amount of Lemon-oil onto a stringless fretboard and leave for a few hours before wiping off any excess that might still be there before re-stringing a guitar. This time though, a couple of days before I took the old strings off, I Lemon-oiled the fretboard with the old strings still in place – not with gallons of the stuff but with perhaps more than I would normally apply, but not worrying about it getting on the strings, since after all they were soon to be binned pretty soon in any case. The next day the excess was wiped off and even though the strings (and especially the wound strings) must have soaked up some of the oil, there seemed to be a discernable improvement in the sound from these much played strings and it wasn't as if the fretboard was in a bad condition to start with – far from it. The old strings and Lemon-oiled fretboard was left another day and then the strings were replaced with the fretboard wiped thoroughly again, a dry toothbrush over the frets and nut etc and then I put the new strings on. So (possibly) the extra Lemon-oil over a few days might be the way I'll go in future?First Week of the Strings:So – the Ernie Ball Phosphor Bronze strings. The set settled in very quickly. I pinch and pull each string at the twelfth fret a dozen or so times plus some firm strumming of the open-stringed unfreted guitar, and repeat as necessary until the strings are settled – and these settled in very quickly after a few minutes.I like the sound of bright sounding strings and this set of phosphor bronze sounded very bright indeed. The guitar they are on has plenty of sustain and the sound of the strings with that sustain is, for me, superb. They've mostly been picked rather than strummed, but they've only been on three days so far.End of the First Week they were still sounding very bright and without too much loss of quality.They've been played every day for at least an hour or two and now on the twelfth day, they are still bright buy they are starting to be less so – though not yet near being dull or dead.This is what they've been like for me. For someone else and for someone else's hands and playing style I'm sure they might sound different, but the bottom line is that these are still bright sounding strings nearly two weeks in.I don't exclusively only like bright sounding strings and I've missed some of the bassier sounds that I've had from other strings and it has been especially noticeable when playing some Robert Johnson style blues – the songs didn't sound wrong but definitely sounded different to what I normally hear myself playing.They do make every single note and sound clear and bright – and that included duff notes that I've played – but that is the only downside to them that I can think of and I will no doubt be buying them again at some stage.I've bought Ernie Ball strings many times over the last forty-odd years. I've bought sets of Phosphor Bronze before, but I haven't bought a set of these particular (Ernie Ball) Phosphor Bronze strings before, but I'd definitely buy these again.

Quality guitar strings

Bright, characterful sound, nice color, feel lovely. Packaging easy on the eye too. I find some strings (namely Martin) sound artificial and tinny when first put on; Ernie Ball strings are gorgeous from the get-go and don’t need ‘breaking in’. Ball ends are all brass, (not multi-colored a la Fender and Daddario) so aren’t gaudy looking when visible on a pin-less bridge.These medium lights suit my Gretsch Jim Dandy guitars perfectly; I can’t wait to try some on my Honey Dipper resonator. Other strings in this price range simply don’t tick as many boxes.

I recently used “medium-light” EarthWood strings for over a year. The sound is warm and full of depth. Better than any strings I have used.After a string broke after countless hours of playing, I decided to buy the “Rock & Blues” version of these strings. I was aware that they would be thinner, more malleable, and have a different sound. However, I did not predict that the sound quality would be TERRIBLE. This was a big disappointment as I had high hopes for the brand and simply wanted to try something new from them.My recommendation is to buy “Medium-Light” version of these strings. They take a couple weeks to acclimatise to, especially for beginners, but you will immediately notice the amazing sound quality and you’ll be the next Eric Clapton before you know it.

Wasn't sure to go for these or mid light, used the useful videos on the product pictures to make the decision and they do make a lovely tone. Easy to tune, good value for money.

Ernie Ball strings, top quality as usual. Easy to tune and sound fantastic 👍.

Strung on my Brunswick BDS400.Having used the Earthwood series (80/20 Medium-Light) before I can say that this is comparable to other strings in that set in terms of quality and performance.String gauge (string thickness) on the Extra Light series is 10-50 and is more akin to what you would find on the average electric guitar (Ernie Ball regular slinky strings are 10-46) so if you are making a switch over from electric, or heading there in future, these aren’t a bad set to get, to get you used to that feel. Their 80/20 Medium-Light gauge (not this product) are thicker (12-54) and whilst still good, I wouldn’t say are as comparable to the average gauge on electric. If you are new to acoustic for any reason it may be more comfortable to start with these lighter options and work your way up.Tone wise, this is tricky to generalise for other buyers, because guitars will sound different with different strings: factors like sizes of the guitar and the woods that it is made from affect your tone, so my guitar with these may sound very different to your experience. My Brunswick is quite loud, and sits in the lower mid sort of area sonically (means it sounds a bit more bass-y/darker). I wanted these strings because the higher copper content and phosphor coating accentuates a sort of balanced midrange-y tone, that still retains brightness without being too bright. They are not as bright as the 80/20 sets are though, and generally speaking if you are looking for a brighter sound then I’d suggest perhaps getting them instead.Earthwood strings do last though. Vibrancy can also be another thing that’s hard to generalise as you might play more or less than me. I play that acoustic for about an hour a day most days, so for me, I find that the vibrancy of the sound noticeably drops away after about 3-4 weeks and I then want to change strings after about 6 weeks. HOWEVER that’s not the case for everyone, so if you just want to restring a guitar to play occasionally then these could last you a lot longer.Overall, for £7 or so, you should get a set at least once if you want a balanced midrangey tone.

Replaced strings for my guitar