Your cart is empty.
Your cart is empty.Silk and Steel were uniquely designed to be our warmest, mellowest acoustic guitar string. Ideal for parlor guitars and vintage instruments, the softened tone of Silk & Steel is often preferred by folk players. Made with silver-plated copper windings, over a combination silk and steel core, the low tension and reduced finger noise of Silk & Steel is well suited for mellow acoustic vibes and fingerstyle playing. This 11-47 Light set is easy to play and provides a warm tone.
ValSG
2025-08-04 15:00:58
Many years ago, I had played a Yamaha acoustic daily. My poor left hand fingers were completely numb on the tips, and blistered each time I played on the strings I was using. Typing was very painful in class. I later was in a music store & spotted strings, and so looked them over. Saw (martin) Folk Silk & Steel strings. Reading, says were 'easy on fingers', mellow sounding. The first part is what got my attention. I bought them and strung them up. Oh wow. Yes! Easy on fingers! My fingers healed up and got feeling back over the coming days, even while still playing 2-4 hours per day.Got married and stopped playing except very occasionally over the next 39 years. Fast forward to this last July, I bought a new guitar and much better guitar. Oh no. The strings! Meat grinders again. But. I knew what was needed, and I played on them for a few minutes daily, building may left hand back up. Strength wise and callouses. Except these strings also left bruising and did cut my fingers.Looking on Amazon, I knew I wanted Silk & Steel strings again. Or at least I thought. Oh my gosh..... cannot believe how many brands of strings now! 1970's, there weren't many brands or kinds NOR gauges. Crud. What to get? Spent more than 2 weeks looking and reading... Finally decided on these D'addario Silk & Steel. The 1st strings, high E, is 11, whereas Martin is 11.5. D'addarion would be slightly easier on that high string on my pinkie finger. It's the one that is bruised the most. The other strings are the same as the Martin's.Love these strings! Mellow and soft and the notes just flowwww..... strings & guitar just resonate... the sound lasting... not falling off as quick as the original strings. Yes! Got my wonderful sound back and love listening while playing again. I do finger picking... kind of banjo style. Notes on these strings ring true without brassy sounds..... bass is solid & rings, and not thunking as the strong (hard) strings were producing. (the guitar came with 13's! Not good on fingers that the last time playing at all had been 15 years earlier, and on Silk & Steel at that. Did NOT like the sound of 13's either. Very HARD notes, no flowing & then tapering off sound.)Am very happy with these D'addarios Silk & Steel. I do not miss the extra .5 on the Martin high E string. I sat and played for 4 hours on these strings. My back gave out sitting with my dreadnought. My left hand fingers were still okay and could have played a lot longer. But, my back said no, put the guitar away and play again tomorrow.Love these strings. ^_^
Michael G
2025-07-19 12:55:22
(NOT A BOT REVIEW) Just installed and am really happy with the sound. In my opinion for finger picking or felt pick, I wouldn’t hard pick at all. Can’t attest to the life span but with these I’ll know when . Straight out of the package the clarity and tone are really really clear and nice. Completely changed the tone of acoustic electric mahogany. Warm, with a bright tone after the string is hit. clear long sustain. To my ears (I’ve been playing for 30+ years acoustic steel and nylon) these are the best sounding acoustic strings I’ve heard to date. Really pleased……..
Dave E.
2025-06-01 14:31:08
I've used these for years on my acoustic guitars. They have a nice warm clear tone. They are a little quieter than some of the phosphor bronze strings but they play really nice and I love the tone.
Bobby W.
2025-05-26 10:24:30
I really like D'Addario strings in general - and years back I settled on their Nickle Bronze line, stringing all my guitars with either the Lights or Balanced Tension Lights. That included my parlor guitars. I had no idea that these Silk and Steels existed. :)Anyway, when it came time to change the strings on my Blueridge Parlor, I did a Google Search and Silk and Steel popped up.Love em!!To my ears, they indeed sound "mellower", very pleasant for fingerstyle and Blues, my main area of interest.They also seem to project a bit less volume than the Nickle Bronze, and I'm guessing it's mainly because of the lighter gauge of the lower four strings. Not an issue for me.Along with the rounder sound, those lighter gauge lower strings are much kinder to my fretting fingers and the lower tension makes bending easier. These gains in ease of play have been a real eye opener!Lastly, I never stretch my strings when I install them, so typically I'd have to monkey around with a newly installed set of Nickle Bronze before they'd stabilize. Surprisingly, these Silk and Steels held initial tuning pretty good and only needed some minor tweaking during the first hour of play. I don't know if the core material difference had anything to do with it or if I just got lucky on the installation.Anyway, if you own a parlor guitar or are looking for strings that are gentler on your fingers, these are really worth trying out. :)
David
2025-05-25 12:13:18
I play primarily fingerstyle guitar and was looking for strings that would be soft and easy to play. These caught my eyes since it sounded from the description to be a bit closer to classical guitar nylon strings but on a steel-string guitar. I think certain attributes were as I expected:1) the strings are gentler on the fingers compared to 80/20 or phosphor bronze strings I've played in the past2) the tone is a bit more mellow, there's less brightness and bite to it3) the strings are easy to bendThat being said, there were some drawbacks I didn't really account for:1) the tone is mellow to a fault- it almost sounds muffled.2) the volume output is less than more traditional strings3) I think the tone degraded relatively fast compared to other strings (e.g. with 80/20s when I install them, they're overly bright for my liking, but then mellow out a bit overtime while retaining a lot of volume and clarity). These went more from mellow to swampy.4) percussive style playing doesn't really work- hammer-ons are hard to get any volume on, any kind of string slapping drumming is going to sound quiet.All that said, these are nice to have on a secondary guitar (if you have multiple) in case your fingers are tired from playing on steel strings all day but you want to continue for a bit on soft strings. Worth trying out to see if it fits your playstyle. For me- I will probably be mostly playing on my other guitar in the meanwhile, and when I end up swapping these strings out, I'll probably go back to more traditional strings.
Jürgen Meinecke
2025-05-23 21:09:38
Auf den EJ35 Saitensatz komme ich immer wieder zurück.Schon nach kurzer Einspielzeit hat meine Seagull S12 einen perfektenKlang. Kein Blechsound oder scheppern bei softer Bespielbarkeit , transparente höhenund einen akzeptablen Bass. Die Tension von ca 120kg gibt der Gitarreeine chance über Jahre zu bestehen.Man muß kaum nachstimmen. Ich finde die Addario echt top, habe nochnichts besseres gefunden.Gruß aus Köln
rebel96
2025-04-16 12:15:49
Ayant des problèmes récurrents au bout des doigts de ma main gauche, je me suis tourné tout naturellement vers ce type de cordes hybrides, plus confortables et moins "douloureuses" pour des doigts meurtris.Ces cordes sont donc réservées pour des joueurs qui ont mes problèmes, pour des débutants qui veulent avoir moins mal aux bouts des doigts, ou tout simplement si vous voulez changer de son !!!En effet, ces cordes ont un son inimitable, rond, chaleureux, doux mais pas dénué d'attaque. On change d'univers et il ne faut pas les comparer avec des cordes phosphore bronze "habituelles".Bref, je crois avoir testé toutes les "Silk and Steel" disponibles sur le marché, et, pour mes doigts et mes oreilles, ces D'Addario EJ40 sont les meilleures.A voir leur comportement dans le temps, car je ne peux pas encore juger.
Adrian
2025-02-18 16:35:10
These strings are surprisingly soft and supple. They feel like the string tension is significantly lower and definitely make life easier for the left hand (assuming you are a right handed player).They also have a beautiful mellow tone that works particularly well on my electro acoustic which can be a little on the bright and brash side.I'd thoroughly recommend them for anyone who who's looking for something a little easier on the fingers or who would like to turn the 'brightness' down a touch on their acoustic or electro.
SUREYYA GOKSU
2025-02-09 20:21:22
This is a hutar string between nylon ad steel. Create very soft notes. Good choice for acoustic guitars if you are somewhere in between classic and acoustic. Good for finger style. It is not a replacement of nylon classic guitar but a very good solution for steel string guitars. Nice sound.
Miriam
2025-02-08 17:38:31
Le corde Daddario non deludono mai. Queste in particolare hanno il suono morbido e caldo che cercavo. Inoltre non sono dure da suonare, e per una dilettante non giovanissima è un plus.
Recommended Products
