A few weeks ago during one of our monthly Q&A sessions inside Luthier’s EDGE, a member asked a question that sounded simple: how do string material and gauge affect the sound of a guitar?

On the surface, it is simple. But when you start pulling on the thread, you realize it’s a question that could fill an afternoon. Tension, diameter, core materials, winding types. There’s a lot there. But when I started answering, I didn’t go to any of that. I went somewhere I didn’t expect.

I told him about studio monitors.

I know that sounds like a strange answer. But here’s what I mean…

When I finish a guitar and it’s time for the setup, I don’t reach for the fanciest or most advanced strings on the market. I reach for the same set I’ve been using on every new build for years.

They’re quality strings. Some of them are actually quite expensive. But I didn’t choose them because they were exotic or trendy. I chose them because they sit in the middle of the road for the kind of players I build for.

Nothing about them pulls the sound in any particular direction.

Over the years, these strings have actually become my favorites, precisely because they let me hear the guitar so clearly. They’ve become the baseline that everything else gets measured against.

I need to hear the guitar.
Not the strings.

When I’m doing the final setup, adjusting the action, checking the intonation, listening to how the top responds across the register, I need to know that what I’m hearing is the instrument. If I put on a bright set of strings, the guitar sounds bright. If I put on a warm set, the guitar sounds warm. Neither one tells me what the guitar actually sounds like on its own.

So I use the same neutral set every time, the way a recording engineer mixes on studio monitors.

What a studio monitor actually is

If you’ve never worked in a studio, here’s the idea. Studio monitors, sometimes called reference monitors, are speakers designed to have as flat a frequency response as possible. They don’t boost the bass. They don’t sweeten the highs.

They just show you what’s there.

Nobody listens to music on reference monitors for fun. They’re not exciting. That’s the whole point. When an engineer is mixing a record, they need to hear the truth. If the mix sounds good on flat monitors, it’ll sound good on anything. Earbuds, car speakers, a home stereo with the bass turned up.

The mix translates because it was built from an honest starting point.

My strings work the same way. I set up and voice every guitar from a neutral baseline. I listen to what the instrument is doing without any string coloring the picture. That’s where the real adjustments happen, the ones that make each guitar sound like itself.

Neutral doesn’t mean perfect

I should be honest about something. There’s no perfectly neutral set of strings. Just like there’s no perfectly flat reference monitor. Every monitor has a slight character. Every set of strings does too.

An audio engineer could listen to the strings I use and probably point out exactly how they color the tone. And that’s true. But the same is true of every other component of the guitar, from the nut material to the frets to the woods themselves. Everything adds some color.

The goal isn’t absolute neutrality, which doesn’t exist.

The goal is finding a baseline that’s neutral enough for your context, for the kind of guitars you build and the players you build them for, and then staying consistent.

I’ve used the same strings long enough that I know what I’m hearing through them. I know what’s the string and what’s the guitar. That’s my reference point.

If you’re setting up your own builds, you can do the same thing. Pick a set that sits in the middle for your players. Nothing with extremely heavy bass strings. Nothing unusual in the materials. Stay away from the extremes.

Then stick with that set long enough that your ear learns it.

The consistency is what makes it a reference monitor.

Change strings every time, and you’ve lost your reference. You’re mixing on different speakers every session. You’ll never learn to trust what you’re hearing.

My reference monitors

Your baseline neutral strings might be different, but for what it’s worth, here’s what I’ve settled on:

• Nylon string guitars: D’Addario Pro-Arté Hard Tension (EJ46). Pretty much an industry standard, and for nylon string guitars especially, where the tone and response can vary so much, having a reliable baseline I don’t even have to think about anymore has been invaluable.
• Steel string acoustics: D’Addario Phosphor Bronze Light XS. The XS is a coated string, and I switched to those years ago because so many of my clients were already using coated strings. My baseline should reflect what most of my players are actually using.
• Archtop guitars: Thomastik-Infeld BeBop BB112. When I’m doing the initial acoustic setup, I’ll sometimes use the round wound version so I can hear more of the guitar’s natural voice. If the client prefers flat wounds, I swap them before shipping. The tension is close enough that the setup translates.

These are high-quality strings, and I genuinely love using them. But I didn’t choose them because they’re the most exotic option out there. I chose them because they give me an honest picture of each guitar, and because they represent what most of my clients are actually playing. You should find the strings that do the same for you and your players.

The specific brand matters far less than the consistency of using the same set long enough that your ear learns to hear through them.

What happens when the guitar ships

This is where the analogy really comes together. When an engineer finishes a mix on flat monitors, that mix goes out into the world. The listener plays it on whatever they want. Earbuds on the subway. A Bluetooth speaker at a barbecue. A pair of nice headphones late at night. Some of those systems have more bass.

Some have more treble. Some have a warmth the engineer never intended. None of that matters.

The mix was built true, and it translates.

Same thing with my guitars. I do the voicing and the setup on my reference monitors, my neutral strings. When the guitar ships to the customer, they put on whatever strings they love. Each set of strings is like a different EQ setting on a stereo. Brighter, warmer, heavier, lighter.

The guitar is already dialed in from a true center.
Their string choice is like choosing their speakers.

And if someone requests a particular string before I ship, I swap them on. No problem. The critical work, the listening and fine-tuning, already happened on my reference monitors. The guitar knows what it sounds like. Now the player gets to color it however they want.

How this one simple decision accelerates your growth

Here’s something that took me a long time to understand. Every guitar I build, I take detailed notes. Weights, stiffness readings, density measurements, and then extensive observations after the guitar is finished about the sound, the responsiveness, how the top moves, how the bass fills the room.

Those notes are the core of my system for improving as a builder. They’re how I learn from every instrument and carry what I’ve learned into the next one.

But those notes only mean something if the strings are always the same.

If I used a different set of strings on every guitar, I’d never know whether the differences I’m hearing are the instrument or the strings. Ten years of notes, all measured from the same baseline, is a dataset I can trust.

I can compare a guitar I built last month to one I built five years ago and know that what I’m hearing is the wood, the bracing, the geometry, not a string variable I forgot to account for.

Consistency isn’t just how you hear one guitar. It’s how you hear all of them. And over the span of a career, that’s what helps you grow faster and build better guitars.

The same discipline, different forms

This isn’t the only place I do this. I keep my workshop at a consistent humidity for the same reason. Not because there’s one perfect number, but because I want to build each guitar at a point where it’s going to do the best it can in different environments. Build from the middle of the range, and the guitar handles the extremes.

Same logic with strings. Set up from a neutral baseline, and the guitar sounds good with whatever the player puts on.

It’s the same principle underneath.
Build the conditions where you can hear the truth.

Strings are one version of that. Humidity is another. A sharp chisel is another. A quiet shop first thing in the morning before the world wakes up is another.

Every one of those is a way of clearing the noise so you can listen.

Where string choice really starts

If you’re a builder choosing strings for your setups, find your middle ground the way I found mine. Think about the players you’re building for. What strings are most of them already using? Start there. Then stay there long enough that your ear learns what you’re hearing through those strings.

After a few guitars, you’ll start noticing things you couldn’t hear before, because your reference point isn’t moving anymore.

If you’re a player choosing strings for a guitar you love, that’s a different question entirely. You’re not mixing a record. You’re listening to one. Pick the speakers you enjoy. Try a few different sets and pay attention to which ones make you want to keep playing.

The ones that pull you in are the right ones.
Trust your ear.

Each guitar has a different sweet spot. I’ve had clients settle on strings I would never have picked, but those strings brought that particular guitar into a place they loved. That’s not wrong. That’s the whole point.

The builder mixes on monitors. The player listens however they want.

One last thing

A lot of what I do at the bench comes down to this: holding things steady so I can hear what’s changing.

Consistent strings.
Consistent humidity.
Consistent process.

Not because consistency is the goal.

Because consistency is the condition that makes listening possible.

The longer I build, the more I realize that most of my best decisions aren’t decisions at all. They’re just moments where I heard something clearly because I’d set up the conditions to hear it.

That’s what a reference monitor really is.

Not a piece of equipment. A discipline.

Over time, that discipline begins to compound and can exponentially accelerate your growth as a luthier, and the quality of the guitars you build.

Sapere Aude · Creare Aude

Tom

P.S. If you don’t have a go-to set yet, pick something in the middle of the road and commit to it for the next six months. Don’t overthink the brand. Just stay consistent and listen. You’ll be surprised how much more you start hearing when the variable is the guitar and not the string.

And if you’d like to be part of the live Q&A sessions where conversations like this one happen, come join us inside Luthier’s EDGE.