Guitar Reviews 4U - D'Addario EXL125 9-46 Nickel Wound Guitar Strings review

 

D'Addario EXL125 9-46 Strings review

I fitted these strings to a Maple neck Custom Shop 59 Stratocaster that was giving me problems with the truss rod adjustment meaning I had to take off the neck more than on any other guitar I have owned to keep adjusting it.

So, to add a bit more load to the truss rod I looked at using slightly heavier strings than the 9-42 set i was using on that guitar.

So after some research, I tried these EXL125 'half heavier' set strings on the guitar in place of the 9-42 D'Addario set I had on it previously. It needed more load on the rod but not the extra load from a 10 set loading weight I guessed.

I use the standard D'Addario 9-42 strings on most of my other Stratocasters and they are great there with no issues, these EXL125 strings have slightly heavier bass strings as used on the 10-46 set, otherwise the top 3 strings of the EXL125 set are the same gauge and loading as the 9-42 set.

Checking out the string tension against the 10-46 set and the 9-42 set, these EXL125 strings sat in the middle of the range for string pull in pounds. So I thought that these were worth a try out to see if it would resolve the issue.

The EXL125 strings have done a great job and the slightly heavier bass strings has improved the guitar's sound (it has Custom Shop Fat 50's pickups fitted from the factory). The action is still very slick but there is more relief on the neck than on the 9-42 set.

Now the strings have settled and the guitar has been played for an hour, it sounds great, feels good and has sorted the loading issue on the truss rod and I haven't had to go back and adjust the string saddles or trem block height which is a bonus.

So a win all round.

Nice strings, great sound and work well. I have used this brand for 40 years!