A: Phosphor bronze sound brighter.
Q: Why do steel strings tarnish?
A: the player's body chemistry; and if a player has a high acid content in his/her perspiration, can cause the strings to tarnish quicker
Also humidity, can also cause tarnishing.
Q: What type of strings came on my guitar ?
A: all non-cutaway dreadnoughts and jumbos on MAxwell and Johnson come with medium gauge.
Cutaways or smaller models - wed recommend lighter gauge strings
All 12 string guitars have extra light gauge.
Some exceptions to this will occur though, depending on the guitar
A small part of setup is streching new strings - On Good quality but economically prices guitars (Under R3000 ) We also recommend a serious setup if youre a serious player or just want to play the guitar as easily as possible close to professional setup ( all professionals always have Guitar Makers ( Luthiers) set up the guitar meticulously including guitars in professional level prices.
Remember Factories assemble and do partial fine adjustments -but no factory has the time to spend 90 mins setting up a guitar under R3000- like they may for guitars selling over R3500 ) See whats involved in proffessional luthier setup here
Q: I keep breaking strings. How can I prevent this ?
A: Usually only very cheap "dsicount" store no name guitars with an excessively sharp break angle or rough area at the saddle, or a rough area at the nut cause this problems, but
If you are a heavy strummer, a medium-gauge string might be better. The heavier the gauge - the less likely to break
STRETCHING NEW STRINGS
Initially, this new string may have trouble staying in tune.
Correct this problem by stretching out the new string.
Pull the string like this (click here) about one inch away from the surface of the guitar.
The string tuning will have fallen lower so now Re-tune the string, then repeat the process a few times until the string no longer falls out of tune.
after you've done it a few times you will find the range of pitch changes decreases - but it will take several days / weeks before really settling .
An electronic tuner will help you determine correct intonation ( tuning )
As a general guide to the difference between types of strings - producing dark to brighter sounds