Daddario NYXL vs XT - Tone Comparison and Analysis!

[@PetarMakesNoise]

Do you use Daddario strings? What do you think of them? :) 👉 Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:43 - Testing Process Explanation 04:29 - TESTS 06:20 - Final Thoughts, Analysis and Outro

[@Firas-R]

Great video testing methodology. Loved the visual representation of the sound spectrum especially overlaying the different string spectrums on top of each other. Thank you!

[@reljanikolajevic9091]

Veoma profesionalno odradjen video sa domacim naglaskom :)

[@BB-pi2wd]

This is a SUPERB comparison video. Great work! Thank you!!!

[@Kornel.S.]

Hi! Very professional video. I've watched some guitar strings comparison videos before, but It was always a bit about personal opinions. The "TESTS'' part is almost like scientific proof. I looked for few more videos on your channel and subscribed right away! Keep on doing quality videos like this!

[@uria702]

The nyxl are great but I switched to the xt because I have so many guitars and got tired of changing strings so frequently. Even the ones I didn’t play would be rusted and worn after a few months. The coated strings definitely last longer for guitars that don’t see much use. I still use nyxl on my main guitars that I play frequently.

[@cwwisk]

This is a fantastic way of comparing strings! Thank you!!!

[@woocifer]

Thank you very much for showing the difference in spectrum! :) Very helpful.

[@sdbracht]

Terrific vid thanks so much for doing it!!!

[@NinthDensity]

Excellent video, thank you for doing this.

[@Savage.79]

Here something important to me. The NYXL are great & I love it but sometimes it feel you are fighting with the string when you play a guitar solo. And comparation on this new ones, it feel super mega comfortable and sound perfect to me in any style. Jazz, Bossanova, Reggae, Punk Rock etc. Everyone give it a try on XT 100% quality 👍🏽

[@PetarMakesNoise]

Very good point! I noticed the same, although I'm not really a solo guitar player that much. Also - something I've noticed as well in the last 3-4 months - NYXL rust faster - go black - even when not in use. I've strung one of my guitar which I haven't played for 3-4 months at all with completely new strings, and most of them already started going black. My XT strings on other guitar are almost as long, and rust is not that much present. I'm thinking of switching to XT these days completely because of this :)

[@mdmusic2130]

@@PetarMakesNoise very interesting…are they very similar in tone?which one seems to be brighter?

[@lancec50]

I have used both. I am not a fan of coated strings but was super impressed with the XT’s. I love NYXL. That is all I use.

[@PetarMakesNoise]

Yep, exactly the same thing on my side :) I'll be using NYXL for my studio sessions, but XT for everything else definitely. Amazing strings.

[@bercahayabintang4839]

How long can XT last?

[@shred5]

There is one pretty major con with NYXLs which is they have a stiffer wire. This results in the strings feeling stiffer. Personally, I hardly noticed it with 9s when I put them on my Les Paul and when the local music store was closed during lockdown, they held up amazingly well on my Les Paul, so I stuck with them ever since. I tried a set of 10s on my strat however, and it felt like 11s - I could barely play the thing. That said, I likely had pure nickel 10s on the strat before, which feel more like 9s as well which accounts for some of the great difference. I put a set of 9s I bought for my Les Paul on the strat pretty quickly after that and they actually felt right where regular 9s did not feel right on that guitar at all. They also do have stronger high end and fewer mids than regular strings as well but that is both personal preference (or maybe situational for the rig too) and it's fairly minor too.

[@HowardFrischer]

Great information. Thank you.

[@drummingjeremy11]

awesome video. thank you. Can you please do this kind of comparison video but now including the XS?

[@Lionel-yr2xb]

Nice vid

[@MichaelBogomolny]

Cool video, thanks. I love NYXLs but they do tend to rust after a while. So on most of my guitars I use the Elixir optiweb (the green ones), which are also cool and never rust. Problem is they don't have enough variety in gauges, so if want a baritone set, I have to use the the nanoweb set (orange) and this one is noticeably duller..

[@heythere6983]

Weird I a and b’d these two strings myself on two different guitars. I played with a lot of distortion tho , maybe that influenced how the strings reacted , meaning maybe the harmonica in distortion are handled differently with extra distortion but what I found was.. That one was thicker and darker than the other , I believe the xterm sounded fatter and slightly darker . The nyxl seemed brighter which added more of a fizzy top end distorted . It was like the nyxl was a slightly thinner and brighter sound but voiced similar to the xt. I went with the xt due to the slightly fatter sound but I did infact hear a difference when blasting my marshall with lots of gain . Maybe the coated muted it a tad and maybe this is only noticeable on higher gain settings. Maybe the nyxl breathes more and lets the higher harmonics come in? Idk. But there was definitely a difference for me

[@shred5]

NYXLs have a stiffer core wire which both makes them feel almost a gauge up but also gives a very loud and clear high end. They have slightly muted midrange and at least seemingly tighter bass (possibly from the slight drop in mids). I'm mostly a clean player these days so I cannot real comment from personal experience, but they seem to be very good for playing real heavy stiff for this same reason. Before the pandemic, I finally decided to try the NYXLs. I'm didn't hate the tone but I'm not sure that I loved it either. It made my Les Paul sound even more harsh with my old Marshall Studio 15 (that amp never fared well with lower output pickups, which is all I own now). With my Super Reverb, I can't say if I like them better or worse than the pure nickel strings that I usually used before. But they hold up amazingly well, so I keep buying more. I can't decide if I like them or the DR Veritas electric strings better at the end of the day, at least when it comes to 9s (NYXL 10s are too stiff for me).

[@sergius28]

Amazing, well done my friend ! 👍👍👍👍👍💯 👍👍👍👍👍💯

[@CFBPO]

fantastic test, thank you so much for going to all the effort and for making it simple without any playing. I think that helps take any subjectivity out of the equation. Well thought out and very objective comparison. I bounced it into a DAW (albeit with the compressed youtube file but thats ok all things being equal) then thru amp sims to hear it in context with various amps....still sounds consistent with the different strings...surprising. D'Addario have done a stellar job with these strings. (I have been using XL's since the 80's) You said you could hear the difference acoustically with new strings but not in the recording...maybe the preamp/AD is missing really high frequencies that your ears can hear. What sample rate did you record at? Maybe there are losses in the recording chain that amount for some of the lack of differences you are hearing once recorded. Lower sample rate (44.1/48kHz) digital recording doesn't really capture high end well. Nowhere near what your ears will hear. Nyquist theorem...higher the frequency the less samples (and detail) per cycle. Good to know there is a lot less difference than with those other well known coated strings though.

[@jamiegustkey2573]

Hello! Great analysis! What is the spectrum analyzer you’re using? Thank you! 👏🏻

[@dougb3854]

looks like fab filter to me

[@arnaldosound]

I was using NYXL 10 46 and decided to try XT 10 46, i think the XT its more clear, soft for bends, and skinny than NYXL. Do You think the XT 11 49 it's like NYXL 10 46?

[@pawang_game_id]

Thanks man. I've decided to use XT 1046 since I prefer a string with soft bends.

[@Brad143]

Hi,i never try D'Addario before ,which D'Addario string do you recommend for,i mean With nice sound and Long Lasting life,Thanks buddy

[@Xenomorph]

great video.

[@ratta2006]

Great video!...Thanks for your work..Frank THE MEMPHIS SUNS

[@STRESSLEVELCHAOS]

I did just return home with a package of each to restring my esp eclipse bb and wondered if they were any different before putting on a new set. D’Adarrio will always have a buck to make off me so long as I can pick a guitar, pick a string, or pick my nose, thanks for doing the work on an educated answer, I feel akin to everything you described personally and the evidence speaks for itself. I do like the acoustic tone these hold as well, I wonder if you tested the same strings with no pickups, just mic’d on say a hollow body what would the results reveal? I use the 10 52s -the xls come with a lite top heavy bottom (same way I like my women) but I’m a bass player through and through -that’s my cross to bare. Anyway That and some 5$ dollar bargain strings thrown in there for comparison would be a litmus test I’d be party to, I could go on for days with this topic- but to my immediate question on the difference in these 2 specific sets you hit the nail on the head. You might say your efforts resonate with me🤓 I’ve also been known to put dadario acoustic lights on heavy bodied bolt on lps. The projection and gritty crash tones with active pick ups is music to my ears. I like the feedback and harmonics you can get with them too but the g string always throws a wrench in the highs, if it’s wound it’s too dull and flat and if it’s solid it’s too high and twangy, the eq can only do so much . Thanks again bro-kofski and I’ll be checking your content for more gems like this one. 🤘

[@chrisholmes_90]

Good test! I always played elixir, but after I moved to NYXL they are definitely the best strings on the market. I love how good they feel and how they sound. However. I was going to move back to elixirs, just because I feel the NYXL does feel a bit dead. After watching this though, I’ll give the XT a try first! Thanks

[@PetarMakesNoise]

Thanks! Which Elixirs do you use? I could never get along with them unfortunately, sounded too dull for my taste, and under hands it was kinda weird feeling, can’t really pin words on it. NYXL are still my go-to strings, but I use XT on one guitar I play less often, and strings do last quite long time. Try them, maybe you’ll like them :)

[@chrisholmes_90]

@@PetarMakesNoise I always used the Nanoweb 10's on my strat, and 11's on my tele. They definitely feel different to normal uncoated strings (say D'Addario or Ernie Ball). I really don't like the feel of most uncoated strings now, because I've been using Elixir for so long. But The NYXL feel absolutely great to me. Elixir definitely sound a bit duller out of the box, but (compared to most strings) sound way better after a week with my sweaty hands. Most uncoated strings only last me 1 or 2 gigs at most, elixirs will last for months even when I'm gigging. I'm with you though, NYXL are definitely at the top of the tree for recording, but I'll be trying out the XTs on the guitars that I don't use so often or for shows. They're arriving today and looking forward to giving them a go, so thanks for the vid!

[@fmaraldo2829]

You can clearly hear a drop in high end in the 3 mo old strings. I don’t know what you are hearing. The XTs are also slightly darker.

[@stevecomins7837]

I use a custom very-lite gauge of NYXL with a lot of string bending of ALL strings. (studied sitar) So my question is not the sound but what is taking place between the strings and the frets. If one vigorously bends the same string, same note, back and forth over and over it will eventually get gritty. Haven't tried the XT but perhaps the coating protects the frets better. ???

[@PetarMakesNoise]

NYXL are on the "harder" side when it comes to toughness of strings, very close to stainless steel hardness. It really depends on the softness of your fret material, to determine how much wear (grittiness) will be there. Maybe your frets are way softer than NYXL strings, and they wear out the frets faster? I guess usually it's Nickel frets, which is "standard" - but these days even nickel frets have some mixture of other metals in them to make them harder. You can try XT - but XT coating is there to provide longer life of strings (meaning protect it against rust, acidity in fingers / hands, sweat, etc). It won't make too big of a difference in regards of frets wear (at least I think)? If your frets are wearing too fast, maybe switching to softer string material would be better for you. (maybe I totally misunderstood your statement, sorry if that's the case)

[@theskullsnepal4338]

Best comparison ever really enjoy it👍

[@MagnusOlssonGuitar]

Very well done test man. You should have done it with normal (not overwounded) singlecoil and the difference would be bigger. The real highs were the difference is are not present in humbuckers. The XT are a hair stiffer on the wounded string (not from the coating but from what the are wounded with). NYXL have NYXL winding while XT have EXL winding. So the NYXL have a slight different midd range than XT. None the less, great work.

[@PetarMakesNoise]

Thanks man! Great info shared there as well, wasn’t aware of EXL woundings. As for single coil tests, yeah, I think there would be some audible minor difference in high end, but I’d attribute that to single coils picking up more noise in general. Would be interesting to test for sure. Don’t have a single coil guitar yet, might have to change that in the future :)

[@DbiPro]

Try elixir nano web I think you’ll like them better

[@Praeterita1976]

Only cons of NYXL is the price tag

[@Zacknorris-d5p]

If you want to hear a real difference don't use a bridge humbucker, which lacks of brightness to start with... Use the neck single coil of a Strat, you will hear the difference right away.

[@glytch5]

"lots of pros with this string, I don't know any con" how about the fact that they are almost 3 times as much as a normal string? ; )

[@PetarMakesNoise]

haha sure, but not in comparison against NYXL ;)

[@STRESSLEVELCHAOS]

What’s 14$ compared to 4$? nothing when it comes to the the extension of your voice on record, in your heart, from your soul. Science be damned if the voice in my head sounded like Ernie ball super slinky’s on a first date I’d buy a set for every occasion and if that voice connected me to that universal ohm somewhere out in the abyss where the guitar disappears and my hands become fire breathing dragons ripping out chunks of my soul into the ethereal darkness shining light across the interstellar voids of space and time for all eternity….. hell I’d even pay like 40$ or 50 bucks for a turn on that pony ride😉 But you can’t just buy a ticket to that show , it’s got to be earned. Alls I’m saying is you can’t put a dollar amount on the chance of having a true medium representation of the voice you hear inside your heart it’s too complicated to explain it but I imagine it’s something like the sound of the first time you heard your mothers voice, in uteri while your soul was still being molded and all the energy from your ancestors was simultaneously being transferred into the flesh and bone that you carried on from the womb and poured your life force in to the tomb where you rejoined with that viscera uniting it once again as matter and energy colluded into a frequency of wavelengths that condensed it into an infinite flow of vibration and eminence to be passed on to the next generation. If the soul exists it’s in those wavelengths, it’s transferred into the physical dna that makes us what we are. In the words of KC -“all we are is what we all are” and if all I have to give back to the gods that gave me rocknroll, is my vibe hammered out on a 6string guitar built by the samurai masters in Japan I want my declaration to be crystal clear and unwavering from the steal scrapped in the city of New York hard earned from the mills in Detroit and born from the blood of the earth and the sweat of my brothers in western Pennsylvania and northern West by god Virginia (it is almost heaven) so that my final translation is unmistakably me, through and through, no one will ever have to ask it be repeated. I imagine it’s truly what they meant when theorizing the voice of the almighty being too much for our earthly bodies to process and it would melt our brains right out of our ear drums, yeah.. or something like that. They say the lady of the lake plucked the singing sword from the streets of glory forged in the fires of hell and quenched it in the blood of man and then imprisoned it in stone for a millennia while awaiting its equal prophet to loose it from the rock and thrust it into the hearts of darkness so that every man may be United by its song and live in harmony. It’s all too familiar don’t you suppose,,, anyway I’m done no offense, I’m just bored and I like to write words sometimes too. If you can’t justify the cost then don’t buy them, i however will spare no earthly expense to add my voice to the All that we all are.. DRED 10:18

[@DbiPro]

XT is brighter and fuller. Sorry.