This is a review for the Black Diamond phosphor bronze acoustic guitar strings. I contacted the Cavanough company (the makers of the strings) and asked if they would be willing to send the guitar strings over for review and they agreed and send me both the black coated phosphor bronze guitar strings and the standard phosphor bronze guitar strings. In this article I am reviewing the standard version.
Before I get on with the review, here are the string gauges for the Black Diamond guitar strings:
E: .012
B: .016
G: .024
D: .032
A: .042
E: .053
The sound and feel of the Black Diamond Guitar strings
I put these guitar strings on my Huntington Dreadnought guitar and I found that they tuned up and held their pitch correctly without constantly slipping out of tune. If you tune them properly once, they will stay that way. I love the loud and clear sound that the strings have as you strike notes, they project beautifully and I really love the great tone that the Black Diamond guitar strings have.
However, I did notice a difference between the standard phosphor bronze and the black coated version of the same guitar strings. The standard strings don’t seem to be as flexible or smooth as the black phosphor bronze guitar strings. For example, the phosphor bronze guitar strings are easy to slide across, but they don’t seem to be as gentle on the fingers, and bending the strings was pretty easy but it seemed I could bend higher and easier on the black phosphor bronze guitar strings.
I also found the standard version slightly harder to perform barre chords.
But I need to mention that I am doing a direct comparison between the Black phosphor strings and the standard version. Maybe both type of strings are the same and it is all in my head. But overall, I really like the Black diamond phosphor bronze acoustic guitar strings. They are easy to bend, easy to slide, and are gentle on the fingers when you fret notes. I haven’t had these guitar strings on for long, but if they are anything like their black coated counterpart they will last anywhere between two to three months before showing signs of wear and tonal loss.
I highly recommend that you give these guitar strings a try, but if I had to choose between the two types I would recommend that you also try the Black Diamond black coated phosphor bronze guitar strings because in my opinion they seem to perform a bit better when pulling off more advanced techniques.
The MSRP list price for the Black Diamond guitar strings is about $13 USD.
For more information, please check out Black Diamond guitar strings official website.
Have you used the Black Diamond phosphor bronze guitar strings? Comment below and share your thoughts about them.