I have been actively involved in guitar playing my entire life (read: older than dirt) and somewhere in my mid-20's, I decided upon certain name-brand string for my electric guitars and for my acoustic guitar. The brand doesn't really matter; suffice it to say they are in the top rungs of national brands.

I am really quite finicky about tone and longevity. I want my strings to have a nice full tone, but I want them to have a delicate brightness to them as well to lend enunciation to what I am playing. And, because I am a guitarist, I generally have (as you might well conclude) limited funds.

A few years ago, I switched to one of the coated brands, and the tone was a very slight trade-off for exponentially longer string life. About 6 months ago, I observed a few of our sales associates discussing strings, and I overheard that SIT (Stay In Tune string company) makes our West Music strings for us, and that they are really good. Although I hesitate to admit it, I am also a pedal steel player, and several steel players use SIT strings because they do just that: they stay in tune.

So I grabbed a medium gage set of acoustic guitar strings about six months ago, installed them on my guitar, and was extremely pleased with the tone. Now here I am, six months later, the strings are still on the guitar and they still sound quite acceptable in spite of their age. Admittedly, I don't play as much in the winter but hey, six months is good life span even when rarely played.

In a nutshell, the West Music guitar strings are a terrific value, and I would put them toe-to-toe with my old favorites, even though they cost about 40% less. I am not currently gigging, but when I do, I intend to give the electric strings a try as well.

Bottom line: everyone is looking for a specific sound, and just because I like them doesn't necessarily mean you will. But if you are still in search of a string choice, try the West Music brand. You may be quite surprised!