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GHS Boomers??

jamisonlps

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May 30, 2005
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Anyone still using these? One of the big name winders was telling me about them the other day.
 

Pat Boyack

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Oct 19, 2011
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I used to use Boomers but have been getting Burnished for years now. It's their "50's" style string. Less highs and harshness than the Boomers.

I will also say I have never broke a GHS string unless they were pretty old. I can't say the same for other brands.
 

jamisonlps

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May 30, 2005
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I tried the Burnished Nickels on my strat once and didn't care for the tone at all.
 

jwalker

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Dec 10, 2004
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It might have been me. I used Dean Markley strings for years. But when I started playing my Les Paul more and more instead of my Strat, I felt like they were way too harsh with the LP. I tried a bunch of different strings and nothing seemed balanced on all strings. Finally I tried Boomers and for me they seemed the best balanced on a Les Paul. Boomers were the last I tried as I long ago decided I hated them. Now I think I just hated the cheesy graphics they used to have on the string packet.:)

I agree with Pat on the string breakage. For some reason Boomers are really hard to break. I have a Heritage H535 that I'm sure came with GHS Boomers and I decided that I would put my pickups in as soon as a string broke. I got the guitar about 5 years ago and the strings have not broken and I play the guitar fairly regularly!
 

Black58

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Oct 28, 2005
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Used 'em in the 80's, as per Mr. Randy Rhoads. :rip

Not anymore, as per me. :2cool
 

PHILBERT

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Nov 25, 2006
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My strings of choice since the early 80's. Hard to break, and that is good on high energy gigs. But I dull a set in about two weeks, so I switched to Elixirs. I can't kill 'em. Some sets are over two years old now and still nice and crisp sounding. The key is to keep them clean. Complete wipedown after every session keeps them fresh. But if they were not coated, I would kill 'em no matter what. And nickel hates me! :wah
 

sonar

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Jan 10, 2003
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I used Boomers for years until I started to get more and more dead sets when I bought 10-12 packs. There's nothing worse than spending the time to restring your guitar, only to have the end result performing like the spent set of strings you just took off the guitar. Also, and maybe it's just me, but I also feel that current Boomers lack a little of that crisp & metallic sounding attack I used to hear.

I hate coated strings, so I'm stuck with replacing sets on a semi-regular basis. I have noticed that quitting smoking and cutting out most of my other vices might have made my sweat less acidic, as my strings last twice as long as they used to when I was a young punk.
 

jrgtr42

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Mar 24, 2005
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Tried them a while back, becuase they were pretty inexpensive. I always had issues breaking them, all strings, a couple different guitars. I them went over to EB Slinkys for a while, and rarely broke a string. When I did, it was an old high-e string. Only.
I them went over to Gibson Les Paul strings, then when those got hard to find, to the DR Pure Blues.
I also had issues with the GHS Boomers breaking on my basses. Thanks but no thanks, never again.
 

58junior

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Sep 14, 2007
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nothing wrong with boomers....I dig em, especially the 9.5 - 44 set, perfecto!
 

27sauce

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Jul 9, 2007
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Been using them for months, love 'em. Nice and cheap, $3.49 at Best Buy
 

Karloff

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Apr 13, 2012
Messages
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i seem to go though phases. in the 70's, it was ernie balls, then nashville straights ( anybody remember them ?), 80's dean markleys, and d'addarios,
used boomers for a long time thru the 90's, now i'm back to ernie balls. i've tried dr's a few times. boomers are had to break. you can really yank on them. big ol' buddy guy bends ...
 

jamisonlps

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May 30, 2005
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Also, and maybe it's just me, but I also feel that current Boomers lack a little of that crisp & metallic sounding attack I used to hear.

Well I picked up a set of Boomers this week and tried them tonight at practice. I don't really care for them, they sound rather dark and uninspiring. Just nothing special - I agree, lack crispness or something. And this was going from a 3-4 month old set of D'addario's. I'm gonna put on a fresh set of D's and compare.
 

sonar

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Jan 10, 2003
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Well I picked up a set of Boomers this week and tried them tonight at practice. I don't really care for them, they sound rather dark and uninspiring. Just nothing special - I agree, lack crispness or something. And this was going from a 3-4 month old set of D'addario's. I'm gonna put on a fresh set of D's and compare.

XL's?

I'm ok with .11 XL's on my Gretsch, not so much with XL 10's on the LP.

One of the better recommendations I found on the LPF was my introduction to the Dean Markley reissue strings. They're cheap and sound really good on my LP.
 
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