Gearank

Gearank Recommendation

The 830's appeared on our recommended list for Nylon / Classical Guitar Strings from June 2017 until July 2019 when they were out-ranked by other string sets.

Overview

La Bella’s 830 Folksinger Black Nylon guitar strings are one of the more unique strings on this list. The set features ball-end strings, which makes restringing your instrument significantly easier. The set also uses black nylon, which while similar in appearance to fluorocarbon has the tonal characteristics of any other nylon string.

The basses in this set are plated with 80/20 brass, which gives them a very bright and focused voice. They’re a good middle ground between the tone of a nylon string and a steel string instrument, featuring the warmth of the former and the projection of the latter. Unlike the Ernie Ball strings below, these strings don’t appear to suffer from the same lack of projection that other 80/20 plated nylon strings seem to have. However, depending on the quality of the guitar the benefits of this may not be readily apparent.

These strings are intended to be used for folk music, so to get a good idea of how they’ll perform check out Leonard Cohen and Jose Feliciano (both of whom have used nylon stringed instruments at various points in their career).

The only possible flaw with these strings is that they aren’t as widely available as others on this list. So if these become your string of choice the potential exists that you may have to order them online exclusively. With the widespread adoption of online shopping services this isn’t a huge issue, but it will be inconvenient if you happen to break a string. However, you can easily make do with more widely available strings for a time should this happen.

Features

• Black nylon trebles produced greater aural transparency and sound projection
• Golden Alloy (80/20 Brass) basses produce exceptional memory for pitch and consistent sound production
• Medium Tension
• String Gauges: Black Nylon: .028, .032, .040; Golden Alloy: .031, .035, .044
• Made in the USA with American Wire
• Packaged using MAP Technology (Modified Atmosphere Packaging) to prevent tarnishing and ensure freshness