About Change Your Strings
Change Your Strings is a database of knowledge about guitar strings, who uses what, and what they recommend. We believe the faster we can help get the right strings under your fingers and on your fret boards, the faster you can get to making the music you want. Change Your Strings' goal is to educate you and get the right gear in your rig, faster than any other option.
What we do
We publish the deepest, most honestly-sourced guitar-strings reference on the internet. That means:
- String-set product reviews, every major brand, every gauge, with specs, tonal analysis, who uses them, best for / worst for, install and break-in notes.
- Tuning guides, gauge targets across Gibson, Fender, and baritone scale lengths. Real tension math, not vibes.
- Artist rigs, what working guitarists actually play, with citations. Endorsed vs. verified use is labeled explicitly.
- Producer profiles, the sonic lane a given producer works in and which strings fit that lane, framed as editorial analysis rather than endorsement.
- Genre hubs, one click to the strings that fit your style, cross-filtered by tuning.
- FAQs, the questions working guitar and bass players actually ask, with cited answers and deep-link cross references into the relevant artist and producer pages.
How we source
The moat is sourcing discipline. Every artist claim gets one of two labels:
- Endorsed, the artist has a documented relationship with the brand (signature set, String Theory profile, signed endorsement, brand-issued gear list). We link to the document.
- Verified use, we've seen the strings on the guitar via rig rundown, interview, live footage, or a credible secondary source. We cite it.
If we can't source it, the page says "unconfirmed" and links to the closest known reference. We never guess a gauge. This is the single most important rule in our editorial handbook. Every reader on this site is about to spend money on gear that will affect how their guitar plays for years, a guessed gauge is the difference between strings that match a record they love and strings that don't. Sourcing discipline is the only honest way to make that recommendation.
Producer pages follow an additional rule from our legal reviewer: producer recommendations are framed as genre-fit analysis ("what strings belong in this producer's sonic lane") rather than endorsement ("this producer recommends this brand"). Every producer page is labeled with one of three statuses — sourced-use, genre-fit, or unconfirmed, so there is no ambiguity about what kind of claim the page is making.
The team
Change Your Strings is written and edited by a roster of 27 experts, each owning a domain. A few of the ones readers interact with most:
- Phil (luthier) and Wright (tension and scale-length) own the physics, the gauge-by-scale reference chart, tension math, and setup implications.
- Sleuth (artist/producer research) sources every artist page. No gauge claim ships without Sleuth's citation.
- Cadence (editor-in-chief) and Suzy (copy) own voice and volume across every reference page.
- Genre leads handle style-specific rigs: Axel (classic rock), Jaxon (metal rhythm), Dime (dropped tuning), Animus (extended-range / djent), Lucille (blues), Echo (indie / ambient), Tommi (fingerstyle acoustic), Chet (country), Grace (jazz / archtop), and Joni (alternate tunings).
- Fricker, Andrews, and Nolly cover producer-side tone decisions.
- Lowe writes the bass content. Bass content on this site is serious and accurate, the bass jokes are Cutter's territory and they live in meme posts, not in the reference pages.
- Hooke (search and discoverability), Penny (affiliate compliance), Durham (legal), and Ben (code quality) keep the back office honest.
- Trey runs the business day-to-day. Austin is the product owner.
How we make money
Amazon Associates. Every product card on this site links to Amazon through an affiliate link; if you buy a set through one of those links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. That's the entire revenue model.
We do not run sponsored content. We do not accept paid placement. We do not rank one brand above another because a brand paid us, rankings are based on specs, documented use, and editorial judgment from the expert roster above. When a brand has paid an artist we profile, we'll tell you: the artist page will show Endorsed and cite the endorsement. We will never hide that relationship.
Every page with affiliate links carries the full FTC-compliant disclosure, anchored in the site footer and labeled in the header nav. If you ever spot an undisclosed affiliate link or a sponsored claim that isn't labeled as such, tell us, it's a bug, not a feature.
Affiliate disclosure
Heads up: ChangeYourStrings.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page may be affiliate links. We only recommend strings we would actually put on our own guitars. We don’t ship or handle any products ourselves and are intended to be a database to help get the right strings on the right guitars for guitar players. The strings you play matter.
Frequently asked questions
What is ChangeYourStrings.com?
Change Your Strings is a reference site for guitar strings, every major brand, every gauge, every tuning, cross-indexed with the artists and producers who use them. Pages are written by working musicians, recording engineers, and editorial staff. We monetize through Amazon Associates affiliate links on product cards; we do not run sponsored content.
What is the mission?
Change Your Strings is a database of knowledge about guitar strings, who uses what, and what they recommend. We believe the faster we can help get the right strings under your fingers and on your fret boards, the faster you can get to making the music you want. Change Your Strings' goal is to educate you and get the right gear in your rig, faster than any other option.
How do you decide what an artist uses?
Every artist claim is labeled either endorsed (paid relationship, documented from the brand or player directly) or verified use (cited from an interview, rig rundown, String Theory feature, or on-camera session). If a gauge cannot be sourced, the page says so and links to the closest documented reference. We never guess a gauge.
How do producer pages work?
Producer pages describe the sonic lane a producer operates in and recommend strings that fit that lane, not strings the producer has endorsed. We use three labels: sourced-use (direct citation), genre-fit (style analysis, no endorsement implied), and unconfirmed (sourcing in progress). This framing is enforced by our legal review (Durham).
How do you make money?
Amazon Associates affiliate links. When you buy a set through a product card on this site, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Every page with affiliate links carries the FTC-compliant disclosure in the site footer. We do not accept paid placements, sponsored reviews, or pay-for-ranking.
Who writes the content?
Change Your Strings operates with an in-house editorial team covering guitar physics, genre-specific rigs across rock and metal lanes, production and engineering perspectives, bass, artist and producer research, search and discoverability, affiliate compliance, and editorial voice. Austin is the product owner.
Next steps
- Start at the home page picker, pick your instrument, genre, and tuning, and land directly on the set real players use.
- Or browse the full string catalog by brand if you know what you want.
- Read the tuning guides for gauge targets across scale lengths.
- Dig into artist rigs or producer profiles for genre-specific tone choices.