Wade's experience with Cobalt strings

[LanceHartzell]

Hey man, I have the same exact problems. I can't put cobalts on my semi hollow or hollow because it makes a high pitched pinging sound. I heard it in my Marshall, so I plugged it in my Orange...exact same thing. It was driving me nuts until I changed strings. Thank you for me not being the only one!

 

[beej]

I have them on a few of my guitars, and I love them.

 

[Dead-Eye]

I loved the feel and the sound of the Cobalts when I tried them. They helped to give a bit more bite to my rather dull sounding Ibanez 7-string that should really have its pickups changed (but isn't going to because it's gone the moment I find the right JP7). However, I've never had a wound string rust as much (to be honest, I don't remember having a wound string rust ever) and as quickly as the cobalt low B did. I can't be bothered to change strings on the Floyd all the time (plus the things are expensive), so it's back to regular strings now.

 

[notshredding]

I've heard that. I live in a low-humidity area so I dunno. Put some on my bass recently, I like them. We'll see if there is a problem later (I don't change bass strings but about every 6 months unlike guitar)

 

[oiler1fan]

My first experience with bass cobalt slinkys was not inspiring - I could not get the E/A/D up to tune before they slipped of the posts. Never had this problem with any other strings on my Yamaha BB1024. I even changed one tuner to a Hipshot to try and got the same result. No silk on the strings does not help - ended up putting a fish hook bend on the end before inserting into the post and that anchored things for now - but confidence in this product is gone.

 

[AndyRage]

I wish their lifespan was longer. As a bass player, dumping a good amount of cheese into strings is hard enough, let alone having to do it every three or so weeks because they die out on you so quickly. Love the tone. Just wish they lasted as long as Elixers.

 

[ShadSunsCrash]

Thank Segovia I found this!!! Ive had the same problem...for almost 2 years!!!

This is my experience with Cobalt strings.

First, I'll provide a little background. I have been playing guitar for over 22 years and I am always chasing the tools to help me achieve superior tone. I play blues, rock and metal (not that low, detuned nu-metal stuff). I play clean, with slight breakup, and with higher gain. Just like pickup and amplifier choice is a major part of the overall tone, so are the strings. The strings are where the tone originates and has a major impact of a guitar's overall tone and are likely the most important factor.

Years ago, I used to play Ernie Ball Slinky's (9s, 10s and Hybrids - I played Hybrids for many years) but I haven't strung up EB's in a long time. I have mostly been playing SIT PowerWound 10s because they give me the tone that's in my head. Every so often (once a year for a month or so) I'll start trying out different brands and types of strings just for experimentation purposes and over the years, I have tried a lot of different strings (but not everyting). Suffice it to say that I do not like most strings that I have tried on the basis of tone - they are too bright, harsh, or too thin-sounding, etc. I never had issues with EB strings. I had just found that over the last 6 years that SIT PW 10s (and also more recently D'Addario EXP110s - but they're a bit brighter) give me the tone that I like the most.

I noticed the Ernie Ball Cobalt strings marketing campaign (how could anyone miss it?) and again started wondering how these would sound. I had been waiting for my local Guitar Center to stock the new Ernie Ball Cobalt guitar strings and finally the day came when they were listed with a status of "in stock." I stopped by and picked up two sets of Ernie Ball 2721 Cobalt Regular Slinky guitar strings (10s). My main guitar right now is an ESP Eclipse II Standard 22-fret with EMG 81 (bridge) /60 (neck) pickups, bone nut and a Gotoh Tune-O-Matic style bridge. I was using a set of D'Addario EXP110s that were in very good conditions. I changed them out for the Cobalts. I have been using I tuned up, stretched the strings and they stabalized quickly and stayed in tune very well. I performed a quick setup, setting the intonation which only needed very minor saddle adjustments. I took a break and came back about an hour later. I checked the tuning. The guitar was still perfectly in tune. I warmed up the amp and began playing... ...and listening. The feel was really different and very good - silky. The clean tone was great. It was very bold. It was different. When I started playing with some breakup, I immediately noticed that it sounded "off." When I played full-on heavy metal I really noticed how different the overall tone was. I thought to myself that these string could not sound THIS different. Something else had to be wrong, but nothing else changed in my rig. The tone was VERY loud on the low-end; too much bass. The mids seemed to disappear. The highs seemed as though I had rolled my tone knob all the way back. I checked to see if I had indeed rolled my tone knob back, but it was all of the way forward (100% treble). I also checked my wah pedal. I was bypassed. Just to be sure, I removed it from my signal chain by unplugging it and rerouting the cables to bypass it. The same different sounding tone was there. Over the next week, I played for at least 2 hours a day with these new strings. I had some others listen, even non-musicians and I did not tell them that I changed anything but everyone kept saying that it did not sound right. I thought so too. I started re-EQing everything. Maybe I just needed to re-dial in my tone since these new Cobalt strings are "EQed" differently. I wasn't getting satisfaction. I plugged directly into my Stiletto Deuce, no pedals, no effects loop - just a man with a guitar plugged into his amp with a 10' Monster Power Rock cable. I was still not satisfied. Hmm...maybe the battery in the guitar that run the EMGs needs to be changed. I put in a fresh 9v battery. No difference in tone. I played for a few more days. I read more reviews in forums online. Everyone is raving about these strings, about how good the tone is. What were they hearing? I was not hearing it. So finally I changed back to a new set of D'Addario EXP110s. I repeated the same exact string changing and setup process. I corrected my amp and pedal EQ settings. Boom. My tone was restored, if not a little bright (D'Addario EXPs are a bit brighter than the SIT PW 10s I usually use). It's been a few days since I switched back from Cobalts. I love my current tone.

I don't know what I was hoping to find with the Cobalts, but I did not find what I was looking for. That is not to say that they aren't great strings. I love the feel of the Cobalts. They played great. I thought that I read somewhere or heard in a promotional video something about creating a new tone with these strings. Yes, indeed, these string will give you a new tone. I 100% agree with that. It may be just the tone you're looking for. It was not the tone I was looking for. I am very surprised about how radiacally different the tone of the these strings are. They sound like they're tuned for a low-end (that is, bass tone, not quality - they are high quality strings) sound. For my experience, it may be that I already have my tone diealed in, so obviously changing anything will likely affect my tone, so I am biased in that way.

I have another set of Cobalts. I will likely use them on another one of my guitars, probably a guitar with passive pickups.

(Made an account just to try and save others from my mistake)


I picked up 7 string about 2 years ago and couldn't find a set with the correct gauges(whoever is deciding those gauges is a moron btw, and you should have sets aimed @ differnt scaled guitars anyway its great marketing and your offering something the competition isn't). Anyways the 7 string i got was an esp ltd sc207 that i immediately put fishman fluence moderns in and leveled the frets( i do this with most of the guitars i buy that are considered "budget"), changed nut and bridge, you know the works. Not to mention i got a new amp last year(Marshall Dsl100hr) which has become my main amp so while dealing with all that i also was learning a new amp which normally ill have down in less than a month. So after trying a few sets of strings I found the Ernie ball cobalts at a shop near by. Because they were the closet set of strings i could find with a reasonable gauge for a 25.5" seven string guitars i started using them. Now keep in mind im using a new guitar, new pickups and new strings and damn near everything else different from what im used to all at once. So for almost a couple years ive gone out of my mind trying to figure out what was wrong. It crossed my mind a few times it could be the strings but after listening to other players with them in ads that were obviously EQ'ed I thought that couldnt be it. I tried putting on my go to strings for my other 6 string guitars just to see if it was any better and since they were the wrong gauge and tension they didnt sound right enough for me to realize it was for sure the ernie balls so i ended up back with the ernie ball cobalts. I am extremely embarrassed and furious to say i even bought a different bridge pup for another $150 trying to fix what i now know is **** strings. They say its supposed to have "great highs and brilliance" or something to that affect so i thought it couldn't be the strings. I should have caught this way sooner. I do all the work on my guitars myself and ive been playing almost 20 years. I seriously cant believe i didn't just pay a little extra for a custom set from *a competitor* a long time ago. I just bought my ideal set from *a competitor* and after shiping and tax it was only about $15 anyways(i think the cobalts are 11.99 so I wasnt even saving that much money). They havent arrived yet but im certain they will be light years better that the cobalts. This is my fault for being to lazy to buy a custom set but if it weren't for all the different factors i had to wade through to find out why my guitar sounded so bad i would realized what i was an trashed the cobalts immediatly. Thanks for posting this review. I already feel better knowing im done with ernie balls from here on out. Like I said i seriously should have realized this sooner but its one of those things that got passed me. Well the false advertising and promotion didnt make it any easier....lol thanks John Petrucci! These strings were obviously a marketing scheme, if they werent other manufactuers would have changed the formula the slightest bit to get passed the patent and make their own. But that hasn't happend and wont happen and anyone whos tried these god awful strings knows why.

 

[beej]

So ... long story short, you tried the strings and didn't like them? (I'd say trying different strings is probably something everyone should do regularly, just to see what they like.)

I did, I do, and they're on a few of my guitars that I gig regularly.

My experience couldn't be further from yours. I find them fuller and brighter on the low strings, and happen to really like them.

 

[spychocyco]

So they're awful, horrible, no good strings because they didn't work for your preferences? I'm not a fan of cobalts on my humbucker guitars because they're actually too bright for my tastes on those, but I like them on single coils because they give a little extra growl.

Glad you found the strings that work for you, but just because a set of strings doesn't work for you doesn't mean they're bad for everyone. There's a very popular string brand that many people play and swear by that sound dead to me, but they're great for plenty of others. Like most other things when it comes to guitars, it's a personal preference. Use what works for you.