Martin Guitars Retro MM-12 Light

I was looking forward to testing these strings. Normally I like strings with a warm, "vintage" style tone so I had high hopes for these Martin Retro Monels.

Unfortunately I didn't like them very much. I was expecting them to have a warmer, mellower tone.

At first they were extremely bright. Not in the same way as a bright set of phosphor bronze or 80/20 strings. It was more like a fizzy thing in the high frequencies that somehow seemed disconnected from the rest of the tonal spectrum. This nasty fizz disappeared after a couple of hours of playing but the tone was still far too metallic sounding for my taste. Once the strings was broken in it wasn't a particularly bright tone but more like a "tin can", honky kind of tone. Not my cup of tea. I gave them a week of regular playing before I gave up and installed other strings instead.

To be fair they were at least different from any other strings I've tried but sadly they weren't for me.

These are up to this point the best strings that I have used....because I prefer a warmer sound instead of phosphor bronze or 80/20's.
I use a Lakewood D14CP which has a Spruce top with mahagony back and sides. The warmth and clarity that comes out of this guitar is just divine. They do not need days to be broke in either, they sound great right away.
Sound: Warm,organic,woody,mellow and clarity...without sounding overly bright. These are like I said just excellent. I also use these on my Lakewood M14 edition 2020 ...all mahagony which sounds lovely. These are also very pleasant to play through a amp, a well balanced tone.

If you more for strumming than these are for you, if you like to fingerpick than these are for you also.

Integrity: these strings are not prone too wear and moisture like other strings, they last quite a long time.

These are THE strings that Tony Rice used for many years and he and C.F.Martin went and made the effort to bring these back into production, and for that I am very grateful.

Playability: they are uncoated but I can honestly not come up with any complaints that they are not easy on the fingers.Compared to Elixir Nanoweb they feel different.

I would recommend these strings over all others because they are my favorite. If someone can show me a better sounding string than maybe i will consider changing, but until that moment comes........I will only use Monels. Here are some other strings I've tried but still have kept going back to the Monels. Elixir Phosphor Bronze, d'addario E16 and the new Nickel Bronze.The Nickel Bronze are on my all Mahagony guitar...they have also a very nice tone in my opinion...warm like the Monels...but a little more clarity and brightness. Some of the other standard strings from Martin are ok.
Give them a try!!!

These strings have a vintage sound - if you are looking for a more modern tone with lots of sustain and overtones these may not be your first choice.

I have used them on several guitars, the latest being a Martin with an Adirondack top and Rosewood back and sides. The guitar has forward shifted scalloped bracing and though it never sounds truly muddy, the overtones can get in the way.

These strings took that bright too-much-sustain edge off the sound. When flatpicking (which is in my opinion what these strings were made for) the individual notes ring out loud and clear. When strumming, a bit of richness was lost but not in a bad way, the bass was loud and clear and my guitar now sounds like a pre-war D-28. Considering they cost less than £6.00, I'd say that was a bargain.

I also used them on a too-lightly built spruce rosewood 000 that was pure mud unless played fingerstyle with the flesh of your fingers. It got rid of all the unwanted overtones and was the deciding factor in keeping the guitar.

I think these would really shine on a smaller mahogany guitar, to get an authentic bluesy sound.

The strings are very light on the fingers, they bend with ease. I am going to buy a few more packs - they might not suit all makes or styles of guitar but when you find one they work well on, it's pure magic.

Since I often use metal finger picks when playing, I am always in search for strings that will be sufficiently warm/mellow sounding, to compensate for the bright sound those picks produce. So far, these strings seem to do the job nicely, and they also sound quite nice when playing with bare fingers. They might not serve all playing styles and all types of guitars; there are many different preferred parameters for different players, but for my particular purpose they seem to be the best strings on which I've stumbled yet. If you are in the same boat as me and looking for strings to compensate brightness, then I would definitely recommend to check them out. Even if you're not, you might as well try them out; who knows, you might end up pleasantly surprised.

I replaced these with martin 80/20 and then I saw how good they actually sounded.
Opinion is written for acoustic guitar - plugged.
Compared with 80/20's they sound pure and clean, like there is no string-wrapping-alloys interferance with the sound.

You know when you put fresh strings on your acoustic an they start to zing-zang-kling-pling...YEE WE ARE NEW!!!
?

You do...?

Well, it's not there!

Sold the remaining 2 packs of 80/20's and now waiting for someone to order from thomann to get me some more retros!

PS. used on martin000RS1/some pedals/fishman sa220