Martin Retro Acoustic Guitar Strings - .011-.052 Custom Light (MM11)

My go-to strings for finger style blues. These are simple strings with a classic sound, heavy on the fundamental and light on overtones. If you play on a small-body guitar, or play a style like ragtime or blues that really emphasizes punch/clarity over sustain, these are a must. String noise is low, packaging is simple (each string in its own labeled envelope, I can’t stand the 2-per envelope thing sone companies do). The strings are a dull silver and will eventually show some corrosion, but they sound better than coated ones imho and they last quite a while. Price is good, tone is great! I think they really shine on a mahogany or cedar topped guitar.

I love these strings. After testing many strings (including standard phosphor bronze which were a little bright, and silk and steel which were a little too mellow), I’ve settled on these for the time being, as the best sounding for my Eastman e8om. My Eastman is rosewood and Sitka, and while it sounds great, it can be naturally a little bright/tinny on the high e and b, which I don’t like as much. These retro Martin Monel strings are nickel and work wonderfully at cutting some of the brightness/harshness, to sound a little warmer and more martinesque. Sound great finger picking and strummed. And in a custom light gauge, are very easy to play imo. 5/5.

I’ve been looking for strings that are warm and mellow, without all of the overtones. These are it! I am also a singer, so it works well with my voice without competing with it. They also stay in tuned better than any other string that I’ve used. I play longer gig sets, and my fingers hold up well because of the lower tension. I highly recommend, and will not be going back on my Martin 00017!

i know this won’t be taken well by lots a people, but i think martin sucks. so, when i got these strings, for free by the way, i knew i’d never put em on….until one day when i needed some and didn’t want to wait. so, i cursed and moaned whole time i was changing out the d’darios. i get her tuned up and i take a listen and i tell a friend, yea i don’t like em…but i was lying…i actually kind of did. so i let get a stretch, tune em up again and now i’m saying they’re not actually too bad all the while thinking damn these sound really nice. so, after playing on em for about 20 minutes i looked up at her and said: “These are the most incredible strings i’ve ever heard and i’m not too happy about it”. anyway, so i normally change mine out once every week or 2…thats about 15 to 25 hours of play for me. i’m not changing em yet cause they don’t need to be changed and they have at least 40 hours of play on em. they sound bright, clear, and distinct…and no, not like your playing a maple jumbo inside of a beer can. so i’m playing em on a solid redwood top and i thought better not put em on my spruce top or they will probably be too bright, but i was wrong again. all i’m hopin for now is martin keeps makin them. im telling ya, unless you’re one of those persons who likes that dead “piano” sound, (thats usually code for too lazy to change em or too broke to buy em), i can almost guarantee you’ll be blown away by how these things sound, and the longevity is still hard for me to believe. i’ll never buy phosphor bronze again, ever. so, its kinda hard for me to be a martin fan since every one ive owned (3) spent more time at the shop than under my fingers, but these particular strings are truly remarkable..thanks martin

Those who love the warm focused sound of their Mahogany guitars will find these strings a great compliment to your instruments. Anyone looking to maybe tame a little “scoop” and add some warmth and focus to a Rosewood guitar should give these a try as I’ve found they do just that. I had been going back and forth between Martin SP Phospher/Bronze and D’Addario Custom Light gauge Phospher/Bronze strings for years on my acoustics and I like both, but now I’ve switched to these Nickel alloy strings and love their warm and focused sound and feel. A couple things I should mention... The spring gauges on the CL and L Retro’s differs from those on the SP CL’s and L’s in that the B, D and A strings are .001 thinner in the Retro’s and the overall tension is about 4 pounds lighter than the SP’s making the Retro’s slightly easier to play. In addition to the Retro’s, I am also using the D’Addario NB CL’s. I think the NB’s are a little warmer, fuller, more complex sounding and actually improve with a week or two of time on the guitar. Their wrap material is Nickel/Bronze vs Nickel/Copper for the Retro’s. The B and E strings for both are plain steel but the carbon steel in the D’Addario’s I think is fuller and more even sounding. The gauges and tension are the same as their PB counterparts and they are the lightest in tension between the two brands. They are $12 vs $9 for the Martin’s. Love both brands though and the Retro’s are great strings.

Tried a whole bunch of other types of strings, and some sounded good, others didn't. These Martin Monel Retros, really make the LG-2 sing, they have fuller bass and more chimey highs than nickel bronze . Tried them on a Yairi all Mahogany guitar, and normal phosphor bronze sound better on that. Also tried them on a Martin cutaway dreadnaught and they sounded amazing on that too, but Bronze coated 80/20s sounded slightly better to my ears, I'd use either on that.

The Martin Retro Acoustic Custom Light 11 strings were just what I needed to make my very different looking, selfbuilt electric-acoustic lap steel guitar sound fantastic! While it is basically a hollow-body acoustic guitar, it uses a very thin, hot-wound custom-made humbucker pickup that sits about 1/4 inch below the strings. Other brand acoustic strings (80/20 bronze; phosphor bronze, etc) did not work well with the pickup. I didn't feel that electric-guitar strings would work well either. I've never used Martin strings before (even though I owned a Martin guitar before) but some research made me think these monel-nickel acoustic strings would work well with the pickup AND the acoustic aspects. Hoo-wee! I've got bright, beautiful sound with ringing highs and bassy lows. Almost too bright and almost too much sustain (I hear your thoughts: No such thing as too much sustain). Purely acoustically the guitar is pretty tonal but not very loud (kinda like an unplugged hollow-body jazz guitar) but with the hot pickup, these strings, and a six-pedal chain and two amps to tame this creation, it is pure sonic joy! I'll probably try other Martin Retros in different gauges as I learn my setup. Bonus: They tune up quickly (less intial stretch?) and stay in tune. Pricing is good this retired, thin-wallet dude.

I’ve heard that a couple famous folk musicians used monel strings on their instruments back in the ‘60s. These have a beautiful mellow sound that feels like it’s letting the voice of your guitar out without imposing their own tone. I love these on my Yamaha FG. My only complaint is that I broke the first and third string very easily when tuning up! I had brought them up to pitch once already but had to loosen them to work on the nut. When I tightened them up again they snapped. And unfortunately you can’t buy individual strings, so I had to buy another complete set to replace those two strings. Thankfully, I reached out to Martin’s customer service and they provided me with a replacement set at no charge as a courtesy. I would happily buy these again and look forward to trying other strings from a company that stands behind their products.