Aquila Guitar Alchemia Nylgut/Sterling Set Heavy, GALCS-Hstar rating 5Alexander HillNovember 3, 2010These strings are great; the strings blend great together, the nylon gut strings have a unique sound compared to nylon and the G string doesn't have the strange tone like many nylon string sets. Another great thing I've seen with these strings is that they can be played with finger nails or with out them unlike gut which will roughen from finger nail contact and split. The winding around the bass strings makes them last much longer than silver plated copper strings, and when the silver started to become dirty, I just used a silver cleaning kit on the strings and it restored them to almost brand new sound. The description for the strings about the trebles stretching a crazy amount isn't joking, the string that will stretch the most is the high E string so be careful to make sure it doesn't grind against the wood where the tuning peg is on the guitar or it could cause it to snap. These strings do take some getting use to compared to playing clear nylon treble strings, but they do have a similar texture of rectified nylon strings, the strings also have a good stiffness to them almost like gut strings except with a slight tone difference almost not noticeable, with a much longer life span than gut. The only thing is, is that the bass strings don't sound much like wound silk strings and are thinner than silk strings. The bass strings are warmer than nylon strings which have a raspy sound. Overall I would recommend these strings over sets of nylon strings or carbon fiber strings for the original guitar sound of gut. Also I would recommend that people buy this set of aquila's nylon gut strings instead of the other set with the silver plated copper wound basses, because these sterling bass string in this set last much longer and don't have the silver come off and expose copper which corrodes extremely fast from finger sweat and moisture in the air and kill the tone of the string.
Aquila Guitar Alchemia Nylgut/Sterling Set Heavy, GALCS-Hstar rating 5Robert BoothDecember 20, 2009I first tried Aquila strings a few years ago on a custom Hippner and found they provided a wonderful balance between bass and treble--a problem I had had with that guitar and had for years had to use mixed low tension basses with high tension trebles. The Aquila strings resolved that issue, and provide unique sound I often find missing in nylon and carbon strings. I have since changed guitars and have been using Aquila strings on the new instrument ever since the original strings required replacment. This is the first set of Alchemia with the solid silver windings I have installed (I had previously used the plated version) and I am so pleased with them I had the action adjusted with/for them. They play well up the entire neck, such as with Carcassi's Etude No. 2 and provide an even tremelo with punchy bass such as needed in Albeniz's Asturias. I can't see using anything else.