What strings do I use?

A set of new strings will cost roughly €10 (I did a little "googling" and found that my guitar idol Alex Lifeson uses "Dean Markley Blue Steel Custom Lights" these are only $4.95 on Amazon!)
The questions to ask before your string selection are;
what type of guitar am I playing? how good am I? what am I going to be doing?.

There is a huge string choice and lots of great sounding terminology; phosphor-bronze, nickel, nylon, heavy gauge, light gauge, 10's, round-wound and pressure wound to highlight just a few.

Generally speaking for acoustic you can use nylon and metal strings. Phosphor bronze strings are for the acoustic guitars and they are a gold coloured string.

Electric guitarists need the nickel strings - these are a sliver colour and the first four strings (EADG) are a wire wrapped around a central wire core . The last two (B and high E), are a plain single wire.

For me - as a beginner lead guitarist - I use a 9 gauge string. The 9 means the thinnest string (E) is 9 thousands of an inch thick (guitarist dont work in metric) . The 9's are thinner than a set of 10's where - you guessed it! - the thinnest string is 10 thousands of an inch thick. Being thinner the strings are easier to bend and allow the beginner to get the hang of techniques without having to strain too much.

The 10's are probably the most common choice for rhythm guitarists and 9's for lead guitarists, the 10's tend to be a bit stronger than the 9's so can take the constant strumming abuse.

Don't forget to change the strings all at once and after fitting each string, give them a gentle tug to pull them away from the guitar. This will help stretch them out before the final tuning. If you trim the ends to make them neat mind your fingers; the cut points are sharp.

And finally if, like me, you love your gadgets try the battery powered winder like an Ernie Ball Battery Powered String Winder. They are great for speeding up the string change.

You'll notice the new strings, without the dirt and acid from your fingers, sound 'brighter' and cleaner. The sound of a G chord on a set of new strings is a beautiful thing.