Savarez 520R Rectified Nylon High Tension Classical Guitar Strings.

First off, let me state my playing style before you continue to read this review. The reason for stating this is because everyone prefers a different style and the strings to go with the style will vary from player to player. I play traditional classical style, have been for a long time. That being said, I do not solely play classical music, I also transpose music from famous movies, and famous songs today, giving them a classical and elegant feel.Personally, I love my guitars to have a nice strong, crisp, clean base and bright yet mellow trebles that parallel the base. I recently saw these strings and the write up on the Savarez website about them, and decided to leave my comfort zone of the Red series and join the lovely sheen of blue that awaited me.Note: When rating harmonic quality at the end, I'm talking about natural harmonics, and artificial harmonics as a whole.Strings in no particular order:[4/5]Savarez Red: These have been my main string for a very long time. The bases have always been perfect, they do degrade very fast (depending on the frequency of play). Savarez is known for a very clean base, and rightfully so, I've never had a problem with their base strings, so on to the trebles. The trebles though have always had an awkward feel for me. Because of the thickness of the G string, on some guitars I own the intonation will be slightly off, I have perfect-relative pitch, and when I hear something off by a couple Hz I flip s***, but I have dealt with this for a very long time because ultimately, the only person who hears that intonation mistake is myself: when performing no one will hear it but me anyway. The other two trebles are very nice, however i consider them to be a bit loose and have sustain problems (the sustain problems present themselves after about 3 or 4 months, which is the time to replace strings anyway). The feel of the trebles are somewhat disappointing as well. They are glassed trebles, meaning they are not completely translucent nylons, they are "cloudy" per-say; the disappointing feel though is irrelevant. What ultimately matters is the tone produced from the strings, and the tone is extremely mellow. Very good for classical pieces, but for playing modern and contemporary, it's kind of awkward. It's like having a classically trained singer perform a maroon five song. But it will still work if performed correctly, 4/5 for those. Harmonics on these are a 4/5, not bright, but have good resonation.[3/5]D'Addario: I don't really use these that often, I definitely prefer Savarez over these. D'addario has fantastic all around strings, but they do not stand out to me in a specific point. These are what I call, "Default" strings. They give the user all around play ability. The bases of D'addario are not as crisp as Savarez, which is a sound one might prefer, but not me. And the trebles are very strong, and sustain very well. I cannot describe the strings for you all unfortunately, I do not have a pair on a guitar currently. But I can tell you that I have never had problem with intonation with these strings; they are simply good overall; even if the sound is a bit, for lack of a better word, blah. Harmonics on these are just as good as the Savarez red (at least for trebles), base harmonics are so-so, probably parallels the lack of crisp quality, so I give these a 3/5 for harmonics.[4/5]Oasis Carbons: I haven't really ever seen anyone talk about oasis carbons. They are a no name brand in that respect, I had to order them from another website because I couldn't find them on here. I was reading posts by Per-Olov Kindgren, and he mentioned once (in some comment, several years ago, under the radar, and covered in other posts) that he uses strings called Oasis Carbons. I have always looked up to that man as a guitarist, and figured he knew best, So i decided to try them out. Brightest. Most. Perfect. Trebles. Ever. Perfect sustain, perfect quality trebles. Harmonics were intense, and presented themselves to my ears like doves. AND THIS WAS RIGHT OUT OF THE PACKAGE. Didn't even need breaking in. Then the bases...eh. They were crisp, but, they lacked a certain, wub. They were sort of similar to D'addario bases, and for that, I can not give them a fantastic rating, the could have been a bit better. But the trebles, again, fantastic. I know what some of you are thinking now, "Why not split up strings, combine savarez base with trebles of carbons"? I am a firm believer of the process and artist of the designers. There is a reason that they made their bases sound that way for those trebles; perhaps they thought that trebles were meant to be superior, and bases a background sound. Or perhaps they have certain undertones that make the trebles sound fantastic. There is always a reason. Therefore, I will not combine the strings; to me it's like trying to shove Leonardo Da Vinci and Pablo Picasso together to make a piece of art. Two different styles, from two different centuries. It won't blend. Harmonics on this one are 3/5, missing the base harmonics, muddy.[4.5/5]Savarez Blue: I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas gift this year and grab these strings. On the savarez site, it was mentioned that they have a higher tension, paralleling the Reds (i prefer higher tension on my nylons) but also having a different sound that only Savarez Blue could supply. So I decided to pick these up. First thing I noticed that was significantly different was the size of the trebles, they are about 1/4 the size of the red trebles (gauge). I thought immediately (YES THE INTONATION WILL BE SUPERIOR) and gave a smile to which my dad made fun of me. The bases, again just like the savarez red, no point in even talking about them, same feel, just a little more gritty out of the package (different coiling technique by the factory i suppose?). Trebles were now completely translucent, just like the Oasis Carbons. But there was a problem with stringing them. Because they are so thin, and glossy, i couldn't tie them the traditional way with mere tension. I had to knot the top and the bottom so that they wouldn't snap and hit me in the face while tuning (i have a cut on my hand from that now, be wary). In fact, i had to knot the high e treble 3 times to prevent it from hitting me in the arm. When playing the trebles, right out of the box it was almost as if they were broken in, they were as flawless as the Oasis Carbons. The only thing keeping this from a 5/5, is the awkwardness of transition between base and treble, perhaps it will go away in another week or so, but this is an issue i have found with all nylons, but more noticeably in this one. When playing intricate pieces, you cannot play the lead on the base and shift to the trebles out of nowhere. It is almost like shifting from belting to a falsetto in mid chorus, doesn't always work. So the get around i have been doing for years is just to compose songs so the lead stays on either the base or trebles, or i will switch off depending on the location i'm at in the song. Harmonics on this are a solid 5/5. Pristine in every way, bright, vibrant, and elegant.I hope you can all withstand the rantings of a 17 year old, if it helps colour your views and appreciate where I'm coming from, I was raised on Jazz and classical music. I know quite a bit of music theory, and often break things down and analyze them vigorously. For a musical piece to be whole, each part must stand by themselves.Hope you all best in your future guitar endeavors, I wlil probably copy paste this to the other strings pages in which i mention these strings.~ Joe B.

My favorite of all time strings. What I love most is the rectified nylon texture of the treble strings. No other string has this and I think once you start you wont go back to a different type string. Just feels right. Besides the "R" card I like the "Yellow' as it's a tad thicker gauge. Since I detune a half step it does make a difference.

Easy to put these on guitar.

I had been using other strings, and they were good. But there is something about the feel and sound of these that is special. The trebles have a sort of rough feeling but they sound so good on my Yamaha...the wound strings sound great too. I'll have to see how they hold up, but if they continue to perform as well as they are now I may be a Savarez customer for life! :-)

Strings worked great. My husband loves them

I have used Savarez previously but I had been trying different strings for a few years. I decided to try Savarez again, and they are great! They will be in tune shortly after setup and will stay in tune. They sound great!

These strings are looser and lighter than D'Addario EJ45's are. They sound quite bright for high tension, but they don't hold a tune especially well, and they flap quite widely.Personally, I wouldn't call them high tension at all. This is an issue for me, because I have the action set fairly low on this guitar, and I'm getting a lot of buzz with anything but the gentlest attack. I don't mind a little buzz, especially during more vigorous, percussive parts, but this is too much.Someone who plays classical(instead of the Latin and rumba flamenca that I lean toward) might have their action set higher, and so they might appreciate the bright sound and relatively light gauge, but that's not what I was looking for when I purchased a high tension string set.

Since for as long as I've been playing nylon strings, this have been my favorite. I've tried others, and even other Savarez but these are still my favorite. of course they don't retain their tone as long as some other cheaper brands BUT, when in their prime this is best tone and feel for my money. must have for recording as well.

suono la chitarra da quando aveve 6 anni mo ho 60 e possso dire con tutta la serieta queste non sono di tensione normal forse medio alta si ma tutti coloro che cercano la bella morbidezza non e il commpleto per loro ho scritto anche su mail di asistenza loro savarez.fr senza risposta perche anche su loro sito ce una confusione totale sulla tensione vari colori vari numeri vedete che sul sito uff dicono che corde con pacchetto color rosso e la tensione normale invece sull stesso pachetto rosso ce scritto tensione hard alllra da impazire io dico che e una tensione alta a voi lascio giudizzio non mi ha piacuto servizio di asistenza

Una corda si è spezzata dopo 4 giorni

Très bonnes cordes, j’adore leur matière et la qualité sonore est au RDV. Je ne savais pas quoi prendre car je voulais un toucher plus rigide et j’ai trouvé ! C’est parfait !

Fait le job.

Un grand classique si je puis dire !!Je j ne en joue qu’avec celles-ci depuis mes 14 ans et j’en ai 35 !