Daddario NBM11540 Nickel Bronze also discontinued

**Drew Egerton** · Nov-20-2023, 11:06am

It appears my favorite strings have also been discontinued, D'addario NBM11540 Nickel Bronze. This is the 11.5/16/26/40 set.
I contacted my favorite strings source (Strings and Beyond) and they couldn't confirm they were officially discontinued, but they cannot get any and it is no longer listed on the D'addario site.

The standard gauge 11/15/26/40 set seems to still be available, at least for now. I do love those heavier high strings though...

**Lucas** · Nov-20-2023, 12:13pm

I just put on a set of those strings last week because I ran out of my favorite set of phosphor bronze strings from Straight Up Strings. I bought them a couple of years ago and had forgotten about them. Having tried nickel bronze now, I much prefer PB. To me the tone of NB is bolder than PB, whereas PB is warmer, which is my personal preference.

Anyway, I hope you find a suitable substitute from a different manufacturer.

**Rick Jones** · Nov-20-2023, 12:17pm

The only encouraging thing is that the single strings should hopefully still be available if you wanted to swap out the .015s and .011s in a regular set. Strings and Beyond lists a whole array of single strings. Still a pain, though, and adds $6 to the price of a set of strings. Not to mention all the leftovers. Seems like the mandolin players always take it on the chin with the arbitrary "business decisions."

**Drew Egerton** · Nov-20-2023, 4:01pm

Originally Posted by Lucas

I just put on a set of those strings last week because I ran out of my favorite set of phosphor bronze strings from Straight Up Strings. I bought them a couple of years ago and had forgotten about them. Having tried nickel bronze now, I much prefer PB. To me the tone of NB is bolder than PB, whereas PB is warmer, which is my personal preference.

Anyway, I hope you find a suitable substitute from a different manufacturer.

I just really can't use PB strings for some reason. My skin chemistry turns them green and creates a nasty corrosion in a pretty short amount of time. NB and monels seemed to be the solution and I liked the tone pretty well also.

**pops1** · Nov-20-2023, 4:56pm

GHS makes a Pure Nickel string set in a couple of gauges. 10.5-39 and 11-41 if I remember correctly.

**James Vwaal** · Nov-20-2023, 5:15pm

Originally Posted by Drew Egerton

It appears my favorite strings have also been discontinued, D'addario NBM11540 Nickel Bronze. This is the 11.5/16/26/40 set.
I contacted my favorite strings source (Strings and Beyond) and they couldn't confirm they were officially discontinued, but they cannot get any and it is no longer listed on the D'addario site.

The standard gauge 11/15/26/40 set seems to still be available, at least for now. I do love those heavier high strings though...

This was my favorite set also. D'Addario called it the "Custom Medium" set (11.5/40). I see that there are still "Medium Heavy" sets available (NBM11541), and they go 11.5 down to 41. The difference between 40 and 41 is probably immaterial to me, but that extra 0.005" (11.5 instead of 11) seemed to make a big difference on that high E.

Thanks for the head's up.

**James Vwaal** · Nov-20-2023, 5:18pm

Originally Posted by Drew Egerton

I just really can't use PB strings for some reason. My skin chemistry turns them green and creates a nasty corrosion in a pretty short amount of time. NB and monels seemed to be the solution and I liked the tone pretty well also.

Yeah, I used phosphor bronze for several years and never liked them. They went dead fast and corroded fairly easily. Those nickel-bronze D'Addario were a breath of fresh air and I bought them in packs of 10. Used to change out every 8 to 10 weeks not because I needed to, but because I could. Now with the supply becoming possibly limited, I am going to have to use each set longer.

**Drew Egerton** · Nov-21-2023, 8:53am

Originally Posted by James Vwaal

This was my favorite set also. D'Addario called it the "Custom Medium" set (11.5/40). I see that there are still "Medium Heavy" sets available (NBM11541), and they go 11.5 down to 41. The difference between 40 and 41 is probably immaterial to me, but that extra 0.005" (11.5 instead of 11) seemed to make a big difference on that high E.

Thanks for the head's up.

It's been a long time since I tried a full "J75" gauge set. I'm going to order 4 (so I get the free shipping. Strings and Beyond is also running a 15% off Black Friday deal right now, NFI) and give them a try. Who knows if they are on the chopping block as well?