I have been using these strings for a while now. I have tried martin and many other brands of strings and none are as good as theses. They loose that shiny bronze look pretty fast but it doesnt effect the sound. If you keep them wiped down after each use they will stay shiny but I play to often to wipe after each use. Im hard on strings and play every day and they last me about 4 months. I do wipe them down about every two weeks with alcohol and that cleans and brings back the shiny look. Ive been playing for about 7 years and these are the best strings I've found so far. Not to dull not to clangy and bright. Just Right. Buy some and try them for yourself.

I have a 12 fret to the body and she is a bit hard on the hands, so I wanted to try diff. strings to see if I could get her to behave her self a little better. I must say the Ernie Ball silk & Steel strings did the trick. This is the best strig I have ever used on this very expensive guitar. I have been playing as a Pro for 30 years and I use a lot of guitars but for the little 12 fret this is the string for me. Good guitar playing comes slow, but God is patient.

They play very nicely, and no real volume loss. The tension on the neck is alot less. My necks are adjusted properly, though very low action... so these strings made the neck basically dead flat from a proper forward bow tension... since I really don't get buzz from them, I left it as is; and even lower action.

A down side "might" be that if you like to Bend your strings... you won't be able to do better than a 1/2 step... unless you really want to try an go for it. This is especially the case from the G string on up due to the gut/nylon core.

I highly recommend them, especially for folks who may get tender finger tips from playing many hours in a row like I do. And I do like the low end frequency these string emphasize.