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Years back, I went to the trouble of finding a respectable string maker because I was dealing Dupont guitars and wanted the owners of these guitars to have the best string available. Because importing strings from France was such a problem (and so expensive!), and because the quality of Argentines was then so sketchy as well, I searched for a substitute. Several other European brands really fell short. And as everyone knows, silk-and-steel are completely wrong for these guitars. Fortunately, when I discovered Francisco González, the search ended. Handmade (originally) in Goleta, California, his strings proved brilliant and durable - indeed the superior strings for Selmer-style guitars. Guadalupe Custom Strings also makes the Greens, a gauge which no one else makes, as well as low seventh strings and so on. In December 2004, Francisco sold Guadalupe Custom Strings to Margie Hernandez, who moved the business to East LA. Then she passed it on to her son Jacob and to Gabriel Tenorio and José Becerra, who now run the business. Here's their current contact information: Guadalupe Custom Strings  Francisco González, musician, string guru So
contact Guadalupe direct to order (I do not
sell these or any other strings). They're pricey, but
of extremely high quality. Understand too that they
also (primarily) make strings for the Latin musical
world: guitarrón, vihuela, (look on Amazon), classical
guitar, all types of harps, requinto, and on into
ukuleles and so on. Manouche-Tone guitar strings are
only a small part of their unusual output.
The colors refer to the silk wrap by the loop Purples (Violettes) - 10 14 23 28
36 44 - extra-light
(extra-légère) What are the real differences between these sets of strings?
The
traditional strings used on Selmer guitars are
Argentines, made by Savarez of Lyon, France. Contrary
to popular folklore, they are not
silk-and-steel. Indeed there is no silk or fiber in
their composition at all. They are a pure copper wrap
which has been silver-plated, then wound on a steel
core. *
Savarez Argentine actual gauges: Purples
(Violettes) - 10 14 21 27 34 42
Reds (Rouges) - 11 15 22 28 36 44
Best—and prettiest—uke strings on earth:  Do
I
recommend anything else? Yes: D'Addario
and GHS
both make very good silver-plated
copperwound strings. I like them better than
Argentines, certainly better than Galli or
Newtone. Nuages (are they still around?) tend to
break too easily.
 But support your local music store first!
Drop me a line
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Purples and Reds are somewhat
equivalent to Savarez Argentines*. Please note, in
case you're checking, that the actual gauges of
Savarez Argentine wound strings are not
quite the gauges that are printed on their string
package. And Manouche-Tones have changed since the
early days.