I bought a few different brands to find which ones sounded best on my "new" banjo. I just took the Newtones off and replaced them with Vegas. Before the Newtones I had tried the Gibson Earl Scruggs (my least favourite, sounded dead from the get go, maybe a bad set) Dean Markleys, and one other that I can't remember right now. I have a set of D'Addarios to try after the Vegas. I didn't think that different brands would make much difference, but there is no doubt that the Newtones sounded better. They were also the longest lasting of any I've tried. All of the strings that I tried were roughly the same gauge.

Unless the D'Addarios really do something for me it's nothing but Newtones for me from now on. Rick Fielding has played my banjo twice. The last time he commented that it sounded much better than the first time. I had tighthened the head and adjusted the action a bit since the first time he tried it, but I believe the main difference was that the second time it had the Newtones on. ris