I was recently back in the UK and picked up some of my old guitars there, untouched for 15 years, still with strings from the 90's on them... expecting them to sound and play like total crap I noodled a few chords and my jaw hit the floor.
These are cheap guitars mind, cheap pickups, Epiphone, Mex Strat, Aria Pro 2 335 copy and the sound was detailed, articulate, rich, complex, the feel was amazing.
I checked and the strings are just D'Addarios in there (unless anyone else uses the same color coding on the balls), same as I use now. Yet my newer (and mroe expensive) instruments back in the US with their regularly changed strings sound just dull and lifeless in comparison.
What's going on? Have strings changed that much in 15 years?
Here's just a quick snippet from earlier when I was playing around with the SG finally getting that throaty sound from the Kemper that I've been trying to get for ages (TAF AC30 Clean+ profile with air chorus in X, but only recording the left channel, D tuning with A to experiment, neck pickup). The playing is just mindless random noodling but I'm just loving the tonality I'm getting. http://www.peranders.com/general/noodle140610a1.mp3