Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)

“Ever since the very beginning of my recording career, the very early days of Opeth, I’ve been absolutely infatuated with Thomastik-Infeld strings.

I first came across them while I was working in a guitar shop in Stockholm in the early 90s. We were a general agent for a big acoustic guitar brand (CF Martin) and we also sold strings and guitar accessories. The owner gave me a pack of Thomastik-Infeld PLECTRUM^® strings to put on his old 1973 Martin HD-35 Dreadnought guitar as those were his strings of choice. I followed orders and put them on. As I was tuning up, I realized these strings sounded so much better than any of the other big brands that we carried in the store. They also proved to last longer and keep the brilliance in sound much longer than any other string I had ever tried.

Since then, and on every single Opeth album ever recorded, we have used Thomastik-Infeld strings in the studio. They’re hands down the best strings I know.

I’ve been a professional musician, constantly touring or recording, for around 2 decades now and, hand on heart, I don’t think I have ever approached a company off my own bat. They’ve always come to me, luckily.

Now, with Thomastik-Infeld, I actually wanted to work with them so much that I couldn’t wait to get going. It’s way out of my comfort zone to approach a possible endorsement company but I couldn’t help myself. Luckily, they took a liking to me and we’ve had a great relationship for many years now. I have their strings on every single guitar I own, which is a fair amount of guitars. Electric strings? Acoustic strings? Nylon strings? I use them all. I even put their nylon strings on a couple of old lutes I restored and they sound amazing now.

Go figure. Studio or live work, Thomastik-Infeld strings are the best sounding and most trustworthy strings out there. Thank you so much for your support and your incredible products.”