What strings does Rodrigo y Gabriela play? The D'Addario nylon set behind two decades of thrash-flamenco

Rodrigo y Gabriela just announced OurHome, their most acoustic record in years. Here is the nylon string behind two decades of thrash metal played on classical guitars, why it is normal tension and not hard, and what to buy if you want to feel it yourself.

By Segovia, Classical and nylon desk · Edited by Cadence · 2026-07-01

Rodrigo y Gabriela string their nylon guitars with D'Addario EJ45 Pro-Arte, Normal Tension, a silver-plated-copper-wound set with clear nylon trebles. Sanchez and Quintero each play custom Yamaha nylon-string guitars built on the NX and NTX platforms, fitted with LR Baggs Element pickups. Normal tension is D'Addario's best-selling classical option, balanced between the comfort a fingerstyle player needs and the projection their percussive, thrash-flamenco attack demands.

The short answer, and the news that prompted it

Rodrigo y Gabriela announced their new album this week. OurHome, out September 18 on ATO Records, was recorded in Tokyo and self-produced by Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero, and it marks a return to acoustic instrumentation after 2023's more electric-leaning In Between Thoughts...A New World (Premier Guitar). The album features former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman, jazz pianist Hiromi, and a first single, "Monster," built around a music video from manga legend Naoki Urasawa. It is the best excuse this desk has had in a while to answer the question every fan of the duo eventually asks: what do Rodrigo y Gabriela actually play?

The answer is documented, and it has held steady for years. Both players string their nylon guitars with D'Addario EJ45 Pro-Arte, Normal Tension (Premier Guitar), D'Addario's best-selling classical set. The honest caveat comes first: that string will not teach you their technique. Rodrigo y Gabriela built a two-decade career turning nylon-string guitars into a full rhythm section, tapping, slapping, and strumming the body percussively while fingerpicking a melody on top. The set below gets you their tone. The rest is a lifetime of practice.

The strings: D'Addario Pro-Arte Nylon, Normal Tension

Start with the material, because nylon strings are not sized the way steel strings are. A steel set is specified by gauge, in thousandths of an inch. A classical nylon set is specified by tension, a rating for how hard the string pulls back against your fingers when it is brought up to pitch. D'Addario's Pro-Arte Nylon line ships in four tensions: Extra Hard and Hard for maximum volume and projection, Normal for the classical default, and Light for a gentler feel. Rodrigo y Gabriela play D'Addario EJ45 Pro-Arte Nylon, Normal Tension, D'Addario's own best-selling classical tension.

Construction matters as much as tension. The EJ45's three wound basses are silver-plated copper wrapped over a multi-filament nylon core, round wound, tuned for a warm, responsive low end. The three trebles are clear nylon monofilament, the source of nylon's sweeter, mellower top end next to a steel string's brighter overtones. It is the same basic construction used across most modern classical strings, D'Addario's own product page calls Pro-Arte Nylon the set that "has come to define classical guitar," and it is why a duo built around aggressive technique still reaches for the standard tension rather than a specialty set. Our full review of the set has the complete spec and tension breakdown.

The guitars: two custom Yamahas built for a genre that did not exist yet

Neither half of the duo plays a guitar you can order from a catalog. Rodrigo Sanchez's main instruments are custom-built Yamahas based on the company's NX series, now in their sixth and seventh generation of prototypes, with nato wood (sometimes called eastern mahogany) back and sides, spruce tops, and rosewood fingerboards. He replaced the stock undersaddle pickup with an LR Baggs Element Active system and runs the guitar in stereo, one channel for the undersaddle signal and a second boosting piezo pickups placed inside the body specifically so he can play the guitar like a hand drum mid-song (Premier Guitar).

Gabriela Quintero's two touring guitars are Yamaha prototypes built on the NTX platform, also nato back and sides with spruce tops, and she has settled on the same LR Baggs Element for her undersaddle signal. Her guitars go further still: five custom Yamaha piezo pickups are mounted directly onto the soundboard in different positions, plus another piezo under the fingerboard and a small microphone inside the body, all feeding a three-channel onboard preamp. That is a lot of engineering for one instrument, and it exists for a single reason: Quintero's rhythm parts function as a full drum kit, and the guitar has to reproduce every tap and slap at stage volume, not just the notes.

Both players are vegan, which is a small detail with a real consequence for their setup: no leather straps anywhere in the rig. It is the kind of documented, specific fact that separates a sourced gear breakdown from a guess, and it is exactly the standard this desk holds every artist page to.

Why normal tension fits a percussive, two-handed style

It would be reasonable to assume a duo known for slapping and tapping their guitars like cajons would reach for the highest-tension strings D'Addario makes, more tension usually means more volume. They do not. Normal tension is a deliberate middle path: enough string tension to project through a show built on aggressive right-hand and body-percussion technique, without the added strain that Extra Hard tension puts on the fretting hand across a two-hour set played almost entirely without a pick.

That trade-off is the same one every classical or flamenco player has to make, just turned up. A harder tension string rewards volume and attack at the cost of finger fatigue and a stiffer feel; a lighter tension is gentler on the hands but gives up projection. Rodrigo y Gabriela's choice, the classical default rather than a specialty upgrade, says as much about their technique as any gear list could: the volume and percussive snap in their sound comes from how hard they hit the guitar, not from a heavier string doing the work for them. If you are building your own nylon setup and want the fuller technical picture, our guide to nylon and classical guitar strings covers tension choice, string life, and how nylon compares to steel.

The buyable path

Strip the story to what you can actually buy today, and it is short: a solid nylon-string classical guitar and a set of D'Addario EJ45 Pro-Arte, Normal Tension, the set panel on this page has the current buy link.

You will not walk away sounding like Rodrigo y Gabriela. Their two-handed, percussive vocabulary, treating a classical guitar as a full rhythm section rather than a melody instrument, took two decades to build and is closer to a drummer's technique transplanted onto six nylon strings than anything a string set can replicate. What the EJ45 gets you is the honest starting material: the same warm, silver-plated-copper-over-nylon voice they have played on every record since they started, on whatever nylon guitar you already own. If you are coming from steel strings and are not sure the switch is worth it, our warm versus bright strings guide walks the tonal trade before you buy, and how to change classical guitar strings covers the tie-block knots that trip up every steel-string player on their first restring.

Today's full briefingToday in guitar, July 1 Nylon versus steel, the full tradeNylon and classical guitar strings explained Tone spectrumWarm vs bright guitar strings First restringHow to change classical guitar strings Another five-decade nylon-adjacent rigKeith Richards' five-string open G setup

Frequently asked questions

What strings does Rodrigo y Gabriela play?

D'Addario EJ45 Pro-Arte Nylon Classical, Normal Tension. It is a set built from silver-plated copper basses wound over a multi-filament nylon core, paired with clear nylon trebles, and it is D'Addario's best-selling tension for classical guitar. Premier Guitar's rig rundown documents both Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero on the same set.

What guitars do Rodrigo y Gabriela play?

Custom-built Yamahas. Sanchez plays guitars based on Yamaha's NX series, now in their sixth and seventh iterations, with nato wood back and sides, spruce tops, and rosewood fingerboards. Quintero plays two Yamaha prototypes built on the NTX platform, also nato back and sides with spruce tops. Neither is a guitar you can buy off the shelf; both are one-off collaborations with Yamaha built around the duo's percussive playing style.

Why do they use normal tension instead of hard tension?

Tension is about feel and volume, not a fixed gauge in inches: a higher-tension string pulls back harder against your fingers at pitch and puts out more sound, a lower-tension string is easier to fret and bend. Rodrigo y Gabriela's two-handed, percussive attack, tapping and slapping the body and strings like a cajon, needs real projection, but Normal Tension gets them there without the added strain hard tension puts on the fretting hand across a full concert.

What is D'Addario's Pro-Arte Nylon Classical string actually made of?

The basses are silver-plated copper wound over a multi-filament nylon core, round wound, which D'Addario builds for a warm, responsive low end. The trebles are clear nylon monofilament. That combination, wound bass over nylon core plus plain nylon trebles, is the standard construction for modern classical guitar strings, and it is what gives nylon its rounder, mellower voice next to steel.

Do Rodrigo y Gabriela use picks?

Mostly fingerstyle, but not exclusively. Premier Guitar's rig rundown documents Sanchez reaching for a Jim Dunlop 47R3S Nylon Jazz pick on his main nylon guitar whenever he isn't fingerpicking, plus a separate Jim Dunlop 44R1.0 Nylon pick for the electric guitars he has added to the live set since 2020. Quintero plays her nylon guitars fingerstyle only, no pick, per the same rundown.

What pickup system do they use for their percussive playing style?

Both play LR Baggs Element systems under the saddle, but the more interesting engineering is Quintero's guitars, which add five custom Yamaha piezo pickups mounted directly on the soundboard plus an internal microphone, all run through a dedicated preamp on separate channels. That is what lets the body-percussion half of their technique, the taps and slaps that function like a drum kit, come through live at the same level as the notes.

Can I get their sound on a regular classical guitar?

You can get their string tone. Their custom Yamahas are one-off collaborations, but the D'Addario EJ45 Normal Tension set on any solid nylon-string classical guitar gets you the same silver-plated-copper-over-nylon voice. What you will not get without practice is the two-handed, percussive technique itself, tapping, slapping, and fingerstyle picking in the same phrase, which is closer to a drum vocabulary transplanted onto a classical guitar than anything strings alone can produce.