“I was changing my strings on the bed and I had all this garbage when I was done. My daughter said, ‘You should really do something about that’”: Why are D’Addario strings color-coded? CEO Jim D’Addario reveals the story behind the innovation

The surname D’Addario is, by now, inextricably linked to guitar strings. Among its many ventures and innovations is the system of color-coding strings, which D’Addario CEO Jim D’Addario reveals was inspired by an eco-conscious comment made by his daughter.

“In the early 1990s, a package of strings had an envelope for each of the six strings – a paper envelope for each one, identified for each note, in a vinyl pouch with a fancy label,” D’Addario tells Billboard. “So there was a minimum of eight pieces of packaging; sometimes there was a little advertisement as well.

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