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String Gauges vs Tone


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Arthritis in my fret hand led me on the string chase. I had trouble with my pointer and middle finger not having enough strength to hold down the bass strings. I went from 10s to 9s to 8s and even tried Rev Willy's 7s.

I found that I could pretty much fix tone issues with knobs and boxes. But I didn't care for the feel of the 7s & 8s. They bend well but were so slinky I had trouble getting/keeping a clean note. I missed my 10s.

I ended up with a mixed set, 10, 13, 17, 26 from a 10/46 set and ,030 A and .038 E from a 8/38 set. While there is some loss of bass, I can adjust for that better than I could get a good bass tone with a string not pressed hard to the fret.

So it works for me. I don't play out anymore. And about the only one who hears what I play is my wife. So it may not be any improvement at all, but I can still fiddle around. 

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I've banged this drum before, but there's no one-size-fits-all rule for strings. I have strings that sound great on one guitar and meh on another. When I get a new guitar, I typically try out several sets of strings (brands, materials, gauges) to see what makes that guitar sing. I was on the fence about selling one guitar for a couple of years before finding a great string fit, and that guitar is a keeper (well so far, since about 1995). It helped to have the original "JustStrings.com" headquarters just a couple of miles from home, and the folks there (back when you could still just walk in) had great ideas about how to pair strings to showcase a particular guitar's strengths. 

It is really interesting to find out what strings suit a guitar. I've had a really cheap guitar that only liked expensive Thomastik Infeld strings, and a really expensive guitar that sounded best with plane-jane D'Addarios. My Vox guitars love Fender Bullets (nickel), even though they don't have trem bars. I have a Strat that sounds amazing with DR Pure Blues, but didn't bond with anything else. Weird thing was, that was still the case when I changed from the stock pickups to Fishman Fluence active pickups - it was a matching of the guitar with the strings, not the pickups.

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I thought the test was flawed for the reasons others have mentioned, i.e. they didn't vary playing styles or make any kind of allowances for difference styles and merely chugged out a few chords on an LP through an overdriven amp, not exactly a thorough cross section of what gets done with guitars & amps.  I thought they should at least have included an F scale guitar in the test too as they tend to inherently sound brighter than G scale instruments. 

I've found since returning to playing and being basically twice the age as last time around that my hands aren't as supple as they used to be and I wasn't blessed with long fingers so G scale guitars now suit me better, whereas I used to be happy playing either.  The test still left me with some food for thought though as I'd been using 9.5-44 on all my guitars whereas I'm now using 9.5-44 on the G scaled guitars and 9-42 on the F scale ones.  I've also just purchased a 25" scale instrument that I'll do an NGD on when it arrives.  when I was younger and had easy access to decent music shops I'd started putting together my own string sets consisting of the equivalent of the bottom 4 strings of a 9 set but then a 10 for top E and a 12 for the B, as I started noticing the top E in a 9 set sounding a tad anaemic.  This also had the unexpected benefit of there being less tuning variances on other strings on a Floyd equipped guitar as when you alter the pitch of one string it often alters the pitch of others in a floating trem situation which is why they're such a PITA when it's new string time and you have to spend some time to really get those new strings stretched in before any real tuning stability can be acheived, but this is the price exacted for having good tuning even after you've been a bit rambunctious with the whammy bar.  Having to make all my purchases by mail order meant I'd made the compromise of using 9.5-44 and I'd been happy enough with that but now I'm going to try some 9s on myG scale guitars and maybe 8s on the F ones just to see what's what to my current day ear. Last time I tried 8s it felt like I might have damaged those poor fragile things but whats good enough for the rev.Gibbons, really  should be good enough for me.

Maybe there's some HFCers out there who could do a more thorough test than the guys in this video using a more varied range of guitars and playing styles?

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47 minutes ago, RobB said:

Oh, god, please, no...

 

On 1/29/2020 at 4:37 PM, gtrdaddy said:

Ok, I think the solution is that Joe @Studio Custom should string up two guitars, one a 22 fret, and the other a 24 fret guitar, each with 9-42, 10-46 and 11-49 sets, record a half dozen or so licks with each string set on each guitar using the neck pickup over backing tracks, comparing two at a time,  the challenge being for us to determine which strings are being played, and try to determine if they being played on the 22 or 24 fret guitar.

:ph34r:

 

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I’ve settled with:

.009s on 24.75 scale

.010 half-rounds on my PowerJet

.0095s on 25.5 scale. 

There was a bit of an adjustment period going from .010s on everything. I still have to be conscious of not overdriving strings with heavy picking. 

Tone-wise? Sounds pretty similar to the heavier strings. 

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23 minutes ago, RobB said:

I still have to be conscious of not overdriving strings with heavy picking. 

Eric Johnson said you seem to be doing much  better with it. He unfortunately couldn't hear you last night over the roar coming from Kansas City & Miami.

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Well I know this must appear I've been slow on the uptake, mainly because I have but I hadn't been aware there's 3 new variations on Ernie Ball Super Slinkies I'm going to try out.  Either the Cobalt or the 'M-Steel' that are a bit brighter sounding and the pure-nickel wound that are warmer. Going to try the Cobalts & M-Steel on the archtop as the bottom end can be a bit mushy and going to try the pure nickel wound on my custom with the Pau Ferro neck which is a tad brighter than I'd have liked but feels amazing to play, never felt anything quite like that, oil-finished maple is a mile off so I don't have another reference point to use as a comparison other than 'bloody great'

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7 minutes ago, RobB said:

Chokeland will never scale those heights again. Not even a billion-dollar stadium can fix their current dysfunction. 

 

2 minutes ago, Mr. Dave said:

Well I know this must appear I've been slow on the uptake, mainly because I have but I hadn't been aware there's 3 new variations on Ernie Ball Super Slinkies I'm going to try out.  Either the Cobalt or the 'M-Steel' that are a bit brighter sounding and the pure-nickel wound that are warmer. Going to try the Cobalts & M-Steel on the archtop as the bottom end can be a bit mushy and going to try the pure nickel wound on my custom with the Pau Ferro neck which is a tad brighter than I'd have liked but feels amazing to play, never felt anything quite like that, oil-finished maple is a mile off so I don't have another reference point to use as a comparison other than 'bloody great'

Can't you see we're talking football here?

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On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2020 at 11:56 AM, BillW said:

" I'm trying to move to .0095s on everything, "

thats pretty much where I am now. My G&L ASAT feels a bit rubbery with them, but I'm getting used to them. Everything else feels just right. perfect cross between 9s and 10s.

"I do have to say I wish I discovered 9.5-44 strings years ago and thank God they are popular now, many choices!!"

I actually find the options fairly limited for these. Pretty much just D'Addario or EB. I guess PRS makes some? - but I'm not sure they're worth the price? anyone?

You are probably right about the limitations, but I have been playing D`Addario strings for a long time and love them. Hopefully more will carry 9.5-44`s!!

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