Guitar String Gauges
 

What strings do you use? I'm planning to knock around on a shit Washburn acoustic and I want a deep, rich sound, so I'm assuming I should get a heavier string. Or maybe bass strings? Does anyone know what gauges SY have used over the years? I heard Ernie Ball is supposed to be a good brand.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/eq/gear.html

most of the guitars list the gauges they use. they usually use really heavy gauges.

Durr, silly me for not checking. Thanks.

You're not going to go all SY tribute artiste on me now, DC, are you?

No. But I want to try out different tones that they have utilized at one point or another and see what works for me and what doesn't. I am 100% unlearned on the guitar, at least I will be until I start playing regularly in a few days. My budget is small so I relish the idea of making something out of crap gear.

No probr. Kidding. Would love to hear what you come up with.

I just use light strings. 46-10.

I do lots of weird chords, but also traditional bar chords and lots of stuff that your hand would cramp on heavier strings. But also do some weird bending that is also lost on heavier strings.

It depends on what kind of guitar you use tho...

They tend to break on my les paul, but on my strat, they are perfect. I can abuse the hell out of em

for an acoustic I use extra light as well, usually .09-.10 but .12 standard I believe and its light enough. I used to use .22 (not on my acoustics) on my electric but my brother introduced me to the joys of light gauge and I never went back. I do miss the extreme heaviness to sound and resonance of such heavy strings, but it was deadly for my fingers, my hands were sliced up perpetually..

If you don't have a light hand but still want a versatile acoustic sound, go for some phosphorus Bronze acoustic specific .12 gauges, and if you need a bit heavier kind of sound for your acoustic, grab the .16 set..

I just discovered these, I am quite pleased with the result on my spurce wood guitar, it had a nice heavy resonance with a light, airy feel and lightning smooth action, good life too, perhaps a solid month of nice sound.

I actually used to swear by Ernie Balls on my electrics, then I switched to whatever was cheap for a while when I was gigging because if you change em every week or two, most brands are decent D'Addario, GHS, Dean Markley, for the electric they all do the job.

I also used to prefer electric strings for my acoustic, but then I discovered the resonating joy of specifically acoustic strings..

Geek thread, yeah!

I rarely go lower than 14 on my electric. It's absolute bollocks that you can't bend, and you get a much better response on left-right vibrato. The problem is that most people have bad left hand technique - too many people watching Hendrix's thumb barres and not noticing that he has hands the size of Belgium. If you've got your thumb properly behind the neck, you should be able to bend through three semitones with minimal problems.

I struggle to trust guitarists who use thinner gauges, to be honest. Learn to play, don't sacrifice tone. That's my motto.

Also, breaking strings means you have bad technique or a badly setup guitar. Unless you're twatting it with a drumstick, but that's a different matter.

I use thin strings and have a great guitar tone.

Amp and EQ settings are most important.

Good tone is also relative to taste.

Breaking strings just means you play hard.

I throw my guitar around quite a bit though.

I use 12 or 13 -sets on my electrics, but I also pretty much always tune down to BEADG(or F#)B or EEADGB. Thinner strings tend to get too slack, which kinda sound nice when played through lots of fuzz, but most of the time I can't be fucked to plug in my guitar.

I like the way Torche does it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc_A0F5vUKc

Amp/ EQ is important, certainly, but I really think that how you attack the string makes a massive difference. I play really fucking hard but I never break strings. Honestly, it's to do with how you attack a string. It's like drum cymbals - you can hit them really fucking hard, but there's ways of hitting them so you get a bigger sound for less stress on the surface. My guitar's been dragged around enough stages, over the years. It's a bit fucked, but not from string attack. Tone is definitely relative to taste, but thinner gauges will always sound tinny and crap, to my ear.

I don't care at all about my string gauge, it doesn't affect my playing at all nor do I notice a difference in my tone.

I use .11s, mainly because I like the feel of them. I broke .9s fairly often, and now they just seem like toy strings.

I actually like the crisper tone I get out of .9 setup, it is a bit refreshing after spending so many years in the dark realms of the .22 setup..

and I don't use the light gauge for the bending, its for the action, it is smooth as silk to run through scales and leads on light strings, and the chords just melt out your hands. but again, I used to use such heavy strings I might just appreciate the exaggerated effect.


I agree, I use .9 and I rarely if ever break a string, in fact I have to consciously remember to change em out often enough because I haven't broken them (accidents aside) in years..



You have to adjust the EQ settings accordingly, I use the light gauge for a lighter sound, particularly clean channel work, but I still naturally play the heavy stuff I used to use .22 for, and to keep the same dark tone I just adjust the EQ to match, and I get a satisfactory sound even with the light gauges. its as you said, a matter of taste.

Yeah I see what you're saying. Time helps too, figuring out what works.

I do lots of bar chords and strum everystring, I have a real primal kind of style, rather than a delicate jazz/or referring to classic rock george harrison style. Only guitarist in my band, so Im always playing.

Now I do lots of breaks where I just play the E, A, and sometimes D string...for droney kind of stuff.

But what kind of picking technique are u referring to, when hitting it hard but without 'really' hitting it hard?

Like when you downstroke, letting the pick kind of move with each string rather than holdin the pick stiff?


Just curious.

Good thread.

Also, I think you are correct to an extent about guitar set up, but different electric guitars HAVE to be set up a certain way, to bring out the best tone...or depending on how you like to play...

Like I got heavy strings once and it just seemed to stifle the tone on my strat. It's a good strat, an early 90s japanese paisley strat. I do lots of bending but dont use a whammy bar. So I keep the bridge loose so I can bend it with my hand, I just like grabbing the bridge or doing it with my wrist/palm of my hand while I pick...

When I tried heavy strings on it, it just sounded crappy, thinner more flexible strings sit perfectly...but maybe I would have had to re-adjust the bridge for the heavy strings?

I dunno, I took one year of guitar lessons when I was 15...that's the extent of my knowledge haha




Dick Dale sure loved super heavy strings tho...but I feel like my guitar tone is about the same as his...and he didnt even use a strat....

I think I just got lucky and got the best sounding strat ever.

No, but I tend to tune down a third (at least) to avoid strain on the bridge. There are guitars that can cope (my ex-) but not my current one. I have used thicker high strings and thinner low ones in the past, but I don't really see the point now - if I'm solo, it's not a problem; if I'm not solo, it'll be improvised, and I'm fine with transposing on the hop.

Welcome, by the way.

Hendrix used light gauge 10 - 38s.

Although, those Fender strings he used had the tension of regular 10 - 46s.

Thanks for all the recommendations/discussion! I need to go and actually read all of this.

Yes, but, Hendrix was SHITE.

[Joking. A bit. Well, not really, but I can't be bothered to argue about why I don't like Hendrix again]

I play a crap Fender knock-off. Uh... I'll accept that people don't necessarily need/ want .14s, but I do think that heading towards the thinner range is covering up bad technique a lot of the time. IMO and all that.

I know, I know. I just can't stand him. It's just a thing I have. None of it makes sense to me - I mean, it makes sense that I don't like him - it's just everyone else liking him that doesn't make sense to me. I'm sure he was a nice enough chap though. Although he did leave his dog behind, according to something I once saw.

It's a japanese Fender paisley strat. pink.

I use a fender bassman reissue, the gold tweed ones.

I usually use those mid range yellow picks, pretty thick. I hate flimsy ones but I also hate really hard ones.

Then I use a digitech bad monkey overdrive (green pedal), Boss Fender 63 spring reverb pedal (brown), Ibanez AD9 analog delay (pink) and a Berringer VD400 (grey, cheap little plastic pedal for $30, best one in my rig).

If I ever break a string (rare) on my fender I have a gibson les paul, studio custom. Someone put EMGs in it, zack wylde ones, so distortion sounds kinda over the top, BUT, when its clean it sounds SO good and raw, especially thru the bassman.

Jimi hendrix's soloing doesnt do it for me, BUt, I love the chords he played on some songs, adding little riffs in between. Some weird unique stuff, and the noise on Machine Gun was pretty rad for it's time.

I like the guitarist for the Monks as well, who was using feedback and wah before hendrix and actually inspired hendrix. They were so fucking raw.


That said, I like George Harrison better than Hendrix. Seriously, his guitar riffs in early beatles songs made up for their lyrics. Latter half of beatles career he got kinda wanky, but in the early days when he'd hold back and just put as much as he could into a short solo or riff, it was awesome.

His solos were pretty classical in nature, and in the medium of rock back then, ahead of its time too.

The harmonic thing he and paul do together on "Your bird can sing" is brilliant.

But really, surf rock solos are my favorite ever.

This song by The Jokers has some rad shit in it for the early 60s...

remeniscent of thurston shit, behind the bridge playing etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-21l...eature=related

^^Yeah for sure, I'm not even sure I know what modal's are either...

do you have any video link examples? I bet I do it in my stuff sometimes because I def am inspired by his style.

Welcome to the board dude

For acoustic in particular I’d recommend trying to build up to a medium set (.013-.056) - they sound SO much better than light gauge strings! Once you are used to them it’s not much harder on your fingers. I say the same for electric although w amps and pedals there are many more variables and maybe it’s s bit less critical. I like my strings on most all gtrs to be quite heavy.

Anyone who says they can’t hear the difference is either not listening or simple unconcerned w such things, which is fine too.

Regards, seasons greetings etc
—L