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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Jul 18, 2022 10:12:39 GMT -7
Hey fellas, the last year or so I've gone back to ultra light strings, .008s...and my hand likes it. They sound generally good, but a few guitars tend to get fret rattle on the lower strings. So today I was getting my Duesenberg Joe Walsh ready for the week's gigs and I decided to try heavy wound strings with light tops. Voila! The fret rattle's gone, the guitar still plays like a dream, and my hands are happy. And it sounds terrific.
.008, .010, .015, .026, .036, .046 are the gauges, it's a great compromise. Try it, you might really dig it.
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Post by heynewguy (Ol’ Bill) on Jul 18, 2022 12:08:21 GMT -7
Cool! Dave, I use 10 to 52, which is a hybrid 10/11 set. I have them on most of my electric guitars. As always YMMV.
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Post by dcarver on Jul 18, 2022 12:27:25 GMT -7
My approach for the last couple years has been to use the heaviest gauge strings I can, and still be able to bend them comfortably. I've settled on String Joy custom signatures in 10-12-16-26-36-46. They sound great and last a long time. I just changed out a set on my strat that have been on there for 6 months. Granted, when I played them unplugged, they were pretty dull sounding compared to the new set I put on. But plugged into an amp, they were OK. They are kinda expensive, but a good US made product.
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Post by adam on Jul 18, 2022 16:12:06 GMT -7
Cool. I've always thought that with a standard 10 set that the high E takes more pressure to bend say a whole step compared to say the B and G and that it would make more sense if that string was a 9. Never tried it though. I did buy 10 single 9's about 10 years ago for this purpose, but somehow never got around to that. Thought 2 - I have one Les Paul with 11's that is sort of just right tuned down 1/2 step. I also have quite a bit of problem playing in tune (chords) on that guitar. I found tuning it to standard pitch that I could still get around on it ok and control the in-tune-ness of the instrument. That one has pretty slippery stainless frets, and I think that's part of the problem when tuned down, and also the reason I can still deal with it at standard pitch with the 11's. Thought 3 - my custom shop strat (and tele) have 6105 frets and they feel like railroad tracks to me going up and down the fingerboard. I recently realized that I can play much lighter and it works fine. But, my other 2 Strats have more normal sized strat frets and I'm just used to pushing the down quite a bit. Kind of like when I get that body shape in front of me I expect to play a certain way. That's my guess anyway. Thought 4 (here we go) - I think you can totally get away with large strings if you don't bend, and a lot of great players don't really bend strings at all. Take an acoustic with 13's as an example - yes, you can bend a string a whole step (hurts), but completely knocks the guitar out of tune and I don't care what you do to try and fix that. But you can pretty much get the same vibe by sliding your finger up and down 2 frets where the bend would be. Just a thought. In the end, it's just whatever works for you.
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Post by nmz on Jul 19, 2022 8:35:31 GMT -7
I use 10s on my Tele but semi-hallowbody and LPs all have 11s. I’ve tried down sizing but once the band gets a head of steam and the night rolls on I tend to dig harder into to the guitar. This is when I miss the larger gauge strings. Which starts distracting me.
Kind like having a Mesa mark V and thinking of all the possibilities of tone/gain shaping during a gig rather than concentrating on the song. I fixed that along time ago with a Ghia.
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Post by loucardguitar (Johnathan) on Jul 19, 2022 9:00:35 GMT -7
My approach for the last couple years has been to use the heaviest gauge strings I can, and still be able to bend them comfortably. I've settled on String Joy custom signatures in 10-12-16-26-36-46. They sound great and last a long time. I just changed out a set on my strat that have been on there for 6 months. Granted, when I played them unplugged, they were pretty dull sounding compared to the new set I put on. But plugged into an amp, they were OK. They are kinda expensive, but a good US made product. I've been using Stringjoy for a year or two now. I really like them. I use the Signatures Balanced 9.5 - 46 on my Fender Scale length guitars and the balanced 10-48 on my Gibson scale length guitars. I also like though that they make it very easy to build custom sets and order single strings. I always like to have a couple extras of each of the gauges that I use, on hand. That way I don't have to break up a new set if, on the very rare occasion, that a string breaks. Or if there might seem to be a defect in one of the strings, or if I happen to screw up a string when restringing the guitar. Ha! But yeah, they are more pricey than your standard, "big company" strings. But in my opinion, well worth it.
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Post by daddyelmis (Greg) on Jul 19, 2022 11:27:27 GMT -7
I played nothing but DR Lite n Heavy strings (9-46) on all the electrics for years. Then watched Rick Beato’s vid on string gauge
and decided to go back to super slinky’s (9-42) which is what I played for years before the DR’s. Love them and that’s now what I use on all the electrics, except the Epi Les Paul that is set up for slide (using GHS Nickel Rollerwounds 10-50 for that).
Where I find the bigger difference is on acoustics - lite vs medium makes a big tone difference to my ears.
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Post by LT on Jul 19, 2022 12:27:25 GMT -7
+ 1 on Super Slinky's. They're on all my electrics (used to be Regular Slinky's).
Glad you found a setup that works for you Dave!
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Post by spencer096 on Jul 20, 2022 6:14:19 GMT -7
Best strings on the planet. Dogal evolution flats 12-52.
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Post by daddyelmis (Greg) on Jul 20, 2022 6:24:00 GMT -7
Yikes! At $32 a set they should tune themselves. 😁
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Post by spencer096 on Jul 20, 2022 7:20:51 GMT -7
Yikes! At $32 a set they should tune themselves. 😁 lololol yea def seems steep but flats will last a solid year+…man the experience of these things is something tho
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Post by Mark "Snaily" on Aug 14, 2022 14:36:56 GMT -7
I made a change from 10’s about 1 year ago. My 64 year old hands really love Curt Mangan 9.5 pure nickel set, except I replace the 11.5 B string with a single 12. Which gives me 9.5, 12, 16, 24, 34, 44; very nicely balanced tension. Ernie ball makes a “Primo” 9.5 nickel wrap set with the 12 B string already there.
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Post by zpilot on Aug 16, 2022 2:31:37 GMT -7
The last few years that I used Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys I would swap the .046 6th string for a .050. It helped cure the rattle I got on that one string. I know I tend to really bang that string sometimes. I switched to a 10-46 D'Addario NYXL set about a year ago and don't have to swap that string anymore it seems.
Where custom gauges really work for me is on acoustic guitar. They don't have adjustable intonation but you can dial it in closer by changing a few strings. I bought an album many years ago by Norman Blake that on the back of the cover he mentioned his custom gauges he used on his Martin D-18 (which also was my acoustic choice at the time).
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