Home Forums Software and Equipment Post your string gauge?

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    • #14642
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      Changing strings today!
      Previously I had these :

      0.10 0.013 0.017 0.028w 0.038w 0.048w

      for headless use these were special double-ball strings. I ran out of those and they are hard to buy (strangely). Probably changed them 3 months ago.

      Now I’m putting on a set of:
      10 13 17 26 36 46

      Here’s my string changing song.

      when you're bunk and feeling blue 
      change your strings your guitar will thank you
      play a song in fresh bright sound 
      djent that neck into the ground
      
      

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14643
      Sean
      Participant

      When learning about different players Stevie Ray Vaughan comes up. Where he played 14’s, as Jack Pearson said about playing Stevie’s guitar ” it was like telephone pole wire” But I have strong hands so that is where I started my quest. Well this big guy 6′ 1″ 307 lbs quickly dropped down and down and down and down. I love Ernie Ball 8-38 extra slinking nickel wound. Went back up to 9’s but said NOPE give me the 8’s.

      Tell me and I will forget ,show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand

    • #14644
      Igglepud
      Participant

      Whatever a Strat and a Schecter come with. My acoustic has “light” strings. I don’t know specific numbers. I should change strings more than “when they break.” The Strat is 4 years old…

      MY ROCK IS FIERCE!!!

    • #14645
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      When I took off my old ones I noticed at least one of the wound ones (I think it was the D) had shiny wear marks on the underside of the string, basically at every fret position. Must be from bending. The wear was not visible from looking at the string normally (from the top side). My previous set that I changed several months ago, I noticed funky little dings in the wound E because I was playing power chords way way too hard on one song, they even started to sound ‘off’ (like strange harmonics). Only when I took them off did I notice the string damage, laying on the floor they looked like they were bent in zig zag shape.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14647
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Here are my main sets:

      .014 to .055 – Thomastik GB114

      and

      .010 to .046 – Fender

      Just a quick note about the 14s. They’re smooth as silk; they don’t pose any threat to my hands (and I developed arthritis some years ago) and, what’s the absolute top about this type of gauges, is that I can pick freely and hard, and feel the strings really respond and talk back. The attack you can develop with of these strings is amazing. Of course, this only happens if you have an adequate guitar for this gauge. A Telecaster will fold over time (been there) but a proper archtop will take them gladly. My Ibanez AS153 has a super low action with the .014s and it’s easy to play. But you’d have to feel it to believe it 😉

      The Fender’s I got into them recently, much because of this forum as I wanted a proper rock set. But with the passing time I ended up installing these on a lot of guitars. Will try to find the proper reference… but what they have that I love is that I don’t think about them. Whether it’s a set of strings or a guitar or an amp, if I don’t need to think about them, I know I have a winner. I love gear that stands out of the way. That allow me to just plug and play. Some stuff is always calling for your attention, like a pedal that has a hard button to push, an unbalanced guitar that tends to dive, an amp that has a little hiss… a set of strings that has a tiny G or B. So that’s what counts for me in the end. It’s not the sound and even less the brand. If a certain piece of gear is able to keep a low profile then I’ll love to find how I can achieve the best sound with it, but that always comes second 🙂

    • #14651
      rightonthemark
      Participant

      exl120

      rock and roll ain't pretty; that's why they picked us to play it.

      Attachments:
      1. exl120.jpg

    • #14669
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      this is gonna sound whacky, but I think my new strings smell bad.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14670
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      this is gonna sound whacky, but I think my new strings smell bad.

      …my halfrounds feel wet 🙂

       

    • #14684
      MotleyCrue81
      Participant

      I love they feeling of slippery strings, like right when you put on a fresh set. I love 9’s. They give great sounding punches and I can really bend the crap out of them and have a lot of freedom because they’re thinner. When I was beginning and knew nothing about strings, I was using 11’s tuned to E standard. It definitely made my fingers tough. In hindsight, I think it was good that I had thicker strings (even though I didn’t know it!) because it really breaks in your hand and helps build up the finger strength needed for guitar.

      Bring hair metal back!

    • #14685
      AlleyCatRocker1980s
      Participant

      Thanks Sb for posting this, on String Gauge I just love this kind of stuff 🙂

      For the most part I use 10’s on my Electrics, &  .011 on my Acoustic both Extra Lights …I think I mentioned this on another Post.

      But all in all, it seems people change Strings pretty much all the time. Trying out new things to find a better fit.

      I like this Post Sb, because we are now into 2016 an it’s interesting to find out what people are now using on their Guitars

      concerning Strings 🙂

      I think the most important thing to remember about Strings, is to start out with Light Strings if a person is a Beginner.

      An to have a Guitar Tech, do a proper Height Adjustment…aka String Height in conjunction to the Neck.

      In price range a person should buy what they can afford, when purchasing Guitar Strings say like DR, or DAddario.. as an example

      when they are just starting out as beginners. There are some pretty affordable, Strings out there on the Market not just the two I

      mentioned above! So take the time to invest,on someone that knows Strings!  Better yet check it out on the YouTube…the choice is yours 🙂

      If lot of you go to Guitar Center, they have good deals on Strings say like around Christmas..an at various times of the year.

      Say for instance Guitar Center, will have a good deal say like 10 pks of Strings for a cool price for a limited time on Christmas!

      To be honest with everyone, I don’t do a lot of Buisness any more though with Guitar Center! I try to still find a Mom,& Pop Music Store.

      An I give them a lot of my Buisness, when Finances are good. I totally miss the Mom,& Pop, Music Stores…I feel they can use my Buisness more!

      I’ll have the older Music Stores, order the Strings for me if they don’t have my Gauge in stock. I can tell you first hand, that a lot of these older

      Music Stores just love a persons Business, they go out of their way to be really nice..An to me they really appreciate your Business!

      When buying Strings from them, they even throw in a few free Picks as well..

      By what I can see The Guitar Centers, are doing quite well!  They won’t miss my Patronidge every now an then….:)

      Practicing Guitar

    • #14686
      Will Flaherty
      Participant

      Depends on which guitar and tuning. I think I have 14 or 15 guitars now. Usually, 9-42 for standard or drop D. My custom Phat Guitars Strat is the exception with 10-46 for standard. 10-46 for Eb and drop Db, 11-52 for D standard and drop C. 7 string is a 26.5″ scale, so 9-42 and a .64 for the low B and drop A string. Acoustic/Electric is strung with 10-52, I think.

      • #14688
        AlleyCatRocker1980s
        Participant

        Very True Will,

        You just reminded me that maby, somewhere down the line I need to purchase another Guitar for Drop D Tuning as well.

        An to use that mainly for Drop D    Good Point!

        It’s great to see you, I hope your doing Greatly 🙂

        Joe

        Practicing Guitar

    • #14694
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Depends on which guitar and tuning. I think I have 14 or 15 guitars now. Usually, 9-42 for standard or drop D. My custom Phat Guitars Strat is the exception with 10-46 for standard. 10-46 for Eb and drop Db, 11-52 for D standard and drop C. 7 string is a 26.5″ scale, so 9-42 and a .64 for the low B and drop A string. Acoustic/Electric is strung with 10-52, I think.

      With proper setup there’s really no stress whatever gauge you play – unless, of course, you want to do bends. In that case, above 10s it gets hard, and the strings just don’t behave as you’d want. Probably tapping gets harder, don’t know. But for solo or chord work if the guitar has low action you can play whatever the gauge. As I said I have 14s on my main axe. And there are some jazz guys, not many, that go up to 16s, 17s, 18s….. and there was this NYC rock band that played 17s regularly, too… can’t remember their name right now.

       

    • #14700
      Will Flaherty
      Participant

      I picked my string gauges based on keeping the tension relatively the same as a 9-42 set in standard tuning on a 25.5″ scale guitar. I don’t like to fight the strings anymore than I have to already. Lol.

    • #14724
      Stu g
      Participant

      I use Dadd 11/49, i like the extra tension, hides my sloppy playing, if i fret a note i’m hearing that note, its not easy to accidentally pull a note off pitch and chords sound full and resonant and i know how far a whole tone bend is ( till it wont go any further usually 🙂  )  in the original post you said it was hard to find a 10/48 set, i was looking for this gauge as well some time back and found GHS Thick Core Boomers have this gauge, i tried them but have since switched to the Dadd ones, sometimes i use the 10.5/48 set on the strat scale length guitars but they don’t come in 10packs.

    • #21223
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I’ve just removed my experiment with heavy strings, they were nuts, had them on for a couple weeks and could not take it..

      13 17 26w 36 46 62

      Had to try it but wont do it again anytime soon.. trying to bend the D string, or any string in fact, more than half step felt like I was going to break my arm.

      Anyone experiment with heavy strings? Yikes.

      Back to my previous set (I can swap back cause of headless 😀 I’ll buy a fresh set later),

      10 13 17 28w 38w 48w
      which are my double-ball strings special for headless.

      I keep forgetting to mention the scale length of my guitar is in fact, 28.5″ (its built for D tuning as default) Since Will also mentioned scale length previously.

      My habit is to test my guitar strings by playing the Stage 3 solo 😀
      Somehow I always remember the melody, I wonder why that would be, ha. (from crazy amounts of practice? ;-D )

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #21224
      safetyblitz
      Participant

      9-42 tuned to Eb (on scale length 25.5″). I tuned to E for years and finally started tuning to Eb a couple of years ago. Makes lead playing a thousand times easier. Not an accident that so many guys in the 80s did this.

      • #21225
        rightonthemark
        Participant

        in some cases bands did this to accommodate the singer.

        rock and roll ain't pretty; that's why they picked us to play it.

      • #21226
        superblonde
        Keymaster

        I got in a huge argument with my previous amateur drummer (insert eye roll here) about why we needed to tune to Eb “because Kurt Cobain sang it that way” and she insisted it was unnecessary, “just do it one half step higher, what’s the big deal???” she knew nothing about vocals or guitar tho.. male voices supposedly anatomically (?) have the break right at D4/Eb, not sure if that is related to the choice or not, tuning down would avoid having to sing on or cross the break. I have always wondered about Eb tuning – if it really was for the singer – or as commonly said, “it sounds more moody” (not sure I buy that either because pitch is all relative once the song starts right?). So this tuning down is kind of a mystery to me..

        I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
        And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

      • #21227
        safetyblitz
        Participant

        I can’t speak to the singing aspect, but the slight reduction in string tension allows you to fret notes with a lot less force, which makes pretty much all left hand work easier. Bends have to travel slightly farther to get the same pitch change, but they offer less resistance in the early part of the bend, so it’s easier to “dig in” to the bend.

      • #21228
        rightonthemark
        Participant

        Eb tuning i found in certain cases seemed to be songs played with an open E or open A. think van halen you really got me. played in A but tuned half step down. just an assumption on my part but figured it was because dave didn’t have the voice to sing just a half step higher.
        even shine by collective soul is in drop D and tuned a half step down to Db.
        my band did it in D rather than Db because we didn’t down tune for anything. just stayed standard. singing on shine was a little tougher but i got used to it.
        my current bass player/singer sings everything in standard tuning despite some of the songs we do being tuned a half step down.
        i’ve encountered singers who can’t make the adjustment.
        one of my early bands tuned down to accommodate the singer.

        rock and roll ain't pretty; that's why they picked us to play it.

    • #21237
      Byron
      Participant

      Ernie Ball Power Slinkies. (.011)  I keep toying with the idea of going heavier. I have no problems at all bending them and only tune 1/2 step down to make it easier on the vocalist. Otherwise, I’d prefer to stay at concert pitch.

    • #26229
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      Time for new strings.

      I moved my stainless strings to my squire and they sound great there. Before, that guitar sounded pretty tinny and thin, now it sounds so much better. Stainless is maybe the best way to go for passive pickups?

      I’m gonna order a new pack of MAB strings for my EMG pickup guitars. A set of those seemed to last me about 3 months before they feel like they need changing (then I can decide to keep playing them until they’re really done, or swap out). I had one of those break right when I put it on tho, during my last change, I dunno why, I think it was the B. Maybe I pulled it thru at the wrong angle and kept kinking it, oops.

      When I put the MAB strings on my guitar that always had 10s, I had to loosen the truss rod to get the action right again. But now the truss rod bolt is completely loose (i tightened it up just enough to stay put). Otherwise everything is okay, so… hm.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #26236
      slash
      Participant

      P02223

      Or

      P02221

      "The blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' bad" - Willie Brown
      Tip #4 Learn to Play by EAR!

      Attachments:
      1. P02223.png

      2. P02221.png

    • #26262
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      .009 for standard, .010 for 1/2 step down.

      Order your strings in bulk; it is cheaper.

      If not gigging, change strings once a month. If gigging, change strings before every gig. Ideally that is more than once a month. 😉

      For some people coated strings can change those numbers considerably. I tried them but the stiff, pointy picks I use chew them up. Your mileage may vary.

    • #26506
      Sentinel
      Participant

      I’ve tried so many brands, some I liked, some I hated, but I kept going back to GHS Boomers 9-42. I’ve been using them for more years than I can remember.

    • #26703
      jrs
      Participant

      Ernie Ball Super Slinky Nickel Wound Set, .009 – .042 for both the E standard and E flat. Honestly never played any other brands besides Fender (factory strings) & Ernie Ball. Don’t change strings too often 😉

      Metal Method and chill.

    • #26710
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      Order your strings in bulk; it is cheaper.

      that’s a good tip I just used 😀

      IMG_20180316_100810_hdrs

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

      Attachments:
      1. IMG_20180316_100810_hdrs.jpg

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