String Gauge

James Freeman

Rock Star
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3,155
Also, .010's are superior than 0.009's.

I feel like I've opened a can of worms with the string gauge comment in the other thread, let's take it from here.

I'll start;
For me .010's are bare minimum on 24.75" or 25.5" scale necks in standard E, anything lower feels and sounds wimpy.
Jimmy Page and Billy Gibbons don't know the first thing about tone.
 
I did piles and piles of videos comparing string sizes. The smaller strings were often louder. The heavier strings could get a lower action height before buzzing, sometimes much lower. Smaller strings had much much worse "bloom" - the initial pitch of a pick hit before the pitch stabilized. Larger strings had less bloom and less time before the pitch stabilized

The most unexpected thing to me was tone. The smaller strings weren't any less in the bass from the heavier strings, and in some cases, the heavier strings could get relatively more treble than the skinny strings, but, because their output was lower, it wasn't all that apparent.
 
I recently compared 8s and 10s on a les Paul copy. 10s are what I’ve used on everything that isn’t a baritone for several years now. The 8s had a little less output, but mainly seemed to be like I had run the whole thing through a high pass filter.

The EQ side of things doesn’t interest me much as I am primarily using digital gear where I can just eq the guitar before the amp model if I want/need to.

I was more interested in how the guitar played. Bends are effortless with the 8s although you have to bend it pretty wide to achieve the same pitch of the larger strings with a lesser movement. Playing in tune was tricky, I found it hard to play chords in tune higher up the neck as there isn’t as much resistance. Then, you’ve got the sharpness on the attack if you hit the strings hard.

At first I liked the 8s, and I’m sure I could get used to playing them in tune. But, I went back to the 10s ultimately. It was a fun experiment though. I did it by recording a loop of some playing with 10s first and then played the same thing with the 8s. The difference in tonality was not remotely subtle.

D
 
For me Not sure about tone, its a matter of playability /Longevity
This is what I use

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With manufacturers making many different types of strings-different metals, coatings, etc.-, and guitars with varying scale lengths, I seriously believe it all comes down to preference.

I also believe, even in a thorough "comparison", if 2 people both did one, they'd come away with different conclusions, for their own way of playing.

I have noticed some differences between the 2 brands I've used, but I just don't care enough to put "do a personal exhaustive string comparison" high enough on the list of things I want to accomplish on the guitar, to bother with seeing what else is out there, since (stock-on-the-majesty) Ernie Ball Slinkys do what I want, and they last a long time. Which for me is about a month, playing for a few hours every day.
 
I’ve personally settled for NYXLs 10-46 on 24.75” guitars, 9.5-44 on 25.5” ones.
 
How the guitar stays in tune at this point?
Just by resting your right hand lightly on the strings the tuning goes completely out of whack.
I call bullshit on that Iommi sting set.
I detuned my e down to a B and it can work. You need a REALLY light touch though. Scalloped necks need not apply!
 
How the guitar stays in tune at this point?
Just by resting your right hand lightly on the strings the tuning goes completely out of whack.
I call bullshit on that Iommi sting set.
He's been using the set with two 8's for forever. I had done a few albums with one of the Dio era black sabbath engineers and he wanted to die because of that string setup, but he said it worked itself out
 
I play D'Addario .011-.046 on my Strat, T-I .013-.053 (round wound) on my archtops. For me, it's more about what's comfortable to play than it is about sound, however. I can get good sounds out of lighter strings, but I have to set the action higher to keep them from buzzing. I've gradually lightened my touch to reduce buzzes, but I'm still more comfortable with heavier strings.
 
Hahahah my sunburst Strat showed up with 8's on it and action so low I couldn't slide a piece of paper under the strings if I tried. You could blow at the fingerboard and play the entirety of "Echos" in one breath. :rofl

10 is as light as I can get and I don't like the physical feeling of 11's. I'd like to try some 9.5's and 10.5's though, those have always interested me, I just never think to order any. I'd be hard pressed to stop using NYXL's, as well.
 
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