Heavier Gauge Strings Are Better and Here's Why.
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2024
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There's an Original Metal song at the end of the video for anyone who wants to hear it :)
Robert Baker awesome 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
RAAAWWWKKK
I could not recognize Robert style, what the f*ck
Men that was awesome \m/ yeah !!!
Has a Lamb of God vibe to it
Use what you like. I used 9's for years, switched to 10's, now use 8's. Some people like hoppy beers, others like whiskey. You be you.
Well said
10's and whiskey!
Most of my life I used 9s (tried from 8s to 11s), but for the last 5 years I only use 10-46 gauges, coated most of the times. I kinda found a balance, cause I used to break strings much more often with 9s. So I'm into 10s, whisky + porter/stout beers and 25.5" scale. 😂
I went from 9s to 8s, and use string saver nut and saddles, never break a string with 8s, and there's alot less tension for bending. When I saw and read that jimmy paige use 8s, it sold me even more
Sometimes, I think the guitar wants to choose the string gauge.
Man..... Ain't that the truth!
Agreed. The problem is where does it stop? If heavier string are “better” then why not 9 over 8 10 over 9 11 over 10 12 or 11 13 over 12. But Robert does make a good point on aggressive picking hand does make a difference. I use 9 hybrid with thicker lower strings....but yeah I whole heartedly agree that guitars will “tell you” which strings they want. And Robert’s example is a little over exaggerated when he is striking with his Gibson but good points all the way around!
I use 9 on strat and 10 on les paul
Dwaine Brosemer you should see me when I play an E power chord.
@@dbltap3332 I suppose the next step would be to switch to a bass guitar :)
I don't know about string gauges and how they contribute to the tone. People who favour heavier strings always say bring up Stevie Ray, who had amazing tone (for his style of music), but then there are a lot of players with a great guitar tone who use light strings. Just yesterday I learned that Rory Gallagher used 9-40 set and I've always loved his tone. They say that tone is in fingers and I'm beginning to think that it must be true ;)
I'm a heavy handed guitarist, so I did the opposite. About a year ago I went from 10s to 9s to force me to get my shit together, its actually really helped me improve my technique
totally agree - dealing at the source. It would be like having a hurt leg and instead of getting it checked out and doing exercises to return mobility, people would find elaborate ways to just to not step on it.
For me, it's mostly down to right hand stability. I pick pretty aggressively, and I use a small pick. In that context, I prefer 11s because they don't give quite as much as 10s or 9s, and it seems like that actually helps with my picking; lighter gauges are too "squishy" for me to play quick alternate picking runs with precision. I would actually recommend 11s if you seem to have trouble with picking, or prefer to play aggressively.
Thanks, that was the exact answer I wanted.🤟🏼
Yes, your picking hand affects the right gauge of strings for you just as much as your fret hand. Example...Yngwie M. Shreds on 8's with very thick 2mm picks but his pick attack is very tight and light and he does it effortlessly. Whatever Gauge both your hands can play their best on is the right choice!!
I Can confirm just tried 9s yesterday after hearing from Beto it would be easier on fingers and have the same tone as thick gauges "Not for me" after coming from 11s for two years you said exactly what I feel to be accurate for me felt mushy like walking in wet tundra or sand . Style of playing Standard E tuning. 80's speed picking attack and harmonics were negatively affected lost the clear tight low end. The slight comfort on finger tips is not worth the loss of playing control, accuracy, tone and clarity for me. In the end It was worth giving it a try for myself that's the only way to know what works for you.
"Why work so hard?" - BB King to Billy Gibbons.
@mango tree A wise man once told every great guitar player finds the easy way for themself to play. And That’s why BB used light gauge and you don’t
yes but bb king NEVER HIT the strings HARD his music was all over very SOFT get it?
@@turhaapuuhaa5205 watch more bb king lol
@@Jaycuubb why? i have my style whats your style?
I am just a Flamenco guitarist trying to figure out what strings to choose for my electric guitar lol
I said it yesterday Robert...I want a BLACK SABBATH VIDEO!!!!
Oh its going down!
I second that ✊🤘🎸🔥. Can't beat some good ol' Sabbath
Robert Baker YEEEESSSS
@@RobertBakerGuitar Woohoooo!!!
I request mick taylor live soloing
I love the combination of the 10-52’s. I tend to be heavy on low side and lighter on high side and it makes hammer ons and pull offs easier for me also.
Me too
Hybrid sets you bet are the best. Never will I go back to original 10's.
in E i use hybrid 9-46 though it would be cool if 9-48 existed
i’ve seen some 10-50s from companies like Stringjoy that i might have to try out. as much as i like the standard hybrid sets, the mixed sizes can be kind of annoying with bar chords as i get older
@@kinniecas9004no idea why youtube keeps erasing this simple reply… anyhow lookup String Joy. they have exactly what you are looking for. hopefully youtube wont erase this for no reason this time…
I am more blues based and have long preferred using 12s and 13s. Usually 12 in standard and 13 when tuned down a half step but can vary. They sound thicker to my ears but what I really like is the "push back" I feel when playing and bending. I get a more of emotional connection especially in the blues styles of music I enjoy.
Couldn’t agree more.
I was going to go all 'BB King told Billy Gibbons; why you tryin' so hard with heavy strings?' deal but there is a good point here. I went from 9's to 10's a few years ago and still can get a little sharp. I am a 'dig in' player. I had been a dyed in the wool 9's since the 80's, but 80's stuff wasn't very strummy so you didn't really notice. Now I'm playing much more 'openly' and boy do I notice even on the 10's. You may have convinced me to try 11's. Callouses, take the wheel................
always had 10s for 30 years. but my gem has 9s and i'm liking blues bends with the 9s.
ghs has 9 11 16 28 38 48s [gilmour has same for 6 5 4 3]
@Jacques Bloques Agreed. It's relearning what you did for decades. Thing is, I was a shredder in the 80's and even now when I play the (now) oldies, it's all good. I grab my Jazz III and get to it on the old stuff, I'm all good. What I've learned is that it not my fretting hand but my picking hand. I barely bothered to do much subtle strumming stuff back then. So when I play some of the more open, jangly stuff now that I'm more interested in, I'm giving the strings a good whack. More than I should. Control is the issue but also, I do still tend to want to give it the beans, even when I'm strumming. That why I thought it might be worth heavier strings.
@@coco37s heavy is a gimmick to get amateurs to consistently break high tension strings so they can quickly purchase more of the same. Good for string companies
A set of eleven gauge strings on a Gibson ES or Les Paul is equivalent to having a set of ten gauge strings on a Fender Strat or Tele. This is due to the shorter scale length (24.75) on Gibson guitars.
I have 10-52s on a Jim Root Tele
I care so much about tradition lol
Ha, I play 09s on a 24" scale. Gotta have a gentle & precise left hand, but it gave me some Angus level vibrato
Heph333 I like my strings like I like my women, light firm top, with a heavy tight bottom. Lol
I own a gibson les paul with 11's and two strats. One with 10's in standard. And one with 12's in e flat. What you are saying isnt true. It isnt even nearly true. The strings on my gibson are much noticeably thicker and harder to play than on my fender stratocaster with 10's.
That's not the part that isnt true. It doesn't make 11 gauge strings on a gibson the same as 10s on a fender. Anyone with experience using both instruments will confirm that.
I have been playing for years and years and I've never realized this about strings. Thanks!!!
With heavy gauge strings it's also a lot harder to accidentally fret a note out of tune by pressing too hard. I feel that with thick strings, I get more consistent notes and less fret buzz too because they "flop" much less as well. But bending is still a bit of a nightmare for me. Especially since I switched to flatwounds where the G is always wound. But for riffing and chords 11s are perfect, even on a 25.5" neck
Hmm, but pretty much every aspect of playing a musical instrument well is about using the minimum effort and being as relaxed as you can. If you watch any skilled musician on any instrument, guitar, piano, whatever they look relaxed and their playing looks effortless. That's because it is. If you put thicker gauge strings on and thump away at the guitar you'll just sound unmusical and bad anyway. This is especially notable when EVH is playing rhythm. The guy in this video plays like a robot there's no rhythm or dynamics to his rhythm playing and he's playing playing with too much tension and single high dynamic. Hitting the strings hard, holding the strings down tight will never get a good groove and rhythmical end result.
Altering the picking hand to get dynamics is one important aspect of playing but if you play maximum attack all the time to the point where the guitar is going out of tune and you think you need thicker strings the end result won't sound good. It's like listening to a pianist that's always playing ff or a singer who is just shouting into the microphone as loud as he can. Maybe a couple of metal genres or punk rock bands did that. If you're heavy handed the fix is to practise and learn to play not to try and workaround it by changing the strings. If you ask someone like Tim Pierce - perhaps on more recordings of guitar than anyone else how he plays he has everything loud but plays gently - he's not thumping away at the guitar because that sounds crap.
You have to find the right strings for your playing. Hendrix, Kim Thayil, and Tony Iommi are all really light touch players so they use thinner gauge strings. Angus Young and David Gilmour are more medium gauge players. SRV and Malcolm Young are heavy handed and play unusually heavy strings. Personally I'm a touch heavier handed on the bass strings and regular on the treble strings, so I play a lite top heavy bottom set. It does change the relative output of the various strings though, with the heavier ones being louder than they normally would. A word of caution: heavier strings when tuning down can produce a lot of excess low end that your amp or the engineer may not react well to. I use an EQ or something with a hi-pass filter to lop off that extra bottom before it hits the amp.
@Jacob Molyneux Really? That's interesting, cause I read that Angus Young plays 9-42 gauge, so that's quite a difference between the two of them
I don't know how you can say Hendrix has a light touch.When I watch Jimi, I think a man could lose a hand if it got between jims pic and jims strings,
Tim Penfield
Jimi was the master of dynamics whether he picked lightly, heavily, close to the bridge, over the pickups... it all has an impact on your sound and he constantly would switch these up even within one song which is why he is by far better than any “technical” player with no dynamics
I’m glad you brought up straight facts rather than saying something that’s more opinionated and can change depending on the persons ears
11’s transformed my Les Paul , after years of strats on 10’s it felt like home again
Great point! Thanks for sharing brother, Be Well Robert!
had a set of jazz lights 10’s with a wound 3rd i ended up putting on my Airline Tuxedo hollowbody because it’s what i had and they needed to be changed. why the hell not right?
TOTALLY amazing! full sound and no bending problems.
...and there's a Metal section 🤘 Nice bro!!
same experience, 11s feel relieving to my right hand and give a wider range of dynamics like a piano. thanks for the video 😎
Wow...I never realized this. I'm very heavy handed both right and left hands and so I have to be really careful to not put myself out of tune while playing...just switching from 9's to 10's really helped!
I wish I'd have known about this 30 years ago...
Infornative video and great point about the sharp low e string with lighter gauges
I used to use 8 or 9 gauge strings. Made the switch to 10s and it was a massive improvement when I came to my picking hand. On my Les Paul Standard and my Les Paul Jr. I have 11s.
Thanks for the advice; makes much sense, and, being heavy-right-handed, I have noticed that, too. And, btw, your hair is PERFECT!
Thanks Rob. That’s totally answered my question and my path to 11’s is well clear. 🤟🏼
I run heavy gauge strings on my electrics to keep a little continuity in feel switching between electric and acoustic all the time.
Loving this. I’m really heavy handed and have moved to 10s last year, might try some 11s, cheers!
I have 12s on a floyd rose is standard tuning. I just tried it one time and it clicked with me. I did it on purpose to force myself to learn my floyd rose. I love the feel and sound. I play a little bit of everything, plectrum and/or fingerpicking.
I agree with you, I play heavy and will try your advice, also have to reset the intonation. thanks.
Bryans Adams said most of this back in the 90ś about why him and the other guitarist in his band used 12ś. They just kept breaking strings and went up gauges until they stopped breaking them.
Heavy gauges are breakers. Light are not...much less tension. Bryan Adam's guys were thinking backwards
Great video! I discovered another advantage with going to heavier strings.
I also tend to have a really heavy pick hand (I play mostly rhythm guitar 90% of the time). I used extremely light 8-38 strings for years, and always had issues with really noticeable string buzz on the frets, especially with the low E and A string. I set all my guitars with higher than normal action to try and compensate for it, but it never really fixed the issue.
About a year and a half ago, I switched up a size (because I was tired of breaking high E strings), and I noticed the buzz on the lower strings wasn't as bad. It was still there, but more subtle. So just to experiment, I went up another size and lowered the action a bit more reasonable, and haven't gone back since. I currently run 10-46 on my 25 1/2 inch scale guitars, and 11-48 on my 24 3/4 inch scale guitars. They just feel better and sound better to me, and I couldn't be happier.
I've been using 11-49's on my Telecaster for a while now and am addicted. I love a bit of pushback and fingerpain to push even harder and really put that feel into it
Wooohooo love the heavy stuff at the end glad I stuck around for that and I've always used heavy strings cuz I play hard
thanks...it helped a lot to clear my doubts....
That jam at the end was f***ing SICK ❤❤
That's actually a very cool find and explains a lot. On my G&L Bluesboy, switching to Medium gauge made a massive difference for me, especially when it came to comfort. For my metal guitars, I find HBLT sets work much better for me.
As my arthritis gets worse, I go lighter & lighter. It's really improved my technique. It's so easy to just bang away on heavy strings. I went back to 9s, then 8s & I let my amp do the work now. But if I get really excited and into it, yeah... I'll throw it sharp. Just gotta reel it back in. It's a lot easier as you get old and don't want guitar to be work anymore.
Hi Robert . Thank you
I just put 11s on my Les Paul and I’m digging it. I think I have a heavy right hand. That metal stuff at the end rules, I’ve been getting into heavier stuff myself lately.
Well, great video, so many variables involved here, viz. the RESONANCE and OVER TONES of the strings, the SUSTAIN of the strings, and last but not least, the player's DYNAMIC CONTROL over the strings. In my 25 years of playing, I've found that the "Regular Slinkys" 10-46 or "Power Slinkys" 11-48 by Ernie Ball have the best of those 3 things, i.e. the RESONANCE and OVER TONES (harmonic vibrational blending of the strings) are amazing when playing chords (especially when open strings are involved in a chord). Moreover, the SUSTAIN is much better than 8-9 gauge strings due to the extra metal and tension of the strings, and the DYNAMIC CONTROL is much more pronounced than the thinner competitors (meaning, it's very easy to go from very soft quiet playing to very loud playing with great control with heavier gauge strings, especially when using a clean tone). The heavier guage strings have a generally "bigger" sound and, especially, more PUNCH as well when you're playing at higher volumes. Lastly, in my experience, 8-9 gauge strings feel like "rubber bands" under my fingers (both right and left hand) making note "intonation" more difficult, whereas 10-11 gauge strings give a firm foundation, allowing perfect intonation of fretted notes. On the flip side, 12-13 or higher gauge strings are simply too heavy in terms of tension for my medium sized hands (even at Eb tuning, which I prefer), and are also a bit muddy, dark, and thick sounding for my tastes (i.e. they lack the sparkly brightness of 10-11 gauge). Whereas, in my opinion, 10/11 gauge strings are the perfect balance of TONE, TENSION, RESONANCE, OVER TONES, SUSTAIN, DYNAMIC CONTROL, and PUNCH. Heavier guage strings truly "sing" under my fingers. And if you can handle the 11-48 "Power Slinkys", you'll have one less thing to worry about when playing live: They never ever break...never. You can bang them, slap them, pull and snap them, thrash them, play them with your teeth, etc. and they always hold fast! I have been playing purple "Power Slinkys" for years, both at home and live, and I've never broken one single string ever. 😎 However, 8-9 guage strings snap like dental floss for me....so annoying! Haha! However, "your mileage may vary." LOL! For, as the Master once said, "Do what thou wilt..." 😉 Anyways, that's my two cents kids. 👊 ✌
Awesome video and jam!
So true. I’m very heavy on my pick and even my fretting. 13s were the way to go for me. My poor Strat has so much tension I had to add all 5 springs to the trem. Feels great and stays in tune when trying to solo blues or rock.
yeah I have that problem too with my 9 gauge strings, thanks for the advice
Really enjoyed the heavy track at the end!
🤘😆🤘
Let's rock, brother
Excellent video and great performance!
I use Power Slinkys 11-48 and they really sound fantastic in my Gretsch Jet Duo! I highly recommend it to everyone who love a real beefy chunky tone!🎸
I’m up to 12/56 for my guitars, down half step and it’s great, thank you Josh smith for showing me the way!
I use 9-46 in E flat. love the effortlessness of light gauge strings, makes me play with much more confidence. Heaviest i can do is 10, heavy is just not for me.
That’s the gauge Malmsteen plays.
10 is good for 25.5 guitars, so that makes sense. Most huge string users weren't on Fender guitars by that time, it's because the Les Paul and shoter 24.75 scales and smaller like Mustang by Fender, are the reason I think all those people though thick was the only way.
I've got a heavy right hand too so I've used mixed gauge sets or Matt Bellamy's trick of using a set of 10s with a 52 low E/drop D for years. I tried 9s for a while, but actually found my left hand was more fatigued after 3hr gigs because they were too light for me 🤷♂️
Fatigue from lighter strings does exist huh
Great vid - I play 10-52 on a prs, that's what works for that guitar
Think scale length and right hand make the biggest difference, also having a proper setup when you change gauge makes soo much difference
I use tens on the high E, B, and G strings. Are use 11s on the low E, A, and D. Our flight a strap and through a fender Deluxe tube amp. I have been very happy with the tones. I can get a killer SRV tone with my tube screamer or even straight clean.
For drop b I use daddario XL 11-56. I've used this set for drop c as well. For years I used 12-54 but now I can bend.
Nice track at the end there- some great little moments \m/
I’ve played 10-46 for a couple of decades , and recently bought an EBMM Cutlass that came with the hybrid 9-11-14-26-36-46. Three weeks later I brought the EBMM Sabre, which comes with standard 10s. I switched it to the hybrid (H Slinkys) and I am sold. I’m going hybrid on everything now.
(I’m buying another Sabre too shhh)
I recently started using the EB Hybrid Slinky strings over the Super Slinky set for this exact reason. I like the lighter top strings for the shredy bits but if I played in drop D or C# I was getting that nasty "WOW' on the low E. Solved everything for me! Great video!
I’m playing an acoustic electric thin body and am tossing some D’Addario heavy bottom, medium top nickel wound electric strings on it to see how it performs with the sound hole plugged, through just a tube screamer pedal and that’s it. I think it’ll work for my style. Thanks for this vid.
You are exactly right. Especially if you are heavy handed you got to run heavy strings on the low side but keep them a tad bit lighter on the high strings so you can still bend. Being heavy handed you will go sharp if the strings ain't tight enough.
Makes sense I'll have to try it
You should put out an album that is a solid 60 minutes of that at 4:20
Thank you Robert 🎸🤟😎
I’d like to see a video on the highest and lowest gauge strings you can possibly use on an Electric and an Acoustic Guitar in Standard Tuning ☮️
Light top heavy bottom
That's it
Fa Gyu on everything but a les Paul. I had them on mine and it felt... fat? Idk seemed weird tho.
@@Ssargent888 my guitar is a Les Paul style guitar as well and it's absolute amazing has good tension in the lower strings and it didn't get any harder to play leads on the higher strings than with standard 10s I just had to adjust the action
I use tens on distortion because it doesn't go out of tune and fine tuning isn't as important. But cleans I use 13s or heavy bottoms
12/60 thats better
I personally hated those because it it made tuning a fucking nightmare. I'm kind of the type to switch between all tunings anywhere from a quarter step above standard to drop A# and I don't have enough guitars to just have multiple guitars for different tunings and switching tunings was a fucking nightmare.
“Heavy top skinny bottom” my new go to set of strings, super comfortable. But I’ve always wondered how far you could push it? Like how heavy vs light
Man you sound Great. Fantastic
Thank u Robert
Tuning/intonation is a huge part of good tone
Btw, dig the metal track, would like to hear more of your heavier stuff.
same!
my experience with heavy gauge strings came to an end with thumb pain. I joined a cover band and was playing a lot for a month learning material and ran into thumb pain. been playin for 20 plus years and never had problems. I get your point being a heavy handed player but in the grand scheme of things I switched to 9.00 and the pain finally went away.
I use a custom gauge I came up with on most guitars including my old PRS CE24... 9, 12, 16, 26, 38, 48.
Curt Mangan will customize any set for u no matter how many u buy. But I do like StringJoy and Elixer for certain guitars, and thankfully they are selling more individual strings and hybrid sets these days.
Thank you.
Nice vid as always! I have a very light right hand. While SRV is my primary influence, I use Billy Gibbons 8’s, and have never looked back. I crave the slinkiness that 8’s give me. I would still play if 10’s and 11’s were my only option, but it would take a lot of joy out of playing for me.
Sick video all the way!
And sick metal track!
Totally agree with you on what you are saying. However the one drawback to using 11gauge strings is they will eat up your frets. When I played 11's I had to get a fret job about every 6 months. Can get expensive. That's the main reason I went back to 10's.
I definitely find a noticeable tonal different between 10s and 11s on my les paul. 11s are more bassy, but there's more clarity when playing chords on high gain settings. I prefer 10s when soloing, not because of ease of bending, but I find it cuts through the mix better. Hard to decide as I agree that strings go sharp more easily with lighters gauge strings, as I like playing heavy handed.
The song at the end was great!! 👍🏾👍🏾
Currently playing heavy bottom Ernie ball’s which are 11’s on the bottom and 10’s on the higher 3. I love hitting the low E and chords that won’t go sharp while still being able to bend easily
I love heavier gauges because of one of my heroes, SRV! There are certainly good! Awesome work!
RC32 and they sound better
I once read that he at one point in time had a 15 as his high E. I never could believe it, but hearing from many sources that he used to glue his fingertips back on i thought it could be true. Any info @ RC32?
@Jacob Molyneux Ahh he is definitely a contributor as well indeed!
I started to use 11s cause I felt like 10 is not enough.. :D 11s are perfect
@@rtomas47 11s are awesome and a big way to keep going I believe! I agree
I usually go 10’s or 11’s on my Gretsch 6120/6122. Going a size up helps keep the Bigsby in tune. I also like the feel and control personally.
I've been playing/learning a lot of SRV lately and have been hitting my current set of 9's with a hard right hand. Good video man, I've been thinking of going up a set but my fretting hand isnt too strong 😁
I think you are spot on. I am heavy right hand. I prefer 10's over 9"s.
holy crap, you just solved the problem I've been having for months!
When I switched to a 9 gauge it was quite hard at first to pick aggressively because of how flimsy the strings are but I managed to get rid of most of it by lowering the action as much as I can, I actually prefer lighter gauges now because the more aggressive I pick the smoother the picking seems to be, which was opposite on 10s. Vibrato and bending are a lot easier now, I get that some people say it doesn't matter because you're supposed to develop strength for that, but my vibrato is extremely wide and I try to have a very light left hand anyways like most shredders so it wouldln't matter
Edit: this might work for me because I use jazz III picks and can afford to use a lot of edge picking, almost 45 degrees. If I do the same with a flatter pick it slides a lot and just doesn't work. Without edge picking, light, flimsy strings would definitely be harder to go across.
I had a similar problem for more years then i care to admit, my solution? keep the .009's , us a thin/light gauge pick, I have trouble tuning heavy gauge strings+worried about damaging guitars as old a myself. Great vid again.
I'm going to try this great video. Do you think 13 gauge strings is a big part of stevie ray vaughans sound
I actually switched from D'Addario 9's to 9.5's on all of my electrics. Was a pain in the ass stringing up strats and PRS with 9's and putting 10's on Gibsons. Now I just buy a big-ass box of strings from Sweetwater. Was nearly effortless to integrate. Highly recommended to try it...
I just got a seven string set of Ernie Ball Cobalt strings 10-62 ! I absolutely love them you can tune all the way down to F # and they hold the tune perfectly!!
Great tone on the intro
believe it or not thicker gauge strings are easier to fret larger chord shapes because there is more string for your finger to come into contact with, which makes baring easier, although the increased string tension will be challenging at first. I learned this from Mike Elliot he played with 13 gauge, and could play massive chords lightning fast.
I use Daddario medium gauge for the feel mostly but I'm pretty heavy handed too. Now I know why my notes are always sharp!
I have a guitar with jumbo frets that was going out of tune when chording because of different pressure when gripping. Heavier strings helped with that too.
I have a vice grip. With jumbo Frets I tend to squeeze open chords Sharp. Heavier strings help that. Open D chords are almost impossible with jumbo Frets for me anyway. So I am up to 11s now. Not that big of a problem on my fenders. More tension on the strings. 8s are ridiculous. LOL
I would be interested to hear a discussion about how string size may affect a persons playing style and if there is a correlation to hand size or hand strength. I have very large hands and find 8's to be so sensitive to touch and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Do the 8's teach me to have more finesse, or should I run heavier strings to get more finesse? Is there such a thing as too sensitive? Do heavy handed players just need heavier strings?
I used to go dummy thick with strings. On my Soloist and Schecter (which I kept in standard tuning) I used 52, 48, 32, 28, 18, and 14. With a good set up, it plays really well and makes the guitar sound even more massive in the mix. Plus, the clean tone was super big and punchy.
You are so right about that. Since I started using 11-48 I can't use 10-48 on most guitars. Easier to set-up too. Only guitar with 10's now is my Suhr Pete Thorn.
I use the hybrid slinky’s 9-46 and I love them so much 🤘🏻
Jacob Elam Yeah, my favourites as well 9-46 - Slinky's or roto sound. Great for massive bends on the higher strings but nice low end punch. I started using them after reading an article on David Gilmour who played with these . Not sure if he still does.
Simon JC. Nice yah the reason why i used them because I wanted to be able to bend but like Robert said it’s really good on your picking
4:09 it sounds like the old home depot theme song!🔥🤘
I agree Due to a hand condition I have to tune down to C and use 10 gauge strings to balance out the looser string tension from tuning lower.
You can buy 7 gauge strings (8’s are more available)
Just bought some 11s....I've been using 9s....SRV used 13 and Santana uses 8s...so what works for you works
I have a heavy picking hand, and i mostly play a lot of heavy death metal riffs. In my opinion they have always sounded more full and definitely stayed in tune more. I recently pinched a nerve in my shoulder and arm so i had to drop down a few gauges. I was using 13-56 for D standard and now I am using the Ernie Ball hybrid slinky, good enough for heavy riffs and slinky enough to do all the solo's.
*It’s true* .Once you play enough getting from 9’s, 9 1/2’s, 10’s, and then 11’s is pretty quick. When I was touring year round in the 90’s my fingers got so strong that I had to beef up my strings. My axes
stayed in tune a lot longer under the hot stage lights and my tone was juicer as well. I read about SRV doing that and it worked.
😎 🎸👍🏼. Anytime I played a guitar that wasn’t mine the strings (9’s) were like over cooked spaghetti. My left hand turned green with the power of the Hulk. 🤣
My health declined and I had to stop playing live. Eventually my hands got weaker and I ended up back with 9’s. So you have to keep playing a lot to keep that strength. 💪🏼😎🎸
Hey Robert, listen back to your playing when you are comparing the 335 to the LP - You have more pick noise with the 335, it almost sounded like a metronome at first lol. You can hear a little of it on the LP but the 335 is louder. I remembered a video Scott Grove put out a few years ago about properly tuning your guitar and I got to thinking about that while listening to you talking about the strings sounding out of tune when you strike them. According to Scott, and it makes sense when you think about it, when you are tuning your guitar how are you picking it? I noticed at that time that I was just picking as if I was only tuning and not playing. What I mean is when I play I strike harder and quicker, I think most of us do this, but when I'm tuning I strike each string lighter. According to Scott just strike the string like you would when you are playing along with a song or just noodling around and that will be a more accurate way to tune.
I for some unknown reason bought a ten pack of light top/heavy bottom (10-52) and when I was finished refinishing a Les Paul I bought from Austin I put a set of those on and I absolutely HATED them! ALL of the strings felt like I was using heavy cables instead of strings lol. I could barely bend any of them, even the supposedly lighter ones. I did have to do all the setting up of the neck and string heights and all that jazz but even once I did that I just could not get comfortable with them and since I wanted to change the nut to a bone nut I just replaced those with a regular set of 10's and now it's fine. I'am going to give the hybrid set another chance but on a different guitar to see if that matters.I have an Ibanez Iceman I think they might be a good fit for. On my Gretsch 5420T, a big ol jazz body style, I may use the hybrid on that one because I want that fatter tone for my bottom but the set on there right now I believe are 11's and they are too stiff.