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.016" - .058" With Standard Tuning And Scale


capmaster

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Just found out reading this Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dale

that D i c k Dale uses 16p, 18p, 20p, 38w, 48w, 58w in standard tuning. The plain strings might lack balance a bit, but apart from that this is definitely extreme I guess. Maybe stringing upside down influenced his choice of such heavy gauges? What do you think?

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Pat Martino has 2 string gauge 'set ups' -

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/jazz_guitar/ptYudgnpI9s[126-150-false]

 

Heavy; 016, 018, 26, 36, 48, 58

 

Or (his "Medium"!!) 015, 017, 24, 32, 42, 52

 

John Scofield: 013, 016, 22, 32, 42, 52

 

I recently bought a Rotosound 'Top Tape' set which I haven't put on yet - 012, 016, 24, 32, 42, 52, that's heavy enough for me.

 

These and D Dale's gauges have some serious lbs-per-square-inch-tension, but a proper Fender neck could take it.....

 

Tone? Martino and Scofield have very thick clean tone. Martino almost sounds like a bass guitar sometimes!

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...

I recently bought a Rotosound 'Top Tape' set which I haven't put on yet - 012, 016, 24, 32, 42, 52, that's heavy enough for me.

I use 012, 016, 024w, 032w, 043w, 054w roundwounds and 012, 015, 020w, 030w, 041w, 056w flatwounds on some guitars. They have a nice feel and a fantastic sound, but bending is somewhat limited, in particular of the wound G3rd. Although the vibrato levers took them without problem, the high forces and limited efficiency made me change to lighter gauges on Floyd Rose vibrato guitars.

 

I checked a 014 set once but found fretting barre chords a little uneasy at the lower frets, so I think Dale's and Martino's string gauges may play rather hard for some styles.

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I use 012, 016, 024w, 032w, 043w, 054w roundwounds and 012, 015, 020w, 030w, 041w, 056w flatwounds on some guitars. They have a nice feel and a fantastic sound, but bending is somewhat limited, in particular of the wound G3rd.........I checked a 014 set once but found fretting barre chords a little uneasy at the lower frets, so I think Dale's and Martino's string gauges may play rather hard for some styles.

"Fantastic sound" - yes I must agree, my blonde archtop with Thomastik flatwounds just sounds extraordinary, stunning - like the biggest acoustic guitar you ever heard when I put it through my Twin.

I would never go as heavy as 016 top, too much potential stress on the neck - typical 'classic' jazz gauge would be 012/013 for top E to about 048/50 for low E: Wes reputedly had 014 to 058 though!

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For balanced string tension, a 016 E1st would call for subsequent 021 or 024w, 032w, 043w, 057w, 072w. The resulting tension would exceed that of typical 12-string sets.

Now this is interesting too; 'balanced string tension'. With the tapewound strings I mentioned above, I also bought a D'Addario special offer set; 2 x 011/014/018/28/28/49 with a 'balanced tension' set 011/015/019/28/37/50. I think this is just another marketing strategy, though a good one.....

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Now this is interesting too; 'balanced string tension'. With the tapewound strings I mentioned above, I got a D'Addario special offer set; 2 x 011/014/018/28/28/49 with a 'balanced tension' set 011/015/019/28/37/50. I think this is just another marketing strategy, though a good one.....

Most string sets are far away from being tension balanced. They rather are tone and level balanced.

 

Typical top strings are too heavy for their bottom strings. This is valid for guitar and bass string sets as well.

 

I remember that around 1980 Gibson released their tension balanced "Equa" string sets, advertised with the slogan "From now on there are two kinds of strings: Equa - and the rest." They didn't succeed though, and so we put up with the rest since long long years.

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