Playing heavier string gauges

[AlanC]

When I first started playing many years ago I always used 10 - 46 mostly on Les Pauls and acoustics. More recently as I've drifted into trying to play jazz and I've purchased a couple of archtops, I decided to use a heavier gauge string. Over the last year or so I've used 11 - 50 chromes (flat wounds) and in the last week I've now started using 12 - 52 on the archtops and 11 - 48 on the solid bodies. Anyone else on this journey??

[Tom Hollyer]

Similar journey... I play most rock, blues and country. Used 10-46 until a few years ago. Now I am using 11-50 or 52. Mostly on 335s. I find I like the tone better and once I got used to bending them they were fine. I use 12-56 on my L5.

[L5Larry]

Yes, I made this same progression years ago. I have finally settled on 14-67's flats on the archtops, and 11-49's on the solids and semis.

[dudehead]

I use 12s on my 125t - sound much better to me...

[cdntac]

I've always like 10-46s and when I got my Byrdland started using them on it.

 

On a whim I decided to put the same gauge strings that were on it when I got it (light top, heavy bottom) and found that it played much better and I could set the action even more so to my liking.

 

Being an older guitar, maybe it's always had heavier strings on it and has become used to them. I dunno. All I can say is that I with the 10-52 light top/heavy bottom I can have the action set snake low.

 

I can notice a bit of a difference in tone on the lower strings but not a huge amount.

[AlanC]

I find the 12's much more musical than the 11's. The 11's seem to rattle whereas the tone on the 12's provides real gains.

 

L5Larry - I'd love to hear 14's! Are they that much different?

[ES345]

Each guitar sounds and feels different but i think the migration to heavier strings is a normal phenomenon. However, guitar, type music etc. all figure in to the decision. I have a strat with 11-48 flatwounds, and another with 10-46's, ernie balls, a prs spruce top with 11-48 flatwounds, an Eastman with 54-13's, the Eastman needs these strings for tone and feel, and believe it or not has low, fast action that you can still due a lot of finger picking/chord melodies, an Epi Reagent with 12-54's, with great action, and tone, that i love to play unplugged, albeit a little headstock heavy.

 

My 345 has had flatwounds for as long as i discovered them, and i really don't remember when that was, but it has always had heavier strings on it, 11-51 Gibson flatwounds, i only have a few sets of those left.

 

One tele i have has 9's on it, and it feels right for the type music played on it.

 

I think another thing that i have found over the years is that even on a set of 11's or 12's, i sometimes bump up the high E string 1 gauge. you can buy packs of 10 strings in these gauges for about 3 dollars from MF. Oh, two gretches

with Bigsbys 11 or 12 - 51's, a Howard Roberts, bb king, a beautiful blond Guild X175, a GB10 and a john scofield ibanez and a 356 with 11-51/52, a Washburn Montgomery with an L5 tailpiece, all flatwounds. (some of these have 12 or 13's on the high E.

 

When i change strings i keep the new (empty string pouch) in the case and write the date they were changed, the same with any batteries in preamps, ie godin (10-46 gibson brite wires), brian moore synth guitar, (11-48 chromes).

 

 

I think to get the traditional jazz tone stability and feel on an archtop use your fingers and a stiff thicker pick and heavier strings, for me it is flatwounds, is a good place to start.

[L5Larry]

L5Larry - I'd love to hear 14's! Are they that much different?

 

I use the LaBella #800M Black Nylon Tape Wound. The guages are 14-18-36-46-56-67. The wound strings are guaged from the nylon winding, but the amount of string tension is from the "smaller" steel core inside the nylon wrap. So other than the 1st and 2nd "plain" strings, they don't feel like your trying to fret piano wires.

 

I play mostly big band jazz on the L-5 and was looking for that classic 40's "woody" guitar tone, like Freddie Green of the Count Basie Band. These strings give me the exact sound I was looking for, and really bring out the voice of the instrument. The bigger diameter strings make the guitar resonate so you get the sound of the guitar, not just the magnetic field of the pickups. I'm of the opinion that you need the big strings to get the top of a big archtop vibrating, and get the air moving inside.

 

These strings were recommended to me by Pizzarelli boys (Bucky and John), and are certainaly not for everyone. They sound so different than even regular flatwounds that it takes some getting used too, and the sound is probably an aquired taste. Give them a try, you'll either LOVE them or HATE them. LaBella does make these in a set of 12's, but I found the wound strings way too sloppy, and was smeering them all over the fretboard. They are fairly expensive, but can be found online for about $16-$20 a set, but they last forever, AND you get an extra 1st and 2nd plain string for spares.

 

If you would like to hear them, google youtube for Bucky Pizzarelli or John Pizzarelli. Click around for a solo guitar song and you will really hear what they sound like, they both play 7-strings, but you'll get the idea. Bucky plays these strings on a Benedetto, and John plays them on a Moll.

[Californiaman]

I use the D'Addario EXL115W on my 175.

I like the wound G a lot. The strings are a bit heavier than a say nines or 10s.

[richmca]

My 345 has had flatwounds for as long as i discovered them, and i really don't remember when that was, but it has always had heavier strings on it, 11-51 Gibson flatwounds, i only have a few sets of those left.

 

One tele i have has 9's on it, and it feels right for the type music played on it.

 

I think another thing that i have found over the years is that even on a set of 11's or 12's, i sometimes bump up the high E string 1 gauge. you can buy packs of 10 strings in these gauges for about 3 dollars from MF. Oh, two gretches

with Bigsbys 11 or 12 - 51's, a Howard Roberts, bb king, a beautiful blond Guild X175, a GB10 and a john scofield ibanez and a 356 with 11-51/52, a Washburn Montgomery with an L5 tailpiece, all flatwounds. (some of these have 12 or 13's on the high E.

 

Do you switch between gauges/guitars a lot? Wish I could do that. But I just can't play anything lighter than 10s, and even with 10s I don't really feel comfortable. I need a consistent amount of tension, otherwise I pull them out of shape. And the tone of 10s just seems a bit feeble by comparison. In fact the only variation I can manage is between 13s on my jazz box and 11s on everything else - 11 to 49 on Gibsons and 11-54 on Fenders. I tried 12s on a Strat but at concert pitch that's pulling my nails off my fingers.

[milod]

I've gone the opposite direction...

 

I started using flatwounds on hollow and semi-hollow, tried those nylon tape jobbies... did the heavier string thing...

 

Finally I started using the very light strings as I did increasing bare-finger work. 9-42.

 

I tend to prefer them, but then I'm also functionally playing classical guitar regardless of musical style.

 

Current favorite is the heavy-coated super light elixir. The solid body, otoh, is wearing nickel strings in similar gauges and I play the same stuff on hollow, semi and "board" guitars.

 

I'm happy with the tone, too, as well as the feel.

 

m

[ES345]

 

Do you switch between gauges/guitars a lot? Wish I could do that. But I just can't play anything lighter than 10s' date=' and even with 10s I don't really feel comfortable. I need a consistent amount of tension, otherwise I pull them out of shape. And the tone of 10s just seems a bit feeble by comparison. In fact the only variation I can manage is between 13s on my jazz box and 11s on everything else - 11 to 49 on Gibsons and 11-54 on Fenders. I tried 12s on a Strat but at concert pitch that's pulling my nails off my fingers. [/quote']

 

I switch between guitars daily or for certain songs, but the gauges on the guitars have pretty much remained constant for several years, with minor variation. I switched strings on the prs spruce top two or three times, from 10's to a light flat wound 11-48, the tone was there with the 10's, but the feel was a little off, it took a while to settle on the light flatwounds, where the prs custom 24 i have stayed with the 10's for almost 10 years. so i go back to the particular guitar and music etc, i have a relatively light touch so playing heavier strings on most of the guitars and then a tele with 9's still works fine, especially if you do it frequently enough otherwise it might present a problem bending to pitch etc. But let's face it there is not much bending, only subtle bends on the E and B, with heavier flat wounds.

 

I have 10's on a Les Paul R6 since 2003, that guitar feels and sounds perfect to me with the 10's. This is the nicest playing LP i have played, also the frets on this one seem a little lower and broader, which i like, and a very convincing jazz tone as well.