Heavier gauge strings

[dwe82]

I'm a newbie here with a question about my dad's guitar. My dad has an original 1963 (not a reissue) Gibson ES-335. For years, he always used "Sonomatic 340" strings, but he can't remember what gauge he used. Whenever I ask him he just always says "I don't remember what gauage, just whatever was the heaviest". It has a Bigsby vibrato on it that has always annoyed my dad, so he used to use heavy strings so that the Bigsby wouldn't knock it out of tune so much.

 

Anyway, my dad has since given me the guitar and it currently has a set of "340 Nickel Plus" strings .011, from like 5 or 6 years ago (this guitar has only occasionally been out of its case since my dad retired as a musician in 1984).

 

Doing some research, I realize that Gibson no longer makes the Sonomatic or the 340 line, but it appears that Gibson's "L-5" line of strings is supposed to be the replacement. I notice their heaviest gauge is .012.

 

Doing more research, some folks on the internet say that the heaviest Sonomatic strings used to be .013 - .056

 

The only Gibson strings I can find equivalent to the 13-56 gauges are the Powerlines series, which are meant for drop tuning.

 

Long story short...has anyone had experience with using Powerlines as a substitute for the heavier Sonomatics? Or are their any other brands one might recommend? For the time being, I'm happy using the .011's (and I never use the Bigsby) but I thought it would be cool to someday put on the same kind of strings my dad used to use.

[ES345]

I use flat-wound strings and you can get D'addario, flat or nickle or stainless whatever in almost any gauge string you want. i think you should play the 11's for awhile and if you like them replace them with a set of them, in D'addario or another brand. the heavier gauge string won't bend as easy but will probably contribute to a more stable bigsby and should allow you to use it for subtle bends and return pretty much in tune. depending on which guitar i have it may have anywhere from a 13 to 56 on an Eastman hollow body, to 11-51's on my 345, i like 12 - 53 on the pat martino, i guess each guitar will react/feel different so i would say one size does not fit all. experiment, check musicians friend or any internet seller's web site you will see many brands and gauges.

[Mad Rax]

I prefer PURE Nickel, or 100% Nickel strings. NOT "Nickel wound" or any alloy. They are always a pain in the arse to find but I use Pyramid Nickel Classics 0.11s. They also make 0.12s.

 

Nickel (pure)was the original material used for strings but they have started using alloys since 1978 because the price of Nickel went up. In other words; they went cheap.

 

Pyramid also uses a round core, that sounds better than the commonly used hex core of most strings.