EVOL! Posted February 22, 2012 Posted February 22, 2012 Sissy! J/K. 13s for me since the heaviest gauge i play is the 12s on my acoustic. All my electrics use 11s.
Lungimsam Posted February 22, 2012 Author Posted February 22, 2012 Can you bend a whole step with the 11's? I must be out of shape since I mainly play bass these days.
bonzoboy Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 My buddy brought down his Tele the other night with 10s on it and I just found it unplayable.I couldn't even do a run without any bending at all because I found the strings so stiff.I've used nothing but 8-38s since the late 60s when Fender came out with the first Super Lights.BTW another buddy of mine who's one of the best country pickers in eastern Canada-and a real good friend of Scotty Moore-swears by 8-38s on Teles because they are great for doing chicken pickin' and fake steel guitar bends.
Guest farnsbarns Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I voted 13 because tonight I played 11s on an electric for the first time and was surprised how little difference it made. I can bend 1 whole tone without trouble on an acoustic with13s.
alexri Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I can play any string gauge sufficiently, but I use 10's because I have no logical reason to go any higher.
Lazerface Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 Ive been using daddario jazz lights (.12-.52 with a .24w g) on all my gibsons/epiphone tuned to eb standard or open g. I have no problem bending a whole step (or even more) saved the .24 g, but at f# i can still bend that .24 no problem
ChanMan Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 Don't know. I can get bends and hyperbends on my .11s, so I assume I can on .12 or .13s.
EVOL! Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 Can you bend a whole step with the 11's? I must be out of shape since I mainly play bass these days. On the lower frets that is hard since I don't do a lot of whole note bends. On the upper frets it is easy as pie. I play heavier gauge strings because my technique is so ham handed. Even with 10s I break strings all over the place. Finesse is not my forte. :(
EVOL! Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 My buddy brought down his Tele the other night with 10s on it and I just found it unplayable.I couldn't even do a run without any bending at all because I found the strings so stiff.I've used nothing but 8-38s since the late 60s when Fender came out with the first Super Lights.BTW another buddy of mine who's one of the best country pickers in eastern Canada-and a real good friend of Scotty Moore-swears by 8-38s on Teles because they are great for doing chicken pickin' and fake steel guitar bends. You cats must have a very light touch. That gauge screams massive string breakage to me.
rocketman Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I practice on an acoustic with 13's. It's darn hard to do bends but it builds up my finger strength.
Jon S. Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I use 11's on my electrics(sometimes 12's on slide or rhythm-only guitars). Anything over that isn't as comfortable.
bonzoboy Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 @ Evol: I haven't broken a string for years and I'm very very hard on my strings-I bash them like Pete Townshend-and do extreme bends and a lot of heavy vibrato arm use.When I was gigging we used to do a lot of Hendrix covers and that would mean a lot of hard bending and merciless use of the vibrato arm.8-38 strings are less suseptible to breaakage because their thiness makes them more elastic and pliable.
Lungimsam Posted February 23, 2012 Author Posted February 23, 2012 When I used 8's I used to break them alot. When I went to 9's and 10's I didn't break them anymore as far as I can remember. Maybe a couple from the 9's set. Now I use 11's flatwounds.
milod Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I normally wear 9s on almost everything except 10s on two AE boxes. And... 8-38 on the SG type. My pinkie starts to have problems at 11s, but I almost never play them. The only problem with the 8s is that it's almost too easy to bend if you don't fret with a straight down sorta motion. Heck, you can bend an entire barre chord if'n you want. m
Lungimsam Posted February 23, 2012 Author Posted February 23, 2012 Ive been using daddario jazz lights (.12-.52 with a .24w g) on all my gibsons/epiphone tuned to eb standard or open g. I have no problem bending a whole step (or even more) saved the .24 g, but at f# i can still bend that .24 no problem Are these flatwounds?
RaysEpiphone Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I don't bend, play mostly chord's and riffs/runs
davidl Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I do a lot of bends on both electric and acoustic. I prefer 10's on my electric but have no problem bending a full step and beyond with 11's. I just find 10's more comfortable. 11's on acoustic are fine too but I find 12's just too stiff. I do most of my bends with my ring finger. My little finger has always been on the weak side with the nuckle buckling indescriminately. I think everyone has their own comfort zone. Dave
pfox14 Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I can do slight bends with 12s, but it's not easy. 12s are my limit
zigzag Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I start to have problems with 11s. 12s are tough.
Searcy Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 I played 12's and 13's for about 20 years but recently played my friends Parker Fly with 9's and was blown away. Since them I have been swapping all my Gibsons over to 9's. My fingers are much happier now.
Lungimsam Posted February 26, 2012 Author Posted February 26, 2012 What guage did Hendrix use? I hear 13's. but I don't buy it. Especially after seeing a string break at Woodstock.
bonzoboy Posted February 26, 2012 Posted February 26, 2012 Jimi definitely didn't use 13s,his gauges of choice were 8-38s and 9-42s.You can tell that he's using a super light string especially by looking at the excellent close-up footage of Woodstock.When Jimi was playng the "Chitlin' Circuit" down in the southern States he started using a trick that a lot of blues guitarists of the time were using so they could facilitate extreme bends.In the days before super light string gauges they'd buy a set of strings and throw out the E 6th string,buy the thinnest banjo string-which would be a .008 or thinner and use the A string for the E 6th and the banjo string for the E 1st and the other strings would consequently move up one place.I recall reading an interview with Eric Barrett,Jimi's equipment manager and he said that Jimi generally used Ernie Ball 9-42 sets.
Lazerface Posted February 26, 2012 Posted February 26, 2012 Lungimsam: the daddario jazz lights are roundwound. I love em to death! I kept breaking tens, switched to 11s but hated the plain 18, and went to the 12s because 11s with a wound g is a real thin wound string. I just love the sound, its awesome. Go with the thickest strings you can play cause your sound will be huge!
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