I bought a guitar a few months ago and have been teaching myself to play. I broke my first string last night and bought a set of Martin Medium plain steel/bronze strings today because I thought the guitar had been strung with medium thickness strings. I think the mediums are bigger than what I had. Is this a problem? It is a little more difficult to play but sounds a lot better than it did. I think, but I could be imagining it.
My questions are: Is there anything wrong with putting the higher gauge strings on? I have really hard finger tips so it is not hurting me a bit to play. But like I said it does seem slightly more difficult to play. This may just be because I'm not use to the strings. I think I keep missing the string with my fret hand every so often. Because of the different feel.
Also, it seems that my neck now bends more than it did, do I need to adjust the truss rod?
Basically what are the advantages/disadvantages of light and heavy strings? Would you suggest I go buy some light strings? Or leave the heavies?
One of the advantages of heavier strings is you tend to get a deeper sound and less ringing of the treble strings.
It will definitely give you a different feel and as you already noted heavier strings will tend to pull on the neck a little more and make it bend more. That is more than likely also why it feels harder to play so my guess is that the truss rod (neck relief) does need adjustment. Once you adjust the neck it should pretty much feel like it did before but the strings will still feel a little firmer than before.
Adjusting the truss rod is pretty simple. You can take a look at the "basic setup" page on my link below for "how to" adjust it. You should also check your intonation after the neck adjustment.
If your guitar was strung with lighter gauge strings, mediums will be harder to play. You may need to adjust your setup, but you'll probaby be ok.
Two things to watch for:
First, a buzz on open strings. That tells you the string is sitting on top of the nut, rather than in the slot. If the nut was made for a light gauge (or extra light), sometimes a thicker gauge string will sit right on top of the nut rather than settling into the slot, and it'll give you some trouble. It's a pretty easy fix, but you can't go back home again once you do it :)
The other thing is the tension on the neck. Press a string down at the first fret, and press another one down where the neck joins the body - probably 14, but that varies with the guitar (I'm assuming you have an acoustic). Sighting along the side of the neck, you can see how big the gap is between the string and the frets... if there's a big gap around frets 7-8, you may need a truss rod adjustment.
Odds are, though, if it was strung with lights and you went to mediums, you won't have trouble. If I'm remembering correctly, you've added about 20-22 pounds of total pull to the neck... on some guitars that means an adjustment, on some guitars it won't. My rule of thumb on changing string brands or gauges has been <15 pounds = everything will be dandy, >30 pounds I'm definately gonna have to setup again. Stuff in between depends on the stiffness of the neck. But then I'm no professional tech... I just know the way I like mine setup :)
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I just adjusted the truss rod. Now when I fret the Low E at fret 1 and 14 the distance between the Low E string and the 6th fret is a little less than the diameter of my D string. It is now as easy to play as it was before I restrung and sounds a lot better. Thanks
The one thing I am worried about...... any chance of the heavier strings ripping my bridge off? 25 pounds extra pounds of force seems like a lot for that little piece of wood to hold...........
I just adjusted the truss rod. Now when I fret the Low E at fret 1 and 14 the distance between the Low E string and the 6th fret is a little less than the diameter of my D string. It is now as easy to play as it was before I restrung and sounds a lot better. Thanks
The one thing I am worried about...... any chance of the heavier strings ripping my bridge off? 25 pounds extra pounds of force seems like a lot for that little piece of wood to hold...........
You got to remember though, the top and bridge are braced for the tension, and that bridge ain't getting dislocated from the top. It's not just regular glue, the only practical way to remove the bridge would be like to steam heat it for a while.
