String gauge

Hi Nuno,

I've got 12s on my old acoustic and they seem fine for sound and feel. I'm not so sure about the importance of 'strength' though. I found that more I played the easier it got to play without mutes and buzzes. But I thought that it was mostly because my accuracy had improved, more than my strength. Although perhaps it was a bit of both? I don't think that you need to push that hard (except perhaps at the first fret next to the nut, if the action is high there).

Unless you are doing bends - which will of course be a lot harder with thick strings - my guess is that accurate finger placement is more important than strength. Good players always look to me like their touch is quite light, but they know just where to apply it. 8) I could be wrong of course. It might be worth experimenting with just one finger, one string, and one note and see just how little force you can actually get a clear sound with. If you find that it's quite light under those 'ideal circumstances' then maybe it's more a matter of slowly improving the finger angle and placement rather than strength as such. (Guessing a bit here, but it sounds easy enough to try anyway. :wink: )

Cheers,

Chris

EDIT: Just remembered something I saw somewhere else. A player who wanted a 'slacker' feel on his strings down tuned all 6 strings to reduce the tension on them. Say one step from EAD to D#, G#, C# etc.

Then he stuck a capo at the first fret. This brought it back up to EAD tuning but didn't put all the tension back. It just gave him a new 'nut' position (with a nice low action) and a slightly shorter neck. :) I haven't got time to try it now, but it might be fun to experiment and see if it feels easier. Might throw you out if you rely on dot positions though. :?

Hi Chris! :D

Thanks for your comment. Probably you are right. I think I've detected the buzzes and mutes now, when I play in fingerpicking style. If I strum, it is very difficult for me to detect a muted string. I don't detect the problem when I play my electric.

I said strength because I can play correctly during the first part of my practice, but when my fingers get tired, the sound becomes unclear. But it can be due to a worst accuracy also.

A Spanish adagio says something like if it doesn't kill you, it will make you grow up. Thus, I'll keep the 13s for the moment!

Thanks,
Nuno

We have that expression too, but it's more like: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." :)

I said strength because I can play correctly during the first part of my practice, but when my fingers get tired, the sound becomes unclear. But it can be due to a worst accuracy also.

I'm not really sure how it all works, except that the more I played the easier it all got. People do say that lighter strings can be less hard on the fingers, but I've never been quite sure what the physics of it all is. I have an idea that the tension comes into it too, and not just the thickness on its own. After all, I don't have any trouble holding down a string on the bass with my pinky, and they're pretty thick.

I've got two steel string acoustics and one sounds much better with heavier gauge strings, whereas the other seems feel and even sound better with a light .010 gauge. Not sure why that is, but it seems to be a combination of things.

Interesting article I read on the Ernie Ball website about the early days of electrics where he was trying to convince Leo Fender to fit lighter strings on his electric guitars. Apparently Fender was very resistant to the idea (they used much thicker strings in those days). Partly perhaps because thicker strings are supposed to give more sound, and many prefer the tone, but also:
"I called my Fender sales rep, Tom Walker, and asked him to tell Leo Fender about the problem. Tom reported back that Leo wouldn't allow lighter gauge strings on his guitars because they caused string buzz, and he wasn't about to re-engineer his neck tension rods. I thought, "OK, Leo; If you won't do it, then I will! I talked a guitar string manufacturer into making me some custom medium gauge sets with a 24 third string instead of a 29."

So maybe lighter ones would make it a bit easier in some ways, but not necessarily fix all the buzzes anyway?

Ernie ball History Article

(Scroll down for the full article)

Chris

Just a story...

I was in a guitar shop yesterday and there was an old guy of 70 or so sitting looking at a reverb pedal. The shop owner (who isn't all that good on guitar) was playing a few noodles while the customer fiddled with the pedal. After a while he handed the guitar over to the old guy to have a go.

He sat there with it across his knee in quite an odd position and laid his hands about halfway down the neck in a rough bar chord shape. He didn't look like a player - more like a Grandad who was buying a pedal for a grandson and who wanted to see what a guitar felt like. He had big fingers and his hands look like he'd been a tradesman - perhaps a bricklayer. They were just lying across the strings with no apparent pressure at all, as if he wasn't actually going to try and play anything.

And then, slowly and quietly, he started to play. Beautiful, gentle jazzy bluesy stuff that looked and sounded completely effortless. His fingers looked like they weren't pressing at all, and you'd swear that he couldn't possibly have them just lying there without all sorts of buzzing and muting happening. :shock: But the music was an absolute delight, and a real lesson in the power of experience. Later I asked him how long he'd been playing, and he smiled and said "most of my life..." 8)

Cheers,

Chris

Just a suggestion, Nuno - why not call in a music shop near you and try some guitars with lighter strings - I think most guitars, fresh from the factory, are fitted with 9's or 10's.

12's, to me, are heavy strings, my electric and my main acoustic both wear 9's - I wouldn't have anything else on them. My second acoustic currently has 10's on, but that's mainly kept in open G for slide. It's a trade-off - I'll willingly sacrifice a little of the tone & volume of heavier strings for the superior (to me) playability of the 9's. I bend a lot of notes, and play a lot of blues shuffles....it's hard on my hands with heavier strings.

But checking out your local shop seems to me a good way to experiment - you should be able to tell which strings are lighter, or similar to, or heavier than, your own guitar(s.) And the bonus is, it won't cost you anything!

:D :D :D

Vic

Good idea Vic! 8)

My electric has 9s, too. It is good to me. Probably I could try 10s in the electric. In fact, I have a new GHS set of 10s but I never changed the strings (I'm veeeery lazy).

It is impossible for me to bend the 13s. I can bend the first and second a half tone with a lot of effort. The third is also... sorry, I don't know the English word... I mean, it is as the fourth, fifth and sixth strings and I can not bend it, I do not move it.

Chris, very interesting article! Tomorrow I'll read it all the text!

Voidious, it is very funny! :D

13's seem big on an acoustic. Maybe use 11 or 12's for less string tension.

Thanks Dennis! :D

Today I was reading some pages and catalogues at Martin, Ernie Ball and D'Addario and also I was reading again an article in Acoustic Guitar on string gauges. The standard strings that Martin uses in the new guitars are phosphor bronze and .013, the strings with the higher tension. Its seems the gauge affects the tension but also the material.

I'll go to the store next week for trying several strings. I remember a Yamaha, it was very playable. Maybe I thought on the guitar and the neck but it had a different gauge.

Thanks!

My Martin D-15 is always strung with 12's, I tried 13s once and didn't care for the feel. Usually I use D'Addario, but I don't really think they're much differant from other brands.

My Martin D-15 is always strung with 12's, I tried 13s once and didn't care for the feel. Usually I use D'Addario, but I don't really think they're much differant from other brands.
Ok! It is a very good comment because we have the same guitars!

Thanks! :D

I was in my usual store this morning and the salesman agreed the 13s were hard to play. He shown me a Martin with a new string set that he changed the last week. They were 11s, GHS Silk and Bronze, much easier. So, I bought a set and changed the old strings.

I confirm they are very playable and, to my ears, sound better than the 13s: lightly brighter but with good level between the bass and trebble. Very happy! :D

Thanks!

I was in my usual store this morning and the salesman agreed the 13s were hard to play. He shown me a Martin with a new string set that he changed the last week. They were 11s, GHS Silk and Bronze, much easier. So, I bought a set and changed the old strings.

I confirm they are very playable and, to my ears, sound better than the 13s: lightly brighter but with good level between the bass and trebble. Very happy! :D

Thanks!

Glad you got that sorted out. I tried 11's once on my main acoustic - after playing them for half-an-hour, you would not believe how much my hand was aching trying to hold them down! They came off that guitar, and straight on my other acoustic, which I keep in open G most of the time. Felt a lot better when I got 9's back on my main guitar! Even 10's, to me, feel heavy - these days it's 9's on the acoustic and electric, 10's on the open G acoustic. Moral of the whole story? Try before you buy, and buy what suits YOU!!!

:D :D :D

Vic

Moral of the whole story? Try before you buy, and buy what suits YOU!!!
+1 :D

I don't know if the "silk and bronze" reduces also the tension or if this couple of months with the 13s converted my hands in a kind of "Schwarzenegger's hands"! :lol:

Thanks again Vic! :D