I've been playing acoustic guitar for a while, and bought an electric a week ago - I was wondering how can you compare strings on electric guitar ? I mean from my acoustic I know some strings sound mellow and some sound bright on my guitar and also I can hear when strings go dead and need replacing. But how do i know that on electric guitar ? I mean if a string sounds mellow - I turn the volume knob a little and it is stronger.. See my point ? any help ...
You'd be able to hear it just like on your acoustic, especially if you're playing it unplugged. As far as changing the controls of your electric, it would probably be the tone control instead of the volume, but most tone controls (except on active, battery powered systems) take the high frequecies away rather than add them, so at a certain point you could turn the tone all the way up so all the high frequencies are there and you would still hear the string sounding dull and lacking high frequencies - which is what a new string has to give it its 'brightness' and an older string does not. A tone control, even on an amp, can only amplify what the string already has, and if the string is going dead - losing its high frequencies - there's no amount of control adjusting that will compensate.
I think you'll be able to tell though.
For me, I like the sound of slightly older strings - even on acoustic; brand new ones are just too...brand-new sounding :)
Typically I find on my electrics that if they're aging, I'll break one. In part, I think, because the strings are thinner. I tend to play them on the electric until one snaps. (This may just be a bad habit of mine that you should ignore entirely).
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
