What Gauge Of Strings For Chicken Pickin?

[vikki]

I'm using 10's on my tele at the moment with a 14 on the second string for the b bender, do you guys use 11's or 12 gauge set? While we're here what amp do you use, i've a 70's twin but its a bit sharp, would something with a 15" speaker be better?
Many Thanks
Vikki (u.k)

[rod]

I use 9's and replace the G (16) with a 13. This makes double bends a lot easier. I like doing doubles both manually and in combination with the bender. It's a semi-substitute for a G bender and no grinding is required. There is some loss of tone probably. Clarence White used 9's with a 12 for the third but I find that too soft.

I had a Twin like yours for years and was never satisfied with my tone. Eventually I got a 70's Deluxe Reverb which I love. The smaller Fender amps sound better to my ears. They are great when pushed a bit and they don't weigh a ton.

[Baard]

I also use a b- bender.
I think the twins are great for country. I have a 100 watt 76 twin with master volume with one original fender speaker and a celestion speaker in it. it sound absolutely great IMHO.

I prefer the clean sound for country. The twin is also great because you can tweak the volume and the tone controls to have more or less high mid and bass, but without it getting muddy. Try using the low input on the vibrato/reverb channel for a change,bright switch on, gain (and volume) around 6-7, bass and treble on 4 and mid on 8 to full on. Also a compressor set moderatly with a lot of attack, will help to smoothen out the tone.





Baard

[BrianF]

ditch the 016 G and replace it with a 013....Clarence White style!

[JohnnyAtomic]

9-42 w/ a smaller G, little bigger than those guys w/ a 14.
johnny atomic

[tomtheguitarguy]

10-46 standard set w/ .13 for the b bender and .17 for the g bender.

playing through Gibson Goldtone GA-15RV and/or SuperGoldtone GA-30RV (depending on room size)

hope this helps.

tom

[bender72]

that has always been my motto, seem the lighter strings don't have the fullness of a thicker string, IMO. For myself, it seems that the thicker sets of strings sound better, just my .02.

[pepeunidos]

Howdy there - I prefer a .009 - .042 set, and replace the .011 with a .013. Seems like I get a little bit more tension that way and the string doesn't feel so slack when I actuate the bender. As far as amps go, I used a '74 Twin Reverb for years and years (still have it), but I've been using a '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue for the last couple years --- all my Teles sound great through it, but the Gretsch still likes the 2x12 the best. Do most of all my recording things with a '76 Princeton Reverb.

[Darrell]

That the reason we have 009's today is because the early players were taking the top two strings off and putting banjo strings on their guitars because they thought it was better. I don't remember who "they" are, but the article I read listed some of the early greats...I just don't remember their names.

Tone isn't always the name of the game with chicken picken. It is lightning fast compressed licks that shriek. And yes, double stops are a key element to that style.

[rcrecelius]

Darrell is right...back in the old days, strings were heavy by todays standards and electric players would tune down and/or use banjo strings on the E and B so they could bend them.
Myself...I started with 9's, then went to 10's. For seberal years I used 11's but I have went back to 10's and will probably stay there. I tried some 11's again just a month or so ago and to me it just didnt sound the same.
PS...I ditched the 11's when I stopped playing my B-Bender!

[TheViking]

Hi all!
Maybe i am a bit on the crazy side, but what i do for anything going fast, is that i start doing it on a guitar set up with 11's until it gets right and when i play gigs i use 9's or 10's depending on what guitar and rig i use. That way u pick up strength and speed. But then again we all have our prefrences