I just tried 8's

[danelectro]

for the first time and WOW. I strung up my Thinline and its like a different guitar. I had never used anything but 11's and have been stepping down in gauge as I get away from bashing away at hard rock. It's like the strings bend themselves. Anybody else here using super lights? What pros are known for using super lights?

[shakedancer]

Too light!! The tone will reflect it. To each his own, but I don't know how someone who used 11's for years can go that low. The tone on 11's is great . I also used that guage for years. I'm now using 10>13>17>28>38>48 and would never go any lower. You cannot sacrifice tone for playing ability.

[lenny]

james burton used/uses i think .09's
i believe bill hulett said he uses .09
brent mason , .095
cant say ive ever heard of anyone using .08's tho

[HullettAmps]

Originally Posted by lenny

james burton used/uses i think .09's
i believe bill hulett said he uses .09
brent mason , .095
cant say ive ever heard of anyone using .08's tho

I believe Lou Toomey said that when he played with Billy Gibbons that The Rev. plays 8's on his Les Paul....and he tunes down....

[danelectro]

I new tone would come up but honestly I can't hear much difference other than a little brightness but I'm guessing thats because of a brand change. I'm going to put a set on my Alvarez and see what happens with the super lights on an acoustic thats how much I like these. But flavor of the day ya know, tomorrow I may have a different idea.

[lenny]

Originally Posted by HullettAmps

I believe Lou Toomey said that when he played with Billy Gibbons that The Rev. plays 8's on his Les Paul....and he tunes down....

o cool! someone had posted that they read an interview where he said that, but we all thought he was lying to goof on the reporter, i guess he has done that in the past.

[Bruce Kiely]

I don't know of anyone who uses 8s (other than John Rawlins, who has since "graduated" to 9s), but I'm pretty sure that both Albert Lee and Jim Campilongo use 9s. No tone problems there.

:-)

Cheers,
BK

[Marshall Thinline]

I have been getting thicker and thicker as my hands can take it. Everytime I use a thicker guage the tone sounds better. The thickest I am using now go from a 12 to 52. I think I have reached the limit.

I wish thinner strings sounded better. I would be using them.

[J-man]

I always use 9's, personally can't get to like high guage strings. I went to tens at one point when I kept snapping the high E on my old Squier but it turned out it had a sharp saddle, so I fixed that and went back to 9's

[danelectro]

if there is a big enough difference to even worry about it. To my ears the tone is about the same, different strings same guitar and it does what it always does but is much slinkier. I'm guessing there is some tone loss but for the average guy plinking around in his house playing daily concerts for his house plants, pets and annoyed family does a slight tone variance really matter. My hands are plenty strong from playing 28 years so I don't really need the exercise but I doubt I'll string anymore of my electric guitars this way. It feels ok on a Fender but on a Gibson it might be a little rubbery.

[lex765]

I'm not sure what James Burton uses now, but he pioneered light sets. He use to throw away the 2 biggest strings and use banjo strings on the E and A , I'm pretty sure that would be equal to a set of 8's.
Albert Lee now uses sets of 9 thru 40, but for years he used 8's. Check out his playing on Emmylou's Luxury Liner album, that is with 8's and there is certainly no problem with his tone. 8's can sound very thick when played with the right touch and with the right amp settings. I played 8's for awhile when I was first learning alot of manual pedal steel bends, and the only problem I had was sometimes bending strings when I didn't mean to. I now use 9's and they bend great for the pedal steel sounds and the tone is wonderful.

[d. meyers]

Jeez, .08's? I came to the tele through acoustic guitars, and as a result a set of 10's feel light as hair. I'd have to do a lot of practicing to play with a light enough touch to play 8's in tune. To you find you pull them out of tune when comping? That's what I'd worry about, aside from the tone question.

[gls500]

Hey, if it works for you, don't worry about it.

I couldn't do it, personally. I played 12's on a tele for a long time, but when I started playing more, my hands got sore. I've stepped down to 10's now for Fender scale necks, and 11's for Gibson scale necks. Works great for me.

[Bill Hullett]

James Burton plays a very unusual set of strings...its 9, 10 , 12, 24W ,32W, 38W...

I don't know if 8's would perform well on acoustic....but I've heard guys that make em sound great on teles...I use stock sets of 9's myself...It really depends on what you need the guitar to do for you...

Bill Hullett

[danelectro]

What seems to be the allure for me is the light bottom strings rather than the super light tops. The low E 38 has me twangin like a wild man and the middle two the D (22) and G (14) is a twang fest as well. I made a whole night out of copping some of James Honeyman Scotts' old Pretenders licks.

I apologize in advance for being goofy but it really is a weird feel for a life long heavy string guy. Honestly I had only been using those 11's for about a year because before that I had 13's on all my stuff.

I do see a downfall though and this is the truth, the super lights can lead to some "bad taste" noodling. That may be a problem for a man like me, I have the attention span of an amoeba.

[kp8]

Albert Lee used 8's for years (as noted) and grudgingly went up to 9s when he started playing with Clapton.

They didn't make 8's in the old days so the old rock guys, like Jimmy Page, used 8s taken from a banjo set.

I use 10s down from 11s... I like the string to have a little more fight in it... just a personal preference, more important: your style of play and what you play on it. Light strings make sense for an Albert Lee and heavy strings sound great for SRV...

[danelectro]

It's Pages' fault! Thats what led me to the 8's if the truth needs to come out. I was having problems executing, no pun intended, some of Jimmy's solos and decided to try a lighter gauge to make it easier to get that twangy\bendy\slurry Sun Records sound Jimmy gets.

Did y'all know he and Albert are friends from way back. What the hell was in the water over there.

[Colo Springs E]

Originally Posted by shakedancer

Too light!! The tone will reflect it. To each his own, but I don't know how someone who used 11's for years can go that low. The tone on 11's is great . I also used that guage for years. I'm now using 10>13>17>28>38>48 and would never go any lower. You cannot sacrifice tone for playing ability.

....someone please help that guy get some tone!!

[danelectro]

I just called Santa and he is skipping you if you don't go to bed!

[Nick Fanis]

I have also been a heavy gauge "snob" for years using 011-050 & 012-052 sets.
Than by "mistake" I strung my tele with a 010-046 set (I run out of 011 sets and the only set I had was a set that was sent to me together with a guitar I bought from ebay) .
The sound difference was amazing my tele sounded suddenly WAY twangier and fuller than before.
So I went down to 010's.
I have also tried a 09-042 set but although I did NOT notice a sound degredation they really felt too light for my style.
Hundreds of killer sounding players use light strings so I believe that the whole "heavy strings=better tone" thing is a bit of an overstatement...

[hippietim]

Billy Gibbons, Jimmy Page, and Yngwie Malmsteen all use 8's - and all three of those guys have tone to spare.

I've never noticed a big difference in switching string guages myself. I personally use 9-46 or 9-42 depending on what's handy. Moving to 10's made no appreciable difference to me at all. I also had 11's and 12's before and it didn't sound any better to me. Maybe a tad louder but that's what the amplifier is for. I do use really thick strings 14-68 on my baritone Tele because the thin ones flop around too much when you tune down to Low A.

[TimJ]

Tony Iommi and Shawn Lane are further 8s users.

[Mark Davis]

Albert King used 9's. And also a solid state amp he did everything wrong according to most people but sounded great.

[Doug 54]

-Malmsteen even tunes down a half step w 8's!

-Albert King used those 9's, tuned down in different tuning on a 24 3/4" scale Gibson copy (thanks, Dan E.!!)

-GP quotes Billy Gibbons using 8's on LP's, w tail piece not low, and low action. (hand injuries??)

-The last few yrs of his life, Shawn Lane used a 24 3/4" Vigier w 8's. (he definitley had arthritis problems)

[stechmann]

I just went down from .10 to .09, should have done that a long time ago!

[TonyBlack]

9's, his tone is decent.