I just tried 8's

That's what i use, and it works nicely.

Colorado Springs E,
2/100 of an inch is not much, that is true, but your conclusion is spurious indeed. The actual measurement is very slight in difference, yes, but the crucial difference is that .008 is 20% less than .010, and that is a very significant difference.

The simple fact is, that there is a difference between guage sets. Whether the "tone" is "better" or "worse" is also not quantifiable. I find that .009s on my strat are "sproingier" and that makes for some classic Quack sounds, but I liked the sound of heavier .011s for my style of playing. I compromised at .010, because of that, and because my Muddy sounded so good with .010s. The idea that there is NO TONE with skinny strings simply has no basis in fact. There is tone, you may just not like it.

 

I have a custom set of strings

I only use .056 strings, for all six of the strings and instead of tuning down,,,I tune up 6 whole steps...you need to try this because its the ultimate in guitar tele tone

 

Joey V

I've heard of that...but when SRV did it I think he actually used .58's

Merry Christmas!!!!

Bill Hullett

 

My fingers and arms would love to use a set of 9s, but my ears won't let them. I have two similar sounding 69 thinline RI guitars. I recently strung one of them with my regular gauge 12-52 and the others with a set of 10s. The difference in sound was huge.

Now if you play with a lot of distortion the difference is very hard to hear. But, the cleaner you go the more apparent it becomes. There is a lot more sustain and just an overall bigger sound. The highs are just as high only fuller. The bottom is way bigger sounding but not muddy.

Doing finger gymnastics with 12s is not a real joy, but worth the pain.

 

Why, that's easy to play 12's on an acoustic, and steel/nickel has less tension than bronze.

 

8's are too light for me ...

but 9's are great and have more twang IMHO ... 10's are often too stiff especially after a long night and you're not in the mood for the fight.

My son uses 8's on an SG and the tone is fat and full.

Subtle micro bends are easier with 9's as well.

10's are good on a Gibby scale though.

I've played as high as 11's but tuned down a half step.

Most of the players we admire play 9's or 10's, but a buddy of mine uses 12's ... to each his own.

Mike

 

Marshall

Your right!! With distortion the difference is probably not a big deal. I play blues and I play clean. 11's were great for tone, a little rough on the fingers. I'm now using 10's with a heavier bottom for chords. I guess if you don't play chords and all leads with distortion you can get by with the lighter strings.

 

Okay, I made some calculations. A plain .013 pulls 27.4 lbs when tuned to E, and 24.4 lbs for Eb. That's still bigger than a plain .012 tuned to the standard E (23.3 lbs), so SRV hasn't got any slinkyness even with that 1/2 step downtuning (and that high action).

 

Well it looks like me and vihar did the calculation at the same time, and he is right on with the tension.

Key E
0.009 - 13.1lbs
0.013 - 27.4lbs

D#
0.009 - 11.7lbs
0.013 - 24.4lbs

The frequency of a vibrating string is

So rearranging to solve for tension yields:

T= 4f^2ml

So it has a squared frequency relationship. To double the tension, the frequency must quadruple.

I wrote an article on custom string gauge design a while back. It has an Excel spreadsheet for doing the calculations if you are interested in solving for your own needs.

Custom String Calculations

 

8`s

I Have mostly used 10`s for 35 years, but do to work related repetitive motion , a few years back , I played lighter strings .

It was good for me , it takes more control with both hands , to play 8`s , or different techniques , to play in tune , to sound big or fat with 8`s .

 

Valid point..

 

I had 8.5's on for a while...

 

Terry - great article - thanks!

 

[*]I don't know or care watt famous player did watt alst I know iss when I went tew 8s and/or 9s inna early 70s my profit fer a nites werk wassa liddo less.
<li>I'd break 2 and sumtimes 3 liddo E strings a nite and mebby won B.
<li>I hadda change strings erry weekend and sumtimes twice a weekend.
<li>With 10s I could make it threw three weekends once inna while.
<li>Never could git full chord sound production with the lite guage ones neither.
<li>Course I ain't famous sew its jes MHO and I don't know noe famous folks tew say "cee they did" .

0le FUZZY

 

the heck of it is....

...it doesn't matter one whit what someone else uses. What ever the heck makes you pick up your own guitar and play your own material your own way and makes you happy is the the gauge (or brand, make, model, year, color, weight, on and on and on...) for you. Practice more, listen with your ears and not your eyes, be happy with your gear and Merry Christmas and ho ho ho to all and to all a good night....

 

Re: Valid point..

Yeah, the idea that the materials that make your instrument could have an influence on shaping your tone is just crazy. What kind of silly think will they come up with next.

clearly these two things are always, and in all cases, mutually exclusive.




-kp8--

.

 

Terry - your technical notes are awesome! (as well as your playing ), thank you!

 

More math

Try this for tension calculations.

http://www.pacificsites.net/~dog/StringTensionApplet.html

 

I've gone up and down on string sizes, finally settling on 10-52s for feel more than anything. The only tone problems I ever encountered was the loss of twang once the low E gets bigger than 52. To me, it starts to sound like a bass string, and doesn't have enough bite.

 

Re: Valid point..