Skinny Top Heavy Bottom

[ohmygato]

I tried a set of these Ernie Ball strings on my Strat and I think I am falling in love. I believe the gauge is 10 top, 52 bottom. They give the low strings the extra meat that they need and they seem to have improved the overall action to the point where it feels just about perfect now.

Has anyone tried these on a Tele and what did you like or not like about them? Are there any other manufacturers assembling packaged sets like these? I considered myself a D'addario guy until now but I may be converting.

 

[JodanOrNoDan]

I have used Earnie Balls forever and they are on everything other than my acoustics. 10-46's on my tele's and strats. 10's & 11's on the LP's. 9's on a "Super Strat" (I am too lazy to reset the floyd to put 10's on). I have run the 10-52's but I seem to always go back to the green pack.

 

[ElJay370]

I tried them for a bit. They seemed to work well on my Fender style guitars but the added tension on the bass side pulled the neck on my Les Paul into a twist I didn't care for. I'm guessing the shorter scale had something to do with it. They sounded great, though.

 

[Greggorios]

Ohhhh...guitar strings. Whew, thought you were talking about my old girlfriend Bertha from Bethesda. What she lacked on top she made up for on the bottom. (...sorry, couldn't resist.)

 

[JodanOrNoDan]

Ohhhh...guitar strings. Whew, thought you were talking about my old girlfriend Bertha from Bethesda. What she lacked on top she made up for on the bottom. (...sorry, couldn't resist.)

I thought pretty much the same thing when I read the title. Nothing like a girl shaped like an inverted light bulb. LOL.

 

[Greggorios]

I thought pretty much the same thing when I read the title. Nothing like a girl shaped like an inverted light bulb. LOL.

Especially if you like pears.

 

[Fiesta Red]

I though this was a thread about my wife’s cousin.

 

[Fearnot]

Long time Skinny Top Heavy Bottom user here... since the 80s, I believe. I love the extra boom the low strings have, and use it to good effect. All my guitars have them.

 

[lousy13]

I have used them on all my guitars, Tele's, Strats and 335 for years. I play a lot of Jimmy Reed shuffle stuff and I am heavy handed. 46's were too light. The 52's on the bottom are stiff enough to stay in tune but with some pressure can be used for some light lead string bending.

No problems with Gibson necks.

 

[charlie chitlin]

Tendon issues led me to skinny strings, but I can't give up completely.
Been using and digging a 9-46 set for years now.

 

[ohmygato]

Especially if you like pears.

I had a feeling the title of my thread would really "grab" you guys.

 

[Spats Davenport]

I used to use them on a Strat, when I was playing SRV type blues. Fantastic for that sort of stuff.

 

[telemnemonics]

Good heavens whatta buncha hooligans!

I'm using the one gauge down equivalent, EB .009- .046, because my aging hands needed a break from DAddario .010- .046.

I find my guitars and amps mostly produce too much bass, so I lower the pickups under the wound strings and turn the bass down at the amp.
I'm not sure what players who can't get enough bass are doing?
If solo guitar backing up a singer, maybe the guitar covers the bass range, but in a band all that bass ruins the guitar sound IME.

I may switch back to DAdario .009- .042 because it seems like the EB strings lose their freshness sooner.
Might be confirmation bias though.

I kept the heavier bass strings while going to lighter tops because I want tight clear bass and find wobbly loose strings to get muddy. But I have not tried 9-42 so maybe I don't need the .046.
I didn't expect these EBs to seem dead so quickly, maybe I'm playing more with the lighter tops since it's less of a strain to do my usual bending.

 

[jackal]

I have been using a variation of these with a D'Addario 11-48 set, adding a 9 for small e, throwing away the 18 plain and moving the 11 and 14 to the b and g strings respectively. Gives me a nice volume balance too.

 

[Flaneur]

Yep. All the time....except I prefer 11-52. Or 12, with a wound 3rd. I don't like to generalise or recommend, in these situations, other than to say, it works for me.

 

[Flaneur]

I'll add that you don't break a lot of strings, when you travel this road.....but i did break two wound strings, during a spirited Prince tribute number, recently.

 

[Pete Baker]

I've been using D'Addario EXL116 sets on my Telecasters for years. 11, 14, 18 (unwound), 30, 42, 52. To me, they are perfect for playing live. Standard tuning. I have found that lighter strings are nice for around the house playing, but playing live I tend to have a lot more energy, and the heavier strings suit me much better there. I also do a lot of playing on the fat strings, at the nut end of the neck, and dig in a bit with a heavy pick.

 

[ohmygato]

I find my guitars and amps mostly produce too much bass, so I lower the pickups under the wound strings and turn the bass down at the amp.
I'm not sure what players who can't get enough bass are doing?
If solo guitar backing up a singer, maybe the guitar covers the bass range, but in a band all that bass ruins the guitar sound IME.

What I'm talking about here is not necessarily the bass response of the guitar/effect/amp chain and how the string gauge affects the bass response but rather the way the guitar plays and sounds overall.

I think you have a great point and I have the same issue playing through my Twin but I feel like that is a bad reason to compromise a guitar that plays well and fundamentally sounds good... because you can deal with EQ and especially balance in a band setting in many other ways.

By no means am I saying your string gauge choice doesn't play well for you and I am sure you are way more experienced than I am and that you have the best possible setup for yourself. I just love the way these strings feel and sound and so I believe it is really the best starting point for my playing. I would be glad to deal with any EQ issues that crop up down the line through other solutions.

 

[telemnemonics]

What I'm talking about here is not necessarily the bass response of the guitar/effect/amp chain and how the string gauge affects the bass response but rather the way the guitar plays and sounds overall.

I think you have a great point and I have the same issue playing through my Twin but I feel like that is a bad reason to compromise a guitar that plays well and fundamentally sounds good... because you can deal with EQ and especially balance in a band setting in many other ways.

By no means am I saying your string gauge choice doesn't play well for you and I am sure you are way more experienced than I am and that you have the best possible setup for yourself. I just love the way these strings feel and sound and so I believe it is really the best starting point for my playing. I would be glad to deal with any EQ issues that crop up down the line through other solutions.

OK I mistook "extra meat" as being in your sound, where you meant in your feel of the strings.
I'm partly lumping your comment into setups I see where players have the pickups closer to the wound strings than the plain strings, as well as the general challenge managing excess bass that taxes the amp, sounds loud, but then makes the guitar inaudible once the bass and drums kick in.

My mistake!

I do or did use to prefer heavier strings on bass for the more snappy response and feel, and I guess also for the clarity.
While I seem to get enough clarity from a .046 low E in hybrid slinky's, I guess I'm not confident that a thinner low E in whatever the EB regular slinky .009- .042 set is called, so I'm choosing a heavier bottom string than top string, even of not going to .052.

The other thing I don't like about extra light strings is the bouncy RH feel where fast picking may find the string is squishy and harder to control, because I need some resistance from the string, and also want the string to snap back to the same location rather than flop all over the place because it's so loose.

But those issues are pretty well taken care of by practice and a lighter RH attack, combined with more amp volume.
The way we interact with the strings obviously defines how we sound, so it's clear that we need to choose what suits us best, and then work with it.

 

[thesjkexperienc]

I have wanted to try that set for years, but didn’t want to file the nut for the larger diameter. I did just put the GHS David Gilmour LP set on my 5 string subbing a 15 for the B string and it is HUSKY compared to the regular 10 set!

Of course I also like the Fender 150 Rock n Roll set (the 10-38 Jimi/Rory set) so maybe I should try the 10-52 set as it’s totally different.

I bought a case of EB 10-46 since I had not used them in 20 years. Sound pretty good, but tuning has been less stable than GHS. I don’t get much life out of D’addarios as I have a heavy right hand.

Because of that I want to try the thick core strings that should offer similar power and maybe tension, to the 10-52 set and not have to change the nut.