What kind of strings do you prefer?

Mattsican · Post by **Mattsican** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:00 pm

Super heavy, super light or somewhere in between? Which do you all think work better for tapping/strumming?

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:17 pm

Thickest I can get my grubby mitts on.

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:19 pm

I used to be of the 'heavier is always better' camp and played .11s and sometimes .12s almost exclusively for years. As my tastes and playing sensibilities have shifted, so too have my string gauge preferences. Right now I am playing in Standard tuning 1/2 step down (Eb standard), and on my 25.5" scale Fender guitars I'm using either .09-42 or .10-46 gauge. On my Les Paul-ish guitar in the same tuning, I'm still sticking with the .11s.

One of the major factors was set up. I have a couple guitars with vintage-style fret-size and radius (7.25 I think?), and so to have great playability with no buzzing, choking-out on bends, and proper 'ring-age', the strings need to be off the fretboard a bit further in comparsion to a guitar with a flatter radius and bigger/wider/lower frets. With a heavy gauge, this sort of setup is a chore/pain to play and it's really hard to bend much more than a half-step on the lower frets. With a lighter gauge, the feel is immensely improved and it actually seems like I have much more control and ease of bending, vibrato, chording, etc. not to mention the guitar is just more fun and less tiring to play. It's just easier for me to be expressive with my playing with lighter guages (not to mention the lower tension Eb-tuning provides).

I really don't think the gauge makes a world of differece on electric guitar in terms of tone. (Okay, maybe it does in the extremes when comparing .08s to .13s, and certainly rounds vs. flats have a HUGE effect on sound).

In any case, I would prioritize playing comfort over any slight advantage in tone.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:34 pm

Funny how many string threads come up each month.... I like these on my Jag.

10s on Jazzmaster, 9 or 10s on Tele

mkt3000 · Post by **mkt3000** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:44 pm

I used to use 10-48 Magma Light+ Strings, but you can't get them online, and the only big local retailer who sold them went out of business... so they're expensive as f! now when you can find them.

So now Ernie Ball 10-46's, which I can get at Best Buy.

Post by **Doog** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:58 pm

11-49: chunky enough to be beefy and such, thin enough for lead work.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:58 pm

Heavier is always better when it comes to the sound, but not necessarily for your poor old fingers. 11 used to be about the lightest I ever went, and often all the way up to 13s. Now I just use light top heavy bottoms (10-52, though I often use a 56 instead of the 52) for almost all of my guitars. The one exception is my tuned down guitar which I use 10-60 GHS strings on, tuned down to C.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Tue May 01, 2012 7:08 pm

Depends on the guitar/what I use that guitar for. My hollow body has flatwound 12s, my solid body has 10s. My acoustic has roundwound 12s and my classical is strung with 'normal' tension strings.

It depends on the application I need the guitar for, my hollow body (Eastman T186mx) is used more or less just for jazz, so the mellow tone from the flats is great, plus I never really bend strings so I don't need to worry about how heavy the strings are - same goes for my acoustic (Larrivee L-03R). My electric (JJ Electra) is used for pretty much everything else, so the 10s make life way easier, plus it has the lowest action known to man - it's actually insane. My classical (Alhambra 7p I think) is just strung with the gauge it came with, they're pretty comfortable and sound pretty good so I'm not too bothered.

Ironically in a thread yesterday I was extolling the virtues of coated slinkys, but playing them again today they seem to have died - last a grand week longer than normal strings. So I'm going to stick another set of the Legacy strings you can get from stringsdirect - sound good, dead cheap and are more or less identical to Rotosounds (I think they're made in the same factory, even the packaging is incredibly similar).

I D'addario chromes, but I want to try La Bella's or Thomastik next for flatwounds - if I get Thomastik swings I'll go for some 13s as they're lower tension strings.

I like Elixir Polywebs on my acoustic, the Nanowebs were too bright.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:18 pm

I only play in standard tuning these days so its 9's, in the past i used 10's in D standard and 13's in G standard.
The way i see it is my hands take a shitload of hammer every working day so fuck grappling with heavy gauge strings in my leisure time. 9's are comfortable and i do a lot of string bending.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Tue May 01, 2012 9:12 pm

.012s or .013s. I like bit of heft to play through when I'm playing.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Tue May 01, 2012 9:18 pm

have worked my way up 9-42, 10-52, 11-48 on electrics
I think I generally prefer 10-52 but am using 11-48 more these days because fewer companies sell the light top/heavy bottom sets and you can get 11-48s cheaper.

On my Martin acoustic I either use 12-52 or 11-49 bronze strings or Martin low-tension "Silk & Steel" M130 folk strings (.0115; .014; .023; .028; .038; .047) for more fingerpicking, though it actually aids the strummed sound a lot as my Martin is super bass-heavy with bronze strings when you use a pick.

I've never changed the strings on my 12 string, they're some kinda Godins.

I've tried heavier flatwound strings on electrics and currently have two 11 sets with wound Gs on my Jag and Tele, but I'm not taking to them well. On bass I only like flatwounds, though I really wanna get some rounds back on my old bass so I have 'em when they're called for on a recording.

George · Post by **George** » Wed May 02, 2012 5:59 pm

9s. Cos I'm using my fingers a bit more I want some give.

vincel · Post by **vincel** » Wed May 02, 2012 8:30 pm

9s for me, usually GHS Boomers 09-42.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Wed May 02, 2012 10:28 pm

11 to 49 daddario blues jazz set or rotosound Blues 10 - 52

AaronGuitarDude · Post by **AaronGuitarDude** » Thu May 03, 2012 4:48 am

8s for me.. call me girly. D Addario 8s

Mattsican · Post by **Mattsican** » Thu May 03, 2012 6:15 am

I've always played heavier strings it seems. my ibanez 6 was usually (still is) in drop c so i use the EB slinky top beefy bottoms... then I had my 7 string so that just seemed heavier with the low B. my Mustang shipped with 9's and they seemed super light in comparison so i switched up to 11's. I broke a string and all i had was a set of 10's and i played them for a month or so until i broke another string so i grabbed some 11's and they seem clunky now. I notice that im geting more fatigued while playing and its kind of annoying. I don't really bend at all so i like the higher tension for strumming and chords come thru really beefy. I need to find a good balance between string tension and the amount of pressure i need to apply while fretting i think. My main gig is playing a 5 string bass so switching between that and tiny shortscale guitar is a big adjustment to make.

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Thu May 03, 2012 5:47 pm

I used 09s when I started out, dropped to 08s but kept breaking them so went back to 09s. After I got out of the 'beginner' phase I went up to 10s and have stayed with them ever since. I used .11s at one point, but since I'm a wimp I went back to 10s again. The .11s didn't sound any different; they were just uncomfortable for me. Maybe when I get the Mustang/Jag built I'll use .11s on that *shrugs*

I've not really settled on any particular brand - it's secondary to gauge for me, and I honestly don't think I could tell the difference in a blind test. I've come back to DR Hi-Beams and GHS Boomers but sometimes fitted D'Addarios or EB Slinkies on the grounds of cheapness.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Thu May 03, 2012 8:30 pm

10 - 42 on my Tele, Strat, Jagstang - various makes, but mostly Regular Slinkys.
11 - 48 on one LP - Ernie Ball Power Slinkys.
11 - 52 on other LP and Jaguar - D'Addario EXL116.
10 - 47 Elixir for acoustics.

Chico Malo · Post by **Chico Malo** » Thu May 03, 2012 8:55 pm

For my Strat... PHR-9/46 http://www.drstrings.com/catalog/pure-blues
For my Alembic shortscale bass... 5500 http://www.ghsstrings.com/strings/bass/super-steels-1
For my 72 Fender jazz and all my other longscale basses L5000... http://www.ghsstrings.com/strings/bass/super-steels-1

rps-10 · Post by **rps-10** » Thu May 03, 2012 9:28 pm

D'Addario's EXL110 Nickel Wound, Regular Light, 10-46 have been my choice for years on end.
But considering going down to .9s recently for more flappy tension.

Plus really tempted to try out some DR NEONS for some