skinny strings

[robroe]

i just posted in a n00bs thread about his strings and i realized something.


i have been playing 13's for so long now that when i play someone elses guitar with "normal sized" strings (.10 or below) every thing goes sharp. every fucking guitar i pick up in a shop now off the rack i cant even play because when i make a chord it sounds all out of tune and shitty because i am used to pressing down so hard. the only strings that go sharp are the ones with my finger tips on them so open notes or barred notes in a chord are wayyy out of tune with each other


anyone else have this problem? it kind of makes picking out a new guitar at a shop fucking impossible based on sound at all. i just go on feel

[Haze]

I realized the same thing today - I picked up a cheap set of strings from target today (9s) and I noticed everything going sharp. I have the same problem in shops because for some reason manufacturers send guitars out with 9s on them, even shortscale which is rediculous. Between that and never being able to find one relatively in tune i gave up on it.

[Will]

Used to be like that, but I'm getting better. I've been going to lighter strings because they're easier to find and the price is better, plus I messed up my hands last winter from the cold.

I use either 11-50 stainless flats tuned down a whole step or regular 10-46s in standard. For jazz, it really is easier to use something lighter.

[the isaac eaton]

I used to play 13's and 14's for the longest time. Then I played a guitar that was well set up with 10's and I never went back. I used to experience the same problems when I played heavy gauge strings.

[Reece]

i kinda have that.

the worst is the g. after playing a wound g for so long unwound gs sound and feel very strange.

[mickie08]

I have that from playing heavy strings, and playing more acoustic then electric. So when I do play a electric with light strings I bend the thing way out of tune if I am not careful.

[gaybear]

i started on a cumbersome nylon string classical guitar, so when i got my first electric guitar, it was really hard for me to get used to.

now, i play on mostly 10s, but do tend to squish em outta tune.

[Reece]

i learned on this encore acoustic with a massively high action. it hurts my hand to play it nowadays.

i think that's why i went to 12s, i had HULK STRONG fingers after playing that thing for a year.

[NickS]

When I started, the fad (at least among people I knew) was for very light strings. I took it to the extreme and used to play 6s, but the top string kept breaking so I'd pick pick a 6 set with a 7 top from the Rotosound Custom Gauge Selection box in Yardley's for the Burns Duo-Sonic I was borrowing. At Uni I moved to 7s, but it was only when my son started playing put 8s on his Jackson that I realised there were some advantages to heavier strings. He now plays 10s on his Schecter C1+; I use 9s on the Strat, 10s on the Flying V and the Swinger, but the strings on my Tanglewood dreadnought are 11s and I'm finding them stiff when I want to do bends.

[Will]

LOL at 8s being "heavier strings"

[Reece]

i think i would snap a 6 just by looking at it.

christ that's HALF A 12 and if i snap a string it's pretty much always the 12.

[Freddy V-C]

I used to use 10s, now I use 9s. I also use the Ernie Ball 'Skinny Top Heavy Bottom's sometimes, I think those are on my Tele at the moment.

[wilrecar77]

I only have that problem playing my friend's guitars, but he uses something like 9-42 on his B.C. Rich. I normally do 11-52's on 25.5 guitars.

[brambleperro]

I ran into this just yesterday. I was in my recording class, and we needed to record a jam band of sorts, so I offered to play guitar. I didn't have my own, so used a Mustang that my classmate had brought in. It must've been set up with 9's or something even lighter, because I could not for the life of me play a chord that sounded right. I could riff a bit, but bends would throw everything off.

I play 12's on everything. Nothing I ever play in a store feels right.

For jazz, it really is easier to use something lighter.

That makes sense to me. My classmate is a jazz player for sure.

[izodiak]

I had 11s on my strat, and I sold it to a guy, who played it a bit, and said how can I play with such 'heavy' strings..
I was very surprised about his opinion, and he is a quite good-popular guitarist here in Latvia, so yea.

[Josh]

got the same problem.
been playing exclusively with 12's and 13's for about a year now.
mostly 12's.
when i bend on guitar's at shops my fingers slip off them, which makes me look rather foolish when i'm doing some kind of "blues riff".
and then playing bass doesn't help my case either.
my post on this in the diary thread a while back made me get accusations that i have "fat fingers".
when i don't.

[chrismakesgod]

I use 12's or 13's on my Mustang. But i tend to go for 10's on my Les Paul. My friend uses 9's on his jag, and it just feels like im going to snap the e string whenever i play it.

[Rhysyrhys]

I play "light-heavy" or "light-superheavy" on my axes so I never get that problem because I have to worry about the top 3 strings still being a .10 gauge. But when I used to play straight 13s I had that problem, big hulking hands + tiny little strings = sharp.

[Skip]

I have that from playing heavy strings, and playing more acoustic then electric. So when I do play a electric with light strings I bend the thing way out of tune if I am not careful.

this for me too

[benecol]

NickS's post both made me laugh and reassured me: I too started playing guitar in a time of skinny strings, and was convinced my mate Jon bought a set of 6's, but thought I must have imagined it, since physics would not allow such a thing. We used to set our guitars up with the lowest action possible (strumming any harder than a gentle stroke would cause all manner of fretbuzz) and with insanely light strings. Heavy bottom 11's on everything nowadays.