wound G/3rd string... holy cow.

[jbuonacc]

anyone using these string sets on their guitars?


i've had a mexican 2012 'Pawn Shop' Mustang Special for years and always had problems with the G/3rd string going out of tune and just general intonation issues overall. as close as i could get it, it just never seemed "just right". i can't even imagine how much time i've spent fighting with this thing, i don't think i'd be exaggerating to say that at least half the time i'm playing it feels "off" and i'm checking the tuning. again. i've got a couple 80s mij guitars that always stay in tune and are a joy to play.

anyway, i've been playing the Mustang for about a year now minus the B and high E strings. (i guess that's a conversation in itself.) love it, but it was a little too flexible and there's always that "twang" of the unwound string in contrast to the rest. that's generally fine, but i wanted to see what a wound G/3rd set was like. unbelievable, the thing just *screams* now. i haven't had to adjust the tuning since i put them on days ago and it sustains like crazy. it almost rings like an acoustic, i don't get it. it's always been kind of lively unplugged, but almost in a bad/cheap way (??). now it feels like a real "instrument".

the weird thing is that i went from .10's to .11's thinking they'd be fine, but they're not sitting all the way down in the nut slots. i bought some .10's with a wound 3rd, and would appreciate the flexibility, but i'm afraid to change anything now. lol, wtf.

[dots]

i know robroe swears by his wound Gs, and he also plays 13s on all his guitars if i'm not mistaken.

i tried that on for size years back, but i couldn't get on with it. i mostly rock fender bullet 11s (48 - 11) and haven't had the intonation issues like you describe (at least none that some bridge adjustments couldn't handle), but i'm glad it worked out for you.

[plopswagon]

sometimes my g-string starts to unwind. It's embarrassing.

[Ankhanu]

D'Addario EXL115W is my default string choice over the past couple years - wound G makes a HUGE tuning stability difference, both for shortscale, and standard Fender/Gibson scales. Took a tiny bit of getting used to at first, but I'm a iffy player, and don't do many bends, so it works out great for me.

[Pacafeliz]

I have tried, but came to the conclusion that apparently I'm not man enough to play wound G's.

[rahbro]

i got into wound G back in like 1994 when my guitar teacher told me to try a new string called BOOMERS. i think they were made by a company called GHS ?

I don't even know if they are a thing anymore.


so anyways they had a wound G and thats just what feels normal to me because thats what I learned on when i was a kid.

the string size thing was just a progressive thing. my first guitar was a dinky copy called SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL. that had 9's on it and when you first start you suck, so my brain matches 9's with suck.

as i got older and started tinkering with EVERYTHING on it i got 10's. then in 95 when i got my jag stang the same guitar teacher was like....this has a jag neck and they shipped with bigger strings back in the 60's because of the scale try these 11's.

Then when i was living in Ohio, I went all out and got a pack of flatwound 13's. just because. really no reason. when i got out of college and started this guitar collection flatwound 13's went straight on every new guitar.

I started getting back into roundwound strings with this last batch of squiers I bought over lockdown because honestly it was the largest pack of strings on the rack. my CG didn't have JACK SQUAT during lock down. so i bought a couple packs of MAMMOTH SLINKYS in a ugly green package. i have no idea what size they are at this point because I forgot. pretty big. I physically can not play small strings anymore because i push down too hard. i make normal notes go sharp with 11's.




this post has got me thinking.....if you can get a pack of ALL FLATWOUNDS, now i want to try a set of ALL ROUNDWOUNDS. so like all round wound all the way up the neck. that would be fucking cool ....or sound like shit i have no idea. I know one thing your pickscrapes would sound 20% more scrapey

[rahbro]

i did a little digging (5 mins) and the smallest gauge string i can find wound is an 18


buy 2 packs of shitty XL's and take the wound 18's out of them and then swap out the 12 and the 16 in this set with them.








ALLL ROUNDDDDD

[plopswagon]

I think you can build your own custom gage sets with some of the online string sellers.

I still use GHS Boomers. I like the thick and thin on regular scales.

[Noisy Cat]

I've been using wound Gs for years, they just feel right to me. I've never been much of a bender. D'Addario EXL115Ws all the way. I tried a plain G a few months ago just to remember what I was missing; it felt and sounded shite.

[Bacchus]

I've recently strung a guitar with Daddario NYXL strings for the first time. They do seem good and easier to bend and they certainly feel like there's more "bend" left in them once you get to the note you want (more, .... compliant?).

They seem to sound good too, but I've changed the pickups in the same guitar, so who knows?

They're the 10-42s, by the way. With a plain G. I like bends and the heavier/thicker sound that you get from a plain string.

[NickD]

I'd been playing for several years with 11-52 strings, but due to some RSI issues I've switched to 9-46 and it's a revelation. I do a fair amount of string bending and that's obviously easier and more importantly less painful, but so are barre chords on the flatter radii - it was never an issue on a vintage Fender radius.

I have flatwounds (11-49 I think?) on the Jazzmaster and that has a wound G. I don't like string bending on a wound G, but that guitar gets used for chord work and jazz single note runs with little to no bending. I'd like to go a little lighter on the next string change on that too, maybe to flatwound 10s.

[Bacchus]

I went to heavy strings when I was an SRV fanboi as a teenager. I played flashy lead type stuff on 12s and eventually 13s, usually with quite high action too. I enjoyed this, because that bit of fight that the guitar gave forced unexpected things to happen. I also bought into the notion that it gave better tone.

I've since gone back down and now play 10-42. I sound fine.

Rick Beato and a load of other YouTubers did a video on this recent, I think.

[NickD]

Yup, no difference in tone here either. Like Rob I thought I'd end up pulling notes out of tune with lighter strings, but that didn't happen.

[MattK]

EXL115Ws on 25.5 scale, DR Blues nickel 12 wound G on the shorties. Plain G sounds like ass.

[BearBoy]

I've kind of lost track of what strings I have on my guitars at the moment but I think it's a mixture of Chromes (10-46 with wound G) and NYXL (10-46 - some balanced, some normal).

Used to use flatwound 11s and 12s but prefer the lighter ones these days.

This thread has reminded me though that I bought some 9.5-44s for my Cyclone and have never got around to putting them on.

[71Smallbox]

I might try this on my Jaguar. I know I definitely would not try this on my Jazzmaster or Strat.

[Ankhanu]

I might try this on my Jaguar. I know I definitely would not try this on my Jazzmaster or Strat.

I got them for my Jag first, but use them on everything now. There is a little more tension on the 25.5 and 24.75s, but still very playable.