strings and experimenting

[kuvash]

One evening at home I broke my high E string(.009)...my only replacement at that time of night amongst the empty string wrapper envelopes was an .011,so on it went.I found that I liked it on that particular guitar.I really tend to bend only the (G).016 anyway. Long story short,I like what I get from my two higher strings being the same ga.(on this guitar anyway)Anyone else ever find this to be so.
I know that I'm probably gonna be sorry for asking.

kuvash

[bcdon***]

Nothing to be sorry about asking.. I've never tried that myself but I'll keep it in mind the next time I have to change a single string.

[Spudman***]

Experimenting is good. It's things like you mentioned that often open doorways into new creativity. Glad that you shared it.

[deeaa*]

Definitely always good to experiment!

I have for a LONG time now used a mixed set on most of my strat-style guitars, meaning I have a 50 (or50)-40-30 or so lower end and 009, 11, 17 high end.

It gives me really snappy chording and a firm bass end just like a normal .11 set but still allows for lively vibratos and easy bending. I played a .11 set for a decade but when I started playing more leads it got annoyingly hard to play them. I like to bend all the strings pretty much, even when playing rhythm I do a lot of small bends for effect all the time, but on lower strings it can be done pulling downwards and that works even with the heaviest gauges - but that top E is really hard to bend especially on 1,5 step bends, and even harder it is to bend it and THEN apply vibrato accurately to the bent note, which is my favorite - with an .11 it can still be rather easily bent at least a full note, but then trying to keep it bent and applying vibrato and keeping the overall tune correct...well you need a niner basically to do that unless you have superhuman finger strength. I try to do it without supporting my hand on the neck while bending too, and then shake my entire hand or body at the top of the bend, kinda hanging the whole guitar on the finger doing the bend - can you guess Angus Young is my guitar hero ;-)

BUT I also have one guitar strung with regular 10's and one with ultralite 009's. I like having different touches on guitars. Although, due to shorter scale my Flying-V with 10's feels pretty similar to play as the strats with 009 top end anyways.

I'm just in the process of figuring out what can I do to make the floyd-guitar with them 009'rs sound a tad warmer and thicker, as it IS so clearly thinner-sounding than my other axes - no wonder with an ultralight dinky body, thin neck and a floyd :-) but maybe I can install an onboard EQ/bottom boost or also I'm thinking of trying a Blackout there and see if that yields more low end than the EMG85, which I doubt, though.

[Katastrophe]

Ask away, brother, that's what this forum is for!

I think it's cool that you tried something new. Different gauge strings can lead to different tunings, which can lead to different note combinations, which can lead to all kinds of good guitar mayhem!

BTW... Bend ALL them strangs, including practicing vibrato on different chord shapes, without a vibrato bar. You'll be amazed at how expressive little things like that can make you!

[kuvash]

Lot's of years ago,in my hometown there were mostly...Black Diamond strings,or you could get ...Black Diamond strings.....and I would use what I could get,going to flat-wounds on my Gibson...I knew that I was "stylin'".A few years ago I changed my Epiphone SG from Ernie's(skinny top-heavy bottom) to D'addario XL115w and I loved them (except for the G)when I replaced them I went with XL115 (plain G)didn't like it ,went with a .020w in place of an.018p or .021w.
for me ,now this guitar sounded like I wanted it to,a little later I bought an old flat-top...great sound,it had mediums with only a light E...great sound but not the same with a full set of meds. ,I found some ghs RB1600's(G tuning)in the drawer.They are kinda between Lt.and Med, and were bought for a Dobro..didn't like them on it,close but not quite right ,so I put them on the old flat top...Great(put the dobro in nashville tuning and left it there)
I like the SG just as it is.I have a tele thinline with P90's that I like with .010's out of the box.The quitar that I mentioned when I first asked about experimenting is a solid body with humbuckers and a coil-tap,I like the .009's on the with a .042 except for that high E .
Too thin and tinny at times.... for me the .011 used that set at the E is better.....as a "old guy" I've found that I approach this kind of thing with "who said that I have to?"Sometimes,not always,a particular guitar and a particular string combination just seems to "click" for my style of playing,that's all.So,I wondered about other folks on this forum.
kuvash

[kuvash]

With regard to Kat's post the .009's certainly allow me more ease in bending the other strings....Thanks for all the input.
kuvash

[wingsdad]

As the saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention", and I'm pretty sure most of us today use plain 3rd (G) strings on our electrics for the same reason you needed to go with an 11 on that E string.

Back in the day when string sets just weren't made as light gauge as they came to be made - in the 50's and early 60's -- when light gauge was actually 12-16-23w for the 1st 3 strings -- as the legend goes, if I recall correctly, young California studio cat Tele-picker James Burton -- snapped his wound G in a session and only had a 16 B spare in his case. So, on that went to finish the session. And thus was born the EASE of extreme bending of the 3rd string, and how he pulled of some of his more noteworthy licks like the solo in Ricky Neson's 'Hello, Mary Lou'.

[Eric***]

...also I'm thinking of trying a Blackout there and see if that yields more low end than the EMG85, which I doubt, though.

I'm interested to hear what result this yields, but I don't expect it to make much of a difference either. From what I've read, they're slightly more midrange-y and nuanced at lower volumes, but I'm not sure that would really change much tone-wise for you.

[navvid]

The only way you can really go wrong is if the guitar won't set up playably in the tuning you want. As I am sure you have gathered if you have read all the replies to this thread, there is no one correct string gauge, rather it is a balance between the following factors:

-Tone
-Tension (i.e. ease of bending strings)

The way I reckon, these two are proportional. Thus thicker strings produce fatter tone, but will be harder to bend as they also will be at a higher tension than a thinner string at the same tuning. In general, if one detunes, then you would increase the string gauge to compensate for lower tension at the lower pitch. I tend to prefer this myself, as all my guitars are usually tuned flat at least a half step, and I often go with the Ernie Ball 10-52's. Back in the day I was custom assembling sets as high as 12-56, because I was chasing SRV's tone, until I realized I didn't have bear paws like Steve did and just couldn't bully the strings around the way I wanted to. A good rule of thumb for a blues player is you should be able to bend the 1st or 2nd string 2 whole steps at the 12th fret. If you can't, you might need to back off a bit...

For what you are doing, as long as you can set the guitar up to play right, you should be fine.

[kuvash]

Thanks for the input,I think I'll just go over here and play my guitar...It's kinda like the old "to top wrap or not on an SG with a tuno-o-matic bridge"...if you want it,throw it in the shopping cart,if not...then there's other stuff.For me,I really only have to please myself. Thanks again for the input folks.

kuvash