[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by BothHands

Hey, Louie. Thanks for weighing in. What leads to stiffness? More break angle or less?
And you're definitely talking about the nut, and not the saddle...right?

My experience is the less break angle, the "slacker" the strings usually feel. Of course this is not a set-in-stone rule, but I find it generally so. And yes, break angle at the nut. There is relatively very little string length behind the saddle for the string to stretch, so I rule that out. And I'm not talking about saddle height. There are guitars that play relatively easily with higher action, and there are guitars that play very stiff even with low action.

You mean as if the nut slots are too narrow?

Yes, if the strings are impinged at the nut they can make the guitar play stiff because the string is only stretching between the nut and saddle. With a better fitting nut, the string can "stretch" more as a whole, thus feel more "slack."

Take the extreme example of a Fender Strat with a Floyd Rose locking nut. We know the tension is the same as with a non-locking nut since the strings are tuned to pitch. Yet the Floyd equipped guitar always plays stiffer because there's less string to stretch.

Also, many Strat players will remove the E and B strings from the string tee to make them feel "slacker" when bending. This is done along with winding the strings down the post more to add string break angle at the nut, or using graduated post height tuners.

Exactly the opposite of what I thought! Oh, brother... I dialed the neck relief down to .008" thinking it would result in minimal stiffness because distance from string to fret would be minimized at mid-neck... Where I am going wrong on this?

.008" seems about right to me. But like I said, a lot depends on other factors as well. The straighter the neck, the higher the saddle has to be to accommodate the strings' vibrational path at the lower frets.

Can you explain briefly?

Top compliance can be analogous to that extra string length behind the nut. This is probably less important than getting the nut fitted right, however.

Yeah, I've been chasing my tail on the strings issue. I'm trying to find strings that 1) sound good, 2) provide the lowest tension appropriate to the tuning and style of play, and 3) last a reasonably long time. Man, my head is spinning... There are just so many options, and I can't afford the time or money to buy "one of each" just to "test and toss".

I like D'Addario strings in general, and they're cheap and relatively ubiquitous, so I'm considering the following, just as a starting point:

A. I'm setting my dreadnought up for fingerstyle in standard tuning. EJ16
B. I'm setting up it's twin sister (with cutaway) for alternate tunings with more strumming. EJ24
C. I'm setting up my cherished Gurian JR for high-strung / Nashville tuning. EJ38H

The D'Addario tension seems a bit lower than some of the competing brands, and especially the High-Strung set at about 120lbs total vs. 180lbs for a competitor I researched recently. That's a BIG difference...

Round-core strings can feel less stiff than hex core strings. Martin FX has a smaller round core which can help. I'm not a big fan of Silk'N'Steel because I feel they take away a little "shimmer" from a guitar.