Strings and Pickups

[3notes]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

Oh man...I leave my Weddington at the one practice space, the Pac is super comfy to play and the neck is just great. Plus I got the action super low on it. The Revstar is the baby. I try to keep it nice, so I don't play it as often as I should. I'd say the Pac gets the most playing. I have a Seymour Duncan humbucker (single size) in the neck, Dimarzio pickup in the middle and a Bill Lawrence XL500 in the bridge. It's really versatile and a blast to shred on.

I understand about your Revstar and that beautiful tailpiece. That guitar is stunning to look at, just in pictures. So ya, that guitar is a baby. I nearly bought one but I didn't trust the colors and I don't really like a mirror gloss finish. I'm quite certain I'll be floored when I see the RS502 for the first time. The wrap around bridge won out over the tun-o-matic bridge on the 502T.

I would encourage everyone to look at the Yamaha Revstar RS502T. I'm not saying buy one, just take a look at the design and simplicity of it. They are beautiful. And if you want to take a closer look and listen check Joey Anthony Guitar at YouTube. Incredible tone. Or better yet, check out Jon Koh at YouTube. He gives a super review and his playing is off the charts great.(I've been listening to it daily for nearly a month.)

And as a note, OP here to say I'm going to leave the Elixir strings on the 502 model that arrives tomorrow. I'll play them out and then put the D'Addario flatwounds on in a couple weeks. I like Elixir acoustic strings so I can now check them out on the new Revstar 502 electric.

[FrankHudson]

I dunno. I'm a philistine who uses Ernie Ball Slinkies, the regular 2223 set (.009 to .042) nickel plated string an most of my too many electric guitars. They're inexpensive and have served me well, and I can make them make sounds I like, assuming my fingers and pick tip cooperate. I buy them in bulk when there's a sale, and I don't have to think too much when it's time to restring a guitar.

All the rest of this is more info that you may need.

I do make some exceptions for the Slinkies on everything. I'm not a general believer in "heavy string sound better," but I do change things up for various reasons.

I used to use the pure nickel (not plated) wrap Fender 150L (a .010 to .038 set, now hard to find, it could be labeled "Extra Light Bottom, Light Top" if one wanted to talk that way). Last time I bought a set like this, they were Fender "Jimi Hendrix" strings. Note nickel wrap, not nickel plate. Pure nickel wrap is a little mellower, a little less zingy and they're especially good on Strats and Teles with their brighter single coil bridge pickups. I really liked the light bottom idea too, and I don't know why this gauge set hasn't continued to be an option. My Hendrix-style reverse Strat and at least one Tele get these. DR Pure Blues are a widely available pure nickel wrap alternative, and round core too so maybe a bit more bendable for the same gauge. As with any round-core (hex core is much more common) string make sure you string them up right (no cutting before tensioning, and a little tight bend before the cut point.)

I used to keep a Tele with 11s, 12s, or whatever the lightest electric set I could find with a wound G. I used it as my "play electric/think acoustic" guitar. I'll probably do that again.

I use .010 to .046 sets on my Jaguar (24" scale). I've tried .011 and flatwounds many years ago. Didn't care for either then. I've got a set of flats to try on something again soon, but I can't decide what.

I use .010 to .046 set Elixir electric strings nano or polyweb on my two guitars with MIDI pickups (MIDI will pickup string squeak and try to interpret it as an ugly note). I also have as set of the same on two Bigsby equipped guitars: A Gretsch and a Gibson scale Bigsby equipped Telecaster. The Tele has Graphtech Mustang type saddles on it. The coated string and slick stuff saddle reduces string hangups.

I have TI "BeBop" .012 to .050 strings on a big archtop. Very light tension like most TI strings for that sort of gauge. Many years ago when I was trying to get some jazz chops (mostly failed) I tired flats and half-rounds on this guitar--and kind of like with the Jaguar, I didn't like either of those alternatives as much as the BeBop round wound set then.

So even though (as I recall) you are at the start of your journey, and one could make a case for keeping the equipment simple and the little details of equipment constrained, if you want to experiment: Try different gauges. Try pure nickel wrap. As Steve suggests, try flats. One of the nice things about having a variety of guitars is that you can make comparisons between strings simultaneously.

[3notes]

Frank ... Nice reply.

When my Yamaha Pacifica came in I played whatever strings were on it for 3 or 4 weeks. The first string change I had done at a shop with a cheap set.up.(guitar was in great form out of the box) He mistakenly put 9's on which was fine to me. I had asked for 10's. I'm thinking they were EB Slinky's and they sounded fantastic. But, the strings were too light. I was pushing and pulling notes out of tune. I've practiced coming straight down on the string and I've improved. It was a relatively flat learning curve.

So I've been running EB 10's but they leave a little to be desired. I don't love the tone. That said, I'm not a tone hound. I'm easily satisfied in that regard having played electric for just shy of 5 months. But, I do have the experience to recognize a string that I like. Flatwounds. Oh my.