String gauge and tone

[dnf777]

Recently saw ZZ Top. Billy G is most definitely a tone monster, and I was surprised to hear he plays super light gauge strings. He says BB King taught him that. Made me think of another Texas guitar tone monster, SRV, who played super heavy strings. (well, 13-58 is heavy for me, anyway). Billy strings his Les Pauls with 07-38! Not sure about his Teles and others, but I was surprised to learn that.

[Bushleague]

I've always found that heavyer gauge strings tend to have more note deffinition while playing chords. You want to be able to run high gain and not have your major 7th chords sound like sludge... heavyer strings are a good choice.

[Bob Womack]

Billy Gibbons was once sharing the stage with BB King. Back in the dressing room BB asked to see Billy's guitar.

“I was about 22 and just starting out with ZZ Top,” he says. “I was in the dressing room and BB said to me, ‘Can I play your guitar?’ I said, ‘Sure man.’ He strummed it a few times and handed it back to me. He looked at me rather quizzically and said, ‘Why you working so hard?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Those strings. You got real heavy, heavy strings.’ I said, ‘Well, isn’t that how to get the heavy, heavy sound?’ He said, ‘No! Don’t be working so hard!’

“That was something new! I was mistaken in thinking he was using these extra-heavy strings. I guess he was right there at the beginning when super-light strings were beginning to show up.”

I've played .009s since the '70s on stage and in the studio. None of my studio clients have complained.

Bob

[perttime]

String gauge might affect how you play ... or, the way you play might affect what string gauge suits you best.

I'm too ham fisted to use very light gauges

[EZYPIKINS]

I played .008"-.038" for years

Tony Iommy, King of metal, also plays .007's And tunes down to boot.

Who here gonna try to say his tone is weak?

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

I've always found that heavier-gauge strings tend to have more note definition while playing chords. You want to be able to run high gain and not have your major 7th chords sound like sludge...heavier strings are a good choice.

Also a better choice on full-hollow/semi-hollow guitars if you want to get that full, "woody" sound they were designed for...

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by dnf777

Recently saw ZZ Top. Billy G is most definitely a tone monster, and I was surprised to hear he plays super light gauge strings. He says BB King taught him that. Made me think of another Texas guitar tone monster, SRV, who played super heavy strings. (well, 13-58 is heavy for me, anyway). Billy strings his Les Pauls with 07-38! Not sure about his Teles and others, but I was surprised to learn that.

Internet lore to the contrary, I've never found a discernible difference in live tone (studio might be different) between the gauges I've tried.

And speaking of internet lore, SRV's string gauges are vastly exaggerated. In the book "Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan" by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort, this gets an accurate treatment from interviews with Rene Martinez. I'm going from memory here, but the gist was that even though Stevie did experiment at times with very thick 1st and 2nd strings, the rest of his set was pretty pedestrian (the bottom E usually around 52 or so.) And this changed day by day, depending on how his hands felt and how much coke he was doing. In his own words (paraphrasing here) as soon as he got clean and sober he stuck with .011-.052, and still tuned down a half-step.

The book, BTW, really is a good read for SRV fans.

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Billy Gibbons was once sharing the stage with BB King. Back in the dressing room BB asked to see Billy's guitar.

“I was about 22 and just starting out with ZZ Top,” he says. “I was in the dressing room and BB said to me, ‘Can I play your guitar?’ I said, ‘Sure man.’ He strummed it a few times and handed it back to me. He looked at me rather quizzically and said, ‘Why you working so hard?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Those strings. You got real heavy, heavy strings.’ I said, ‘Well, isn’t that how to get the heavy, heavy sound?’ He said, ‘No! Don’t be working so hard!’

“That was something new! I was mistaken in thinking he was using these extra-heavy strings. I guess he was right there at the beginning when super-light strings were beginning to show up.”

I've played .009s since the '70s on stage and in the studio. None of my studio clients have complained.

Bob

I’ve read this story a few times and even saw a guitar vlogger do an entire episode on light and ultra light gauge electric guitar strings. He was measuring the output and ultimately found that lighter strings in fact do transmit the same if not more sound do to the fact the pickup magnets don’t stop them from vibrating as much or as fast.

I would love to use 9’s when I play, but I am so ham fisted I push everything out of tune right away.😭

[Rick Jones]

I don't find my intonation is very good with lighter strings... I can't blame the guitars, it's me, but I play so much acoustic that I don't ever have enough time to spend on improving my electric technique, as at this stage, it would be more like 're-training'. I have massive hands, too. Sausage fingers I struggle to feel thinner gauges, funny as it sounds.

[rmp]

this is personal preference

...It's
...All
...In
...The
......Hands

[Dru Edwards]

I use 9s on almost all of my electrics and 10s on a couple that I decided to keep stock (couple of Les Pauls but my other Lesters have 9s). I'm at home with 9s.

My fingers these days wouldn't be able to tolerate going higher gauge given that I'm always soloing/bending.

[calvanesebob]

I have tried every string gauge on Strats over the years, but I keep going back the the original 9's that come with the Strat. No other strings have that special tone.

Maybe there is a reason they ship with those strings.

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by calvanesebob

I have tried every string gauge on Strats over the years, but I keep going back the the original 9's that come with the Strat. No other strings have that special tone.

Maybe there is a reason they ship with those strings.

I’ve always thought it was to make it easier to play in the store. Seriously.

[Steve36]

I have always found it to be guitar dependant. On my Strats and Teles’ I generally use 10’s. I use 11’s on my large bodied gretsch and an Ibanez 2629 (335 style), and have one of each on two ‘Les Paul’ style guitars. I had two gigging Strats at one stage that felt quite similar even though one was strung with 9’s and the other 11’s. Anything I setup for slide gets between 12’s and 16’s depending on style and tuning.

Steve