more tone basics: fattening the sound of that skinny E string.

[Starter]

Hello everyone,

I posted a few weeks ago with a question about how to get an old traditional blues sound (Fred McDowell). I was focused more on the type of amp (I have a Fender Superchamp) and the settings, and I appreciate the help I got from people here. FWIW my MAIN breakthrough came from the suggestion that I turn the volume of the amp all the way up, and then use the guitar volume knob to actually dial it in. That made a huge difference.

My NEXT question, though, is how to get a stronger, fatter sound on that high E string (playing with a glass slide in open E). Would it make more sense just to put a thicker string on it? (At the moment I'm using the Michael Messer light electric slide sets, with 13s on the top E string, or do we call it the bottom?). Would going to 14s 15s or beyond hurt the guitar?

Or is this all something that's better approached exploring the various tone knobs. Which of course I've tried, but so far no luck.

Many thanks,

All best
will

[Steve DeRosa]

My first resort would be to raise the pickup polepiece(s) under the string(s) in question to achieve the balance you're after - IMO a set of 13's should be more than heavy enough...

[tinnitus]

I also took this journey, chasing fatter high E-string tone, and here's what I found:

Of course, 11's certainly sound beefier than 10s. And you're already way past that. I could've gone fatter, but 11s tuned down to Eb fit my playing style. So, no, I haven't tried 12s or 13s (on an electric.)

Raising pickups and individual polepieces closer to the strings can help too, but only to a point. Through lots of trial/error and research, I learned that raising a magnetic pickup too close to a metal string will disrupt its natural vibration and KILL tone. Especially on the neck pickup (out near the middle of the string) where the diameter of a string's orbit is far wider than down near the bridge/saddle. Worse - imagine deep dive-bombing with your tremelo bar, and the magnetic pickup actually grabs a few strings. It happens.

Some brand-purists with expensive guitars may shudder, but I ended up swapping numerous stray-mutt pickups into/out of a few different Strats. I have no idea what brand is in my main player now, but the neck single coil delivers that wailing E string and deep SRV tone I was looking for. Might be from a Taiwanese cheapie - I don't care.

My son rewinds and overwinds pickups in the various Strats and Teles he hot-rods. I'll check with him and report his observations back here.

Tip: Whenever you have a pickup out of a guitar, disconnect it (at least one side), check it with an ohm meter and mark the resistance value underneath the pickup with a sharpie (or use a sticker if marking even a hidden part of a pristine guitar is unthinkable). Some manufacturers do that with their brand new pickups before shipping. Higher resistance in two otherwise identical pickups will produce a higher output. 8.57k should sound stronger than 8.0k set at the same height. The caveat then is where you mount it in the guitar - bridge, middle or neck (especially with the angled bridge pickups on Fenders). Like I said, it takes curiosity, dedicated research and patience to sort out what really works best.