#1
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Tap Tuning to Certain Strings?
I'm curious how you guys think about the following:
After owning my Froggy for about 18 months now, and trying many different strings over that time, I've come to conclude that the guitar sounds best (subjectively, to me, of course) with John Pearse 80/20 Lights. The JP's also just feel more lively on the guitar than other strings I've tried. It happens these JP strings are the type that came with the guitar. Coincidence? My instinct tells me not. I'm thinking that when Michael and co fine tuned the top, they did it with these strings installed (or anticipated). So now this has got me thinking about a custom OM I am expecting later this year, and how it will react to different strings. For those of you who custom order, do you let your luthier know your preferred string type (for this reason)? Luthiers, do you feel that your guitars that are built with a certain string lose any tone or responsiveness when your client subsequently chooses a different string? How important is the string choice to what you envision the ideal of the guitar you are building? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
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1931 Gibson L-0 1932 Martin 00-21 2016 Martin CEO-7 2019 Froggy Bottom H12 (Adi/Bastogne) 2023 Isaac Jang OM (Italian/Coco) 2020 PRS SE Custom |
#2
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I build my guitars to work best with specific ranges of tension, but make no recommendation about string brands or alloys. Most of my recent guitars are intended to have light gauge strings: 12-53/54. As it happens, I do personally favor John Pearse 80/20, but any similar string should be okay.
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#3
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Strings...
I am addicted to Elixir Phosphor Bronze HD Lights. I HATE string squeak and like a bit of extra resistance on the high strings, especially when playing slide.
I have asked John Kinnaird to build all of my customs with the HDs in mind, and engineered to live tuned Down to D or open D. Sometimes the big string will get dropped to C, as well. My guitars are never tuned up to E, except occasionally to jam with someone. Then they go right back down to D. Of course I can always capo at the second fret for E, as well. Asking him to build with this in mind has allowed him to use lighter braces, etc. Since there is less string tension to resist. He has certainly delivered the goods! I am stoked. I am sure there are a LOT of folks with fave strings/tunings, etc. This will be interesting Salud Paul
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3 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS: Big Maple/Cedar Dread Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro 96 422ce bought new! 96 LKSM 12 552ce 12x12 J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut More Last edited by Guitars44me; 08-25-2020 at 04:26 PM. |
#4
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I owned a great archtop many years ago, on which I always used Thomastik-Infeld strings. Just the sound I wanted. Subsequently, I had another archtop made, and sent the importer a set of Thomastiks to go on it. But it arrived strung with D’Addarios. So I asked the builder about the switch, and he said Thomastiks were the wrong string for the guitar. That puzzled me, and I ended up trying a set of the Thomastiks later on anyway. And guess what? He was totally right, the Thomastiks I’d loved for years were simply the wrong strings for the new guitar. D’Addarios were perfect for the signature sound the luthier was known for. The builder was right.
Last edited by Richard Mott; 08-25-2020 at 02:14 PM. |
#5
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Quote:
However, when Alan Carruth made my 000 he asked what specific strings I'd likely use. The reason was that to get the guitar intonated as good as possbile he wanted to do the compensation (Alan compensates both the saddle and the nut for intonation purposes) and setup using the strings I'd be using. The guitar is intonated very well, but I eventually started using a different brand of strings (same gauge, same composition being 80/20 round core, etc) and I didn't notice a change/degradation in intonation.
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Chuck 2012 Carruth 12-fret 000 in Pernambuco and Adi 2010 Poling Sierra in Cuban Mahogany and Lutz 2015 Posch 13-fret 00 in Indian Rosewood and Adi |