Heavy gauge strings and fingers / Practice Time

[swarfrat]

A few years ago I started playing 13's set up pretty low. It's not shredder low action - but about as low as I could get it with just nut/saddle/truss rod work. Way lower than most anyone on the planet except Phil Collen plays 13's. I'm not an SRV wannabe (that was long long ago) - I started stringing heavy when I was doing a lot of double stop/diad melody and I liked the fact that it didn't accidentally bend on some of the more awkard fingerings. And I love the sound. (Rick Beato can pound sand - he did that whole video with what passed for high gain in the mid 80's)

Fast forward a few years and I took about a year off. Oh I'd noodle once in a long while but the guitar would sit for months at a time ... Not enough to completely lose all my skills but definitely enough to lose my callouses. I've been working up for a song. I've been playing for a couple weeks, and I have about 2 weeks left.. and I'm starting to wonder how long this'll take. I think I can probably get through one song with rested fingers, but I bit off a lot with a busy arrangement (and singing over a busy guitar part ), and an hour a day or so is leaving me sore.

I'm starting to wonder if I should drop down to 11's or even 10's, because me and Mr Metronome and Mr Microphone have a lot of time to spend together. The 'practice till you can't get it wrong' part. I have my guitar parts down, the next two weeks is about singing with confidence and projection with microphone and nailing it while playing a busy guitar part. It's the 2-3 weeks in part that has me worried. Is it coming back, or do I need to restring?

[Steve DeRosa]

I've taken a couple layoffs myself over the years, and IME 2-3 weeks of intensive practice should be enough to bring most if not all of your former skills back - hang in there...

[Mandobart]

I went through a similar thing years ago when I started mandolin. Double strings, higher tension than guitar. A mandolin laughs at pathetic guitar calluses and shreds them off like a cheese grater. I also had heavy calluses from lots of manual work that the mandolin just chewed through. I think it took me a couple months of daily playing to build back up tougher calluses.

13's are medium, not heavy. Thats what I use on most of my guitars. Way easier on the fingers than mandolin strings.

[Bob Womack]

Ask Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. BB King schooled him on string gauge.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1617576471738693

I run .009s on everything.


Bob

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

13's are medium, not heavy. Thats what I use on most of my guitars. Way easier on the fingers than mandolin strings.

Maybe on acoustic, but on electric? When the most common gauges, by far, are .009 and .010 sets, it's hard to call a .013 set "medium."

[swarfrat]

D'Addario does indeed label EJ22's (13-56) as Jazz Medium. But 13 is as heavy as they market nickel wound strings before they start calling them "baritone".

I found a set of EXL140's in a drawer last night, but not real happy about them. Not getting a consistent hammer/pulloff in low registers with them, and the tone changed enough to require tweaking patches. But I think I'll keep them on until a couple days prior so I can work on the vocal strength ad nauseum.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by swarfrat

D'Addario does indeed label EJ22's (13-56) as Jazz Medium. But 13 is as heavy as they market nickel wound strings before they start calling them "baritone"...

I'm just old enough to remember true heavy-gauge - as in 14's - electric guitar strings which, as expected, were the sole province of the old-school Big Band-era jazzers (who were still around in significant numbers in the early-60's, and in fact constituted the bulk of the teaching force in the large Northeastern cities). When I was shopping with my father for my first electric in late '63/early '64, Silver & Horland had a stack of NOS Gretsch Electromatic flatwound heavies (the ones that came in the very handy little round plastic containers) sitting on the counter at a bargain price - Nat Silver himself was kind enough to talk me out of buying a couple sets for my old Harmony Broadway (although I did use 14's on all my acoustic archtops starting in the mid-70's, until switching to Martin Monel 13's a few years ago) - and although they didn't have the greatest electric tone (kindly put), it wasn't uncommon for local amateur/semi-pro players to press the old black-box New Brunswick Black Diamonds into yeoman service (IME the ruin of many a low-end hollowbody electric)...

[Tuch]

lighter/heavy gauge strings etc .the callouses will build regardless of strings preference used.
The more you practice/play the quicker the skin changes accordingly!
For many ..the lower[e d] action assists the fret fingers etc.=There is no 'short cut!'

The thinner[lighter] gauge...The fret fingers/their 'strength[s] =one must adapt [or not]..to the string[s] tension etc.
Same does apply to-The Action/string height found that suits etc!
There are no rules' it must be' since every player is/will be UNIQUE! From set up preferences to Relief adjustment etc. Same applies to the electric guitar!

[swarfrat]

I restrung again since I found a 10 set with a wound 3rd. If the shredders only knew how much better pinch harmonics are on a wound 18 vs a plain 17... 18 is a bit fragile but 17 solid and up starts to sound wonky.

There was much patch tweaking. Especially compressor settings. Speeding up that attack really helped control the pick attack. I like having a heavy 6th string for an arresting cable on the down stroke. It's easy to pull it sharp after playing 13's. I actually had to lower my threshold a few db to keep it clean. But it's definitely easier on my fingertips. I think my callouses are fine and I was actually having some bruising.

Soreness is gone. Me and the metronome are clicking along.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by swarfrat

...If the shredders only knew how much better pinch harmonics are on a wound 18 vs a plain 17...18 is a bit fragile but 17 solid and up starts to sound wonky...

Another reason I've always used wound thirds, and I'm not a shredder - I'll also be switching the out the plain second string on my (acoustic) baritone for a wound one at the next string change...