Help me with electric strings!

[Bob Womack]

Somewhere early in the game I settled on .009s. I later learned that Billy Gibbons says when he was first getting started, B.B. King tried his guitar, which had heavier strings on it. B.B. said, "Why are you working so hard?" Billy sez, "Huh?" B.B. sez, "Why have you got heavy strings on your guitar?" Billy sez, "That's what you need to do to get a heavy sound." B.B. sez, "That's what amplifiers are for. Stop working do hard." Billy went with .008s on Gibson scale guitars.

The nickel-plated steel strings tend to sound a little brighter, a little more sparkly and glassy. The vintage nickel strings tend to be a little warmer. Interesting story: in the 1960s when material prices started going up, the manufacturers just started substituting nickel plated for pure nickel, changing the formulation without changing the names. Guys were looking down at their guitars saying, "What happened to my sound?" Finally some musicians got to the the bottom of it, made a fuss, and the string suppliers created string lines with both types.

My ES-335 and Fenders tend to prefer the brighter sound of nickel plated strings. The ES-335 came with Gibson "Brite Wires" nickel plated strings and that's how I came to know it. My Les Pauls tend to want pure nickel for some reason. Fender 150Ls (pure) run about $4.89.

Bob

[BoneDigger]

As a mostly acoustic player, I find very light strings to just not feel right while I'm playing. Understand, I'm not a flashy player so what I do is fairly basic. But, I tend to stick with 10s or 11s on my electric guitars.

[Dru Edwards]

Dirk, try out a set of 9s and 10s and see what you prefer. I use Ernie Ball Super Slinky (9s in pink package) and Regular Slinky (10s in yellow). Both are nickel plated. I've never had problems with them.

[FoxHound4690]

For an every day go to string you can't beat D'Addario regular lights 10-46's...
I use them on my American Professional strat year in year out and they're always reliable and do the job.

[rmp]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Ah, good tip, thanks! I assume there a YouTube for that.

probably,

how is it set now ? is there the "float" set, so that it's not sitting on the top of the body?

your need to take a look I think they are usually around 1/8"

I set mine flat.

[Richard_H]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Hi y'all, I suppose it's time to change my electric strings. I have an American strat, which I think come with Fender 3250 whatevers. 9-46 I think? I could go fatter.

What do you all use? Nickel vs Nickel plated? Tell me what you think about strings. I use a pretty fat pick and am used to fretting an acoustic. Thanks in advance for your advice!

I've always preferred Fender Original Bullets. From what I understand, when electric guitars were new tech, they tried all kinds of different string materials and pretty much everyone agreed that nickel was the best sounding material.

It was only during the Vietnam war that the government bought up all the nickel and guitar string companies has to find alternate materials.

I like the bullet ends because they fit nicely into the bridge - making better contact. I not only prefer them on Fender type guitars, but also on guitars with stop tailpieces - you can reverse thread them thru the tailpiece and over the top - that tends to lower the tension. Strings with ball ends are too stiff at the ends to do that.

[guitararmy]

The nice thing about electric strings is that the choices are a bit easier than choosing an acoustic string.

I recently tried some of the DR dragon coated strings that were on sale at MusiciansFriend and liked them.

I have used 9-46 on my strats as well.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/acce...ge.rr1|ClickEV

[Dirk Hofman]

Well...I replaced my strings on my Strat last night. About an hour later I was in good shape.

Locking tuners were interesting, really made things easy! Having to take off the back plate to change strings was an unwelcome addition to the process, the screws were really tight. After doing it a couple times they loosened up. Got the strings removed, new ones inserted. easy enough, though it's apparently a good idea just to cut the strings in half as the bent end from the locking tuners doesn't easily slip through the saddles.

Bringing the guitar back into tune. So putting 10's on to replace the 9's is maybe where my problems started. I tightened up to tune, and had to keep going back and forth between the strings as tuning up one string was pulling the other out of tune. After a few minutes of this I noticed the bridge had pulled up at least 3/8" off the guitar top. Well...that can't be right, though I did not in any way recall how far off the top the bridge was before. Looked at a few videos, nothing I could find really addressed it. So I tightened up the screws to the bridge a bit (after re-opening the back plate) and brought back to tune. Progress but not even close. Took about 20 minutes of tightening and re-tuning to get it mostly flat on the board and in tune. Still not sure where it really should be, but there was a video about where to have it with regard to the whammy bar or whatever it's called. Kind of ignored that and just brought it to where the action was as low as it would go without buzzing. Lots of trial and error.

I guess the learning is that I need to not keep tightening when I change strings and I need to pay attention to the bridge level as another variable. Never considered that on an acoustic!

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Bringing the guitar back into tune. So putting 10's on to replace the 9's is maybe where my problems started. I tightened up to tune, and had to keep going back and forth between the strings as tuning up one string was pulling the other out of tune. After a few minutes of this I noticed the bridge had pulled up at least 3/8" off the guitar top. Well...that can't be right, though I did not in any way recall how far off the top the bridge was before. Looked at a few videos, nothing I could find really addressed it. So I tightened up the screws to the bridge a bit (after re-opening the back plate) and brought back to tune. Progress but not even close. Took about 20 minutes of tightening and re-tuning to get it mostly flat on the board and in tune. Still not sure where it really should be, but there was a video about where to have it with regard to the whammy bar or whatever it's called. Kind of ignored that and just brought it to where the action was as low as it would go without buzzing. Lots of trial and error.

Most of what you describe is perfectly normal, you just have to learn how all the parts work together. Hint: don't use bridge adjustment as a way to set string height. Keep using Google and Youtube and you'll be fine. Lots of people leave the back plate off.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

Well...I replaced my strings on my Strat last night. About an hour later I was in good shape.

Locking tuners were interesting, really made things easy! Having to take off the back plate to change strings was an unwelcome addition to the process, the screws were really tight. After doing it a couple times they loosened up. Got the strings removed, new ones inserted. easy enough, though it's apparently a good idea just to cut the strings in half as the bent end from the locking tuners doesn't easily slip through the saddles.

Bringing the guitar back into tune. So putting 10's on to replace the 9's is maybe where my problems started. I tightened up to tune, and had to keep going back and forth between the strings as tuning up one string was pulling the other out of tune. After a few minutes of this I noticed the bridge had pulled up at least 3/8" off the guitar top. Well...that can't be right, though I did not in any way recall how far off the top the bridge was before. Looked at a few videos, nothing I could find really addressed it. So I tightened up the screws to the bridge a bit (after re-opening the back plate) and brought back to tune. Progress but not even close. Took about 20 minutes of tightening and re-tuning to get it mostly flat on the board and in tune. Still not sure where it really should be, but there was a video about where to have it with regard to the whammy bar or whatever it's called. Kind of ignored that and just brought it to where the action was as low as it would go without buzzing. Lots of trial and error.

I guess the learning is that I need to not keep tightening when I change strings and I need to pay attention to the bridge level as another variable. Never considered that on an acoustic!

That retuning thing used to drive me buggy back in the day. Part of why I went to non-vibrato bridge guitars when I played live back then. Of course any Strat can be "decked" or "blocked" -- and then they tune up like any guitar. Now-a-days I have guitars with floating vibrato bridges and ones with fixed bridges and I just take the fiddliness of a new set of strings or going into an alt tuning as the way those things are as part of the variety.

The rear trem plate slot and stringing is another thing folks adapt to or tolerate. A common adaption is to take the plate off and leave it off. No one on stage will ever see this while playing, but live players often prefer that in case they need to replace a broken string in the line of fire.

Yes, I always cut the string in the middle. Yes, locking tuners are great. And you learned a lesson about the value of measuring the height off the back of the trem bridge to the body before changing string gauges/tension.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

...Of course any Strat can be "decked" or "blocked" - and then they tune up like any guitar...

An additional, as-yet-unmentioned fringe benefit of decking the bridge is an increase in both sustain and fullness of tone. IME the coupling of string vibration to the body/neck (I'm assuming the OP has already performed the obligatory neck-bolt tightening ritual) can provide near-hardtail/set-neck response - woody but clear, not at all metallic or edgy, like the '50s/early-60s Strat recordings; it also serves to further accentuate that subtle "acoustic reverb" coloration generated by the springs that many Strat players love and, just as with Hammond-style electric 'verb tanks, IME the more springs you use and the straighter the path (no "A-frame" setups here) the more pronounced the effect - provided of course that everything topside is sufficiently well-anchored to transfer string vibration...

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

An additional, as-yet-unmentioned fringe benefit of decking the bridge is an increase in both sustain and fullness of tone. IME the coupling of string vibration to the body/neck (I'm assuming the OP has already performed the obligatory neck-bolt tightening ritual) can provide near-hardtail/set-neck response - woody but clear, not at all metallic or edgy, like the '50s/early-60s Strat recordings; it also serves to further accentuate that subtle "acoustic reverb" coloration generated by the springs that many Strat players love and, just with Hammond-style electric 'verb tanks, IME the more springs you use and the straighter the path (no "A-frame" setups here) the more pronounced the effect - provided of course that everything topside is sufficiently well-anchored to transfer string vibration...

I agree that can make a change that one may like. I spent quite a bit of time with an inexpensive Strat copy on which I blocked the trem block with a mojo-rific 100 year old piece of hardwood from my house (scrap from some HVAC work). Really made that guitar come alive for me. And of course it's just as reversible as decking the trem.

But I have one Strat with a floating trem and it's its own thing.

[perttime]

Now that the string gauges are different ... How is intonation on the guitar? And neck relief?

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by perttime

Now that the string gauges are different ... How is intonation on the guitar? And neck relief?

Neck relief is great, flat and plays better than it did with 9’s. I don’t know how to assess the intonation or make a comparison. Sounds good to me. Open to any info or feedback.

[FoxHound4690]

As long as your trem bridge isn't sticking up 50 feet into the air sounds like you're good to go =P