Who here uses light gauge strings on their SG?

[FREE SG]

Dean Markley 9's for me!!!!

 

[sshan2525]

9's on everything now and l'm thinking of going to 8's on some. While l believe everyone should play what works for them, l'm often bemused by those l see struggling with heavier strings because "it's the only way to get good tone, man". I know some otherwise decent players who cannot get any speed, vibrato or do bends that aren't flat simply because of the telephone cables on their guitars. I chose the path of least resistance a long time ago.

 

[eS.G.]

Just tried a set of .08's on the '03 L.P......the peer pressure here was just to much I caved lol.....end result= not a fan......I will keep plucking them till they snap, but will not be buying more. And I have answered my question about the ULTRA LIGHT .07's From the Reverend Willie.....just say NO.

 

[New]

I like the tone of 10s but I'm gonna put 9s back on my SG. After playing 10s for even an hour, you can really feel it on your fingertips.

 

[Tobacco Worm]

8's?? 7's??!!!! E-gads! Where I come from they take away your "Man Card" and issue you a box of panty liners if ya play those little strings. Just kiddin' boys, don't get all riled up, it's bad for the completion and hormones!

I tried those Slinkies when they came out back in the '60's and went right back to my Black Diamond 11's in a hurry. I had lost all tone and volume. And just this week I thought I'd see if they still were not for me and installed a set of 9's on my Strat. It went from a rich and smooth toned instrument to sounding like a Tinker toy. A couple of strings even lost so much volume that they were nearly dead sounding. I had a set of 10's back on it in under 5 minutes. The guitar instantly came back to life. Sorry folks, I can't play with light strings and must have at least 10's to get proper tone and volume from my instruments. 11's are even better for me.

 

[tmjns796]

I put a set of 7's on my Cort M600 last time and I gave it a week.... I could not get used to that at all. I had to fret everything so lightly that it would buzz just to get the right note. any harder and I was going out of tune. not good for me, others love them. Im a hybrid man myself.

 

[mdubya]

8's?? 7's??!!!! E-gads! Where I come from they take away your "Man Card" and issue you a box of panty liners if ya play those little strings. Just kiddin' boys, don't get all riled up, it's bad for the completion and hormones!

I tried those Slinkies when they came out back in the '60's and went right back to my Black Diamond 11's in a hurry. I had lost all tone and volume. And just this week I thought I'd see if they still were not for me and installed a set of 9's on my Strat. It went from a rich and smooth toned instrument to sounding like a Tinker toy. A couple of strings even lost so much volume that they were nearly dead sounding. I had a set of 10's back on it in under 5 minutes. The guitar instantly came back to life. Sorry folks, I can't play with light strings and must have at least 10's to get proper tone and volume from my instruments. 11's are even better for me.

Clapton, Beck, Page, Angus Young, Iommi, Peter Green, Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Billy Gibbons, Kossoff, and BB King all agree with you. Not.

'Course, what do they know?

 

[Tobacco Worm]

All those guys hadda turn in their card!

 

[V_1]

10's on stop bars and floating bridges.

11's on Bigsbys.

 

[MarkB]

just this week I thought I'd see if they still were not for me and installed a set of 9's on my Strat. It went from a rich and smooth toned instrument to sounding like a Tinker toy. A couple of strings even lost so much volume that they were nearly dead sounding. I had a set of 10's back on it in under 5 minutes. The guitar instantly came back to life.

Exactly what I found on the SG... oh and my 9 year old seems to be able to play and bend 10's to pitch without any problem! ;-)

 

[Missy]

I use 9-42 on my Les Paul and SG, mostly because I have learned how to play from listening to blues guitarists. 9's make bends so easy and they have become integral to my style, together with vibrato. Even though I slam into the strings pretty hard with my right hand, everything works fine for me.
I do use 11's on my Wilshire, partly because she sounds too thin with 9's, but mostly because the high E string pops out of the saddle too fast otherwise (Bigsbyesque vibrato with a very shallow break angle onto a roller bridge).
My acoustic also gets 11's for volume and because I use her mainly for rhythm.
Concerning type of strings: anything round wound, nickelplated steel, but mostly Dean Markley, Ernie Ball or dem cheap Fame strings from Music Store. Nickel strings and flatwounds sound dead to me, I like a brighter attack for a better rock tone.

 

[Daveso]

I was reading this thread as I am really struggling to prevent my high strings from going sharp on chords, etc. Really struggling. And as a new guitarist, I'm quite surprised how easy it is for me to hear this…. so as a result- I'm thinking of going to 10s. I'm using 9s currently. I don't know how you guys with thin strings do it!

 

[dbb]

I was reading this thread as I am really struggling to prevent my high strings from going sharp on chords, etc. Really struggling. And as a new guitarist, I'm quite surprised how easy it is for me to hear this…. so as a result- I'm thinking of going to 10s. I'm using 9s currently. I don't know how you guys with thin strings do it!

Is your guitar's nut cut properly or is it bit too high? Check that as it helps intonation a lot to have the nut slots exactly right, not too high.

Next, perhaps you are gripping the stings too hard, you only need to press the string enough to cleanly fret the note, no need to press any harder - and pressing too hard will make a string go sharp, the lighter the string gauge the easier it is to go sharp this way.

I use 10's on my solid body guitars; I find it a good compromise between enough string mass to have a good tone and light enough to bend notes. I'm not a fan of 9's or lighter, at least for my playing style.

 

[Daveso]

Is your guitar's nut cut properly or is it bit too high? Check that as it helps intonation a lot to have the nut slots exactly right, not too high.

Next, perhaps you are gripping the stings too hard, you only need to press the string enough to cleanly fret the note, no need to press any harder - and pressing too hard will make a string go sharp, the lighter the string gauge the easier it is to go sharp this way.

I use 10's on my solid body guitars; I find it a good compromise between enough string mass to have a good tone and light enough to bend notes. I'm not a fan of 9's or lighter, at least for my playing style.

I don't know how to tell if my nut is too high.

I certainly am likely gripping too hard as I also try to practice with my acoustic which is almost the opposite- you need to grip hard to get clean sounds.

That being said it's SO easy to press the high strings too hard- especially when I can't/don't get close to the fret.

I might try 10s to see if it helps. It really is noticeable when playing lots of open chords like with AC/DC stuff. Open D get nasty when the high strings go sharp.

 

[Biddlin]

Geez, you guys must be heavy-handed. How do you get any legato or glissando with those steel cables pulling at your necks and bridges? I'm running .008s on two SGs and .007 on my Strat. I consider .009 my "formal" gauge!
;>)/

 

[Daveso]

Geez, you guys must be heavy-handed. How do you get any legato or glissando with those steel cables pulling at your necks and bridges? I'm running .008s on two SGs and .007 on my Strat. I consider .009 my "formal" gauge!
;>)/

I'm still mostly a noob. But I know what I'm doing if that makes sense.

I can't for the life of me figure out how you could use .008s or .007s. You must be very gentile. I can check the notes with a Pitchhawk tuner to see how sharp a note goes while increasing pressure. It doesn't take much at all to sharpen the high strings close to the nut.

I'll keep working on it… and change things around. I guess that's part of the fun… if I don't go crazy first. :)

 

[dbb]

I don't know how to tell if my nut is too high.

I certainly am likely gripping too hard as I also try to practice with my acoustic which is almost the opposite- you need to grip hard to get clean sounds.

You might want a tech to look at the nut, but basically if the notes in the 1st-5th fret on the neck do not play sharp most likely it's OK.

Geez, you guys must be heavy-handed. How do you get any legato or glissando with those steel cables pulling at your necks and bridges? I'm running .008s on two SGs and .007 on my Strat. I consider .009 my "formal" gauge!
;>)/

I play with a lot of legato, slides, glisses, turns, trills, mordents, appogiaturas, etc. on 10's, 11's 12's and 13's. and vibrato, too....

Ok, the string bending gets a lot less on the 12's and 13's!

I do have a very strong fretting hand from decades of playing string bass as a teen and young adult and have remained an electric bassist to this day, so what you may call a steel cable on guitar is nothing compared to a bass string; but it's all about getting just the right amount of pressure on the strings, no more, no less, than is needed to do what you want.

Biddlin, you play bass....you know how big those telephone cables are!

I have no qualms about guys using 7's or 8's or whatever....but I don't like even 9's. Fortunately the string makers have sizes to please all of us.

 

[Col Mustard]

I don't know how to tell if my nut is too high.

I certainly am likely gripping too hard as I also try to practice with my acoustic which is almost the opposite- you need to grip hard to get clean sounds.

That being said it's SO easy to press the high strings too hard- especially when I can't/don't get close to the fret.

I might try 10s to see if it helps. It really is noticeable when playing lots of open chords like with AC/DC stuff. Open D get nasty when the high strings go sharp.

if you're a new guitarist, this is a great thread to read... there's a lot here to
pick up on. especially the part about gripping the neck too hard. If you've never gotten your guitars set up, this is one of the predictable problems!

A good luthier can measure your nut slots and set your guitars' actions properly, so that you don't have to use the grip of death when playing acoustic, and you can play electric with a much more relaxed hand. Once you figure that out, your playing may well improve a lot. I wish I had learned this earlier. I had to teach myself to play with my left hand more relaxed, but once I did I found myself performing licks I could never have done in the past. Lighter strings may help with this too, but I swear by my .11s.

So it costs some coin to have your guitar set up properly, but the improvement in your style and tone will very likely mean that it's worth it IMHO.

 

[Biddlin]

"Biddlin, you play bass....you know how big those telephone cables are!"

Lately, more and more. So much so that I have a little sort of self hypnosis exercise worked out to remember not to squash my guitar strings, after playing the Thunderbird, on which I also do a bit of legato, especially on jazz stuff. Even when playing bass guitar, the lightest possible touch needed to yield the desired result is my aim. I get to jam with a concert quality violinist and cellist, now and again, and we have borrowed a bit from each others' technique. Blame her for my love of ridiculously high register tremolo. Her current ensemble blames me for her addiction to The Stones and Savoy Brown, I'm sure.
The wide range of gauges and materials available is remarkable to someone who bought Black Diamond at the Woolworth or Sears, in what ever gauge was in the package, I'd guess acoustics were 13s and electrics 11s with a wound G. That was the least of our worries, because even if you could afford a used telecaster or ES-125, you really had to fiddle with them to get the action and intonation playable. The winding on the strings was apparently harder metal than the frets, in many cases, causing great scallops in the fret wires, after just a couple of years.
Whatever gauge you use, keep 'em clean and change 'em often. Your fingertips and your tone deserve it.;>)/

 

[Tobacco Worm]

"I've issued an Executive Order to the nation from the Oval Office this date mandating the banning and removal of all guitar string sets sold in America that are below the standard set of 10's. This order will naturally not effect those that now use strings of this gauge and higher, but the nation must adhere to this or take up alternate style instruments to comply. Further, I've ordered that all string sets below 10 to be sent to Russia as part of my increasing trade embargo. With this in place, it is my belief that the issue in eastern Europe will soon be resolved as their guitar playing will suffer to the point that complete capitulation from that government's aggression will halt as a result of poor intonation and weak tones."

Rock on, your bud, B.O.