Size Matters!!

This one may require more editing and conscious thought. I don’t mean to string you along, but I haven’t quite gauged where I land on this issue.

When I was a child I played whatever strings I could get my hands on. Thank goodness for Rusty or whatever his name was at the music store next to Church’s Chicken!! I’m sure I wreaked havoc on both my intonation feel, because I would often restring the B string with the extra E string that came in the pack, or some other ridiculous nonsense. I didn’t get it. At the time I was still so new to the game that I hadn’t developed preferences yet. Other people, likely, develop a real aesthetic very early on. I’m not that guy. I lacked the financials and the discernment.

When I had a little more experience I bought SIT strings because my brother went to school in Akron and they were decent and cheap. I favored a heavier gauge for my Strat copies, always 11’s or 12’s, at least. But my Strat copies were bullet proof or had incorrect truss rod adjustments so the strings gave me a consistent feel. Note that my guitar setup was terrible. I did it myself without sufficient knowledge, and my intonation was wrong at the fret and at the bridge, and my action and relief were wrong strings to neck. Most of those instruments could have been brought into better playing condition by a pro, but who would spend 30 packs worth of strings on getting a professional setup for a guitar that was going to get knocked around on a daily basis, toting it from school to rehearsal and to practice? It just didn’t make sense.

I also thought that SRV and Jimi Hendrix played heavier gauge strings, but that may not have been as it seemed. Jimi definitely detuned up to 2 whole steps down, and SRV was going lighter gauge the older he got. In my standard tuning, without guitar techs, I thought my deficiencies were the result of my own poor technique.

Once my hands became strong enough, and after I had been relegated to bass guitar often enough, I developed a very strength-centered, high exertion playing style that seemed natural enough when I played my own guitars, but seemed completely inappropriate playing the guitars of guys that already had figured out that basic guitar setups were crucial. I knew an awesome guy that had 7s on his shredders, and although I loved what I could do on it, I had very complex and irrational feelings about a guy that was content to play 7s on a serious guitar.

(Side note: people often get their children terrible starter instruments. I get it. But I wouldn’t have done that back in those days for my own kid. But especially nowadays starter guitars (and flutes and keyboards, etc.) are of far higher quality than those of yore. Likely it is the developments in cad technology that account for this. Back then, and in some cases, currently, some manufacturers are criminally negligent in an attempt to make a “working” instrument. This frustrates the child and sets their playing back a great deal. Since lower price instruments are now more competitive, performance wise, and more consistent in their manufacturing build quality, an argument could be made that you get more for your money. But a higher end instrument that a child loses interest in will maintain a resale value that will be beneficial in the long run. That is, if your child is not one to tear it up. With advances in AirTags and trackers, you might even be able to prevent them from losing them on the bus ride home!)

Eventually I got job, my own guitar and had a car and could buy the strings that I wanted and afford the repairs that I needed. Very slowly, over decades, I have finally come to a startling conclusion.

I would have originally said that Guitars come from the factory a certain way, and that vision should be honored to some extent. If possible, restring it once or twice with the factory gauge strings and live with the designers vision of what the guitar should be. There is merit there. But after that, just put tens on. On everything. The jazz boxes, Strats, Teles, Gibsons and acoustics. I will admit to having 12s on my Ovation, but forget them on anything else acoustic. Maybe 11’s, but 10’s. (Okay, I also probably have 12s on one other acoustic, but I will probably sell it, with haste.)

I get that neck length and string angle and everything play into it, and that if I get used to it, it will ultimately be a good thing that I can feel the guitar and instantaneously adjust to someone else’s vision of correct string gauge. But why? … on my own axes?

Again this alludes to the fact that I play with digital modelers and can consciously and concisely set applicable tone parameters for whatever perceived beefiness that is necessary. I find this even easier on real amps, though.

At this point though, my best playing happens on an axe that is set up correctly, with tens, is electric, is turned up very loudly, but I am playing very softly. It’s just my groove. I often still crave the light top/ heavy bottoms that I used to use. But at the same time I have less call to play chunky distortion, which Lt. Top Hv bottoms excel at. But I still hanker for them on the clean tones of solo guitar. I still prefer a wound g string, as well.

What do you play? Consistent in gauge across the board, or do you change gauges so that your Gibson feels like a Fender?

In Bass Guitar I still do prefer a heavier gauge on anything greater than or equal to a 5 string. But it comes down to an economy of sorts. The 5 strings should have the same gauges as the 4 string plus the extra string. This cuts down on waste and logging which guitar is set up for which set of strings.

Check out Rick Beato talking about string gauge in his YouTube video, and holler back at me about how wrong I am!! Note, I reserve the right to edit this nonsense when my sleep debt is less than the 12% it is currently!!!

A final note, the quality of guitars I play is nowhere near the quality of instruments I see out there in public, whether you see pricing or finish as the yardstick. Perhaps I lack the discretionary ability to discern, still to this day, between the guitar quality and this would affect my decisions about which ways to outfit the original instruments. I definitely prefer guitars that are Strat in shape and neck relief and do not enjoy playing steel string acoustics, in general. This is likely a technique issue, but I think full disclosure should include my natural bias.