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I went to 10-48's on my acoustic.


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Anyone else gone lighter strings? 

It was somewhat by accident.  And I'll try and not make this too long of story.  My granddaughter's little parlor guitar had a broken tuner peg.  And she just reported she would like to take it up again.  So, of course, Papa took it in to get that fixed!  I thought since I'm going I will get strings changed on mine. 

Donning my mask, I took the guitars in, handed them to the guitar tech at my local store.  As I was taking my guitar out of the case I found a set of "RARE" 10-48 "Extra Light" DR Phosphor Bronze strings in my case.  I have no idea where they came from or how they got in there. I don't remember ever buying them!  I asked him if he knew anything about them and he just said that he has put them on before.  His response could probably be distilled down to "Why not?"  BTW, I had 12's on it.

I just started up the practice session this morning and tried them out.  I like them!  Going lighter, my first impression is I haven't given up any tone.  I know it doesn't make sense.  But maybe, just maybe, the tone was even a little fuller?? And I thought that I had pretty good callouses built up.  But I have been playing acoustic a lot lately and the fingers are a little sore.  The lighter strings will maybe give me a little break there.  I just finished up about 30 minutes with the acoustic and another 30 minutes with electric and they aren't as sore as I might have expected.

Anyone else tried these strings?  Or a similar pleasant experience trying new, different strings?

 

dr.jpg.2eda88ec097cf3f4e716e4c60a5cfb43.jpg

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Haven't tried on an electric yet but I went from 10's to 8's on my Les Pauls.  I tried 9's and 8's and after some initial adjustments decided I liked the 8's better.  

I first tried Earnie Ball Extra Slinky's then got a few sets of Billy Gibbons Mexican Lottery brand from Dunlop and think they are my new strings.

I do figure the lighter strings may need more frequent changes but as you said I don't think you give up tone.

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That's good to know, Six String. I bought a set of eights after watching Rick Beato's string diameter comparison. I plan to string them onto my Squire Mod '59. Lots of work and being too tired to even practice many days has delayed the string experiment here. I'll report back on the results.

Rock On!

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@pkotof Be aware that very light strings may require a neck or bridge adjustment. Light strings vibrate more and could could cause a fret buzz if the string height (action) is already low. 

The debate rages on on string gauge... players like Stevie Ray Vaughan who were renown for huge string bends, played very heavy guage strings (13-52 i believe) on his strat because he claimed the tone was so much better. Like a lot of things... just a matter of preferrence, really.

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47 minutes ago, NeilES335 said:

@pkotof Be aware that very light strings may require a neck or bridge adjustment. Light strings vibrate more and could could cause a fret buzz if the string height (action) is already low. 

The debate rages on on string gauge... players like Stevie Ray Vaughan who were renown for huge string bends, played very heavy guage strings (13-52 i believe) on his strat because he claimed the tone was so much better. Like a lot of things... just a matter of preferrence, really.

And conversely, Billy Gibbons and Tony Iommi are known for very light gauge strings and no one says they have thin tone which is why I feel its a good experiment for players to explore for themselves.  They may find the prefer the SRV heavy is better path but they may find enlightenment on the Billy Gibbons path

On set ups, the changes to mine have been relatively minor (surprising even to me).  As you note, you most likely will need to adjust for some string buzz with a touch higher bridge, but you will also learn to attack the strings lighter and you're muting will improve. I also needed to adjust the neck relief on one guitar, but not the other (at least not yet).  I continue to tweak on the set up as I adjust to the new feel and the guitars settle in to the new tensions.  The ability to experiment like this is another reason I've always advocated people need to learn to do their own basic set ups.  You don't have to go pay a good luthier for a set up and you rarely find a good luthier (or even guitar tech) at your local Guitar Center.

IMHO, the biggest change going to a much lighter gauge string will be to how you approach the guitar  Both right and left had technique will have to be adjusted.  I'm still getting used to it but feel its forcing me to develop much more finesse and my bends and vibrato are improved greatly over my playing with 10's.  That said, I'm mainly a rhythm player though and even there those all barre chord songs are way less fatiguing. You do have to learn to lighten your touch though or you pull everything sharp.

For me, this change has been the most inspirational change I've made since going to a digital modeling rig. 

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Let's remember the other Billy Gibson video when his guitar tech sampled his 59 "Pearily Gates" Les Paul on his effects processor,  then after that didn't mater which guitar Billy played, low output single to 22k ohm humbucker,  they all had same output to amp.

 

I moved my Strat to 10's from the initial 9's prefer the 10's on it, sounded fuller not thin and tiny.

Haven't looked back

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22 hours ago, NeilES335 said:

The debate rages on on string gauge... players like Stevie Ray Vaughan who were renown for huge string bends, played very heavy guage strings (13-52 i believe) on his strat because he claimed the tone was so much better. Like a lot of things... just a matter of preferrence, really.

But even SRV went to lighter strings.  Here, in this video I had posted in the other thread, Dave Onorado, who is Rick Beato's guitar tech, talks about SRV's guitar tech describing his going to 10's not long before his death.  It is at about 3 minutes in the video:

19 hours ago, Eracer_Team-DougH said:

I moved my Strat to 10's from the initial 9's prefer the 10's on it, sounded fuller not thin and tiny.

Haven't looked back

And Doug, I have had just the opposite experience.  As I have mentioned before, I went to 9's on 3 of my electrics.  I did this just to make it easier to bend while learning that technique.  I fully expected "thin and tiny" and figured I was just going to live with that while developing the finger strength necessary for bending.  But I just don't feel I've given up the tone. I'm sticking with 9's and even thinking about 8's on at least one guitar.  Part of it is, admittedly, just the fun of trying something different!😎😉

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Thanks for the advice on the strings guys! Strings are the most active part of our guitar "user interface." I am most intrigued. I also want to learn to set up guitars myself.

Phil

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@pkotof, Phil, if you want to learn to set up guitars yourself think about getting the best instruction on doing so, Learn and Master Guitar Setup and Maintenance with Greg Voros.  The people that have this that have reported back rave about it.  (Don't follow my lead.  I bought it and haven't taken the shrink wrap off yet!) 

The cost of the course is about what one setup and your local guitar shop would cost.  And Steve has Greg on Live Lessons from time to time.

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I always remember what BB King told Santana .. why are you working so hard use lighter strings!

 

 

Seems to work for me!

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@Steve Krenz suggests on one of the DVD lessons for Session 7 acoustic players consider switching to lighter strings to make learning Barre chords easier. I put Elixir extra lites on my Takamine GD93 Friday. It was a great suggestion. Sounds great and It easier just a bit easier. I do get a little buzz on low E low notes if I don’t get my finger closer to the fret, but that’s probably good practice anyway.

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3 hours ago, Steve Goeringer said:

@Steve Krenz suggests on one of the DVD lessons for Session 7 acoustic players consider switching to lighter strings to make learning Barre chords easier. I put Elixir extra lites on my Takamine GD93 Friday. It was a great suggestion. Sounds great and It easier just a bit easier. I do get a little buzz on low E low notes if I don’t get my finger closer to the fret, but that’s probably good practice anyway.

Whatever makes it easier for you to learn and practicing more enjoyabe is a good thing,  See my earlier post about string buzz and light guage strings,  N

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