everybody knows that to get good tone you need to use heavy gauge strings, right?

the reason for that is that greater mass equals greater dispalcment of magnetic feild of the pickups and thus more sound.

heavy strings ,howevere, are harder to play, because they tune up to a greater tension.

The only time this is different is on a short scale guitar, the les paul.

12 gauge strings on a strat would make most guitarists wimper.

12 guage strings on a paul feel like 11's to a strat player!

Greater mass / Less Tension

I don't agree with the 'heavier the strings, the better the tone' theory; at least, not for me. I've been using .008-.038 strings since 1967 on most of my electric guitars. For my style of playing, these really work. Tone's got a lot to do with the particular instrument and amp combination, as well as the players touch, etc. I have these strings on all of my 24 3/4 scale guitars. I only use .009-.042 on 2 guitars (25" scale) at the moment and they're used only to stay in tune a little longer during gigs where I can't tune up between songs. These are the heaviest strings I've used on a regular basis since 1966 when I didn't know any better (and lighter strings weren't readily available).
I've found that my gear (with me playing it) does NOT sound better with heavier strings. Whenever I've tried to use what seems to be the standard for the majority of players, I don't play as well and my sound is not any better for it either.

I also find that I can play lead guitar better and with more fluidity on the 24 3/4" necks as opposed to the larger scales. My daughter has a Fender Jagstang which has a 24" scale neck. I've found that my fingers just don't fit as well into the upper fret positions with it. I assume that some players with larger hands appreciate the longer scale guitars (25 1/2")more than I do. I do have a couple of Strats, but cannot play as well on them as on the smaller scale neck guitars.

Sorry but I'm with mesa dude.
If you want to put large guage strings on your 25.5 scale guitar but find them to hard to bend, tune down.
Also I know SRV used heaveee guage strings and swore by them but he tuned down 1/2 step most of the time. Also people close to SRV said he really didn't need to punish himself ( his fingertips were constantly torn up and he went so far as to rip calluses from his hands and crazy glue them to his battered fingertips ) with the BIG strings cuz most of his tone was from his hands and gear.
Another case in point is Tony Iommi, arguable the heaviest tone/riffmeister there is and he uses 8-38's.
Though your statement makes sence in a electromagnetic way it is relativly a small factor in the overall tone picture.

Craig

check out my site Guitar From The Green goo for my gear and music.

I play with super heavy string, always have, always will, but i don't agree 100% about the better tone, shit, look at Rev. Gibbons, uses 8s or 9s, and his tone is amazing. it's the hands man, all in the hands.

quote:

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Originally posted by F1sh:
I play with super heavy string, always have, always will, but i don't agree 100% about the better tone, shit, look at Rev. Gibbons, uses 8s or 9s, and his tone is amazing. it's the hands man, all in the hands.

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Thank You!! I think the whole string gauge thing gets a little blown out of porportion.
So many great players that use light gauge strings that have monster tone.

____________
Lawrence D.

fish and laroosco are on to it.

check out my site Guitar From The Green goo for my gear and music.

It's definitely a personal thing. With my Strat, I find I like the tone better with .011's than I did with .010's. (which I have on everything else right now). It's just a thicker, heavier, slightly darker tone that adds to the tone I'm after right now.

The 335 with .010's on it sounds like a classic rock/blues machine, and with .011's get's a bit thicker and seems to work better for jazz stuff.

Anything smaller than .010's and I'm changing busted strings too often. I like the ability to be able to PLAY the dynamics on my Strat, either a very light touch (I love that smoky sound from the strings) or really punish the thing. Otherwise, I feel like I'm only "filtering" my playing style to keep from busting strings (and I bust .010's pretty regularly too). But that shorter scale 335 with .010's on it feels like buddah.

Brett