What guage strings should I use?

Mark

Mark

Not blessed, or merciful
Apr 11, 2001
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Sarf Lundin, Innit
Ok, I got a guitar back in August, and I'm still on the original strings but they're on their way out.

Can someone tell me what guage I should get if I just want a basic thick rock sound, maybe with a bit of Adrian Smith-ness to it :p

I know that's now all based on string guage, but surely it'd be part of it?

:confused:

Cheers :D
 
I use 009-046 Ernie Ball ( Hybrid Slinky ) on my Les Paul and 009-042 on my Telecaster.

What gauge strings you should use depends also on what guitar you have and in what key you play it.

I mostly play in 'D' which means the strings will be a bit looser than "normally". If my information is correct the most common key to play guitar in is 'E'...

I have two guitars I use regulary, one Les Paul model and one Telecaster model. The Les Paul has a about 2 cm ( if memory serves me right ) shorter stringlength than e.g. Tele- and Stratocaster has. That's why I like a bit thicker strings on the Les Paul.
 
well.... on my 7 string I use the 9 - 46 guage set from d'addario, plus a 56 for the low B string.

So if you're tuning down to B, that's be the same as me, except that I've got the high E string and you don't....

So look for something like an 11 - 56 set. Maybe even heavier for the low B if you can find it.
 
all suggestions sound good....9's are probly the best "all around" guage. Strings are mostly a personal preference, also style and playing technique dictates what guage you should use.

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To be honest the thicker guage the better. Thicker strings resonate to make bigger sound that you can do more with.

I use Dean Markley 10-52 guage. Heavier bottom end means you can tune lower down there because they still give the same output when they are looser.

The only reason to use lighter guage strings is if you want to do really big bends. I sometimes go for a two tone bend so I keep the guage medium on the higher strings. 9-46 is considered light guage. 10-46 medium and 11-52 heavy.
 
Hi again Desolation bloke...I'm not following you honestly!

The other guitarist in my band put me on to the strings I now use:
Ernie Ball's amusingly named Light Tops & Heavy Bottoms...

...which do exactly what they say they do. When you are de-tuned as I'm sure all good metallers on this board are, you need big chunky bottom strings to riff on and keep the tension, but you also need light tops for those delicate sweep picks and bends. These strings gie you all that.
There may be a need to adjust a floating trem and intonation to take the tension difference into account between top and bottom. I haven't got a clue how to do this.
 
haha!

That's ok I believe you ;)

The other guitarist in my band put me on to the strings I now use: Ernie Ball's amusingly named Light Tops & Heavy Bottoms...
Click to expand...

hehe, funny, I like my women just the opposite to that :D

Eek I don't downtune! That's quite interesting, I'l start a thread on that. (Opeth use standard tuning, that's my vindication)

The only real advantage to the lighter guage I find is that they're lighter on the old fingertips. (You should see the state of Stevie Ray Vaughan's fingers when he was alive!! He used like guage 12s!!! eeeeeew)

I have an old Ibanez RG550 neon and the guy I got it from used to play with guage 12-56 strings and there was so much tension that the peg on the ffloyd rose tremolo broke straight through the wood!!! Really heavy guages also put a great deal of pressure on the neck and you need to keep the truss rod tight and tune it often!!

You shouldn't have to adjust the trem settings to compensate for heavy bottom strings. I think!!! Could be wrong though, I never have :confused: If anyone knows for sure, let me know!
 
I use Dean Markley Blue Steel strings (.11-.52) tuned down a 1/2 step. My guitar rarely gets out of tune with the Blue Steel's even when I hammer the piss out of them! HA! Make sure you have at least one humbucker pickup on your guitar though for better distortion and sustain. My strat has 2 single coil pickups and one Seymour Duncan JB-Jr Humbucker pickup (at the bridge). I also use two different metal pedals as well. The first is the BOSS Metalzone MT-2 in which I have tweaked to play mostly stuff like Judas Priest etc. I also have a DOD FX-86 Death Metal pedal which I have tweaked for more bottom end material like Therion. I also have an EQ pedal that help eliminate un-wanted feedback and let me adjust volume easier on the fly. Hope this helps. If you have three single coil pickups, you may want to stick to .09-.42 or .10-.46 strings like everyone else suggested. Depends on what stuff you like to play! Keep It Heavy!!:cool:
 
If you want a maiden sound in standard E tuning - I think they use Earnie Ball 9's Super Slinky (I use these too :) ) They work fine in drop D tuning too
 
Woah! I think if I could not get my usual Dean Markley's, I would go for the Ernie Ball's. Too bad you could not get your usual strings. Never heard of the D'Addarrio's breaking so soon (must have been a bad factory production or something). That's gotta bite big time! I bet it ticked you off pretty bad. Hope things work out for you. :)
 
Our guitarist (who, according to Phil Whitehouse' review on this site, "throw himself about like a hyperactive eight-year-old, and ... droop over his guitar like a suicidal mannequin.") uses a bass string — a 65 — in the position of his "E," which is actually downtuned now to a C.

The full tuning is CGCFAD, I think.

& he uses the heaviest sets he can get his hands on in a normal music shop!
 
ive been using d'adarios but recently someones recommended i change to CFH bloomers or something like that doesn any know of the quality of these or if they are better than d'adarios????
also with my d'adarios i tune up and down a lot and they sound great ranging from normal E tuning down to B tuning im not sure on the guage though, most likely just the standard one
 
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