Go Heavy Or Go Home

[Adieu]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

For me 10-46 is ideal for most any guitar for metal playing, at least my styles of metal. Some of the heaviest recordings ever were with 9s, but the 10s do help both in sound and feel. I have two identical Charvel 475s, and really love the extra heft with 10s vs the hybrid 9-46 set that came on my other one (that will be corrected at the next string change!!). I'm sure I could handle 11s if I wanted to, but you start lose a little of the high end brilliance for cleans and leads when you start putting telephone cable on your guitar! Not to mention playing comfort the possibility of screwing up your hands or getting CTS after playing very thick strings, especially for fast/bendy leads. And those things are important, so 10s win the race for me.

hiend brilliance? DR TrueBlues (25.5 scale and/or droptune) or DR DDTs (24.75 scale), the nickel in em gives the 11-50 allnickel TrueBlues and the 11-54 DDTs (all nickel? not sure) high end brilliance like nothing any gauge of, say, Ernie Balls, or worse yet D'Addarios, could ever kick up.

Also, easier on fingers. the idea is the thicker your string (in the same tuning), the lower you can drop your action pretty much

 

[~Vintage~]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

Uh...Yeah, right!!

You realize of course that one "step" is a full tone which is two frets? And you're saying that you have no problem bending a set of 12's 2 1/2 tones (5 frets)?!!!

Not gonna happen (at least not while you are playing. Maybe if you place your guitar on your lap and grab the string with both hands).

I guess I've got tough @$$ fingers lol. But when I had those 12-60 on temporarily waiting for the rest of my supplies for my project to come in I didn't realize I was in C standard tuning so that might explain it. If I was in E standard I probably would have sliced my fingers off trying to bend more than a full step!

But now that I have my axe put back together and my new string gauge on there (11-50) I can definitely say that the extra meat is awesome! I'll never go thinner again!! DR Tite-Fit EH-11 11 14 18 28 38 50 Nickel Plated, Round Core ~These are my new favorite strings.....they've stayed in tune (I'm on day 3 or 4) and I didn't even stretch them!

 

[Adieu]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

I guess I've got tough @$$ fingers lol. But when I had those 12-60 on temporarily waiting for the rest of my supplies for my project to come in I didn't realize I was in C standard tuning so that might explain it. If I was in E standard I probably would have sliced my fingers off trying to bend more than a full step!

But now that I have my axe put back together and my new string gauge on there (11-50) I can definitely say that the extra meat is awesome! I'll never go thinner again!! DR Tite-Fit EH-11 11 14 18 28 38 50 Nickel Plated, Round Core ~These are my new favorite strings.....they've stayed in tune (I'm on day 3 or 4) and I didn't even stretch them!

pay an extra buck for Pure Nickel DR TRUE BLUES (11-50) or DR DDT's 11-54 (not sure about nickel content, but same quality level, run em for gibby scale and true blues for fender scale instruments)... they're DR's serious lines, while the tite-fits are kinda.... half-baked. huge improvement.

no sense in getting the "budget line" of a premium string brand. and nope, not just snobbery or whatnot, actually once accidentally bought tite-fits (black pack, ~$6) - and they fell hugely short of the true blues (blue pack, +$1) and DDTs (yellow pack w/ spider graphic, gauges geared towards drop tunings). i was seriously miffed, they were ALMOST as bad as ernie balls. waaaaay worse feel, pure nickel feels gentler on your fingers and gives a brighter/punchier sound.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

Pure nickel, all else being equal, will give a slightly WARMER tone than steel strings. For "brilliance", get all steel or stainless.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

I guess I've got tough @$$ fingers lol. But when I had those 12-60 on temporarily waiting for the rest of my supplies for my project to come in I didn't realize I was in C standard tuning so that might explain it.

OK, well that explains it.

 

[DeathMetalRob]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

I used 13-70 (wound 3rd) for a few years in C#. It sounded good and was awesome for chording but bending was a b*tch. The last 4-5 years I've used 11-50 in standard.

I've recently switched to 10s. Less fundamental with more harmonics. Makes solos scream in ways I could never get out of the cables I used to run.

I say give big strings a try... It's the only way you'll figure out if you like them.

If you play in C# (standard not drop) gve Dean Markley's HD 11-52 a go - they do the business. Either that or Blue Steel - give a little darker tone.

 

[~Vintage~]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

pay an extra buck for Pure Nickel DR TRUE BLUES (11-50) or DR DDT's 11-54 (not sure about nickel content, but same quality level, run em for gibby scale and true blues for fender scale instruments)... they're DR's serious lines, while the tite-fits are kinda.... half-baked. huge improvement.

no sense in getting the "budget line" of a premium string brand. and nope, not just snobbery or whatnot, actually once accidentally bought tite-fits (black pack, ~$6) - and they fell hugely short of the true blues (blue pack, +$1) and DDTs (yellow pack w/ spider graphic, gauges geared towards drop tunings). i was seriously miffed, they were ALMOST as bad as ernie balls. waaaaay worse feel, pure nickel feels gentler on your fingers and gives a brighter/punchier sound.

I didn't know that tite fits were the "budget" line of DR's, thanks for the info! I do like these tite fits so I'll probably love the pure nickel ones.

OK, well that explains it.

LOL, no doubt!

If you play in C# (standard not drop) gve Dean Markley's HD 11-52 a go - they do the business. Either that or Blue Steel - give a little darker tone.

I play in E, I just had a couple sets of DDT 12-60's laying around so while I was waiting for all my supplies for a project to come in I did a little experiment to see how thick a 6th string my LSR roller nut would accept. I used Blue Steels many years ago and they were SUPER BRIGHT sounding. I mean like shimmering and jingly, I couldn't stand it. I had to get them off of there. I never bought Dean Markley again. I guess you could call me a hater.lol

 

[Adieu]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

I didn't know that tite fits were the "budget" line of DR's, thanks for the info! I do like these tite fits so I'll probably love the pure nickel ones.




LOL, no doubt!




I play in E, I just had a couple sets of DDT 12-60's laying around so while I was waiting for all my supplies for a project to come in I did a little experiment to see how thick a 6th string my LSR roller nut would accept. I used Blue Steels many years ago and they were SUPER BRIGHT sounding. I mean like shimmering and jingly, I couldn't stand it. I had to get them off of there. I never bought Dean Markley again. I guess you could call me a hater.lol

btw, I misspoke... they're called PURE BLUES or smthn like that, not true blues. In other word, BLUE pack - BLUE in name tite fits are some sorta combination, afair, something like nickel wind/steel core or nickel core/steel wind?

 

[DeathMetalRob]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

I play in E, I just had a couple sets of DDT 12-60's laying around so while I was waiting for all my supplies for a project to come in I did a little experiment to see how thick a 6th string my LSR roller nut would accept. I used Blue Steels many years ago and they were SUPER BRIGHT sounding. I mean like shimmering and jingly, I couldn't stand it. I had to get them off of there. I never bought Dean Markley again. I guess you could call me a hater.lol

Yeah..? That's what I like about them I get more clarity through the high gain - at least that's how I like it. HD are brighter than Blue Steel but, for low tuning it's perfect.

 

[Brian Griffin]

Re: Go Heavy Or Go Home

I know it's not necessary to achieve a killer deep dark tone, look at Tony Iommi, he uses 8-38 because of his finger tips and still gets that badass tone.

Then again, he has an excuse. I'll never go back to anything skinnier than 10's again. I didn't think anyone used 9's anymore except to play oldies but I think I've made up my mind, I'm gonna get some 11-50's and call it a day.




I guess the two new boxes of DDT 12-60's will continue to collect dust in my guitar room.

Why don't you play 11s? I have used it for years and found that is the heaviest gauge I can play rock with. 12s are just too heavy, can't even bend them. And to me, D'Addario's 11s feel like 9s. I normally play Darco.