Jazz box setup

[JB_From_Hell]

I got my ES-175 back the other day. It had 12-52 flats on it, which I didn’t hate. My favorite jazz guy uses D’Addario Nickel Bronze 13-56, so I stuck a set on, and like the heavier strings better. The action is pretty low for a 70 year old guitar, and it sounds awesome.

what’s your setup?

 

[Benjy_26]

Mine's not nearly as cool as yours. I have D'addario chrome 10's with a wound 3rd on an old MIK Epi LP. 500k pots, 50's wiring, Phat Cat set with alnico IV in the neck.

 

[GuitarStv]

I've used 11-49 Elixirs on my Dot for a long time. I've tried heavier strings, but actually found I didn't like the tone as much . . . it got too deep.

 

[BluesMan335]

9's on all my guitars, solid or hollowbody. I need to bend strings.

 

[Chris Pile]

9's on all my guitars, solid or hollowbody. I need to bend strings.

You CAN bend heavy strings. They just don't have to be bent as far to go to the same pitch. I used to have a client who played pedal steel licks with strings going up and down simultaneously like Amos Garrett. He used 14's on his Ibanez Lee Ritenour.

I string my Eastman archtops (AR-804 and AR-810) with D'Addario Half Rounds - the action is super low with no finger squeaks and it has THE 60's archtop mellow tone of Wes Montgomery and Tal Farlow..

 

[GuitarStv]

9's on all my guitars, solid or hollowbody. I need to bend strings.

11s with a plain third on 24.75 inch guitars have very bendable strings unless you're tuning up to F# or something. I can't do a two step bend, but 1.5 works on the e, B, or G strings in standard tuning.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

I’m going to experiment with plain third strings. There’s a noticeable volume drop from the B to the G. I have the pole pieces on the wound strings closer, but I think a thicker G would help, and since I’m actually trying to play jazz with it, monster bends aren’t a consideration.

 

[alex1fly]

TI Benson .14s are my favorite. Anything smaller and it just feels like a compromise. With the .14s I'm so discouraged from bending that it makes me play differently. It's all mental I'm sure.

 

[hamerfan]

I use GHS White Bronze 12-54 on my 1947 Gibson L7. They sound great acoustically and also thru a magnetic pickup.

 

[Blille]

I used to play the Thomastik flatwound JS112 set (12, 16, 20, 27, 37, 50) and I realized that what I liked was the heavy top / light bottom.

So what I use now is D’Addario chromes ultralight (10-48) but I swap the top two strings so I have 12, 16, 20, 28, 38, 48. This makes most of the strings have a tension around 23.5.

And I play an ES-330.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

11s with a plain third on 24.75 inch guitars have very bendable strings unless you're tuning up to F# or something. I can't do a two step bend, but 1.5 works on the e, B, or G strings in standard tuning.

Ever seen Josh Smith’s set? 13-58 with a plain 26 G. When he was a kid, he was using 11s, and someone handed him a guitar to play onstage, strung with 13s. He couldn’t play it, and got really embarrassed, so he went crazy heavy so that would never happen again. He bends those like I do 10s.

 

[BluesMan335]

You CAN bend heavy strings. They just don't have to be bent as far to go to the same pitch.

Not the way I bend them, deep bends with fast vibrato, Peter Green/Danny Kirwan style. I like the EVH quote about string gauge: "Why make it harder than it has to be?"

 

[GuitarStv]

You can get 7-38 sets of strings. Why are you playing 9s, making it so much harder than it needs to be?

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Not the way I bend them, deep bends with fast vibrato, Peter Green/Danny Kirwan style. I like the EVH quote about string gauge: "Why make it harder than it has to be?"

Using light strings makes it harder for me. You do deep bends with fast vibrato, I like to play hard. Anything lighter than 10s in standard feels mushy. If someone hands me a guitar with 9s, I can play it well enough, but I feel more at home with 10-52.

Also, I tried 11-49 on my 175, and it sounds weak.

 

[Mincer]

I use 10s on my Howard Roberts. It works for me.

 

[jeremy]

i dont play jazz but i have a '59 guild hollow body, kinda like a es125. usually has a set of chromes 12s, sounds great

 

[JB_From_Hell]

I swapped the Nickel Bronze for good old XLs, 13-56, and used a random plain 22 I had laying around for the G. The XLs are louder through the pickup than the NB, and the bridge cable G balanced everything out really nicely. I'm using it through AmpliTube on my iPad with the generic "Clean" amp, based on a Fender blackface something with a mid control and reverb, through some goofy 15" bass cab setting. It sounds glorious, and makes me ashamed of how poorly I'm trying to play jazz lines.

 

[Clint 55]

I tune down a whole step so 12s are enough for it to be fat. Although the mega fatness of 13s is nice too. 11s weren't enough for me for jazz. I like the flatwound thud, but I think I prefer the roundwound zing slightly more.