Light string love

[Loserchief]

some of you may have read my thrwad about trying out light gauge strings for my C-7 Hellraiser.
After some stesting with the 12-52 + 68 set(.012 .016 .024w .032w .042w.052w + .068w) i was using, i came to the conlucsion that the low strings of a set of 9s would be too light but the high strings would be very workable. I found that out by tuning ,the set that was on, down to E which resulted in the 12-52 being in A minus the highest string.
Because of that i changed my order and just ordere 5 sets of custom lights 9-46s + 56s.
Put them on today and i know i will stay with them. The high strings have perfect bendability and give me a range of vibrato that i didn't have with the thick strings. The lows are looser now but play effortless in comparion to before.
Tonewise i get lot more punch and clarity on the low strings, but at least the clarity part is dependent on your picking strength. if you are a heavy hitter thin strings will turn to mush real fast imo.
I think i found the perfect gauge for me and i will try to stay with those gauges. Since the hellraiser is 26.5" scale i guess that i should use 10-52s for regular scales.

 

[Sirion]

Re: Light string love

I use .009-.040 for strat scale guitars. As long as the guitar is good, I've found that works the best for what I'm doing. If the bass strings get too thick, the sound gets too boomy and muddy for my tastes. That being said, I'm sold on pure nickel strings, which by nature are warmer than steel based ones.

 

[tone?]

Re: Light string love

9's are fine and after 20 years+ of playing you will be glad you used em.

Gibbons uses 8's end of story.......

 

[Sirion]

Re: Light string love

Downing uses .007s. I can't understand how he doesn't break it all the time, but it seems to work for him. I think his hands are glad it does...

 

[Diego]

Re: Light string love

I didn't even know .007s were made.

 

[MetalHolics]

Re: Light string love

Well, it's depend alot on your playing, also your guitar, pickups, strings brand, pick.... everything! I use 10-13-17-30-42-56 in standard tuning on my jackson soloists, that came factory setup with 9-42!

I think its better to try differents strings brand first. After you have find the brand that sound the best for you, test all strings gauge for each position to find what gives you the tonal characteristics you what (bass, clarity, tighness...).