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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → String thickness question...
Greetings,
I wanted to post a question regarding electric guitar strings.
I would like to know if string thickness would affect the ease of performing barre chords?
Thanks in advance,
Dm
IMO to an extent...yes. For a beginner, light strings would be easier to barre. Once you're fairly good at I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference. I'd say use mediums and tough it out. You'll be a better player for it.
IMO to an extent...yes. For a beginner, light strings would be easier to barre. Once you're fairly good at I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference. I'd say use mediums and tough it out. You'll be a better player for it.
I will drop down to lights and give it a second shot before I sell my silverburst LP.
If this doesn't work though it goes on the auction block.
Thanks!
Dm
Just keep in mind, the lighter the string, the easier they break. And the thinner the string, the thinner the tone. You'll have to boost up your lows and mids on your guitar knobs or on your PA to get the same rone with a thinner string. AND you'll have to pick and strum a bit easier, sort of like a wussy, so not to break the skinny(girly, no offense ladies!!)strings. Or you can just tough it out, man up, and get used to the thick, beefy, tough guy strings. Your arm muscles will get used to the telephone cables, just make sure the action(strings too high off the neck) is OK. A good test for this is to check your strings open and on the 12th fret. They should register the same on your digital tuner...............
Peace and Guitars,
SouthPaw41L
A good test for this is to check your strings open and on the 12th fret. They should register the same on your digital tuner...............
Hey Southpaw, aint' that the test for proper intonation? action is about the string height.
A good test for this is to check your strings open and on the 12th fret. They should register the same on your digital tuner...............
Hey Southpaw, aint' that the test for proper intonation? action is about the string height.
On acoustic guitars, in most cases, intonation and string height are related as peanut butter and jelly are, as tea and cookies are, as Simon and Garfunkel are...You dig? If the strings are too high, the intonation will be off, If the strings are too low, the buzz will override the sweet sounds....... thus creating a mess and utter frustration as one plays higher upon yer guitar neck. I'm real good at telling my guitar tech(paid repair man) at what's wrong with my guitars. But I'm not good at all at fixing said problems. I've tried to do it myself and set myself back at pretty penny in fixing what I wronged. It is ALWAYS best to have a reputable, experienced guitar repairman to work on yer guitar. Fixing these little boxes of melodic magic is an art in itself and I highly recommend leaving the fixin' to the fixin' artists............
Dude, I've been doing my own set ups for over 20 years. on both the Gibson style "Tune-O-Matic", or the Fender style bridge. the Intonation will have to be checked and usually reset when you change the action, but proper Intonation is not an indicator of proper action.
A better check for action is to use a machinists ruler and measure from the top of the 12 fret to the bottom of the 6th (low) string, it should be at 5/64 of an inch, or 2 mm. at the 1st (high) string it should be 4/64 of an inch or 1.6 mm. the rest should fall fairly well in between those two measurements. Action can be set lower for thicker gauge strings. These measurments are a good guide line, but some players may want higher or lower action, depending on personal preferance and style of play.
I'm with mixter on this one. Intonation rarely relates to action, what it does tie up with is the amount of pressure you use to hold the strings with. Try this with an electric tuner. Hold a string on the 12th fret and watch the tuner pitch. If you fret it lightly you'll get a different pitch from if you really clamp down on the strings (sometimes almost a semitone's worth). Now action may be forcing the way you fret so perhaps that's where SouthPaw is coming from. A low action could help you develop a featherlight technique. High action may force you to play with a grip of steel.
Same dilemma applies to the lightness vs tone argument. Sure heavy strings help develop finger strength but they also force a big intonation adjustment. Remember most of the classic 60s players created light string sets for bending using banjo strings. No on criticises their tone, partly because tone is something you create...
I do agree with everybody. But I wanted to add something. (SUBJECTIVE OF COURSE).
If I play electric, I use the 0.9 gauge strings.
I don't know at all what you play but "playing metal" is the most aggressive approach of your strings.
I have some amazing devices able to lower the strings resulting in a low sound great to play metal.
Seeing "metal bands" they often strum real hard, and if you use light strings as I do, you will probably have a few broken strings, because YOU DON'T APPROACH YOUR GUITAR GENTLY. They say if you play METAL use the lowest sounding ,thickest strings. But then again: for lead playing, "shredders" tend to use very light gauge strings, usually .8s or .9s.
Also the recurring discussion about the pick you use. I surfed quit long to find a decent answer, I was convinced they used thick strings, but after reading a lot most of Electric Guitar players use
0.9 gauge. The thicker the strings the more difficult you will have to take a barré, there are still the POWER What's best for YOU is what's best for YOU... it may take a while to work out.
DON'T FORGET YOUR FINGER TIPS.
A lot of metal players tune the E string to Eb
The string guage can effect lots of things that are already mentioned. I've numerous guitars and my rule of thumb is to use the string gauges that the instrument was originally set up for...ie: Strat type guitars typically use a 9-42 set and Gibsons typically use 10-46 sets. For doing lots of string bending and bar chords I find that tuning the instrument down a 1/2 step makes it much easier at times. Also it's really important to have the guitar properly set-up to get the best out of it...SRV and Hendrix often tuned lower and often used heavier string gauges but surely had the set up adjusted for the different....ie: nut slots, bridge, etc... Just my two cents worth...I hope this helps...
Well, I put the 9's on my guitar and the strings were buzzing from the way I had the action adjusted for the 11's I had on there previously.
After adjusting the action and retuning a couple of times, the strings sounded great and I went into trying barre chords again. Much to my surprise, I could pull them off without ANY PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER!!!
The only thing I had to do was learn all of the positions for the barre chords. Since last night I have learned all of my notes in standard tuning (including the sharps, minors and sharp-minors) up to the 12th fret.
I am so so so so so so so happy!!! Not only can I do barre chords now but I don't have to sell my prized silverburst LP!! With the newfound ability to play barre chords I am not stuck doing open chords anymore!!!
The songs I have learned since last night are:
"Our God Saves" by Paul Baloche
"My savior my God"
"I got you" by Stone Temple Pilots
"Atlanta" by Stone Temple Pilots
"Wild Horses" by The Sundays
"Alison" by Slowdive (I knew this one in open chords already)
"Sick of myself" by Matthew Sweet
"The Sun and the Rainfall" by Depeche Mode
"Home" by Sheryl Crow
"Wake up" by The Cranberries
"Animal Instinct" by The Cranberries
"Slow Ride" by Sublime
Whew...I'm in love all over again.
Dm
Dude, I've been doing my own set ups for over 20 years. on both the Gibson style "Tune-O-Matic", or the Fender style bridge. the Intonation will have to be checked and usually reset when you change the action, but proper Intonation is not an indicator of proper action.
A better check for action is to use a machinists ruler and measure from the top of the 12 fret to the bottom of the 6th (low) string, it should be at 5/64 of an inch, or 2 mm. at the 1st (high) string it should be 4/64 of an inch or 1.6 mm. the rest should fall fairly well in between those two measurements. Action can be set lower for thicker gauge strings. These measurments are a good guide line, but some players may want higher or lower action, depending on personal preferance and style of play.
DUDE,
I cut this article from Guitar Player, Thought it may be of some interest to you.
********************************
Some things that can cause poor intonation are:
Incorrect positioning of the saddle or bridge This error renders the strings either too long causing intonation to be flat or too short causing the instrument to play sharp. This can be a problem with the saddles crown or the actual position of the saddles slot on an acoustic guitar.
High action An instrument with high action will of course cause the string to be stretched further before contacting the fret, this stretching sharpens the note slightly. High action at the nut is particularly troublesome as chords played in the 1st to 3rd position can sound terribly out of tune.
********************************************
Peace and Guitars,
SouthPaw41L
I never said they were not related, only that they can be set independantly. One can have good intonation and still have high action. One can have bad intonation and still have good action. When I change one, I check and reset the other if needed. But the best way to check the action is to get out a Ruler and check the Action. A machinists rulers can be found for a few bucks at any hardware store.
I prefer my action higher than normal because it helps me when playing slide guitar. I have my intonation setup for that. We are talking about fractions of an inch between 4/64 and 6/64 (a couple of millimeters) here, there is a certain amount of tolerance one can adjust for, and still have a well playing and sounding instrument.
I know you're not mad at me, and I knew you'd get it as soon as I explained it properly. I am talking about Electric guitars, action and intonation are easily adjustable with most bridges. Accoustics are a different animal, if after checking and adjusting the truss rod I still have a problem, I'll let the shop do it.
Mixter102,
Lemme ask you a question. When you do your measurement to determine string gap space, do you measure from the string to the fret, or from the string to the fret board. I'm thinking it's the fret because the initial point of contact is the fret, not the fretboard? Am's I's correct?
Do you play out? If so please contribute to my "Tell us about your gigs" forum in the "My Local Band" section.
Peace and Guitars,
SouthPaw41L
ps- I deleted my "I'm not mad at you post" because after proofreading it, I didn't like the tone I conveyed. I like productive, educating, friendly conversation and I wasn't feelin' it from that post. Good luck with your playing.
You are correct, measure from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string, using a machinists ruler, to check the action.
I don't play out unless you count parties and campouts.
ahhh.... im not quite sure,but the lighter the sting, you bar chord might be easier. Right now im using d'arddio XL's and they aremore difficult than my darco extra light, however the thicker they are, the deeper tuning you can use. right now my low E can support Drop Bb... if youre just starting out, go for the lightest gauge you can, but dont play too hard or youll get a big ol' pile of broken strings
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → String thickness question...
