.007 Gauge Guitar Strings Sound Absolutely Ridiculous

[Martin Walker]

I watched this the other day and found it fascinating, so thought I'd share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9M07-eNsHg

Martin

[Wonks]

It's 0.007"gauge Martin. 0.07" would be thicker than bass strings and they would sound ridiculous!

Of course they will feel funny coming from a heavier gauge, but you get used to it in time and don't over-bend and play chord shapes correctly. I started out on 0.008"s and never had any problems playing.

I don't really see the need to go lighter than 8s unless you are physically incapable of using heavier strings (the main reason Billy Gibbons went to light strings as he got older).

You'd definitely want to change the nut and adjust the truss rod if you were going from a guitar set up for 0.013"s down to to 0.07"s. Each string in the 7s is just over half the width of the 13s and open strings aren't going to sound that good.

[Sam Spoons]

More to the point a .007 gauge string will have little more than ¼ of the mass of a 13 or, more relevantly, slightly more than half the mass of a .010 (my usual electric guitar string gauge). FWIW, even listening on laptop speakers I could hear that, played clean, the 13's sounded significantly better than the 7's. Once you start cranking the overdrive the differences are masked to a great extent.

[Wonks]

Yes. Drive certainly levels the playing field considerably.

The 0.010"s were my own preferred choice of sound with that near-clean sound, but the 0.007"s could certainly have a place in a mix or full band setting.

[shufflebeat]

More to the point a .007 gauge string will have little more than ¼ of the mass of a 13...

They are, however, licensed to kill.

I've just gone from 13s to 10s (acoustic) and it feels really nice. I'm putting off all the adjustment, partly due to uncertainty and partly laziness.

[Wonks]

Procrastinate right now!

[Martin Walker]

It's 0.007"gauge Martin. 0.07" would be thicker than bass strings and they would sound ridiculous!

Tell that to the creator of the YouTube video - I copy/pasted his title

I've just corrected my thread title, but left the following post titles with the 0.07" reference so I can wallow in my ineptitude

[Sam Spoons]

Yes. Drive certainly levels the playing field considerably.

The 0.010"s were my own preferred choice of sound with that near-clean sound, but the 0.007"s could certainly have a place in a mix or full band setting.

It was less the lack of low end that made me feel they didn't sound good but rthe lack of definition and the 'clatteryness'. You can easily reduce low end to serve the mix but you can't easily add it back when you want it... And it's much harder to remove the 'trashy' sound of those ultralight strings. They are ok for highly overdriven or heavily processed sounds but, IMHO, sound cr@p for clean sounds.

[groovelator]

I think Holdsworth used 8's and I think it's fair to say he made it work for him. I've used 11 for a long time but am seriously thinking about dropping down for a while and see how it goes.

BTW, I watched this recently and am really wondering how much difference it all really makes (for electric guitars)! Pickup & its height seem to be the most important thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n02tImce3AE

Best,
Mark

I watched this the other day and found it fascinating, so thought I'd share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9M07-eNsHg

Martin

[Wonks]

I suspect some of the ‘clatteryness’ was due to lack of truss rod adjustment and unfamiliarity with the strings. They do sound thinner, but I think the clatteryness would probably go with a set-up and familiarity.

[Sam Spoons]

Or even a lighter touch, digging in with light strings would cause that clatteryness as well as a raised initial pitch (which TBF I'm not hearing on the video). But yes they do sound 'thinner' which was my first thought but it's easy to make fat strings sound thinner than vice versa.

I'll stick with 10's on the Strats and will try 11s on the LP next time I change the strings.

[Wonks]

I've just ordered a set of 7s to try out. Wish me luck!

(You can of course buy a single 7 and use the A, D, G, B and top E strings from a set of 10s if you wish).

[Sam Spoons]

Same as we used to do when I started playing, a banjo G string and throw away the low E from a standard, wound third, set. Light guage strings were not available back then (or, at least, they weren't easily available and I didn't know of any).

[GCKelloch]

Among all the other aspects mentioned, lighter strings have less higher harmonic roll off. Increasing bass will not counter that because it is true for each note. The way to counter it is with pickups that produce stronger lower harmonics. Thinner wire gauge coils do that.

I have a few guitars with pickups that are wound with 46AWG wire. The coil and pole screw heights can be adjusted for the desired lower to upper harmonic balance, as well as the transient strength for a given string gauge. Height adjustments of such coils affect note timber and transients more than with thicker gauge wire coils.

The pickups on the 28" scale baritone I just built are only 1.8H. I get very full fat note response with highs out to ~8kHz. The custom "light" gauge 13-62 strings I had made have the right feel and pitch stability for me, and more than adequate lows with those pickups.

I went down to 9-42 sets on my 25.5" scale guitars. Even that feels a bit too loose, but I do like the bendiness. I'm only a hobbyist at this point, but finger weakness became a thing of the past after I started using a finger exercise device ~3x/week many years ago. I highly recommend it.

[ore_terra]

just swapping the strings for ultra thin gauge and not touching any of the set up (amps, pedals) turns in very poor tone in my experience. just as the example in the video.

BUT, if you just adapt the rest of your gear it's not that bad. the guy in the video himself mentions billy gibbons... other light gauge users are brian may and jimmy paige. I wouldn't say their tone is precisely "light"

[BigRedX]

I found .007 gauge strings very useful as octave Gs on an electric 12 string after breaking to many .008s because they had too much tension when at the correct pitch.

[ore_terra]

ah! 12 stringed guitar are a different world indeed. it is either using very light strings or tuning the guitar 1 or 2 tones lower

[Sam Spoons]

just swapping the strings for ultra thin gauge and not touching any of the set up (amps, pedals) turns in very poor tone in my experience. just as the example in the video.

BUT, if you just adapt the rest of your gear it's not that bad. the guy in the video himself mentions billy gibbons... other light gauge users are brian may and jimmy paige. I wouldn't say their tone is precisely "light"

But their 'heavy' tone comes mostly from distortion, the native tone of the strings has little to do with what comes out of the speakers. SRV took the other approach and used 13's, admittedly with his guitar tuned down a semitone, and nobody would disagree that his tone was as 'muscular' as his fingers must have been.

[ore_terra]

Definitively!

Why that “but”? Our posts actually complement each other

Unfortunately not all of us have SRV sized. I sort of struggle to move standard 10-46 in fender scaled guitars! I use GHS Gilmour 10-48 with lighter 2nd and 3rd strings.

[Sam Spoons]

Sorry, not really a but but you will struggle to get a fat, clean (ish) tone with superlight strings whatever amp setup you have. JP, apparently, used 8's or 9's on a LP and BM 8's but neither is renowned for their clean sounds. 'Tis horses for courses though.

[ore_terra]

Yeah you’re right… BUT who wants to play clean anyway!

[Music Wolf]

Yeah you’re right… BUT who wants to play clean anyway!

I'm having that printed on a T Shirt and I'm going to make the other guitarist (Strat into a Roland Jazz Chorus) wear it. The care label for said T Shirt should read 'Washing insrtuctions. For best results - Don't!'

[Sam Spoons]

Yeah you’re right… BUT who wants to play clean anyway!

OTOH

Yeah you’re right… BUT who wants to play clean anyway!

Me?

[ore_terra]

booooooooohhh

[Johnsy]

First saw this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXj_NQONYM

Followed up here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42lF0ITBKHk