Members Sailorofdarknes Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Watching the Jimi Hendrix videos in the other thread got me to thinking. How were the strings back then? Were they at all different, quality, tension, feel, materials? Are strings today made largely the same but with nicer manufacturing floors? Maybe some of the old timers here (Respectfully) could chime in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dparr Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 When I first started playing I would buy a set of strings and throw away the low "E'. The "A" string became my low "E". All the other strings were shifted too. A light guage banjo string was used for the high "E". Ernie Ball changed all that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kayd_mon Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 I thought that back in the day, all guitar strings were supposed to have wound 3rds (which I like); thus the method mentioned above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sailorofdarknes Posted August 15, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 So one would have to draw from different resources to achieve a gauge that he/she were comfortable with, sounds like we have it good in these times! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Folky_Grunge Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Standard string sets were thicker (.12s were the norm), flatwounds were very popular, and pure nickel was more common than nickel plated steel (I think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dparr Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Lots of options these days. Black Diamond strings were about the only ones available in the town where I lived. They were bad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stricken Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Lots of options these days. Black Diamond strings were about the only ones available in the town where I lived. They were bad! Whoa! These were made close to where I live. Very cool haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor49 Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Jimi advertised Rotosounds for a while if I recall. They were Ok but any set would lose the wound g outer really quickly. I just took a set of 20 year olds off my acoustic and they still held tuning and intonation despite being a little woolly.............. and yes we have it really really good now in special sets, special materials, better manufacturing process and materials and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members csm Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 In terms of available quality and variety, this is truly The Golden Age Of Strings ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Talking to uncle Jack about strings is cool. He has always used size 10 flatwounds on his teles and strats. Partly for sound, partly for comfort. Many of his gigs started at 8pm and didn't end til 5am. He says he used the light flats just to keep from tearing up his fingers. EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sailorofdarknes Posted August 15, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Interesting stuff here. So its safe to say that strings last longer now and are better quality. Would one venture to say that new strings of this era would make a vintage classic sound better? I sometimes when out to sea don't get to change my strings for months and the D'Adarios always hold up and sound great for quite a while. Would a vintage collector go so far as to track down a vintage set of strings to put on a guitar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 100 dollar cars Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 this old guy i knew used to rave on about black diamond guitar strings. he said they were better than what we have now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vibroluxman Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 There was a set of those black diamond strings in an antique shop... guess I should have given them a try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dparr Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 In terms of available quality and variety, this is truly The Golden Age Of Strings ... csm, you've been playing a long time. What brands of strings did you use in your early years? What was available on your side of the big pond? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jtr654 Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Gibson used to ship guitars with their Sonamatic Medium gauge strings 12/16/26/34/44/56.I used to buy these sets and exchange the 34 for a 10 they stayed in tune very welland were fairly balanced across the fingerboard. You can't even thread a 56 through a modern bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jtr654 Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Sets of strings were more $$ in the 60's and 70's than they are now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 When I found my dad's old Silvertone, there was a set of Gretsch "medium" guage strings in the box. Look like 12s to me. EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humbuckerstrat Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Back in the old days, you couldn't get "light" strings, I think the lightest gauge for electric guitars was 12s. A lot of the '60s blues players (like Jimmy Page) would substitute a banjo string for the High E and lose the 6th string in the set. The first "light" gauge strings to become available in England were Fender 10-38 sets (10-13-15-26-32-38 mm). People had to use those for a long time. Rory Gallagher, Albert Collins, and Jimi were users of those gauges. I like the GHS Boomers LXL set, which are 10-38 gauge strings, I use them on my 25.5" scale guitars. I'm not too fond of Fender strings. I'm glad that GHS has a set like that available, so does Dean Markley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humbuckerstrat Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 I like to think of them as a "weight-relieved" set of 10s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueSky1963 Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Back in the 70's we'd break a string, go down the the music store and buy a single string to replace it. Can you even do that now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members csm Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 csm, you've been playing a long time.What brands of strings did you use in your early years?What was available on your side of the big pond? Back in the late '70s, my band was 'auditioned' for a Rotosound endorsement. This meant that they gave us a bunch of strings to use on a tour just in case we ever got successful eough to make it worth their while to use us in ads. As it happened, we didn't ... but the strings barely lasted two gigs* per set. I then switched to Ernie's, which I've been (happily) using ever since. I've occasionally tried Rotos since ... and they still die and/or break unacceptably quickly. In fairness to Rotosound, their bass strings are a great deal better ... my bass-playing ex-wife used them for almost fifteen years -- before switching to Maxima Golds, which cost more but retained tonal life a LOT longer. *As an opening act, we were doing 40-minute sets ... which meant that a new pack of Rotos were good for less than an hour and a half of playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humbuckerstrat Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Back in the 70's we'd break a string, go down the the music store and buy a single string to replace it. Can you even do that now?I haven't been to a brick and mortar music store in ages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RaVenCAD Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 re: Black Diamond... When I started playing, 1987ish, the old dudes used to rave about how good Black Diamonds were. Since I was 13 or so, throwing $10+ at a set of strings wasn't exactly a frequent occasion, so I made them last. I remember that I kept one set on there for so long that the wraps on the E string began to separate. I could fit a Fender medium pick between them when I finally changed strings. They sucked, but they worked, plus they were the only thing you could get in the little 1/2 horse town I grew up in. I took my daughter to buy strings for her new guitar on Saturday and she picked a pack of light blue Ernie Ball for $3.50.. Couldn't have done that when I was her age! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueSky1963 Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 I haven't been to a brick and mortar music store in ages Of course, truth be told, I haven't broken a string in a long time. They're a lot better made than they used to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humbuckerstrat Posted August 15, 2011 Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 Of course, truth be told, I haven't broken a string in a long time. They're a lot better made than they used to be.I stick with GHS and D'Addario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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