A twist on the tired old string gauge question....

[draelyc]

Are there any guitars out there that you feel sound better with lighter strings?

 

I've been flip-flopping back & forth between 11s and 12s for the past several months, thanks to some wrist problems I've been having -- previously, I used 12s all my life...

 

But the whole thing has got me thinking... There was a time, almost ten years ago, I got a wild hair and tried a set of 13s, and the results surprised me: yes, they were harder to play, but they also sounded worse than the 12s I'd been using. The guitar seemed ... muffled, muted almost. I put a set of 12s back on, and the guitar seemed to resonate and shimmer, etc.

 

Well, I've been kinda bummed about *having* to drop down to 11s so as not to hurt too bad after I play, but I'm wondering if there are acoustic players who actually prefer the 11s for tonal reasons.

 

So I came to the acoustic forum to find out. What's the word, y'all?

 

Thanks!

 

Chris

[EvilTwin]

I think some guitars can sound better with lighter strings.

 

My friend from college used a Seagull dread that absolutely kicked BUTT with .11's. I think it actually sounded worse with .12's. No idea why.

 

If a guitar is more lightly braced, it shouldn't (in theory) need heavier strings, anyway. (I've played Tacoma Chiefs that have also kicked mucho booty with .11's).

 

I've heard people say that since cedar tops are physically softer, they don't need the heaviest strings, either. I don't know about that...

 

But it really does depend on the guitar, I think. However, if it's a matter of being able to play or not...I think the choice is obvious -- go lighter.

 

(I had a similar experience with electric strings, btw. .09's just didn't do it for me, so I decided to go up. I was very into SRV at the time, so I tried heavy strings. .12's were just too much for constant bending, so I went to .11's...but they sounded to mid-rangey to me. I went to .10's, and that was it for me. A bigger tone, but without the mids.)

[Terry Allan Hall]

It seems that smaller guitars (parlour and the like) work better w/ lighter strings...a girl I know has a little Washburn parlour re-ish that sounds it's best with .010 through .046...anything heavier tends to mute the top-end.

 

BTW, Duckman is my spiritual avatar!

[Sweb]

Yep. It can be dilemma-ish. I have a Larrivee OO-05 that has .011s for now. My Martin OOO-17S is fine with .012s and the Larrivee OMV-09 is currently a string mix. On it I've found that a set of .011s with the High E and B replaced with a .013 and .017, repectively, give the guitar much better balance.

 

The first guitar, spruce over mahogany B/S, is very lightly built and doesn't require much vibration to move the top. The trebles are a little thin and I am thinking of replacing the .011 and .015 with a slightly heavier gauge. They're not so much "thin" as they sound boxy - a la small bodied guitars - and maybe a notch up in gauge will round out their tone.

 

In any case, I experiment with strings to get the best tone yet stay as light as possible. I don't have any injuries. I just think that the notion of grabbing a set of mediums as a tone-fix silent rule is bunk. Keeping the stresses off the guitar as much as possible is just a good structural problem preventive measure. It requires experimenting. If nothing works short of a full set of mediums, then that may not be the guitar you need, or want.

[draelyc]

Thanks for all these replies, folks! You've all brought up some things that, in hindsight, it seems I should have thought of, but didn't. Good stuff to think about. The guitar I have is a dreadnought-style Yairi, but it's not a ginormous jumbo-bodied critter by any stretch. I played it a bit last night, and -- by itself -- I guess the 11s don't really sound bad at all... The real test will be playing 'em in a group at church tomorrow night. I'll have to see how well she holds her own amongst about five or six other flattops.

 

Again, thanks for chiming in, y'all. And if anybody else has anything to say, please jump on in.

 

(& T. A. H. ~ thanks for the Duckman props! He rules! )

 

Chris

[STEELSTRINGS]

My expereience is that light strings,.11s sound better on a smaller body / grand auditorium style guitar. The particular brand I use go from .11 to .46 on their light strings, they also sound more balanced than .12 to .54(medium lights). I stick with medium lights on my dread.

[guitarcapo]

A smaller guitar that's lightly braced and has maybe a cedar top possibly could sound bad with heavy guage strings. The opposite might be true with maybe a big guitar that doesn't have scalloped bracing and has a Sitka or walnut top.

 

Definitely different guitars are made for different string tensions applied to the top. Combine THAT with the fact that as a top ages it weakens and can be driven later in life by lighter guage strings. I had a Taylor 710CE that sounded great when brand new with mediums...but after 10 years sounded boomy and lost it's sparkle unless I used lights.

 

The old idea that mediums always sound better than lights ("No pain, no gain") is pretty old fashioned. I think it came about because of guitars built in the 70's and early 80's by Gibson, Martin and Guild that weren't scallop braced or overbuilt (like Norlin-era Gibson acoustics)

 

If you are using mediums on a guitar and you experience huge boom and loss of balance, poor sustain, clanky/brash tone..or worse notice the top bellying. Try lighter guage strings.

[Treborklow]

I always use 11's on any acoustic guitar I might own at any given time. I like the way 11's record. I understand that 12's or heavier might give you more volume if you play out, but I don't.

[draelyc]

Originally posted by guitarcapo A smaller guitar that's lightly braced and has maybe a cedar top possibly could sound bad with heavy guage strings. The opposite might be true with maybe a big guitar that doesn't have scalloped bracing and has a Sitka or walnut top. Definitely different guitars are made for different string tensions applied to the top. Combine THAT with the fact that as a top ages it weakens and can be driven later in life by lighter guage strings. I had a Taylor 710CE that sounded great when brand new with mediums...but after 10 years sounded boomy and lost it's sparkle unless I used lights. The old idea that mediums always sound better than lights ("No pain, no gain") is pretty old fashioned. I think it came about because of guitars built in the 70's and early 80's by Gibson, Martin and Guild that weren't scallop braced or overbuilt (like Norlin-era Gibson acoustics) If you are using mediums on a guitar and you experience huge boom and loss of balance, poor sustain, clanky/brash tone..or worse notice the top bellying. Try lighter guage strings.

 

Your point about the top wood aging & needing less power to "drive" it had never even occured to me. Very informative post!

[nip]

There was a thread two month ago about this that some brands (was it Taylor) should not have too heavy guage strings because of string tension makes top too rigid, kind of.

 

Like already mentioned, some tops are designed for a certain string tension to make top vibrate and produce good tone.

 

I think two main factors like angle between string and top, and string tension has a lot to do with the tone you get.

 

If very thin wood in top, and thin braces, and too hard string tension would make wood in one corner, sort of, and not vibrate between center position(or the correct position for good tone).