What string gauge...

[nickeroo]

Did Fender use way back in the 50s and early 60s?

 

I am asking because I read this about why Ernie Ball's strings took off:

 

 

With the guitar-based rock revival of the 1960s, Ball noticed that beginning students were having difficulty playing the bestselling Fender #100 medium gauge strings, particularly in holding down or bending the stiff 29-gauge third ("G") string. At the time, it was common for a set of strings to have a "wound" third string. He approached the Fender company with the problem, suggesting a lighter gauge but was rebuffed.

 

 

Could not find anything about Fender #100 medium gauge strings.

 

Is that true about a 29 gauge G string? Yikes!

[C-4]

I started playing in 1955. The only strings we had back then were 13 (or 14)to 68, and as thick as 72. All "G" strings were wound back then.

 

We didn't know anything different and just used them. Back then, the strings used were the same gauge as the swing bands of the 40's used to get the most sound out of the guitars.

 

I didn't start using lesser gauged strings until 1964 and then those were still 11-56 or so. We thought those strings were really thin!

 

Back in the 1950's, Ricky Nelson's guitar player, James Burton, started using very light gauge banjo strings for his high E and then eliminating the low E from a guitar string set and just used the high E from the guitar set for his B string, till the low E was actually his A string from that set.

That was the first time I heard of doing that.

 

Later, Ernie Ball started making really what we know today as slinky strings, and Vox back then made strings in half gauge sets, such as .0095 instead of 9's or 10's. Vox made the only strings in the half gauge sets. Their strings came in octagonal plastic boxes made in transparent colors to indicate the different gauged sets offered.

 

In the 1970's, Gibson offered what I thought was the best feeling and playing strings ever, the EQUA strings. They came in sets that were as large as bass string sets so as not to be overly tightly wound, and all the strings pulled at the same pound weight. They were very balanced and felt great.

[nickeroo]

Thank you for your reply, C-4. I wonder how Jimi would have coped with 13- 68s!

 

PS, you started playing in 1955? That's crazy!

[Les Paul Lover]

It's not crazy..... He's just old..... :poke:

 

[WRGKMC]

Another thing to mention. String bending with the fingers was almost unheard of with the fingers in the music styles back then. It was all done with a Bigsby or other vibrado whammy. Even Hendrix did a good deal of his bending with a whammy which shows he probibly started with heavy strings prior to using lighter strings. Many used heavier strings and became accomplished whammy or slide users because of heavy strings.

[SpeedRacer422]

 

Thank you for your reply, C-4. I wonder how Jimi would have coped with 13- 68s! PS, you started playing in 1955? That's crazy!

 

 

 

 

Maybe THAT'S why Hendrix tuned a half step low?

 

 

 

Speed

[cincy_cosmo]

Another thing to mention. String bending with the fingers was almost unheard of with the fingers in the music styles back then. It was all done with a Bigsby or other vibrado whammy. Even Hendrix did a good deal of his bending with a whammy....

Whammy bars are what God intended for guitar. Bending is for metal workers.

[C-4]

It's not crazy..... He's just old..... :poke:

 

Old...OLD!

I'm way older then just OLD!

I own the patent to fire, the wheel, and dirt!

 

Hehehe...yes, I am what anyone younger then me would call "old", but I play out 2-3 times a week, while still working full time days and still up on the latest gear. THAT's what keeps me from just eroding away like the dirt I patented eons ago. :wave:

[humbuckerstrat]

Albert Lee said in a recent GP issue that the first light gauge strings to come to England were Fender 150 10-38 gauge strings. Lee said he used those for a long time. Before that he did the banjo string for the high E string trick.