You’re Probably Using The WRONG Guitar Strings

It's how you play, not the string. Heavier strings need a heavier attack, so if you are used to those you will play heavier on lighter strings (until you get used to them) and will get a noticeably different response. This can lead a player to think something tonal is happening from the string itself, but it's really just an effect of your playing style and dynamics. The pick you use will have a similar effect. After doing a "test" like this, people come to some belief, and then bias reinforces that belief over time and we get another guitar myth. You should take the next step on this test and play the recordings to someone who doesn't play guitar (and doesn't hear you talk about guitar all day!). I'd put down good money that they don't even hear a difference in strings at all.

Here's another way to look at it. If you usually only play electric guitars, pick up an acoustic and try your same licks and riffs. See how it sounds. Then hand the same guitar to someone who plays acoustic regularly, and it will sing in a way it did not for the electric-only player. That tonal shift had absolutely nothing to do with string gauge, other than that the electric only player was not used to the much heavier gauge strings on the acoustic, and thus did not play them with as much strength and subtlety.

I keep different string gauges on different guitars because I want a certain feel from each, or compensate for scale length, the tension of a bigsby, etc. It would be ridiculous to assume there was one string gauge that worked best on all of them and sounds "best".

I prefer 10s on electric. I once got 13s for a strat I was building and my god... It was tough but I did have fun. But not for very long lol

Thank you guys for all that effort in carrying out this experiment! I noticed that the 11's were fatter sounding but muddier. It seems the strumming was mostly done on the lower 4 strings though. It makes me wonder whether you could feel more of a difference between the diff. gauges if you did more runs on the E-B-G strings. Been using 10s for more than a decade now, but maybe it is time to switch back to .009's. It would be much less strain on the fingers of this 66yr. old man😅Not much difference between these two gauges anyway👌.

I find that the problem of this "test" is that it wasn't a blind test. A blind experiment would be a more accurate and scientific portrayal of the differences.

Yeah it really comes to like heavy strings are better for down tune songs because they require less ish tension to be in tune and the lightest are for like the lightest touch and are better for all round stuff also for slight tuning variations. Ive used light guage strings at like drop c before but the strings felt pretty loose and like wasn't very stable to me. It was harder to get to like strings in tune tho im sure like the set up on my guitar did like have a hand why that happened too, so remember that the nut must have been tight too for that to happen and wasn't sliding the strings too well. So much like stuff to take note of when you even think of strings, its mind boggling.

Awesome comparison!

Hey Rick..agree with some other posts , we need this comparison done with acoustics!...great idea to do this comparison.

I considered once the .008 because of this video and I regretted right immediately regardless my princess´s delicate hands. I totally don´t agree. It might be registered better in the recording but it feels terrible. You are still the guy Rick. I love and respect your work.

They used a les paul classic but swapped out he humbuckers😂😂

Skinny top fat bottom slinky's for me.

Great video very interesting. I tried the 9-48 strings and they are brilliant, but overall I always settled on 9-42. I also found that using the heaviest strings 13’s seems to make the guitar a midrange between bass, rhythm and lead, kind of adds another layer, rather than being a replacement. So for a three guitar band, like Alice Cooper use now, it can work very nice.

Size matters by the way, your tuned whether you tuned up or down.its very simple

I personally like the 8's. I'm pretty sure i have 8's on my guitar.

Sorry, if Rhett is there I can’t watch

I’m using 11 - 49 gauge strings 😕🥺😰🤦🏻‍♂️

Well, after discovering flat wound strings it's hard to go back

Unfortunately the Mudd comes from the Echoes off the walls and not strings
I use the klops drum a true 4x12 cab with a 1x12 Guitar speaker 🔊
But the klops drum is only Cab on earth with 0 dimensions

My whole thing was the feel. I started using 10s because someone said they were fuller sounding, but stuck with them because I could play harder without the strings being too slinky. Also it felt good to play strings others said were too heavy😂 Same reason I like a .45 instead of a 9mm. I guess I'm trying to compensate😂.

I’ve found that it depends on the guitar/ pickups/ neck. I like thicker strings on a thicker neck for some reason. Thinner on a thinner neck. Tried 8’s on a pretty thick neck and was not a fan except for the east bends. Switched to 10-52’s and felt amazing. String quality is big for me too. Some brands feel better than other brands and some gauges per brand feel different per gauge and brand and so on.

Personally I like using the mondo slinky’s on my SG, but I put 11s on my strat. I used to use 9s and 8s when I was younger, but I feel like I’m going to break them when I play

I love seewt low action so I go less big than most. less tension less pull on the neck, lower action makes for easy, and quiquer playing. love it.

I think I'll stay with 008's , om all my Strat , Tele & Les Paul .
Maybe try 009 again on the Tele ? Don't know what it is maybe the radius/neck on Fender Tele who's different ?
Played 007 for a wile, but couldn't feel the thin e-string in my fingers ! I've just shaved my Tele neck from '50s thick to about thin '60s ...
I love theese compare videos , even if it's mostly personal opinions . Nick ...

Convince about the tone... but what about sustain and tuning stability (still thinking about standard E tuning)? Would 9's give the same sustain than 10's? Help me please, this video made me doubt about everything!

Super slinkys all the way

I use 12’s with a wound G - not really for the tone, but for the feel and tuning stability. Fenders were originally designed for 12’s. Even a dead feeling guitar - think 70’s strat - you’d be surprised how bigger strings can make it feel resonant. If you have a dead poly guitar, try it. Admittedly, i like a string feel that matches acoustic ‘light’ strings. Just another view on it

but how the sound of single note?

Nines. All day.

When you play as a soloist, every tiny out of tuneness stands out so much more than in a band situation

I'm useing ernie ball 11s right now they feel find to me but I think I im gonna go for a heavier one all though the lighter gage one's do sound better heavy stings feel better to me

Interesting, but how about using this test with a clean sound? The distortion changes a lot of things, and I am not sure whether this ends up a true test when you have that much overdrive….

everything makes a difference in tone especially the pick size or thickness.

I use 10-52 to tube to drop g#. Perfect for me. I can't stand thick heavy strings.

Also, one of the reason I always used the same type, was because my Gotoh tremolo, was set for that particular type of tension. The only problem was that you could not buy 'DRs' by the detail, but it makes change all the strings at once, all the time. Still, they are my favourit strings (DR 10s-46s 'Tit fit'). With my strandberg, I use 'NYXL's (10s-46s), because it was what the guitar came settled with, to beggin with. With my Ibanez 7 strings, I use 10s-56s.

It's just shows it's a matter of preference...It's depends on the guitar you're using (confort wise, set -up), the way you play, what type of music you play, what PUs you use, what type of amp, and even the pick you use. Personnaly, I've use 10's-46s forever, but, I always used 'DR' 'Tit fit' (?), that are heavier strings and biffyer. To each his own. During the "pandemic", used whatever availiable, as there was scarcity of choice. The advantage of the 10_46s is that they are a kind of 'all rounder'. Try and pick (no pun intended) the ones you prefer. Have a great day.I'd probably use thinner strings with an hambucker (Gibson) and heavier gauge with a strat (singles). Acoustics (folk guitars), are another animal all toghether. 12 strings, same! Take care!

I used 8s all the time on the banjo. Would your sound comparison work the same way on a Strat. Always some good info here. I really enjoy your vids.

Seems abit strange that all of their test plays are playing in that same lower mid area...

Great video, didn’t learn much about what strings to use (bc I suck so it doesn’t really matter 😂) but inadvertently learned how to hear the low end and notice a difference in the sounds. Feels like I learned an important concept without them trying to teach it!

My guitar teacher always told me it’s 9s that have the best tone I’ve apart from acoustic guitars never played anything else that said If I where to jump to E flat then I’ll consider 10s because floppy strings and I don’t go along very well , and when mixing it’s very easy for it to pop when I had to balance my friends guitar with 11s I had to do more cleaning up to sit it in the mix.

Nice idea! Thx 4 this test! Greetings from GER

Sorry to say but this is kinda misleading... This covers only the 3 strings that you play distorted riffs... OK, this is obvious, but since the guitar has 6 strings, why don't have both worlds? I use ErnieBall 10-52. So, thick riffs, even detune on stage to Drop D, but light enough for soloing. So, according to the video what am I using 10s or 11s? You get my point. Cheers

You have to take gain into consideration when talking about string guage. What works for high gain rarely works as well for lower gain tones. And although SRV moved to lighter gauage strings later in his career, obtaining that Texas Flood tone is hard to do with lower guage strings. The other consideration is that the tonal differences from a post perspective are relatively uniderectional. I could easily make the 11s sound like the 8s. Making the 8s sound like 11s is much more challenging. However these are all similar enough that they could be EQ matched in the context of a mix. I'd much rather have track with a performance from a comfortably well known setup than a slightly comprised performance because the player isn't used to the strings. If you move back and forth between acoustic and electric, I personally find it's easier to keep my electric intonation in check if the string tenstion isn't so slow that they are easy to pull out. I know, prectice more.

10s all day

Thank you all guys. Very usefull tests, I was thinking I use the wrong gache, now I Know I'm not.

One thing you didnt cover was bending ability on solos.

10s sound more solid. The down side...bending.

I’m the guiltiest for only clicking on a video because of the guitar he’s holding and hope it brings me down a rabbit hole of guitar porn.

But does that mean if I ditch the 10s and 11s and stop playing blues with a heavy vibrato and start playing Ramones stuff I switch to 8s?
I get the tightening of the low end bit but it would depend on what you like playing wouldn’t it?
I mean I do like 9s on a Tele.🎸

My gretsch lap steep takes .012-.052 gauge strings. Can any recommend me a good set?