Thursday, December 11, 2008

Changing of the Strings


I'm changing. Ernie Ball Super Slinky 9 to 42. Good enough for Jimmy Page, good enough for me. Actually, I know I lose a lot of street cred for using such lightweight strings, but I do like them better than the heavier 10s (or dear Lord, 11's). I realize there's something interesting in heavier low strings. I might be talked into the 9 to 46 hybrid wound strings. I wonder how that will torque the neck?

With the thinner guage strings I can get a Fender-like twang on the low E if I want it by plucking close to the bridge. Or not, if I pluck closer to the neck. So far.

When I was young and ignorant I actually used these HUGE flatwound strings on my half hollowbody Hagstrom. With an MXR distortion pedal I bought from a friend. And a Fender Twin Reverb (non-CBS) that I still have but almost never use. That was just a whole bunch of things interfering with how I actually wanted my guitar to sound. If I wanted to play jazz (except for the MXR) I would have been fine. But I always had trouble with it sounding like yuk. And we used to play out a lot. Two years we did nearly a hundred gigs as Pavlov and the Drooling Dogs.

I'm much better now. Marshall is my friend.

Well, similar tube amps and emulators are my friend(s).

Automated voices:

http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/ttx/demo.php

2 comments:

Chance Shirley said...

I hear Stevie Ray Vaughan played 13s...

Andrew Bellware said...

Yeah! And look at where it got HIM!