Can you use 008 gauge with a Bigsby tremolo?

Post by **Doog** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:31 pm

SRV used 13s.

And look where he is now.

HE DEAD

George · Post by **George** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:50 pm

cant stand the heavy string brigade

"REAL guitarists get real TONE from HEAVY strings. What are you some kind of GIRL? Stevie (bless his soul) played them 13s like BUTTAH all DAY long and got the BEST TONE EVER and had SOUL" *proceeds to not be able to play a single thing except fuzz noise or pentatonics*

hint: the gauge that sounds best is the one you can play best, heavy or light. fuck the haters.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:31 pm

I'm going back to light gauges now from having played 12s and 13s for years. The reason I liked heavier gauges was that it gave a bit of fight when playing and I like happy accidents and things to be a bit messy when I play. But every time I switched up it would be a fun struggle for a few months until I was able to bend on the heavier strings. Like, I didn't have a problem bending two frets on the second or third fret with 13s. I realised this was getting stupid and that if I kept insisting on the thing being difficult to play I would have to go all kurtz and get piano strings or something which was silly.

So now I'm playing 11s on most of my guitars and 12s on a few others.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:58 pm

I'm comfortable just using the strings I think work best. Too light is still too light, though. There's a happy medium between vibration, tension and so on, but I don't see it on a sliding scale; you lose and gain something the higher the gauge but to me, once you go below a certain level I think you're just losing. You're not gaining anything in the sound and I really don't believe you're gaining anything in playability if your strings feel like loose waistbands on Robroes medium boxers.

The heavy string brigade have a point, but only to a point; you have to actually be able to play. Nowadays I go with the heaviest low string I can, getting progressively lighter the higher up. I got this from the Zakk Wylde sets I used to play. I don't think I ever go higher than a 10 for the high E now, even when tuning down. For extreme down-tuning I'll possibly go up to an 11 or 12 for dropping to B or A, but the low E will be in the mid-60s.

Otherwise, when I'm in E, I'm almost always on a heavy-bottom set of 10s, so 10-52/54 or so, whether on strat-scale length or even 24.75/24" scales.

Having done it myself for years I don't really believe that SRV religiously played 12s or 13s. I suspect that he used them primarily on tour or for live shows, having his guitars set up pro. Otherwise I imagine for noodling and jamming and stuff he was probably into 10s/11s. In guitar strings it'd be the equivalent of using robroe caps all the time when playing. And even robroe got bored of that eventually.

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:03 pm

Doog wrote:SRV used 13s.

And look where he is now.

HE DEAD

My day - Made.

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:48 pm

What George said.

The only time I ever went above 10s on standard scale neck was for detuning to C#, C (I wanted to make my guitar sound like a cello at the time) or A#. That's when a set of 12s felt right and didn't need me to screw aroun with the trem setup. If it's comfortable to play and it stays in tune with a certain gauge, use that and don't feel guilty about it. Those two factors are what really matters when string gauge is concerned, and outweigh any difference in sound that you might think you're hearing.

The weird thing is, I've not broken a string in years. Whether that's because I stopped using 08s and 09s, or whether I just learned to play better, I don't know. The only reason why I don't like really heavy gauges is because it feels like I'm handling bridge cables. Unless you're detuned into stoner BORIS HEAVY TOANZ territory, at which point 12s or 13 feel about right.

But then, a Bigsby only looks 'right' to me when it's on one of those big jazz box archtops (nothing to do with the string gauge btw). If you want a trem you can actually *use*, I can understand why you wouldn't want a mustang trem, but there must be more alternatives out there.

plopswagon · Post by **plopswagon** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 2:08 am

I like heavier strings, probably because I'm also a bass player more of a rhythm player on guitar and I don't do bendy solos.

But my post was more making fun of the macho string set.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:35 am

Strats and Jag: 10-52
Gibsons and Teles: 11-49

If I buy a bulk string box or something they're going to be regular 10s or 11s and I use them on everything for awhile til they're gone, but otherwise those are my instrument-specific preferences. I've never gone lighter than 12s for acoustic guitar except a brief foray into those Silk & Steel low-tension folk strings.

George · Post by **George** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 11:11 am

paul_ wrote:Strats and Jag: 10-52
Gibsons and Teles: 11-49

If I buy a bulk string box or something they're going to be regular 10s or 11s and I use them on everything for awhile til they're gone, but otherwise those are my instrument-specific preferences. I've never gone lighter than 12s for acoustic guitar except a brief foray into those Silk & Steel low-tension folk strings.

what gauge are these and how loud are they? id like to go slightly lighter on acoustic but volume and projection loss is always too great

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:39 pm

Doog wrote:I guess you might need to change the spring at very least to suit the hilarious small amount of tension 8s give.

Also Nick... 7s?!

No one seems to get it but my eyeroll was at the idea of a bigsby on a jagstang....just how and why?

I imagine 8s on a 24" feel no more silly than the 9's those 22.5" mini strats come with. Which is pretty darn silly if you ask me.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:28 pm

George wrote:
paul_ wrote:Strats and Jag: 10-52
Gibsons and Teles: 11-49

If I buy a bulk string box or something they're going to be regular 10s or 11s and I use them on everything for awhile til they're gone, but otherwise those are my instrument-specific preferences. I've never gone lighter than 12s for acoustic guitar except a brief foray into those Silk & Steel low-tension folk strings.
what gauge are these and how loud are they? id like to go slightly lighter on acoustic but volume and projection loss is always too great

I got them. They sound fine, but not altogether brilliantly mojoey. I like them and they make playing a doddle. They also look kind of cool.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:14 pm

They're extra bright but I remember them being noticably quieter than my bronze strings for sure. There's less projection as well almost by design. They're low tension so it's not like just stepping down gauge, it's a totally different kind of feel and sound. It's great for fingerpicking but not overly strident and chimey so maybe best for unaccompanied acoustic guitar with or without folksy/bluesy/singer-songwritery vocal. Definitely my favourite acoustic strings to curl up on the sofa with.

Like Paul says, there's no classic sound you've been searching for with them (unless you're a James Taylor tribute) you just might go "hey, I think I like using these". I started using them to squeeze a bit more dreadnoughty brightness out of my Martin 00-15 which can be overly bass-heavy when flatpicked otherwise.

Jagtornado · Post by **Jagtornado** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:04 pm

Nick wrote:
Doog wrote:I guess you might need to change the spring at very least to suit the hilarious small amount of tension 8s give.

Also Nick... 7s?!
No one seems to get it but my eyeroll was at the idea of a bigsby on a jagstang....just how and why?

I imagine 8s on a 24" feel no more silly than the 9's those 22.5" mini strats come with. Which is pretty darn silly if you ask me.

Well Nick the idea is this: I use 008 gauge, that's a fact. And the Mustang style bridge and tremolo system is simply not dependable when using the whammy bar. My Jag stang goes out of tune very often even with heavier strings.
So indeed I'm looking for an alternative bridge/vibrato sytem which you can put on a Jag stang without too much trouble or changes to be made on the body. And if that system also works well with 008 that's even more satisfying.
Perhaps the red special system is an option, for Brian May it seems to work with 008 gauge.

cur · Post by **cur** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:24 pm

If your jagstang goes out of toon very often your nut slots are probably binding on your strings.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 7:51 am

Jagtornado wrote:Perhaps the red special system is an option, for Brian May it seems to work with 008 gauge.

Especially with the guitar tech he employs setting all of his guitars up at an expect level, yeah.

If you want an excellent whammy-capable guitar then you don't use a Jag-Stang. Buy another guitar that has a more dependable tremolo.

Jagtornado · Post by **Jagtornado** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 11:04 am

What about a Squier Jag master?

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:29 pm

ekwatts wrote: If you want an excellent whammy-capable guitar then you don't use a Jag-Stang. Buy another guitar that has a more dependable tremolo.

+ ten squillion.

If you really want the wobbles of a tremolo, a world o' affordable/more stable options are available, from the Jagmaster's (predictable) Straty goodness to the stable chime found in a Squier VM Jazzmaster/Jaguar. Mustang/Jagstang trems should be considered almost purely aesthetic in nature.

BobArsecake · Post by **BobArsecake** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:00 pm

I disagree with the bad press of the Mustang vibrato, the one on my Jag-Stang is very stable. I'll concede that you can't really go mental with it, but with reasonable use I've found it to be perfectly reliable, that's with 10s on. The one I had on my Mustang wasn't quite as good, but I didn't have it from new, and it was certainly usable.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:03 pm

I'll second that.

I'll also say that it's a much more usable trem than a bigsby, which is essentially a big piece of jewellery.

Nothing about this project makes sense.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:53 pm

I'd say bigsbys are about on a par with the Jag trem. Never really had much experience with Mustang trems, to be quite honest. But yeah, bigsbys and other similar trems are for light wobbles. That's it. Don't go all Ritchie Blackmore on them or you're gonna have a bad time, k?