Guitar String Secret

[toledo3]

Talking guitar strings on the amp thread made me realize that many of you may not be privy to the secret of guitar strings...shhhhh!grggt

Here's the deal. Once you have strung up your guitar, pluck a string. Pay close attention to the vibration of the string as it decays. The string should vibrate in a "round" pattern as it decays. If it starts doing a football, or figure eight pattern, you have a bum string. Now, a "bum string" can be totally fine for playing live, knocking around the house. But, for recording, these off strings can be a hassle. They don't sustain as well, and the intonation is not true up and down the neck.

Strings that are "off" are more common than you might think. I would bet that one would be hard pressed to find a major manufacturer that doesn't have at least a couple of "off strings" per pack.

[Fibes]

Are you sure this isn't more of a magnetic pick up that's too close issue? especially with single coils...

[toledo3]

Originally posted by Fibes
Are you sure this isn't more of a magnetic pick up that's too close issue? especially with single coils...

Yes, try it on an acoustic.

[sonic dogg]

The pickup thingy would be my guess though both hold water..as for really even strings as far as manufacturers,,,SIT's........on electric and martin SP's on acoustic...and dont tell me about those stupid ass elixors...

[toledo3]

Of course, too close of a pickup will skew the vibration and decrease sustain, but that's not what I'm speaking of, FIbes.:)
Personally, I set my pickups rather low.

Twaaaaaaaaaaaang!

[toledo3]

Twang your magic twanger froggy!rollz

[RSMITH123]

I recently got a Gretsch guitar and have been setting my amp to ear bleeding head splitting trebly high volumes to the point where my ears distort while standing in front of it. I then mic it with a lg condenser, run it through the console and notice that the highs have left harshville and are now entering silkville.

Is this a standard effect/technique you guys use in order to get the mic really working the audio?

make sense?

[toledo3]

Originally posted by RSMITH123
I recently got a Gretsch guitar and have been setting my amp to ear bleeding head splitting trebly high volumes to the point where my ears distort while standing in front of it. I then mic it with a lg condenser, run it through the console and notice that the highs have left harshville and are now entering silkville.

Is this a standard effect/technique you guys use in order to get the mic really working the audio?

make sense?

This would probably fit in better on the amp thread, but I try not to have the guitar amp hurt my ears. If it's at that point, I find that the mic-ed tone is less than desirable. I think really, it's just knowing about what frequencies you can cut in a given situation and have it sit well in the mix. IMO, people try to get this massive sound soloed, and then it sucks in the mix.

[Curve Dominant]

posted by G-man:
Now, a "bum string" can be totally fine for playing live, knocking around the house. But, for recording, these off strings can be a hassle. They don't sustain as well, and the intonation is not true up and down the neck.

I have a two-step method of dealing with this issue:

Step 1: Put heavy guage strings on the guitar.

Step 2: Play the **** out of it, or get someone who can.

YMMV.

[toledo3]

Originally posted by Curve Dominant
I have a two-step method of dealing with this issue:

Step 1: Put heavy guage strings on the guitar.

Step 2: Play the **** out of it, or get someone who can.

YMMV.

Curve, I use"
.012
.016
.022
.034
.042
.054

It's not a heavy string issue, and it's not a play the **** out of the guitar issue. Sure, in the grand scheme of things it's always the playing not the tone. Hendrix's guitar sounded like ass at plenty of live shows, but who the hell cares- the playing is great!

The way that you deal with the issue is to test the strings in the way I am telling you. Take it or leave it, it's not going to break my heart Most people don't even know it's an issue.

YMMV -GT3

[RSMITH123]

Originally posted by G-man
This would probably fit in better on the amp thread...

ummm... yeah, sorry.

[buickwilson]

I agree with this observation...

I've noticed a few years back when I was changing strings over and over to get a decent sound in the studio... It bugged me that some strings came out of the pack and sounded and great and some sounded dead or twangy or bad. So I looked at string and saw that some strings had a funny vibration (like a modulation vibration above the resonant vibration)... For awhile I was cherry picking strings till the looked and sounded right for studio work.. For live gigs (woopie we got $80 tonight), it was anything that was laying around.. The guitars were lucky to get new strings at all... ...


BTW, I recently found a really nice '71 Martin D35 that plays and sounds like the good Martin years (1940-50's).. It has Martin SP's (the ones with the bronze treatment on the un-wound strings), which are new to me, maybe it's common knowledge to others, but I was really impressed with these strings. I've never thought in the past that Martin strings were anything special, but you might want to try the SPs sometime if you haven't heard / seen them...

[toledo3]

buickwilson,

That's cool. It amazes me how many have not made this observation. It seems like some of the posts are kind of "denial" oriented.grggt Try to do people a favor, look what ya get

[5down1up]

different tunings , different strings ...
different guitars , different strings ...

theres a lot of stuff you can do with different strings , i would not generalize it , its all good for something

[Tom Hicks]

Hold the string up as it vibrates with a CRT monitor behind it. The flickering pattern of the screen makes the vibration patterns of the string really jump out at you and makes any irregularities clearer.