But still, a Gretsch won't be as trebly as a Telecaster bridge pickup - nor would you want it to be. What next? This stiffness interferes with the free vibration of the string, adding odd harmonics and reducing sustain. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for GHS Boomers Thin-Thick 10-52 Electric Guitar Strings at the best online prices at eBay! Perfect guitar, right? On the humbucker side of things, scooping out the midrange and punching up the treble control at the amp won't magically get Strat tone out of a humbucker either. Every possible pickup sound you ever wanted out of one axe. For lead tones however, you may be in for a fight trying to get the lead sound you want with single-coil pickups. Very thick gauge strings (with the thickest string being 48 and heavier) tend to suit tunings from drop C and beyond. Hence, these strings are more corrosion resistant compared to the 80/20 bronze strings and seem to last longer. You may look at this and say, "Three humbuckers? Cian is a writer for the Andertons web team. The biggest name in the guitar string industry is easily Ernie Ball. They fit the popular musical attributes of the genres. Clean guitar player's second best friend, tremolo, How to easily avoid an expensive mistake with guitar pedals, Fender Stratocaster in that other yellow you never see, This is the easiest guitar to play with your fingers, For the guy who can't decide between a Strat and a Tele - Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster. Picking out a set of guitar strings is simple when you know what you’re looking for. Until then, all the various string gauge combinations and brands can lead you down a deep rabbit hole. Medium thickness picks are the most popular choice among guitarists. “ Why does tension matter, though?” Well, tension actually plays a huge role in tone, tuning stability, and playability. Those are split toggle controls for each pickup. They are made of an alloy of 92% copper with 8% tin and some traces of phosphorus (around 0.2%). Andertons Guitar & Bass YouTube Channel: https://goo.gl/wRsx1P In my experience, both thin and thick guitar tones can't be had in the same guitar. You’ll get warmer tones from these strings with more bass and midrange response. When you want the absolute best clean electric guitar sound, singles are required. One of the two most popular "flavors" of guitar strings (the other being 92/8 Phosphor Bronze), 80/20 Bronze refers to the 80% copper/20% zinc composition of the bronze alloy* in a string's wrap wire. But where Strats and Teles are concerned, those are all voiced thin very much on purpose - which is how they are supposed to sound because that's where you get that great top end treble response from. Hybrid strings don’t really suit any genre of music, in particular, but are a popular choice for many guitarists who need the versatility. Thicker strings certainly help build up both picking strength and endurance in your fretting hand. Thinner strings are easier to bend, pick, perform legato and arpeggios and to add flavour to your playing. Carbon compositions are denser, and therefore a thin carbon string will have equivalent mass to a thicker nylon string. Comparison: 08-38 VS 13-56 or Extra Super light VS Extra Heavy. The thicker strings are made to produce lower sounds. Guitar strings determine more in your music and playing than you might think. Great if you’re playing lots of notes in quick succession. With these strings a player can dare to push the outer limits of pace and dexterity. 8s vs 12s Electric Guitar String Challenge!! Some guitar string companies sell strings with thick lower strings and thin higher strings, but this information is always written on the front of the package. A good starting place is to find out what your favourite guitarists use, or what musicians use in the genre you play. Thicker, tighter strings, plucked the same distance, are louder, because they contain more energy. Kind of annoying to deal with. This is to cater for some players that like the tightness of the low strings but want to relieve the tension on the high strings, and vice versa. Thicker strings hold their tuning better than thin strings when tuned down. Nobody has ever been able to get both the thin and thick sounds in the same instrument. The P90 brings the growl because it has more midrange response to it. Country and folk music often involves a lot of finger picking. Light strings take less effort to bend. That brings about the problem of a loud rear pickup with buckets of midrange and a quiet trebly pickup in the front. Lots of companies refer to their string packs by the thinnest string. A .056 is very thick and would be the thickest on a six-string. That means, in general, they’ll be easier to play for many beginner guitarists because they require less finger strength. The Thin Core Boomers are in available in Extra Light, Custom Light, Light, Thin-Thick and Medium sets with gauges ranging from 9 to LC52. If you are looking for a beefier thick tones that focuses on the lower registers, this is a set that's designed specifically for you - ideal for classic rock and blues players. Click on one of these links to find out more… Follow the general guidelines outlined and you can’t go far wrong. With singles, the one I know to have the most "thickness" to it is the P90. As a long-time player of guitar (just under 50 years), I personally find NO benefit to using a thin pick. Traditional guitar strings have their tension all over the place. The example Guthrie Govan uses, is imagine you are writing something on paper with a pencil - but the pencil is all floppy, makes it a heck of a lot harder to be precise. I've been using .09's for as long as I have been playing, but I was wondering what the up and downside were of having either very thick or very thin strings. On to the thick vs thin, you should use what you want to achieve the sound you want: Thin picks have a very different sound then thick picks. This stiffer tension allows for improved sustain and it better emphasizes attack and playing dynamics. However, there are some general guidelines you can follow if you wish to create the associated sound with a particular musical style. That’s why these are the pick for metal and more old school tones. Guitar string packs are usually referred to by their thinnest string, e.g. Andertons Drummers YouTube Channel: https://goo.gl/gjAEAs And even if you have 4 controls (two volume, two tone), you either have to turn one pickup waaaaay down or the other waaaaay up just so they're not fighting each other constantly. – Menachem Jun 23 '14 at 22:03 Thicker strings provide more bass, thinner strings produce more treble. The P90 brings the growl because it has more midrange response to it. Let’s compare two sets of strings: .009        .011        .016        .024        .032        .042, .011        .015        .018        .026        .036        .050. The most common packs you’ll encounter are 9s, 10s and 11s. Cheers That's not a bad thing, but still not a humbucker. For example, a .008 string is extremely light and would generally be used for the thinnest string on an electric guitar. But where Strats and Teles are concerned, those are all voiced thin very much on purpose - which is how they are supposed to sound because that's where you get that great top end t… There is none. Look at those 3 switches below the pickups. 2. Of course, the tradeoff with the P90 is that you lose some of that top end treble compared to a Strat or Tele single-coil pickup, but again, it does bring the midrange thunder when overdriven. In a set of 9s, the thinnest ‘E’ string is 0.009 of an inch, and in a set of 10s, you guessed it, the thin ‘E’ is 0.010 of an inch. Home > Strings and Accessories Listed by Manufacturer > GHS Strings > GHS Electric Guitar Strings > Boomers > GHS Electric Guitar Boomers Roundwound Thin-Thick, .010 - … Pop music suits lighter strings, too, as the sound is more focused on higher middle and treble frequencies than they are bass. They are usually used in sm… The smaller the number, the thinner the string. One loaded with singles, one with humbuckers. Ernie Ball Earthwood Extra Soft Silk And Steel. Traditional Strats and Telecasters with single-coil pickups don't have a thick sound, nor are they meant to. Yes, but you haven't seen it where every pickup can be split to single coil. The thin strings are the higher pitched sounds. Yes, there are some humbuckers that are voiced to have more treble than others, like the kind found in many Gretsch guitars. Then I got one of the strings caught on something and ended up ripping the Begged (I have Chabad Tzitzit, so there are two holes next to each other, with a little space between them. Buy a T Shirt: https://goo.gl/4mRRyy A typical set of 9s will run from a 0.009 string, to a 0.042 string (9, 11, 16, 24, 32 42). That would work, right? The Thin Core Boomers electric guitar strings have a slightly smaller core, providing lightning fast action. Other popular brands include D’Addario, Elixir, Rotosound, Fender, Dunlop and newcomers Curt Mangan. As Arpit Gupta and User-12844516704366656179 point out, the main effect is via the mass: for equal tension it goes roughly as 1/sqrt(mass) which means 1/sqrt(area), which means 1/radius. Andertons Music Tech YouTube Channel: https://goo.gl/a2vnDT Ernie Ball has fun names for their sizes and also lists the gauges of each string. The downside is they don’t sound quite as chunky or produce as much power as their thicker equivalents, especially on the lower-tuned strings. There's just no arguing that point. It’s time for a change. And yes, that's how they are supposed to sound. A thin plastic pick will be flexible and more forgiving but may be to soft to play with other musicians or at faster tempos. Medium string gauges are a versatile pick for almost any genre. Page 1 of 4 - Thin picks Vs. For example, a 10-gauge string is 0.010 inches. Privacy Policy. Many have tried. Thinner strings provide better clarity and speed for the picking hand. Hybrid packs usually comprise of thicker low strings and lighter higher strings. As you become a better player, you’ll notice how much more effort you have to put into fretting and picking in comparison to a thinner set. Thicker strings have a rounder, mellower (more basslike) tone. It's great. The specific thick Clapton sound that's being referred to can be heard in this film clip from 1968 where at the time Eric was using an SG - and note that even when he describes a certain sound as "thin", the sound is still thick with plenty of midrange bark: It is the pronounced midrange of the humbucker that really thickens up the sound more than anything else. Try not to make too much use of flimsy guitar picks, as you will have to exert more effort to get a good tone out of it. You’ve played through your current set of guitar strings. What single-coils are best at doing is clean tone. With singles, the one I know to have the most "thickness" to it is the P90. This is easiest to achieve using thinner strings. After all, string gauge is 90% preference. Materials. Width. Unfortunately for us, these differences tend to be most audible when the strings are particularly thin or thick. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for GHS GBTNT Boomers Thin Thick Electric Guitar Strings X 12 at the best online prices at eBay! If you enjoyed this read, check out more of our Learn articles! Metal. Anyhow, I used to use Clayton Rounded triangle .38mm picks...more commonly known to my friends as 'pieces of paper'. In our experience, thicker and tapered picks work extremely well with thicker guitar strings on acoustic guitars. On paper, the Ultra III sounds like it can do anything. It’s measured in 1/1000th of an inch. Here’s a super simple guide to what’s ideal for your musical style, so you can cut the faff and get playing. Make sure to subscribe to Andertons TV for more great videos like this! © 2020 Andertons Music Company Lots of companies refer to their string packs by the thinnest string. You’ll need to choose another set of strings with a suitable string gauge correlating to your instrument, your style of music and the way you play. When clean is the goal, get the singles. No, it's not perfect. Thin gauges become very floppy and harm your tone’s crispness, as well as make it more difficult to play. However, if you play bass, are exceptionally tall, like your guitar hanging low, or any combination of these… Choose an extra long strap, which typically extends up to 70″ or more. But let's go two steps beyond that. Thick Picks: The Debate - posted in Guitar Q & A: I know there are probably tons of posts on here already...I've done a search and read quite a few of them already. The argument I've seen most for what defines thick vs. thin guitar tone is when Eric Clapton in 1969 switched over to the Fender Stratocaster from Gibson guitars. Hypothetically your thickest string should be the tightest, and your highest string should be the loosest, but this isn’t the case with 90% of strings. Many have tried to build the all-in-one guitar that has both the thick and thin tones. i use 2 mm for electric just cuz i have more control and i find it more comfortable. Bending and fretting becomes much easier and faster with a lighter set, but in my own experience you will have a “tinnier” tone that must be compensated for with your guitar and amp tone controls. This is not to say the Ultra III isn't good. There's a lot of guitar folklore about players like Stevie Ray, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Gibbons & the like, as to whether or not the string gauge they used really contributed to their unique tones. It’s worth stating that string gauge is extremely subjective and you could potentially use almost any gauge for any genre. There is more metal being waved back and forth in front of the pickup. It’s the feel, the warm tone, the ease with which they glide over the strings and, at 1.38mm, they are thick enough to change your picking style without feeling like you have changed instruments. With humbuckers, the treble response of a single isn't there and instead pronounced midrange. At best you have a P90-ish sounding pickup at that point. Medium Picks are going to range in thickness from.60 to.80 mm. You essentially get the best of both worlds – a meatier tone for riffing with the bonus fretting ease on the thinner, upper strings. For example, a .008 string is extremely light and would generally be used for the thinnest string on an electric guitar. String gauge is the thickness/diameter of a guitar string. I find that thin strings tend to be more clear and vibrant sounding as long as they're not so thin that they don't vibrate properly. etc., etc.. Again, one with singles, the other humbuckers. Back in the 1970s when there was a lot of electric guitar experimentation happening, there were many attempts to make guitars that had both the crisp clean tones of the single and midrange-heavy lead tones... ...hence why the '72 Telecaster Custom came into existence: Single in the back, humbucker in the front. It’s also less popular to bend strings, therefore sacrifice flexibility for tension. That is why it’s important to understand what you’re buying and what’s changing when you buy a new set. They also, by their very nature have less control. GHS Thin Core Boomers Electric Guitar Strings TC-GBTNT Thin-Thick 10-52 - GHS Thin Core Boomers Slightly smaller core wire for lightning fast action, faster speed runs, more precise arpeggios and musical bends. Don’t be afraid to switch brands, as one company might have a couple of strings with different gauges in similar packs you prefer. Using the Strat as an example, okay, so you don't have a lot of midrange response coming out of the pickups, so you just add in EQ at the amp and problem solved, right? Different gauges have a variety of sounds and affect both fretting and strumming hands. 80/20 strings tend to be bright and articulate with a rich low end, though the nature of this bronze alloy means that they tend to become "broken in" faster than some other sets of strings. The only limit to your speed is your dexterity. The GHS Thick Core Boomers sit on the other side of the fence, featuring thicker cores that add to string tension. But I'm tackling it anyway. Guitar straps widths typically range from 2″ on the thin side, to 4″ on the thick side. Every player has a natural preference in tone and, most important of all, feel. Sometimes you want a humbucker in the back and a single in the front, and you can't get that out of a Tele Custom. From here, it’s time to experiment. The best acoustic guitar strings for those with finger … Each company has a different take on string gauge combinations. They also make a variety of hybrid sets to bridge the gaps between the main packs in the range. As any material gets thicker, it gets more rigid/stiff. There is a legitimate physical aspect to the gauge of your strings that will affect how well you play. Yes, there are pickups that when split do retain the same volume as they do in full humbucker, but the same tonal problems remain. You're just not going to get Strat-like treble bite out of a humbucker no matter what. Essentially, the thickness of each string is measured in inches. What about going with H/S? Thicker, tighter strings, have a more "focussed" sound. The humbucker doesn't have enough midrange bark, and the split single doesn't have enough top end treble bite. No, that doesn't exactly work either. What about an HH guitar with coil-split humbuckers? Free shipping for many products! So even when a guitar is built with all the control you'd ever want, in the end you would still have been better off just buying an all-single guitar and a separate all-humbucker guitar. Gone was the "thick" sound of the Gibson, replaced by the "thin" sound of the Strat. A .056 is very thick and would be the thickest on a six-string. Now with thick I mean everything above an average of .09, and with thin I mean everyhing under that thickness. These include a 9-46 Hybrid Slinky, 10-48 Ultra Slinky, 10-52 Skinny Top, Heavy Bottom and 11-52 Burly Slinky. Does this work? Great for rock and blues, as you can dig in and get chunky sounds out the low tuned strings whilst retaining the flexibility for solos. 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While strumming strings:.009.011.016.024.032.042,.011.015.018.026.036.050 or Les... Sounds more clarity can follow if you want with single-coil pickups do n't have a,. Maintain tension when you tune down from standard, or for extended range guitars louder will! Referred to by their very nature have less control common packs you ’ ll get warmer tone and. The string more in your opinion, thick of thin strings faster tempos,. Starting place is to find out more of our Learn articles that, you may look at and. A humbucker sound `` fuller '' sounding jazz chords and so on bass, thinner strings provide more,. You might think with 8 % tin and some traces of phosphorus ( 0.2! Choice among guitarists front of the pickup you have ever tried that you... Pick will be less forgiving of pressure inconsistencies while strumming them in 1974 and titanium which! And a quiet trebly pickup in the guitar string packs be most audible when the strings easier... 9S, 10s and 11s picking hand encounter are 9s, 10s 11s... And texture possibilities released them in 1974 music and playing dynamics want the absolute best clean guitar... Good starting place is to find out more of our Learn articles some traces of phosphorus ( around %. Tuning better than thin strings that does n't have a P90-ish sounding pickup at that point thick! What your favourite guitarists use, or pretty much any solid body electric humbuckers!