String guage


Blakeney8
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Joined: 10/19/15
Posts: 59
Blakeney8
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Joined: 10/19/15
Posts: 59
06/04/2023 10:46 pm

HI Guys...hope everybody is doing well. I am an acoustic player, mostly dreads and a concert type body. I have used 13s in the past, but quickly went down to 12s and 11s. I approaching my 70's and the 11s, I am finding that I am having to press harder and my finger tips are suffering because of it. The action is set up perfect, so I am wondering if going down to 10's will help and will the tone suffer? TIA everyone!


Blakeney


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# 1
manXcat
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Joined: 02/17/18
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manXcat
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Joined: 02/17/18
Posts: 1,476
06/04/2023 11:04 pm

Lighter gauge generally renders fretting lower tension thus 'easier'. Of course tone will be more trebly/thinner, more noticeably so on the smaller Concert body. 

Additional things you can do to assist fretting IME. Use Tone Finger-Ease. Yes, it makes a significant difference  when fretting, not just only to string noise and feel.

Experiment with different brand composition strings. Yes what you use will affect tone, but feel too. i.e. IME uncoated will generally offer more relative projection, as will different construction and composition. By way of example I never use Elixir Opti-anything coated strings. They always feel much harsher higher tension on the fingers then equivlanet gauge Ernie Ball or D'Addario by way of comparison. Don't know why. Don't care. By observation, Just is.

You might also like to try something like this. Even low tension acoustic strings by Optima. Here .012's, but they make lighter gauges in the same series as well. Expensive, but may assist? 



# 2
ddiddler
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ddiddler
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06/05/2023 11:01 am

Try customising a set. Keep your 11, maybe even a 12 on your high E string. Decide how low you want to go with your low E and A string and set your balance in between. It’s the same as beginners going lighter. It’s usually not the G,B,E, they’re having issues with. Can’t remember what the different mix range is with Ernie Ball but they may have a range that suits you
Dave 


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# 3
fuzzb0x
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fuzzb0x
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06/05/2023 8:28 pm
#1 Originally Posted by: Blakeney8

HI Guys...hope everybody is doing well. I am an acoustic player, mostly dreads and a concert type body. I have used 13s in the past, but quickly went down to 12s and 11s. I approaching my 70's and the 11s, I am finding that I am having to press harder and my finger tips are suffering because of it. The action is set up perfect, so I am wondering if going down to 10's will help and will the tone suffer? TIA everyone!


Blakeney

from my experience it doesn't effect tone anywhere near as much as the internet would have you believe so i say give it a go.


# 4
songreed28
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songreed28
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06/12/2023 1:40 pm

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