Donovan Banks

Normally when I buy strings, I try different gauges and brands. I hardly stick to the same set even though I have been playing for years I still haven’t settled. Now that I am to choose a set that I will stick with for a year, what will I choose?

I tend to stick with lighter gauge strings on my electric guitars, and seeing as I play a lot more electric guitars than acoustic I will go for electric strings. I switch between 9’s and 10’s often. I am still undecided but the last time I put a set of 10’s on a guitar I found I was longing for 9’s more so I think I will stick with that. However, another problem has been arising of late.

I have 4 electric guitars. One Epiphone Les Paul Custom Zakk Wylde Bull’s-eye signature, A 1990 MIJ Squier Stratocaster, a MIM Fender Deluxe Power Stratocaster and a Samick dunno-what-you-may-call-it Strat style guitar with a Floyd Rose Tremolo. I generally like to stick to the same gauge across all my guitars. I don’t have to but it seems the most practical; added to that it is cheaper and more economical to buy strings in a box of three sets than individually. Physically three of the guitars are the same scale length and the Les Paul is shorter. What I find on the internet is that the lightest gauge strings that suit a Les Paul is 10’s, and I am putting 9’s on them.

We often refer to the set by the gauge of the high E. Which means that a set of 9’s or 10’s would have the following string gauges across;

On my Les Paul I often have the problem of the low E buzzing. This is not because of the setup and the action being too low. This, it turns out, is the fact that my lower string is too thin or the gauge is too low. The complicated answer is that the density, or linear mass of the string is low, and the length is shorter than my other guitars, meaning that the vibration pattern is wrong for this particular guitar. It is even worse if I use Drop-D Tuning.

Now my predicament is two-fold. I prefer lighter than 10 on my bottom strings, but I have to have heavier on the top. It seems manufacturers are considering this issue and now make sets with light gauge and heavy bottom, as some call it.

So what you do get is a set with the following gauges;

I am still in the experimental stage but I feel I am close to finding the right gauge string for me. Fortunately for me, and thanks again to guitarforum.co.za, I am going to have a yearlong trial of my choice of string. Incidentally I chose Ernie Ball, Hybrid Slinky’s

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