String Gauge Considerations for 12-String Guitar

[Music] [Music] oh hi everybody let's talk about string gauges today most guitar players know that strings come in like lights mediums medium light extra light uh medium heavy gauge there's different gauges of strings you can buy if you're new to 12 string you may be wondered about how this applies to the 12 string because of the massive string tension uh a standard 12 string set has on the guitar upwards of 200 220 PBS string gauge makes a huge difference way more than it does on six string guitar it it affects the tone the touch the uh sustain uh how hard you can hit the instrument it's uh there's a lot of factors that come into we're just going to talk about just a few of those today most 12 strings come from the manufacturer with a standard light set which generally is a 10 to a 42 what do I mean by a 10 and a 42 uh that's kind of slang for 10s of an inch right so it's like uh 0.010 and that is the diameter of the string the the bigger that number is the wider the string is at the diameter that increased thickness increases the mass of the string being brought up to tension at pitch and that increases the the tension and the feel of the string as far as how tight the string feels the lighter the lower that number is then the more flexible the string is that flexibility makes a huge difference in how you approach the instrument and depending on the style you play the role that the 12 string is going to play in your performance and your recording or uh and and just just the general feel of the instrument 12 strings going to range from uh the liest sets that I have played go down to about a nine there are some manufacturers that make them even thinner than that a nine to about a 42 Ernie Ball makes a set uh that I use for guitars that I tune either a half step down or keep at concert pitch for guitars that I tune down I usually go uh to an 11 or a 12 and uh the 11 to 46 or 11 to 52 set this guitar has the uh the Martin uh what's the name of the the the flexible core strings on it which is an interesting compromise it has a really light set at the top here goes to uh like a 10 up on the top end but it goes down to a 52 so it's sort of a a part of the strings are heavier than a standard light set and the others are part of a regular light set what this allows me to do is I can [Music] gives me a real sparkly flexible high end on because the lower strings are heavier I can rip [Music] in so if I really want to get kind of athletic and really rip into the strings there's enough Mass there to allow me to do that and enough string tension to be a resistant to if your strings are too floppy it actually limits the dynamic range because you can't dig into the strings as physically as you can although they're easier to play you just they just will kind of flop and just kind of Pop po po pop instead of giving you a good strong tone when you play hard on them that said if you go to a heavier string I have played guitars that I tune down to like a c sh or a c and I might go to a medium set which is going to be like a 12 to a 52 or 54 or maybe a 13 to a 50 6 that's a really beefy set of strings you would never want to tune a 12 string to concert pitch with those it kind of fold the guitar in half that's a lot of string tension but if you tune way down to get that low kind of bar tone guitar sound like that Leo Kodi gets you uh you have to have a heavier string gauge so it doesn't become too floppy uh you can it can actually make the strings harder to play because the strings that will bend from side to side as you're kind of musling them into into place and can affect pitch and goodness knows you have enough pitch problems on a 12 string as it is anyway so uh having a string gauge that works for you for the type of stuff that you're playing now I just played something that was kind of light and tinkly and something that was uh kind of aggressive uh and this is a set that's kind of a hybrid uh now let me go to a different guitar here and just kind of show you like a different approach on this one consideration is the construction of your guitar this Ovation 12 string is 45 years old this is is fairly delicate uh it's already got a couple of stress cracks in the top that I want to preserve and so I put the lightest gauge strings on this one that I can find uh this one is a 9 to uh like a 42 set and uh this was [Music] basically you can hear there's a whole lot more jangle because the light gauge strings uh but I'm not going to do anything really heavy and aggressive on this guitar so I'm going to play this one with with light the really light gate strings I'm going to be mostly playing this one for strummy kind of [Music] stuff if I do finger pick it I'll probably use a light gauge finger pick or thumb pick [Music] and so you see I sacrifice a base response I get a whole lot more highend trouble performance which is going to then be more useful in a strummy kind of uh application of the guitar so your string gauge that you pick depends on a lot of different factors your guitar the age of your guitar the construction how heavily it's built how heavily it's braced uh whether you're going to be playing with finger picks with flat picks with your bare [Music] fingers if you're going to be playing uh heavy aggressive kind of stuff whether you're playing Solo or accompanying a vocal if you're if you're the SEC primary instrument or a secondary instrument in a mix a lot of different factors come in to play there also your string materials make a make a difference too 8020 brass or bronze or or or your bronze wound your monel wrap oh there's your coated strings like elixir and the material of the string makes a difference in the flexibility and the feel and how the brightness and how what what kind of warmth or brightness you're wanting for your guitar to stand out in the mix uh also on 12 strings you notice when you get into the heavier end of things the medium gauge uh those strings often the a string the octave you have your a string and then the octave above that on most string sets that octave is an Unwound or a plain steel string uh on some medium gauge sets they put that in as a wound a string which is actually can be pretty useful if you're tuning way down that prevents that steel string from becoming too floppy and it helps prevent some intonation problems in the disparity between the diameter of the of the octaves on that a string set so when you go down and have that wound octave it does have a different feel and a different tone different sound and it can be quite useful if you're tuning down but if you're you don't find that very often on you know on the the string sets I think the lightest string set that I know of that that has the uh the the wound a string on it is your ghs white bronze strings which is an interesting kind of set to play with the string tensions on those are pretty interesting different material that white bronze and it's a it's kind of a fun set to play around with so as you experiment with your strings investigate all those different possibilities and see what you can uh come up with uh you're going to find out that certain guitar sound better with certain brands and depending on what you're using this the the the guitar for this one with I've got the Ernie Ball uh extra lights which are a 9 to like a 42 uh so this is the lightest string I usually find somebody makes a set with a somebody told me there's I think it's a Oscar Oscar Stern or listener here said there somebody makes a a set with an with an eight on the bottom here maybe laella but those are pretty expensive strings they're like 40 bucks a set I'm not with all the guitars I've got I don't put strings that expensive on there uh the one behind me here the guild that I started out with uh that one's got the the Martin uh flexible core set which goes like a it's like a 10 to a 52 the one next to it has got like just a standard Diario the light set which is I think it's a 10 to 46 so every 12 string in here has a has a a different use it's like a different wrench for a mechanic they all have different things that I do with them some are for strummy Stuff some are for things involving uh uh open tunings or some are for down tunings uh so I approached it differently so as you play around with your strings try out different things and see what works best for you and if you have a certain application you may find that a certain brand of string is going to work better and over time you may end up like me accumulating multiple 12 strings that do different things and you'll use that those 12 strings for different uh different techniques different approaches aggressive playing light playing uh ballads uh you know Rocky stuff stuff with slide guitar all of those things are factors that you can take into account so anyway uh that's a little conversation on string gauge in the comments below tell me what your favorite string gauges maybe you have a certain brand a certain gauge that you really like tell me why you like that what is it about those that works for you on your guitar string preferences are as individual as people's taste in Pizza you know some people like pineapple on Pizza some people go so string CES are the same way so uh let me know leave a comment below like subscribe and share if you found any of this useful and come back and visit the channel again always producing new content coming up on a new year and uh and share this out with other folks there and let's build this channel build up this 12 string community and uh I'll go ahead and go now bye everybody

Channel: GuitarStudio

Views: 3,639

Keywords:

Id: FENdJVDF1gI

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 27 2023