# Thin strings



## penguin_316 (Apr 30, 2011)

Ok so, as many of you know many popular bands nowadays are tuning pretty low with light strings. How in the world are they keeping them in tune for more than a few minutes at a time? Using a set of .11s on a standard scale 7 tuned to Ab the low strings seem to want to drift out of tune with all the bends and stuff i do.

Am I just playing too hard or is there something I'm missing? D'addario strings btw. 
Also, I just can't get my "Bleed" on without having thicker strings these light ones wobble so much.


----------



## Winspear (Apr 30, 2011)

Well, 7 string sets already tend to have too loose a B string. With 11-49 6 string, a 66 or so would be ideal. Looser strings should be able to stay in tune though, I'm not sure why they wouldn't.


----------



## brutalwizard (Apr 30, 2011)

i play 9-52 on a ibby 7421 mostly in drop a/b standard. sometimes g#

never once had a problem with staying in tune

and i used 9-46 forever cause i used to hate thick strings.

now i cant get enough of 11-56 that i have played on friends ibanez 7321, and anothers schecter blackjack c-7

i guess its all just personal preference


----------



## oliviergus (Apr 30, 2011)

It seems to be popular using light gauge strings for djent also.. I don't know how it can be better? Its a personal thing I guess. But ive heard that its more aggresive sounding, true?

The strings im using on my 6 is now a Ernie Ball light baritone set, 0.13-0.72 I think. And its wonderful, extremly tight.


----------



## Adam Of Angels (Apr 30, 2011)

Lighter strings vibrate more, which means the pickups have a more aggressive response to them. Heavy strings don't vibrate as much and are, in turn, not as pronounced as lighter strings. Bass notes may be louder from heavy strings, but with proper technique, they're not better. They're not necessarily worse either.

Anyway, no matter what gauge you use, they'll only go out of tune if you don't stretch them properly. If you don't, lighter gauges will slip out of tune because of the high vibration, and heavier gauges will slip out because of the high tension.


----------



## CooleyJr (Apr 30, 2011)

Make sure you don't have TOO many wraps around the tuning peg. You have to set them (stretch) to get them tightly around the tuning peg to where they won't slip and go out of tune. 1 or 2 full wraps should do pretty good. Then when you get them up to tune, pull on them a little bit to get the wraps tight around the tuning peg, then retune. You should be good to go after that.


----------



## penguin_316 (May 1, 2011)

Guess I just need to stretch them properly...I only use one wrap around on the lower strings and the tuning pegs are locking sperzels. I like the feel of a .70 but the tone/electric sound of the lighter string...but it's not staying in tune for more than a few minutes. Not massively out of tune, but just off...


----------



## xtrustisyoursx (May 1, 2011)

Most of it is technique. If you just pummel the strings like an ape and fret the notes like you're going to push them through the board, light strings will never be in tune. But when your technique is finely honed and you pick with the tip of the pick and can pick dynamically, and use a light economical touch on the stings, you can accommodate the lighter string.


----------



## jrg828 (May 1, 2011)

i use 8's on my Hellraiser 8 in Eb. i have arthiritis in my fingers and wrist and how loose the strings are really help me play longer and i dont get tired so quick. playing live tho, i have to tune to standard because of our singer. Writeing and practiceing at home, its an apsolute neccesity for me, to play/practice longer, tuning to Eb. i couldn't for the life of me play with 11's in standard, it'd be hilarious to even try a sweep or run a scale.


----------



## 5656130 (May 1, 2011)

CooleyJr said:


> Make sure you don't have TOO many wraps around the tuning peg. You have to set them (stretch) to get them tightly around the tuning peg to where they won't slip and go out of tune. 1 or 2 full wraps should do pretty good. Then when you get them up to tune, pull on them a little bit to get the wraps tight around the tuning peg, then retune. You should be good to go after that.



Yeah especially if you're using a heavy gauge. I was using a 90 to go to A on my six string and i think i mightve stripped my tuning peg out


----------



## MaxOfMetal (May 1, 2011)

Strings are just about never the reason a guitar goes out of tune. I'd say about 99.9% of the time it's either a hardware or setup issue. 

From the sounds of it your guitar needs either a new nut, or a pro to work on the existing one.


----------



## Hallic (May 1, 2011)

Didn't the pro's use a guitar pedal for this phenomenome? It's called a "autotune" pedal. Even the string slip out of tune the notes will still be in tune 




Good solid (locking) tuning peck might help?


----------



## Blind Theory (May 1, 2011)

I don't know if this is irrelevant or not so if it is disregard it but, it could be the scale length couldn't it? I don't see why you would need a thicker gauge string for lower tuning if you have a 27' scale length.


----------



## Dead Undead (May 3, 2011)

D'Addario strings don't like to stay in tune for me either... I think they still stretch out a lot after being installed and even played for a few weeks. Never had a problem with DR or Ernie Ball.


----------



## Aerospace274 (May 6, 2011)

One of my guitars currently has a set of Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom (.010" to .052" if I recall correctly) in Drop D, down two steps. A# F A# D# G C. It stays in tune fine. Excessive, I know. It's not a permanent tuning lol. They're pretty loose but playable all the same. I've never had bad luck with D'Addario Strings though. 6/8 of my 8 string is strung up with them and it's just fine. I think if you're always going out of tune there's probably something else going on other than strings being loose or something. I play pretty hard sometimes during my rhythm sections, too.


----------



## jnukes2 (May 6, 2011)

Dang I've never even tried 8's.... time to try it.


----------



## Dead Undead (May 7, 2011)

Frank Zappa used 7's for a while. Don't think you can find them now though.


----------



## MatthewK (May 9, 2011)

When I was in hardcore Yngwie worship mode I had a strat with 8's on it tuned a half-step down. Stayed in tune just fine.


----------



## Dead Undead (May 9, 2011)

MatthewK said:


> When I was in hardcore Yngwie worship mode I had a strat with 8's on it tuned a half-step down. Stayed in tune just fine.



While my friend has 12's on his strat and it goes out of tune all the time. But then it is a POS pawn shop Squier with a broken nut.


----------



## Solodini (May 10, 2011)

Dead Undead said:


> Frank Zappa used 7's for a while. Don't think you can find them now though.



Vai still uses them from time to time but I believe Thomas Nordegg found them for him so that's probably why.


----------



## Dead Undead (May 10, 2011)

Solodini said:


> Vai still uses them from time to time but I believe Thomas Nordegg found them for him so that's probably why.



Are they really that hard to find? I mean, I haven't seen any. but really haven't looked all that hard.


----------



## Solodini (May 11, 2011)

Dead Undead said:


> Are they really that hard to find? I mean, I haven't seen any. but really haven't looked all that hard.



I've never looked, either. The thinnest I remember seeing is 8s.


----------



## Saber_777 (May 19, 2011)

I use light gauge strings in drop tuning. I can have the float lower. Its more comfy. also think of the vibrations that go along on a string when yyou play it. it goes into a perfect circle. and if you increase the gauge of the string the circle increased as well so if you use a lighter guage and the vibration decreased.... At least thats my theory to it. Different people have different theories.


----------



## Konfyouzd (May 19, 2011)

11s in Ab isn't that thin in my opinion, sir. I play 10s on a standard scale 7 in Bb just fine. 

My playing style consists more of legato runs and sweep picking and much less alternate or down picking so maybe this contributes to why I can use lighter strings on 7s and 8s (well my 8 is an extended scale) more successfully?


----------



## amarshism (May 20, 2011)

Alot of these guys using thinner strings for that djent sound also use thin picks to help get the tone so even while picking hard it won't be with as much force as picking hard with a thick pick.


----------



## Mordacain (May 20, 2011)

Adam Of Angels said:


> Lighter strings vibrate more, which means the pickups have a more aggressive response to them. Heavy strings don't vibrate as much and are, in turn, not as pronounced as lighter strings. Bass notes may be louder from heavy strings, but with proper technique, they're not better. They're not necessarily worse either.
> 
> Anyway, no matter what gauge you use, they'll only go out of tune if you don't stretch them properly. If you don't, lighter gauges will slip out of tune because of the high vibration, and heavier gauges will slip out because of the high tension.



Just a bit of additional information here. It is true that thinner strings vibrate more, however they also have less metal, so the pickups are actually less effective at the same pickup height. Thicker strings have higher metal content and thus react more effectively with the magnets, creating a stronger signal. It takes a a little bit of playing around to get a happy medium between the airier, more singing tone of thinner strings versus the heavier, more direct tone of thicker.

Personally, I like my E-D strings a little heavier and my G-E strings a bit lighter. I haven't decided on actual gauges yet as I'm still trying to find my balance, but I am pretty well set on on my high strings being .20 G, .11 B, .9 E. You might want to try experimenting with some light top, heavy bottom packs.

Consequently, on 7s, I prefer a thinner string, either a .56 or .54. This keeps the sound a little tighter, less flubby for me.


----------



## Holy Katana (May 20, 2011)

I play in standard with .010-.052s, and I'm considering moving up to .011-.056s on my semihollow.

I'm more concerned with heavy low strings than heavy high strings. I have a tendency to dig in pretty hard when I'm playing rhythm, especially if it's an on-the-verge-of-breakup tone where I get this immensely satisfying sound that I can't replicate any other way. It's a light crunch, yeah, but if I dial in a light crunch sound and play normally, it doesn't have the intensity of the pummeling the shit out of a not-quite-clean tone, IMHO. Because I hit my strings pretty hard, I like there to be at least _some_ resistance, so I don't like really light strings. Generally, I play less aggressively when using more distortion, though, since the sound's already compressed to the point where you don't really get much benefit from beating your strings.


----------



## Dead Undead (May 20, 2011)

Adam Of Angels said:


> Lighter strings vibrate more, which means the pickups have a more aggressive response to them. Heavy strings don't vibrate as much and are, in turn, not as pronounced as lighter strings. Bass notes may be louder from heavy strings, but with proper technique, they're not better. They're not necessarily worse either.
> 
> Anyway, no matter what gauge you use, they'll only go out of tune if you don't stretch them properly. If you don't, lighter gauges will slip out of tune because of the high vibration, and heavier gauges will slip out because of the high tension.



Well if they're drop-tuned, wouldn't heavier strings vibrate a lot too? Generally I'll use 9's or 10's for E to D standard tunings and 11's for anything lower. Really wanna try a set of 12's for A standard though.


----------



## Nile (May 20, 2011)

Karl Sanders of Nile uses I think 70-10 strings on a 6 for drop A, so he has his DGB strings with the 10 gauge meant for the GBE strings and he picks the living shit out of them so he has some quite small strings on the top and he still gets sex for tone.


----------



## Saber_777 (May 20, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> 11s in Ab isn't that thin in my opinion, sir. I play 10s on a standard scale 7 in Bb just fine.
> 
> My playing style consists more of legato runs and sweep picking and much less alternate or down picking so maybe this contributes to why I can use lighter strings on 7s and 8s (well my 8 is an extended scale) more successfully?


 
I use 10 - 52 on 6 string standard tuning.  love it


----------



## WarmPuppies (May 26, 2011)

Lol i use 11-59 DR strings on my 7 from Standard down to G if needed. They are a lil bit loose though, but there is not fret buzz.


----------

