Issues Regarding String Gauges: A Historical Perspective

[Kazwell]

First of all, I was wondering if anyone may know what was considered a standard guitar string gauge 50 years ago. I think it is a safe bet that today,  10's are considered the standard overall gauge, although many of you folks -particularly those into jazz are happy with your 12 gauge flatwounds.

 

This leads to another question of mine: Were flatwounds the standard then or was these a choice? Maybe roundwounds weren't invented yet, I am not sure.

 

I tried to pull some information on this on the net and came up empty, although I am sure there HAS to be published articles somewhere regarding this topic.

 

One reason I am interested, is that if in fact a heavier gauge was standard in the 1950's, then wouldn't all designs that emerged in that area have been developed with them on the guitars. Therefore, when purists talk of attaining "vintage tone" it is safe to say that this is not truly obtainable unless one is using a heavier gauge string. Or is it?

 

I have heard from several sources that the Golden Age pickups in fact have a very similar sound to the original PAF pickups, yet many people find them to be on the trebly side. Or are they only trebly because the strings that most people use today are not the heavier gauge that this pickup was developed with.

 

Last year, Guitar Player Magazine included the advent of Earnie Ball's Super Slinky strings in the 101 Greatest Moments of Rock Guitar. Interesting that they were introduced over a year or so after Gibson temporarily discontinued the Les Paul as we know it today for the SG model. Had they come along sooner, maybe the public would have embraced the design more with faster action strings to match the faster action neck. In a 1969 interview, Jimi Page (who played a major role in reviving the popularity of the Les Paul) was asked what advice he had for up and coming guitarists. His response, "Use lighter strings".

 

The PAF design changed in the 1960s and went to the way of the more powerful  alnico V magnet. Perhaps to compensate for the weaker vibration of the ligher gauge strings. Another possibility to ponder would be that modern pickup manufacturers playing to the retro vintage market are creating pickups that will produce a more vintage sound with lighter strings-a hybrid if you will.

If we continue to follow this logic, then the botique handwinding purists  companies may, in contrast, produce a painstakingly accurate reproduction of a picup using similar materials etc which can only truly reproduce the intended result if the player is using the heavier gauge string (?)

 

Guitar body design may have also been affected as manufacturers eventually for the most part, abandoned the long tenon which they perhaps felt unnecessary or not as necessary due to the fact that since most players were using lighter strings, there was less of a collective need to reinforce the neck for the pressure that the heavier gauge strings put on the neck.

 

Of course, much of what I have stated here is based on personnal theory and speculation and is intended to facilitate discussion and debate. Many of you may have your own insights or are aware of certain facts that you could share to cast further light on this subject.

 

I am looking forward to your questions, answers, thoughts comments etc.

[davesultra]

??? Now my head hurts, I'm going to lay down for a while.

[jacques]

My head does not hurt. This is most interesting, Neil and I'm looking forward to sensible replies to this post.

[Paul P]

You raise some interesting questions.  Up until very recently I've been strictly an acoustic guitarist and

have always found it a bit odd that electric guitarists used 10s and 9s and even smaller.  Must be like

playing on rubber bands :-)  Since I'm going for a 50's blues sound with my new H535, and I know that

light strings didn't exist back then, I've stuck with the same size strings as on my acoustic guitar,

12-52.  I've heard that heavier strings have more tone which is another plus.

 

Now, you write :

 

Guitar body design may have also been affected as manufacturers eventually for the most part, abandoned the long tenon which they perhaps felt unnecessary or not as necessary due to the fact that since most players were using lighter strings, there was less of a collective need to reinforce the neck for the pressure that the heavier gauge strings put on the neck.

 

I hope this isn't the case !  One reason from going with Heritage was the idea that the guitar would be built

close to how they were in the 50s and 60s and, indirectly, that they would be able to handle heavier strings

than what is popular today.  I wouldn't want to be unduly stressing my guitar through my wish to be close

to the ways things were 40-50 years ago.

 

Paul P

[Kazwell]

Heritage is one of the few manufacturers that still use the long tenon design. What I find interesting is that given the advantages that many experts in the field attribute to this design- more stable and able to handle the stress heavier gauge strings, enhanced note sustain, and a more organic "woody" tone, that the long tenon design has been applied only to manufactorers looking to retain historical accuracy of a design. The question is, why was is discontinued for the most part? Cost obviously plays a role since longer wood pieces are required. I am certain a higher level of craftsmanship is necessary to get these longer pieces of wood in place properly-expecially since fewer builders have been exposed to doing this since it is not done that much anymore. My presumption is, like anything else, the additional cost is weighed against the the overall advantages that the public can precieve and therefore demand from the product. In other words, if it don't matter to the public, let's not comprimise the bottom line.

As I stated initially, I feel the influx of lighter gauge string users have lessened the need and or demand that the manufacturers (in general) do not continue this practice. At the same time, the longer tenon design is not lost on the lighter gauge string users and I am sure they will find tonal advantages as well. But are they enough for these folks to pass up this design for a cheaper guitar with a short tenon, that many may say "sounds pretty much the same to me".

[GuitArtMan]

Hmmm...

First off I don't think 10s are the accepted standard.  I don't think there is an excepted standard.  I think it really depends on the instrument/player.

One thing that was apparetnly common in the way back days that is less common these days is a wound G string on electrics.  That's why the G string pole piece on Fender pickups is so high, and why with a plain G string the G string is louder than the rest. 

I could be wrong but I'm prety sure round wounds have been available since day one.  Flat wounds were invented to lessen finger noise.  They seem to be only used by jazz cats as near as I can tell.  Blues, rock, country players, etc. have almost always prefered round wounds.

As for Golden Age pickups soudning Vitage - is that vintage the way they sounded when new or vintage they way they sound now (after 40 years)?  Either way I think Seymour Duncan has that wrapped up with the Seth Lovers (vintage new) and Antiquities (vintage aged).  I mean Seth Lover invented the frickin' humbucking pickup he otta know how to re-create it!

As for Alnico II vs. Alnico V - which one costs less?  My guess is it was a cost saving move more than a move from heavy strings to lighter strings.  I've heard some peopkle say that Alnico III was used by Fender and/or Gibson as well as Alnico IV.

Long tennon vs. short tennon?  Heavy strings vs. light strings?  Intersting proposistion.  When did Gibson start shipping guitars with light strings?  If I bought a Les Paul new in '59 what gauge strings were on it at the factory?  If I bought a Les Paul new in '69 what gauge strings were on it at the factory?

[Kazwell]

Here is my criteria for pointing to 10 gauge as a standard-although I use 11's I was speaking to a salesperson at my local music store that said 90% of the guitars shipped to him-and we are talking a huuuge variety of manufacturers-are with 10 gauge strings. He also mentioned that he sells mostly 10's for electric players. (Now I am talking only electric here as acoustic is a whole other story)

 

Granted, as far as his "sales" in the store, we have to take in consideration the string preference of the "average customer" in that store in relation to the nation (world) as a whole. Maybe folks in the Midwest prefer "middle of the road" string gauges when folks in the East prefer the more traditional heavier gauges, and those West coast folks, we'll, that's anybody's guess:)

All kidding aside, I would think a major manufacturer like D'Addario could easily provide stats on overall sales (granted, officially  there probably is no "official" standard) but, I think it is safe to say  the "unofficial" standard string gauge starts at .10,  based on over-all world-wide sales.

 

When we talk about different styles, we could talk about the difference in over-all preferences of players. As I stated, jazz players usually prefer a heavier gauge than .10's -metal players could go for either very thin for "shredding" or very heavy for down tuning-I would imagine that due to the popularity of down tuning as of late, the heavier gauge string fo rock players is very popular. To further complicate matters manufacturers like D'Addario have marketed "light top/heavy bottom" sets for players into drop tuning that could have an E-B-G from their .10 set and D-A-E from their .12 set.

[Kazwell]

Here's an interesting excerpt from buddyhollyonline.com-

 

As far as strings and guitar picks, Buddy played with a medium pick and thick strings probably not as much out of choice, but rather they were the only things available at the time. Custom gauged strings through string companies didn’t come along for a few years after Buddy’s death. According to Jerry Allison, "If we were on the road and Buddy needed strings, we’d usually pop into a drugstore and buy Black Diamonds, flat-wound or acoustic, that’s all the choice there was." For a better reference to gauges there is a photo in issue #15 of Bill Griggs’ Rockin’ 50’s magazine of an envelope for one of Buddy’s strings. On it, Fender has it labeled it at the factory as ".026" to which Buddy has written by it "3rd." Still, he also crossed that gauge out and written "fatter" over it. My guess is he just stuck another string in an old envelope and wrote "fatter" on it as reminder it didn’t contain the string that was labeled on the envelope, as I can’t imagine a third string being much thicker than ".026," but it still gives an idea to the gauge string he was using if ".026" is his third string. (Side note: Interesting for guitarists to know at this time third strings were still wound.)

 

Heres the rest of the page-has LOTS of very cool information about his guitars, amps, even mics-interesting stuff!!!!

 

http://www.buddyhollyonline.com/equipment.html

[tulk1]

Here's an interesting excerpt from buddyhollyonline.com-

 

According to Jerry Allison, "If we were on the road and Buddy needed strings, we’d usually pop into a drugstore and buy Black Diamonds, flat-wound or acoustic, that’s all the choice there was."

 

When I started playing guitar waaaay back when, Katz Drug Store is where we bought our strings. You bought them one at a time. Rarely did you buy a set. And Black Diamonds, oh yeah!! Kinda cool to see that quote.

[JohnCovach]

Among players striving for an authentic 60s (Beatles-Stones) type tone, flatwound strings by Pyramid are considered optimal.  Before the lighter gauges were available in sets, many blues and rock players bought an extra high E and then moved all the other strings over one, so E became B, B became G, wound G became D, etc.

 

My recollection of strings from the 70s is that we got a lot of strings that were dead out of the pack, and that individual strings could hang around in a shop for months.  Ernie Ball was certainly the leader in establishing a new market for lighter sets, and everybody I knew back in those days used them except for the jazz guys.  Besides, the graphics on the package were just so groovy!  Almost as cool as Electro-Harmonix.  (Remember the Matt Mathews Freedom Amp!?)

[Kazwell]

And I thought Orange Amps were groovy!!!!

[JohnCovach]

Oops, I should have remembered better: it's a Mike Mathews Freedom Amp, not Matt Mathews.