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Can I sport a whale-tail when playin' guitar?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 9:34 am
by qersty
Anybody here who plays whit a wound G? Talking about lighter sets like 10s or 11s. I always get annoyed that the G is a little too dull and I'm questioning my sanity cause it seems nobody uses a set like that.

think i maybe have crossed the line where strings arent the issue and I should get better pickups for my strat that lets me have a little zing from elsewhere

almost going the branca route and just using whatever thats a magnetic wire. or going zz top and playing with super lights. that would be something, tres hombres for an atonal guitar orchestra

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:53 am
by goroth
Wound G for life.
I tune down to D though.

On my 24.75 scale guitar I juse D'Addario EJ21. On my 25.5" scale guitars I use D'addario EXL117 and then swapping out the plain G with a wound G. That is 11, 14, 20(wound), 32, 44, 56.

I hate plain G's with a passion.

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 11:37 am
by MechaGodzilla
normally people complain that a plain g is too present vs other strings

i'm always curious about those players that double up gauges, like townsend using another B for the G. i think cropper may have done something similar.

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 11:49 am
by qersty
I totally get when downtuning. I got ernie ball heavy slinky (?) and it was a 56 set with a plain 022 or something insane like that it was terrible!

Using a B for a G sounds odd, I would bend that into oblivion. Reminds me of how les clapool apparently uses an 80-80-40-40 set for his bass. Which is probably untrue and made up to trick people ...probably

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 1:06 pm
by coldbrightsunlight
I love a wound G yeah! I don't tend to find that it sounds dull :idk:

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 1:25 pm
by PeterBregman
Funny this comes up now. I just ordered a set of strings with a wound G for the first time ever, and I did it for tension reasons. After getting a '93 Duo Sonic with a 22.7" scale, I've been trying to get the tension right. A regular set of 11's didn't quite do it. I used Stringjoy's tension calculator (https://tension.stringjoy.com/) to fine tune what I wanted, and ended up ordering a custom set, with a 0.020 wound G string. This'll be my first time messing with a wound G, but I'm hoping it helps it stay in tune (plain G's seem to drift vs all the other strings), and feel more even with the other strings.

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 1:46 pm
by qersty
Neat app! I don't know if I should thank you or tell you to fuck off :lol: that's my sunday night. Fun to see the tension change. I have a duo sonic too but it is modern and has 24 inch scale like fender offsets. I just use regular tens on it though, which is slinkier than my full scale fender which has a weird heavier set (got the wrong one and got anxious about returning)

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 3:02 pm
by goroth
Wound G is definitely easier to intonate, and has better sustain. I think.
I dunno. I play with so much distortion everything sustains forever.

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 3:08 pm
by Blackened Soul
I perfer a plain G but on guitar but I haven't been able to get the gauge I like in a long time [.029] because it gave me a specific sound having a plain string that heavy.. awesome slide sound and doing bends at the 2nd & 3rd fret sounded really different...

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 5:39 pm
by coldbrightsunlight
goroth wrote:Wound G is definitely easier to intonate, and has better sustain. I think.
I dunno. I play with so much distortion everything sustains forever.
Yeah I'm not totally sure about sustain but they are easier to intonate for sure. I started doing it for tension on my 24" jag because I don't like really fat plain Gs like you bs. I still have plain Gs on lighter sets but once I'm going heavy-ish I like the wound.

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 7:24 pm
by MechaGodzilla
Blackened Soul wrote:I perfer a plain G but on guitar but I haven't been able to get the gauge I like in a long time [.029] because it gave me a specific sound having a plain string that heavy.. awesome slide sound and doing bends at the 2nd & 3rd fret sounded really different...
who in god's name has ever made a plain 29?! that's wild

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 7:50 pm
by Blackened Soul
Ernie ball :thumb: I ordered them in 10 packs from guitar center back in the late 90s ... so things lasted me for years and then I could never find more :cry:

It started with I once had this guy in Berkeley with a shop called guitarorama set up my guitar for bari and he put the string set together: 16,29,36,48,58,70 (he said worked on machinehead’s guitars....) anyway he was a funny guy. Damn strings would shred your hands but what in your face snarky sound :thumb:

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2021 11:16 pm
by chromandre
oh yes. feels like acoustic and rounds out the volume, I think the other solution is the jimi gauge has a much lighter g string but it just feels wrong to me

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 10:34 am
by dubkitty
i've played plain G strings on electric most of my life. i prefer plain ones because they're closer to the sound of the top two strings and thus it's easier to maintain a consistent tone and volume when playing lead. i like having the divide between the three strings that cut and the three strings that boom/twang...you can play the same three notes in different positions and get totally different effects. plain Gs don't really work on acoustic, though, because the relative amount of high end from a flattop is drastically lower than an amplified electric. they need the mass and tension to drive the top. i could see it for slide, though.

Re: Wound G-string?

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:42 pm
by friendship
I much prefer the tuning stability of a wound G, but I have a difficult time doing the bends I'm used to with a plain G. I usually use 11s and tune to D standard, and I wonder if a .018w would be too skinny/unbalanced on such a set.