I’ve always heard that SRV used “thick” strings on his guitars. I don’t know much about guitars, but apparantly most people use lighter guage strings (like 12 or 14 gauge)
Apparantly SRV used thicker 10 guage strings and is attributed with the line “Aint a man alive that can bend my strings”
Any truth to this? Did he really use thicker strings? Any guitar experts out there shed some light one this?
D.
Well, those numbers are meaningless without knowing which strings they are. Most likely they are referring to the high e-string, in which case, 10’s are standard, 12’s are heavy, 14’s are ridiculous (on electric guitars). I have heard numerous times that at one point, SRV was using .18 high E strings, which is just insane. Throughout most of his career, however, he used 12’s, which are excessive, but after building up hand strength can be used by most people.
So assume I don’t know anything about strings… do YOU know enough about guitar lore to say “Stevie definately would say something like that”
Was he a thick string bad-A$$? Was it true that there wasn’t a man “bad enough to bend his strings”?
Any sources?
D>
String guages are the thickness…the higher the number, the thicker the string. When guitar players refer to how thick the strings they use are, they use the guage of the high E string, which is the string furthest from the guitarist’s nose. Depending on the mfr. and type of strings, the string guage gets progressively thicker for the lower strings, with the three lowest ususlly being wound strings.
As was said, most guitarists use string guages (for the high E) of .09, .10, or .11.
I know that Peter Buck of R.E.M. starts with .13s, which is pretty thick.
Other than the obvious fact that SRV could bend his own strings, my gut feeling is that he wouldn’t say something like that. I get the impression that he wasn’t over-the-top badass; he was more of a quietish kind of guy, always ready to acknowledge the technical ability of other players, didn’t really get into pissing contests about who played better.
I don’t get any google hits on any quotes like that.
SRV used .13’s on his guitars for the most part. In the biography I read, there was a reference to him downshifting to .12’s towards the end of a tour because his hands were worn out. He also refretted his guitars with bass frets - big jumbo frets that enabled him to “get under” the string a bit more for bends. He also tuned his guitars a half-step down, so his E is really D#.
.13’s are flippin’ heavy for bend-oriented blues and rock. Most guitar heroes - Van Halen, Page, Clapton, etc. - used .09’s at the start of their careers and some have moved up to .10’s. .13’s are the typical medium gauge on a steel-string acoustic. Jazz musicians often use “flat wound” .15’s but they typically don’t bend strings much, if at all.
The String Paradox = the thicker the string, the better the tone, but the harder to bend. Heavy gauge strings are essential to the SRV tone. When I play Pride and Joy on a guitar with lower-gauge strings, not only is it next to impossible to play (his Texas Shuffle strum involves a raking up stroke that requires the resistance of heavy strings to do), but it just sounds awful. I use .11’s on my electrics and feel like I am just getting into SRV tone territory…
Did SRV say it? I have never heard of that quote, and it doesn’t sound like him…could he have said it? Oh yeah.