The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I use 12 and 13 guage TI Jazz Flats on my archtops with an 80 guage for the low A on my 7 strings.

    With diagnosed arthritis in my hands and difficulty playing, a friend recommended moving to 10 guage strings and a 68 for the low A.

    Has anyone done this, and what happens to tone? I'm mostly concerned about the timbre and volume of my carved instruments as I'm guessing that I can use a preamp to get a fuller sound from my laminate guitars.

    Any thoughts would be helpful on this. I am thinking about having one carved and one laminated guitar set up this way as a test, but the luthier that does my setups thinks I might also have to change out nuts, so it might be an expensive experiment.

    I can still comfortably play my 25.5 scale Aria Sinsonido which I believe is strung with 10s, but it's a frame guitar, not an archtop.

    Thanks folks.

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  3. #2

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    i'd rather be able to play with lighter strings than to not play and leave the old heavy strings on a guitar that sits in a case cause i can't play it

    i'd play 07's if i had to!...let the pickups and the amp do the work

    the nut (slots) will probably be fine to check out the lighter strings without changing

    luck


    cheers

  4. #3

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    ^^^^^What neatomic said. I played with heavy strings for most of my career. In retirement, with arthritic issues, I'm faced with downsizing or quitting. I'm stocking up on 0.008s and 0.009s. That's life.

  5. #4

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    I've considered playing more nylon string as the tension is much less.

  6. #5

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    I play with 11s now.

    They're not as rich sounding as the 12s but the 12s presented resistance to both hands, that frankly, hampered speed.


    A shorter scale (25") and low action help too. At some point I'll move down to 10s on a shorter scale, no doubt.

  7. #6

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    The usual prescription for a thin sound on the high strings is to go to heavier strings. However, there are players who get a perfectly good sound with light strings.

    My experience: I have arthritis and prefer a very light-feeling action. I tried a lot of different things and ended up with a compromise which I like.

    On my Comins GCS-1: 11 13 16 24 32 42

    I found that the lighter wound strings made chording easy enough. Too, the 11 didn't bother me so I didn't need to go any lighter.

    The amp matters too -- the Little Jazz is voiced in a way for which these gauges work.

    BTW, I buy a set of 9s (9 11 16 24 32 42), discard the 9 and buy 13s separately. You can buy them in packs of 5. May seem odd, but it works.

    I've posted some clips on other threads using that rig.

  8. #7

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    thomastik makes their great pure nickel jazz swing flats in 10-44 and 11-47...and thoms are thin inner round core low tension design

    ghs has an 09-42 stainless steel flat set

    take care of your hands if needed


    cheers

  9. #8

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    A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. If I had to go to lighter strings, I would. Wouldn't make me happy, but pain and not playing would make me even less happy. Years ago I realized that I couldn't deal with mediums (let alone heavy) strings on my beloved acoustic. Even light were borderline. Just couldn't do it. Nowadays I string it with Extra Lights, but I replace the 10 with an 11. Works for me.

  10. #9

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    I have a stratocaster type that built. I used to use 12-52. Went to 11-50, then 10-48. Now 73 and I'm down to 009, 012, 017w, 024, 034, 046 due to a painful arthritic LH ring finger. Back to playing all the time. Sounds fine.Older players - string question-20201105_034532-jpg

  11. #10
    Thanks to all you folks!

    I was thinking about selling the archtops and having a custom tele style built using 10s. I'd probably keep my 2 favorite carved archtops, perhaps strung with 11s, just to play once in a while. I will try 10s on one of them, but I'm afraid I'll lose that nice, full acoustic sound I love as I play without an amp a lot.

    Like someone said, I'll let the amp do the work, and I like the tele look, so it's just a change. Life moves on.

    Thanks again!

  12. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    On my Comins GCS-1: 11 13 16 24 32 42
    .
    .
    .
    BTW, I buy a set of 9s (9 11 16 24 32 42), discard the 9 and buy 13s separately. You can buy them in packs of 5. May seem odd, but it works.
    This is an interesting solution and I will try it, thanks! I'm going to look at the TI strings to see if I can build something similar, adding a 56 for the low A.

  13. #12

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    Have you tried LaBella tape wounds? Extremely low tension on even the heaviest set.

  14. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by nopedals
    Have you tried LaBella tape wounds? Extremely low tension on even the heaviest set.
    I haven't. The TI 12s are 140.4 pounds; I can't find a tension number for the LaBella strings. Also, as they are a bit wider and I have some fat little fingers, I've stayed away from tapes.

    OTOH, while researching this I found that the TI Jazz Flat 11s come in around 109 pounds, so that is a considerable difference. Maybe I'll try a set of them first, before trying the mixed sets.

  15. #14

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    I suppose I'm lucky. The 74th anniversary of my arrival into the world is rapidly looming, but I still have .013 sets on most of my guitars, although some have .012 sets. I have some arthritis in my hands, but it's not enough to prevent playing. I do find that my hands seem colder now, and it helps to put them into some warm water for awhile before playing. That seems to make a difference. Some days are worse than others, but it never seems to get really bad. I find that the tension of heavier strings isn't really all that much greater than lighter ones, and I can get lower action, thus easier to play, with heavier strings. Light strings have a greater excursion when plucked, thus require higher action to prevent buzzing, and are therefore as hard to fret, with the added downside of being thinner, thus the plain strings hurt my fingers more than heavier ones. It does take some work to get the action down really low - dead straight neck, perfect nut, and perfect bridge radius. That can't exist without perfect frets to start with. It's worth the effort to me to get the action as low as it can go, typically for my guitars 1 mm or less at the 12th fret. That's easier for me to play than .010 strings with higher action. YMMV.

  16. #15

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    Jim Hall used very light strings for the last years of his career, I believe they were .08s. Somehow his tone sounded the same. I believe he had a pretty light right hand attack.

  17. #16

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    to the best of my knowledge, jim hall used d'aquisto flats...which were gauge 11-48...a now gone fave string alongside thoms 11-47


    cheers

    ps- from sadowsky-

    Jim Hall frequently used 11 gauge strings with a plain G which would have been impossible to intonate with a conventional bridge. Each Sadowsky archtop comes with two bridge tops—one for a wound G and one for a plain G.
    Last edited by neatomic; 02-14-2021 at 01:50 AM. Reason: ps-