Ed Bickert string gauge

[va3ux]

I just ran across this web page on the 12th Fret's website. I think there's always been some speculation about Ed Bickert's string gauge but this little write-up from the tech who worked on Ed's Tele (and installed the humbucker) should put that to rest.

SOLD!!! Legendary Ed Bickert Tribute Fender Telecaster - The Twelfth Fret

[mr. beaumont]

I always speculated light strings...You can see in videos of him playing, how light his touch is.

[Boston Joe]

I always speculated light strings...You can see in videos of him playing, how light his touch is.

I was surprised to see they were 10s. I use 11s and I worry that I should go heavier.

[Cunamara]

Jim Hall also used light strings, sometimes with a plain 3rd.

[jazzbow]

I just ran across this web page on the 12th Fret's website. I think there's always been some speculation about Ed Bickert's string gauge but this little write-up from the tech who worked on Ed's Tele (and installed the humbucker) should put that to rest.

SOLD!!! Legendary Ed Bickert Tribute Fender Telecaster - The Twelfth Fret

Nice article. And nice to see a shop producing their own take on Ed Bickert's telecaster.

But Fender have already produced This guitar, its known as the Graham Coxon Telecaster...

Nice guitar but, apologies to Blur fans, I find Mr Coxon slightly annoying.
So I look at this guitar and I think 'Ed Bickert' and get a warm fuzzy feeling.....

[kris]

.010 to .046 strings; Ed’s favourite gauge

interesting!

[darkwaters]

Hey, that's the gauge I use. Wish they came with his talent.

[fws6]

Except the tortoise guard the Coxon guitar looks a lot like Bickerts

It is MIM but it is (was?) available in the UK / europe only. I have never seen one offered new or second hand aywhere

the 12th fret guitar I dont understand, if you are going to present it as a tribute, why take a completely different guitar (alder body, tummy cut, oly white, modern hw?). Probably a fine and versatile instrument but a little far fetched

[kris]

I will have hand made tribut Ed Tele next week...:-)

[mrcee]

I heard he used rw 10s. Bickert was asked about his amp preferences and said "anything but a Fender". I wonder why?

Supposedly Barney Kessel used to chide Jim Hall about the light strings saying he'd never get a good tone that way. He sounds good to me.

[fritz jones]

I asked him once and he said .012's, but he may have used different gagues during his career.

[DRS]

I've switched to 10s on my electrics. I used to buy the "tone" argument. But my amp easily adjusts for any psycho-acoustic deficiencies my 10s may have.

[Doublea A]

The 12th Fret in Toronto was Ed’s Guitar shop. Recently, they were selling the Ed Bickert Tele which was apparently an exact replica of his guitar. It was strung with 10’s.

I? was surprised to hear that.


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[sgcim]

I heard he used rw 10s. Bickert was asked about his amp preferences and said "anything but a Fender". I wonder why?

Supposedly Barney Kessel used to chide Jim Hall about the light strings saying he'd never get a good tone that way. He sounds good to me.

Back in the 80's, when I was in my Ed Bickert phase, i tried using my SF Twin, but it couldn't get that light,clear, sustained sound EB got.
Then a rock player friend of mine, who always told me what equipment I should buy, told me to buy an orange cube. Then he told me to buy a Hondo Strat copy he played in a music store that he thought sounded great for jazz. There were ten of them, but one just got a great Bickert type jazz sound out of my cube, which I brought into the store, and i bought it new for $95.

I had no idea EB was playing through a cube, but it got that EB sound that a Fender can't get. I also used .010s on my Hondo Strat copy , because EB's chord work is too hard to play on higher gauges.

[SamBooka]

Well I just put a Craig Vineham Ttop Style pick up in my telecaster (Which is a wonderful pick up by the way and a bargain to boot]… So I don’t need the guitar.
I always have my eye out for a 50 W orange cube but Lord knows I don’t need another amplifier.
So the least I could do was buy the CD since I’m a huge Lorne Lofsky fan and the proceeds are for a good cause.

[va3ux]

I've switched to 10s on my electrics. I used to buy the "tone" argument. But my amp easily adjusts for any psycho-acoustic deficiencies my 10s may have.

You're right. This thread got me thinking about a set of 9 - 42 I bought by mistake several years ago. I was really thinking of throwing them away. Instead I installed them on my HB equipped Tele last night. Result ? I can hardly hear any difference from the 11-50 set that was on there. IF there's any difference at all. I have a pretty light touch so maybe that's why. But the guitar is easier to play with the lighter strings, no question about it. I just maybe done with heavier strings after this.

[Doublea A]

We can talk strings, pickups, amps etc all day long, much of Ed Bickert’s sound came from the man. An extreme and unique talent. I have many teles with a variety of string gauges, pickups an amp combinations. I can come close to the Ed Bickert sound but not quite. The answer is “I am not Ed Bickert”. The sound came from the man, not his gear.

Throughout his career he played an archtop, a stock Tele with a single coil in the neck position and a modified Tele with a humbucker in the neck position and he always sounded like Ed Bickert.


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[nopedals]

When I am not playing jazz, I enjoy playing Travis style, hybrid picking with a flat pick and fingers, and find it sounds a bit better if I drop down a gauge. I don't have to pluck so hard with my fingers to get the tone I want. I think that Chet Atkins, the master of this style, used 10s as well. Bickert was a hybrid picker, I think, plucking where others would strum. My guess is that for the style he played, lighter strings sounded better.