String gauge and output/tone

**Marty Grass** · 05-13-2025, 10:40 AM

Here is a heavy metal comparison, which did surprise me. I don't think it applies to clean playing but I could be wrong.

**Cunamara** · 05-13-2025, 02:02 PM

Yeah, I watched that one when it first came out and wondered to what extent it was applicable to clean-toned playing in general and jazz in particular.

Two of my favorite jazz guitarists, Jim Hall and Ed Bickert, both played light gauge strings with clean tones. Two more, John Abercrombie and John Schofield, also use light gauge strings (Abercrombie used .008s, if I remember correctly) but make more use of overdrive, effects, etc. On the other hand, current favorite guitarist is Peter Bernstein and I think he uses .014s. I am fascinated by the tone he gets.

But your technique certainly has to adjust to string gauge. Watching videos of Ed playing, in particular, he seemed to actuate the strings very lightly with his picking hand. Pat Martino on the other hand, picked very hard but used very heavy strings to compensate. Pete doesn't appear to be picking very hard.

I'm not sure exactly what point I'm wandering around to. Maybe that each one of us has to experiment and find the intersection between the limitations of our technique and the setup of the instrument to get our best tone. What might work well for me might be terrible for someone else. I use .011s on almost everything, but recently put .012s on my carved archtop and I'm really enjoying those. Not convinced I'd like them on my Tele... .010s feel too floppy for my taste, it would take a lot of getting used to them.

**Llewlyn** · 05-19-2025, 03:46 PM

Well - I can definitely tell the difference in tone between 09 and a 12 when I play clean on my acoustic archtop.

Also, I am not sure that heavier gauge is harder on your hand like lots of people say. In fact, I can have a lower action with heavier strings which compensate for the tension. Also, when I fingerpick the high E, it makes a huge difference in feel to pluck a 13 vs a 9 (but also a 13 vs a 12).

Ll.

**vintagelove** · 05-20-2025, 04:56 AM

On an electric guitar, there is most certainly a difference. But, If you are playing through a ton of distortion, almost nothing matters that much. It’s all on the verge of being squashed into a square wave anyway.

For clean sounds, it makes a big difference, even in just the strings output. I often bump up my high E to compensate for this, resulting in a more balanced output from each string given being picked with the same intensity.

Acoustic/hollowbody guitars, it matters to, but they are a different animal. There is a “too light” size string where the (forgive me if I’m not using the exact terminology here) tension of the string isn’t enough to drive the top. The result is a whimpy sounding guitar.