Well that was an experience. Bridge Pickup: planettone.com... Neck Pickup: planettone.com... BUY ME A COFFEE: www.buymeacoff... FOLLOW ME: / lucas.f.89 SUPPORT ME: / lucasf89
Being a player for over 50 years now, I’ve used the heavier strings in my younger days , but being on the upper end of 60’s now, the lighter Reverend strings are so much more forgiving on my fingers and accommodate the bends much easier with the hand strength I have now. I agree with your assessment and do exactly what you suggested by compensating tone through amp & effects settings! Great review
I think more gain and rolling the tone back would make the 7s sound better, I am hoping, I broke my shoulder and arm and plan to use 7s on my LesPaul for therapy.
I wondered if that's why Billy Gibbons uses these really because he has a full fat sound. But also like he said could be a higher gain but also maybe rolling the tone down slightly
I had the same revelation you did David! Tone is controlled by your amp and equipment not the guitar and strings. String tension impacts how you play the instrument and express yourself. The better you express your feelings… the better you sound!!
The smaller strings sound the best to me. The fatter strings are too bassy in my opinion. I love the cut and crunch of the thinner strings rather than the dull thud. LOL!
I thought the clean sound on the neck pickup with 7's was *very* single coil. Now to be fair, that is a very low output neck pickup, less than 7k, but still!
Lucas Fowler - Yeah if the hbuckers were higher output they could probably fatten up the 7s some but I still don’t think I would be able to give up my 10’s bottom end tone. Especially for my heavy handed picking style. 9s is about as far as I could go for lighter gauge strings. I’ve been playing 10s on all my guitars for a very long time and as I age I may start trying 9s again, but I don’t think I could handle too much of the brighter tone like ole Billy G does. Thanks for your vids and your informative demos...
I played on 8s for a very long time and moved to 9s for a short while. Ended up keeping 9s/10s on rhythm guitars and 8s on the guitars designated for solos. So far so good. Looking at 7s now, didnt even know they made them haha. Bytheway your guitar is absolutely gorgeous.
8’s are where it’s at for me! Heavy gauge strings also seemed too muddy and woofy. Yes light gauge strings require a lighter touch but I feel the advantages are worth it.
I think a lot of it has to do with what you get used to. I'm sure if I restricted myself to 7's or 8's for a few months, my technique would adjust accordingly.
The thicker the strings the thicker the bass frequencies. So thin strings sit better in a mix, less low cut to do. Overall I preferred the sounds of the 7. Thanks for your video. 😉👍
There was also a bass cut added in post to my guitar amp sound. I always roll off at about 60hz, since nothing very interesting happens under there. But I agree, most likely the bass cut I would apply during mixing would be similar to what 7's do naturally, though I think the higher strings on the 11's would still sound "thicker".
I think this is the best video I’ve seen on this subject. While the feel of the strings and the tonal capabilities are very personal, you nailed it when you spoke about the brightness and low end difference. My ears definitely prefer the heavier stings. I switched from 9s to 10a recently and could hear the subtle difference. With all due respect to Mr. Gibbons (Clutch shoutout!) I’m sticking with 10s.
I put a set of .007's on one of my Fender scale Guitars. I like them. I thought they might be toooo slinky on a Gibson scale length! I've not tried them yet on the 24.75 scale guitars... I did No adjustment to my Guitar for the 7's. It plays great. But I came from a .009 set! Not 11's... For us older folks getting some Arthritis etc. The .007's are an option to be able to keep playing.
I thought these might be a great option for folks with hand injuries or arthritis, or even just sensitive finger tips. Whatever lets you play the best is what's good!
@@LucasFowler amen to that I play 10's because that's where I'm comfortable. I've tried all kinds of sizes other than 7's and I had an older friend give me a few sets of these 7's. So I wanna try them out on a 50's style guitar set up for light distortion and like jazz or slow blues
I've seen this done several different times. And in every other case the lighter strings rung individually much better and clearer than the heavier strings. And the more gain used heavier strings just muffled out. You seem to be saying the opposite. I know you have ears. First time I ever saw you was when you blindly picked out men from women playing the guitar and got every one right. I was blown away. I think you did that a couple times and again got every musician right.
The most noticeable things that affect a guitar's tone (apart from the player) are the pick (material, thickness, shape) and action height. A lower action will accentuate the midrange and be more amenable to a rock sound, a higher action gets a bit closer to an acoustic set up and can become a little bit "clanky", and eventually muddy too.👍
I prefer the lighter strings. I've done this same experiment. I ended up with the Rev willie. 008 's. I came from using daddario 10-52's I didn't notice that I needed to raise the action.
The lighter strings are producing more wild overtones that sound great clean but absolutely wild with gain, either clean or dirty it sounds cool but especially playing chords where each string note contributes its own overtones. The thicker strings have a clearer fundamental note and to my ear, a slight low end bump and chords sound more unified, I suppose the term pianolike wound apply.
I've been using Reverend Willy's for years, if it is good enough for Billy, it is good enough for me. I still can't play worth a damn but I'll work on that, LOL
I really liked that you talked about the cons of the playability of the 7’s. I feel like those other channels mainly just focused on the tone being brighter and how that was so much better to them. Tone is great and all but if it’s full of buzz and going sharp every time you play the tone doesn’t really matter in my opinion lol.
7s give much quicker response to the pick attack, also the ring out was much better on the low end where the 11s sounded flat and the timing was a little out !... cool review maybe try 8s !
I think 11's might be a tad too much for that guitar. I'm going to try 9's and 10's and see if it likes those better. I find I have to let the guitar tell me what kind of strings it likes.
I put these very .007's on my G&L Tele about 2 weeks ago. First time you go to do a bend, you almost laugh, its so easy. Made me think that cooked spaghetti would give more resistance. Fret buzz like crazy also, which like Lucas said, is probably due to the oscillation. I have the 6 individual saddle bridge, so raised all those as high as they would go and gave the neck a little relief. I'm 57, and like how much easier they are to play. Like BB King said to Billy G.....why ya work so hard?? I did just change them to the .008 set a couple days ago. Even compared to .009's, the 8's are just so easy.
ive always used heavy gauge strings because i tend to play 'moderately heavy' riffs, BUT my go-to pick is a light thin flimsy .50 mm. Now im really wanting to try these .007s because i imagine it would make playing feel like rubbing your hands with butter and almost effortless if paired with my pick gauge. cant wait to test it out
It's interesting to note that Billy Gibbons rolls the treble and presence all the way down on his amps and JMP-1 module he uses live. I think, as you said, you can compensate for the obvious brighter tone and lack of bass with amp settings, EQ's, etc. But one important note: Pearly Gates still has the original frets on her and it's still quite playable. That reality alone is why I'm going with lower gage strings and changing my approach. I hate having to do fretwork. Also, arthritis.
I have a hereditary problem as my body destroys calluses, and by that I mean we (my family) don't get them. They start to form then go to bed to wake up with them 90-100% gone. It gets so bad that when I try to practise it feels like I am playing on razor blades and immediately have to stop. So much pain I am seven months in, and you wouldn't know that I wasn't in my first week. I play 10s, and I wonder if 8s (I am afraid of 7s, lol) would help at all? For the first month I was on 9s.
Awesome demo!!!! I used to use the willys 7’s before they seem to sound pretty good in the mix and there great if you want to effortlessly bend gilmour’esque notes. These strings seem to fret out pretty easy with 9.5 or lower radius necks are better with these strings. Just try them out.
Both sounded good. I personally use .09-.46 hybrid on everything I own except my jazz box. Not too heavy, not too light. Love your playing man. God bless and rock on 😎👍🎸
11s to 7s , pretty big difference! , to me the 11s sounded a little.....muddier?.....the 7s sounded a little clearer, but it wasn't a huge difference, I recently switched from 10s to 9s on my Les Paul , not much sound difference, but easier to play.....anyhoo , you are a great player and I enjoy your vids man , keep it up!
I have to agree, the 11's might be a little much for that guitar and it's pickups. I'm going to try some 9's and 10's and see how those do. It's interesting how that works, my DGT doesn't sound good with anything *but* 11's! Thanks!
First part of the video I agree the 11's are as you describe but as the video continues the 7's sound better to my ear. I cut a couple fingertips off years ago but still played 10's on Gibsons and 9's on Fenders and I now know I should have gone light a long time ago.
Lucas agent 007 . You did it ,so we don't have to lol . To me the 7's sounded ok , a little treblier than the 11's but didn't sound so good when you hit them harder, because of what you said about the strings going slightly sharp ,very very briefly ,slight , but it can be heard. Great test ! I'll stick to 10's on my Les Paul but tomorrow I plan on changing one of my Strats (standard tuning) down to 9's ,see how I get on 😉
Great riffing and wow, that Greco! Looks and sounds ace. I use 9's and 10's depending on the guitars and find that even 10's on a very well built guitar with optimal setup, feel like butter. I couldn't even imagine what 7's feel like, but is slinkier necessarily better? Maybe I'll get a set just to test them out. The sound of the 11's was more to my liking and I have nothing against feeling a bit of tension when I play. In the end, it all comes down to preference and playing style of course. Thanks for the review, well done.
I’ve been playing 35+ years myself and I recently went from 13’s at 440hz way down to 10’s and I love the change. I’m thinking about going down further to 9’s maybe even 8’s. I could actually hear the difference in the string tension as he played. 11’s we’re definitely stiffer and louder like playing on piano wire. For better clarity and less muddy low frequency overtones I prefer the lighter strings by far!
11s all-day!🍻 I play usually in D standard & drop C so 11s tention just feels & sounds right! GHS Boomers & DaDarrios are my go to brands! I find Ernie Ball strings just don't last long & loses their snappyness too quick! But everyone has their favorite so ya gotta do the rounds to find that sweet sound 🎸🍻
I like the sound of 11's more in this demo. But being able to play comfortably is way more important. What's the point of playing with good tone if you can only do it for 10 minutes before your fingers hurt? Nothing has ever helped me more with my playing than switching from 11's or 10's to 9's and 8's.
Absolutely. Never sacrifice playing for "tone" because ultimately tone is about what you play. For me 11's are usually where I live, but some guitars(like this one) I've discovered seem to prefer different strings. I generally use 9's on this guitar now.
The 7s are crisper/brighter sounding, and the lower gauge allows for higher bending of notes, I use 9s but I might go down to 7s and practice my EABBAE tuning with them.
I use 8s thanks to nerve damage in my left side. I can confirm this is all true! Lol Also any imperfections in the fretwork are amplified massively with stupid light strings as I’ve learned over the years unfortunately
Lucas Fowler I’ve gotten pretty good at faking it lol Half the time I have almost no feeling in my ring/pinky. I just work around it.. Upside is my bending has gotten really precise lol
Great comparison! What is also important, to me at least, is the vibrato. With lighter strings you can do so much more with the vibrato. Use to play 009’s till i switched to 10’s. After playing those for years am gonna switch back to 009’s again because of that. 007’s would be def be to light for me. The tension also depends on the brand. Ernie Ball’s seem to have less tension then for example D’addario. I am using the D’addario XT right now. Theyare coated but are less stiff the coated Elixir strings i used for many years.
I honestly really like the “tightening” sound from lighter strings… also how you can hear the vibrato and character of the player more. I think they’re more expressive. The only downside for me is tuning stability… on wound strings especially…. So a hybrid gauge (8-42, 8-46) is kinda the best of both worlds, IMO. I’m trying the new Hyper Slinkies from EB… also curious about the Fender Yngwie strings… but I’ve been building custom gauges similar to what Zappa used (8, 11, 14, 24, 32-36, and 42-46)… feels like the perfect fit to me… on an SG.
I thought the 7s sounded much better. But it seems like you are much more comfortable with the 11s and aren’t “thinking” about your playing as much (playing more naturally). Maybe split the diff with 9s?
That's my thought too, I've got a pack of 9's I'm going to try and see how they sound. I definitely think 11's are a little much for that guitar's pickups and the frets are short so they are a bit hard to bend :P
The chords sound better with the 11 and single notes sound better with the 7 i noticed, and thank you for that riff at 5:04 i learned it and its fun to play! :)
Awesome job with this comparison Lucas! You can really hear quite big differences. I actually liked the sound of the 7's on clean settings but I suspect if you adjusted the EQ with the 11's, you could have pretty much achieved the same sound. For all the distortion parts, I thought the 11's sounded better. I started on 10's and played them for about 2-3 years. After that I changed to 11's and have used them since. I like that you have to get a bit physical with them and they seem to last a long time as well. I like your overall message in that I think people should play whatever they feel comfortable with. With time, I'm sure you can get used to just about any gauge and find your sound.
I've found that the further I've gotten into my guitar playing, the more I appreciate clarity and brightness. Those 7s sounded much more musical to my ears (less of a wall of sound, more clear distinction between notes). I'll probably stick to 9s like I have for ages just because that's what 'feels' best to me, but maybe I'll try something else out one of these days just for the heck of it.
When I switched to sevens I had reset up my guitar intonation adjust the truss rod switch fat bottom skinny to these Reverend willy's best decision I have made guitar wise sense learning how to master & tame a floating bridge.
All I've played for years is the 7's Dunlop Gibbons.... 9's and 10's feel like barbed wire to me. 11's are rebar. Playing just isn't fun with that hard to bend and vibrato shit. Most of us wish SRV wouldn't have made that one off the cuff remark in 1983 about "trying 13's" as that myth has stuck around now almost 40 years..... Rene Martinez would be the first to tell you by the 5th show of any tour, SRV was using 11's (10's in 1989/1990) tuned down a 1/2 step. Basically 9's in standard tuning. Your guitar pick (or picking with fingers) will effect your sound 100x more than string gauge.
The 7s sounded better than the 11s. They were more musical and dynamic. I'm thinking they're really good for studio work, though you might want a thicker string for live gigs (to reduce breakage).
@@LucasFowler I wrote that reply after listening to you play but before you went over your own observations. It makes me wonder if this is related to what Tim Pierce says, that the best guitar recordings are made by diming the amp then "playing quiet" at high volume. Obviously you can't play quiet and loud at the same time. But if you mute carefully and attack delicately it has a similar effect: The same things you had to do with super-ultra-light strings. It certainly seems that artificial constraints can bring out extra focus in us and that may be where greatness comes from.
@@LucasFowler my 1979 les Paul looks exactly like your Greco. Too bad Gibsons quality nowadays is bad. I'll bet your guitar plays better than any new Gibson these days. I've used 8s on my lespaul since the first string change. Ernie balls strings are the best to me. Cheers
AWESOME video Sir! .. The 7s sounded way better in the clean setting to me - more sustain, livelier, more exciting. With distortion, I was missing some of that girth that the 11s gave. Hope that makes sense. @Lucas Fowler I would find it extremely interesting to see you experiment with pickup types/settings, amp settings etc., to try to make the 7s sound thicker and fatter. I know Satriani plays 9s. His tone surely doesn't sound thin at all, at least to my ears.. personally, I have very low muscle tension. That has given me trouble with all kinds of things physical - playing drums included.. so for me thin strings are a godsend. I've been playing and practicing like crazy for some time and could never get my muscles to perform any lick with lots of bendings very fast. So for me I would rather sacrifice some tone than not being able to cross that threshold. I've found custom sets with 8s for the high strings, and 10s for the low strings to be a very happy middle ground. Fender Yngwie Malmsteen for example. That's a 8-46 gauge custom set. I will try 7-46 next. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a set like that, so I'll have to combine sets, which is very unfortunate. But if that works best for me, I'll just do it. I would like to encourage anyone having that same problem as me, to try a 8-46 set. (Beware though - the Fender Yngwie Malmsteen set has bullet ends, and will not work on a Kahler type tremolo). Don't make your life unnecessarily hard guys. If you're not having that problem - enjoy your 10s/11s, whatever.. but don't make the same mistake as me, and think you have to torture yourself, just because so many guitarists swear by thicker strings. Do what works for you :-)
Good exercise and interesting observations. Check out the Rhett Shull vid on strings. After playing heavy strings for years he did a thorough test of different string weights and ended up going back to 9s.
I went from using power slinky’s for years. Then to 10-52 and wish I had done it way sooner. It made bending so much easier. I’m tempted to go 9s. I bought a pack of 9 hybrids by Ernie ball. Gonna try them soon.
I'm really starting to adopt the policy of letting the guitar tell me what kind of strings it likes. I'm going to try some smaller gauges on the Greco and figure out what works best, because I think 11's are a little too much for the pickups and the short frets that guitar has.
That's a huge jump. I'm definitely interested in trying out some 8s on my les paul someday and 7s probably just for experimenting... I think I've found my happy medium with 9.5 guages. It would be nice if I could afford several guitars for specific purposes but right now I'm stuck with one les paul and a Mexican strat... Definitely not complaining, they're both great and accomplish different things.
RUSH and Aerosmith riffs in the same vid? SOLD! I really want to buy a pack of these. (I have Billy’s guitar picks tin.) BUT I started learning guitar with an acoustic and I think that gave me a harder grip. I’d probably sounds awful on 7s. Keep up the fun content! \m/ P.S. Is the he said she said series toast?
Yes indeed Josh, you are a great guitarist. And going from 11's to 7's I would have thought that you were crazy if you hadn't said what you did about the differences between the two. I myself habitually and preferentially play 9's, I would never play 7's. I think I know what I'd be letting myself in for.
#9 Super Slinkies on my strat, hybrids on my Tele, 10s on my Les Paul,..BUT.., I just ordered 2 sets to give it a try., Gibbon's a great player. What the heck, might as well give it a shot.
I use D’Addario 10-52s on my Les Paul Copy.. I find with my loss of feeling in my fretting fingers, being able to have a bit more purchase is invaluable.
I’ve always used 9’s fender, EB,super slinky’s, d’addario NY XL which are speedy. I just put on EB slinky 10’s on my Tele, kinda like those. I have the super slinky 9’s on my strat.
To me it sounds like with 11s, the string has a fair shot of being stronger than the pick... you can hear the resistance to the pick in a heavier string. With the 7s, the pick always wins. You never hear that sound that reminds me of the string winning a force battle with the pick. The pick always wins with 7s. And they sound good. The reason I don't use them is simply because I can't predict the bending like I can with 10s (which is what i always use).
I agree, definitely a personal preference thing. I think 11's may actually be a little too much for that guitar and it's pickups. I'm going to try 9's or 10's on it and see how it likes those.
I definitely like that first clean bit on the neck humbucker better with the 7's. I think 11's are actually a bit too much for the tone of that guitar. I'm going to play with some different gauges until I find what it likes.
Yeah. 7's on a shorter sçale Guitar It'd be crazy bendy. I played 8's on my heavy metal Strat. 25.1" scale length. So 7's on a 25.5" might be ok. Just for reference. I use 9-46 hybrid guage set on Most of my Guitars. 25.5" scale. But I've used 10-52 on my 24.75" scale Guitars
I feel like 9s would have struck a happy medium. The tension is a bit tighter than 7s, but might not be as thin sounding. I didn't like how thin they sounded.
11's are a little harder for me to play on that guitar since it has very short frets. I can't get under the string quite as easily as I can on something like my DGT with jumbo frets. I'm going to try some smaller gauges on the Greco and see what it likes.
Lucas Fowler dude, I can’t imagine it is. It’s hard enough keeping good intonation on 10’s. Billy’s gotta have a ridiculously light touch, or he has his slide guitars strung heavier. I wouldn’t put it past him, though!
The 11s certainly have a darker tone. IMO 7 are just too light, but 9s are the sweet spot! I've used 10s for the last 40 years, but I have switched to 9s. Why work harder then you need too!?
It would have been cool to hear it in a mix. I tried the Billy strings on an S-type guitar. Fun to bendand sounded a little brighter, but I prefer a little bit more substance. 9s on 25 1/4 and 10s on 24.5. Play what feels/sounds good to you.
I also think I'll stick with my .011s. 11s for the 24.75" and 10s for the 25.50", I've used that same recipe for over 40 years, no way I would switch now!
Interesting to see this on a Les Paul. I watched Tyler's video where he did it on a PRS I think. And I had the same immediate response to both - where'd all the low end go? Mids and highs didn't seem dramatically different but the loss of low end was noticeable. Maybe desirable on a Strat or similar but on a Les Paul it sounds all kinda wrong. Robs it of its grunt.
Good question. I can definitely say that before winding the strings, when they first come out of the pack, you need to be extra careful with that .007 so as not to kink it!
I had to adjust the action a tiny bit higher and put some relief in the neck for the 7's. I tried to get the action and relief as close to each other as I could with both sets. I didn't check the intonation with a tuner to be ultra precise, but it was close enough to sound pretty in tune to me. If I was going to leave 7's on the guitar I would go ahead and check it to be sure though.
11s are your standard? You have been fighting your guitar for 15 years to make it do what you want. With the Gibbons strings its like playing air, like the strings aren't even there.
It's all personal preference. I don't have to fight 11's, they feel fine to me. But I have determined that some guitars sound better with smaller strings. 9's seems to be the sweet spot for this guitar.
Did you have to reset intonation, or you just mounted them and played ? The 7's sound a bit clearer, but I would overbend all the time... Besides, having to re-adjust pitch all the time is a pain. I've played all guages from .8 to .13. My best compromise is 10-46 or 10-48 for guitars that need more oomph in the lows. I need to feel some resistance :)
The 11s sounded throatier to me when clean and the 7s lighter, but that could be you played a little lighter, given the difference in gauge. The 11s sounded better driven, for my money. I look forward to your summary.
I tried to play with the same restraint on the 11's but I doubt I did. The 7's were so difficult for me to play, like driving a car with a really sensitive gas pedal.
4 года назад
Lucas Fowler I tried 8s once, years ago, and I didn’t like them. But surprisingly, I didn’t break one, so eventually just swapped them.
I wonder if the brighter 007s will sound better with youtube's audio compression compared to the 011s. I use D'Addario 009s but I'm thinking of going to Billy Gibbons 008s, already bought and sitting on my table but not yet installed. Will it need a truss rod adjustment going from 009s to 008s? I have pretty low action already.
It's possible. "Low" action is kind of relative to the player. What I consider low my Dad considers medium. The way to check if you need relief in your truss rod is by placing the first finger of your fretting hand on the 1st fret of the low string, then the pinky of your picking hand on that same string, around the 14th or 15th fret. Then use the first finger of your picking hand to tap on the string in between where you are fretting. You should see a little "bounce" between the string and the fret. If it's laid completely flat against the frets, you need to loosen the truss rod. If you there is more than about 2.0mm in between the frets and the string, you probably need to *tighten* the truss rod. A lot of that comes down to personal set up preference. If you aren't buzzing out on the first 4-5 frets and the guitar feels good to you to play, then I'd leave it be :)
