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Here's my two cents:
I'm completely addicted to these British strings: Rotosound Roto
Purples 12-52. They're pure nickel strings, which I think is the key
to getting a vintage sound. Steel strings, which is what most
strings today are, will not sound naturally as classic. You can get
them to sound vintage, but it takes a lot more work.
I used to use D'Addario 11-49 nickel-wrap/steel-core strings, and
swore by them on my Strat until '98. Since '98, I've migrated to the
heavier gauge on all three of my Strats. I first started using Roto
Purples in order to get a good Shadows tone, but soon found that they
work really well for surf, also. (I don't really like the sound and
feel of flatwounds on the Strat, and I don't think it's 'authentic'
in any way, since it sounds to my ears as though most Strat users,
including DD, used roundwounds from the early days - certainly the
Shadows and the Atlantics did - I love the flatwounds on my
Jazzmaster, though - D'Addario Chromes 12-52 - I know, they're not
pure nickel, but pure nickel flatwounds are few and expensive.)
For a while I also used Gibson L-5 Pure Nickel 12-56 (also known as
340 Nickel Plus). These are vintage strings that used to be known as
Sonomatics. Hank Marvin used these exclusively in the early days of
the Shadows, and they have been discountined for a many years until
very recently (interestingly enough, Malcolm Young of AC/DC also
swears by these strings!). They're great sounding strings, but I
found their tension to be too high for me. I just couldn't bend
those suckers at ALL! Anyway, if you want to try something great
sounding, and you feel up to the challenge of the heavier tension,
I'd highly recommend these.
Finally, bend as much as you want! However, original surf guitarists
didn't do a whole lot bending, and half-step bends were more common
than full-step (with some exceptions - Eddie & the Showmen' "Scratch"
comes to mind). Also, I have been moving up gauge sizes gradually
over the entire 20-21 years of my playing. I started with 9-42,
moved to 10-46 after 8 years of playing, moved to 11-49 after another
5 years, and then another 3 or 4 years before the move to 12-52. I
highly recommend this way of doing it - you can gradually build up
your finger strength and make sure that you don't develop
tendonitis.
There you go! (Certainly more than two cents worth in terms of the
number of words, though not necessarily in the value it provides for
the reader! :)
Ivan
PS I get all my strings from juststrings.com - incredible selection,
GREAT prices, and fast shipping. Can't recommend them highly
enough. If they went out of business, I'd be traumatized and would
probably cry....
--- In , Dan Bartley <bigtwangguy@y...>
wrote:
> I confess to using D'addiairo roundwounds, 11-49ish, on a '59
Gretsch Dual Annie. I'd like to use the bigger gauges but my tendons
won't let me. This leads me to my own surf question...To bend a whole
tone, or to only bend a half?
> Dan
>
> sidewalksurf <sidewalksurf@y...> wrote:
> I'm sure this has been covered here before, but.....what kind of
> strings is everyone using and on what? For everyday use, I'm
> partial to 013-052 ghs flatwounds on my Jag and 011-048 ghs
> flatwounds on my JM. When I feel like getting fancy, then it's
> Pyramids.
>
>
>
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