Pre- and Post- Distortion EQ

Putting the EQ before the distortion is completely different to EQ after distortion. For instance a pre-dist EQ boost at 3kHz would result in the distortion stage clipping the 1kHz region more than the rest of the signal. Post-dist EQ can not have any effect on how the distortion is clipped, because it follows the distortion. Put simply, pre-dist EQ will change the clipping character of the distortion, but post-dist eq will only shapes the already-distorted sound. The way that pre-dist eq interacts with the clipping stage is known as distortion voicing.

The most common everyday example of pre- versus post- distortion EQ are typical Marshall and Fender amps. The tone stack in a Marshall amp typicall follows the clipping stage whereas the tone stack in a Fender amp is usually before the clipping stage (obviously there are many other differences between the typical Marshall and Fender designs which create their sounds – but its outside the scope of this series).

Distortion voicing

Voicing is probably the most important part of distortion and overdrive, and has more influence on the ‘character’ of the distortion than virtually anything else. Remember that several parts of the signal chain distort, so the concept of distortion voicing can apply to all of those areas. For simplicity though, this post focuses on voicing the pre-amp distortion – since this is where deliberate control of distortion voicing usually happens.

The best way to learn about voicing is to experiment. I learned by buying an EQ and an amp modeler – and then spending hours trying to understand how the EQ would interact with different amp models, and how the effect of having the EQ before the distortion was very, very different to placing the pedal in the effects loop.

Pre-Distortion EQ

What I learned was that a small increase in treble before the distortion would create a clearer, ‘fluid’ character, and adding even more treble would create a ‘gritty’ sound. Adding a little bass before the distortion sounded ‘smooth’, but would quickly develop a ‘crusty’ quality if I added too much.

Adding treble before the distortion can allow for more gain before the tone of the guitar begins to breakup too much, so a trebley distortion will usually sound clearer than a bassy distortion with the same gain setting. From what I understand this is because the loudest overtones being generated by the distortion are higher than the fundamental and the lower harmonics of the string. This means that more of the original guitar sound is able to get through – I’m not an acoustic- or electrical- engineer though so I can’t be certain, but this is definitely how it sounds when you listen and compare the two.

Conversely, adding bass before the distortion creates a thicker and more densely distorted tone because the natural harmonics from the string, and the harmonics generated from the distortion would be sharing similar frequency ranges. Depending on how many clipping stages are in the unit, this could also increase intermodulation distortion.

A Case Against EQ Pedals

Although I learned distortion voicing using an EQ pedal, I don’t normally use these anymore since the frequency bands are far too narrow – this is great if you are wanting a ‘cocked wah’ effect, but not very useful for more subtle voicing.

Some people recommend parametric EQs as the ultimate control of distortion voicing. Parametric EQs would be a great tool, but unfortunately decent parametric EQs are rackmount and (usually) very expensive. I went through a phase where I was obsessed with owning two rackmount parametric EQs (one each for pre and post distortion) and I very nearly dropped a lot of money on them too…

… but fortunately I found a new approach before I emptied my bank account, and found options which are simpler to operate, cheaper but still very versatile. Rather than the narrow bands of graphic EQs or the ‘surgical correction’ possibilities or parametric EQs, I recommend only one or two boosts or cuts over a wide frequency bandwidth. Usually, this comes down to a few ‘booster’ pedals with specific EQ character, and sensible pickup selection.

Guitar Mods for Pre-Dist EQ

For good, subtle but effective, control of your distortion voicing I recommend you listen carefully when you first buy new guitars. The EQ of the guitar itself is obviously the primary source of ‘pre-distortion EQ’. Once you have a good guitar with a tone in-the-ballpark or what you are after you can consider a few simple guitar mods. Adding phase, parallel, series, coil tapping, coil splitting, and blender-knob options to a guitar is a great (almost costless) way of finding new tones from an instrument without buying new pickups, and if you are worried about changing the look of your guitar you can often use push-pull pots instead of drilling new holes.

Most people find that stock guitar tone controls tend to only muddy the sound without really offering any actual control of the tone, but simply changing the capacitor to a lower value will often make the tone control far more usable. Also, most tone controls are simply low pass filters (high-cuts), but there are other options. ‘Stepped’ tone controls, Fenders TBX, THD ToneCurve, Varitone, and the various active options from EMG are all viable options, and are great for influencing the quality of the distortion.

Pickup Change

Changing pickups is obviously more expensive than the other options but can yield good results, provided you make a very careful choice. If you have a look at the high output Dimarzios, EMGs or other ‘metal’ pickups, you’ll see that they usually have a fairly bright response – perfect to retain definition and clarity with high-gain amplifiers. Similarly blues players often choose vintage humbuckers or single-coils, with a typically more ‘middy’ response. The humbuckers give a crusty blues/rock owing to the mid-boost being focused further down the frequency spectrum. The single coils, having a upper-mid emphasis give a grittier SRV or Hendrix sound, with clearer, more articulate bass end.

Boost Pedals with Tonal Characteristics

For very high gain tones, you might like to try a treble boost pedal. The treble boost allows you to have more gain with greater definition, and serves a similar function to using wider-bandwidth pickups.

For lower gain or blues players, you’ll probably want a fairly wide mid-boost. For this you could look for special treble-boosters or clean-boosters which have a switch to change them to a mid-boost. Alternatively, you might like to try the classic trick of running a Tubescreamer set to to a low drive, but high level setting. Tubescreamers naturally have a low-cut and mid-boot which can often help to get a crunchier, ballsier overdrive from the amp. This trick was commonly used by SRV.

Post-Distortion EQ

This is generally any EQ which goes into the effects loop after the pre-amp but before the power-amp. This is used to shape the final tone, and unlike pre-dist EQ has no effect on the distortion character, unless you are voicing the power-amp distortion…

Voicing the Power-Amp Distortion

Obviously, if you are using significant power-amp distortion then the EQ in the effects loop will have less effect on the final tone. In this instance any effects-loop EQ will serve the purpose of voicing the power-amp distortion. Same principles apply as voicing the pre-amp – treble for higher gain with more clarity, bassier for lower-gain but with noticeable breakup.

One thing to consider is that if your power stage is overdriving then you have very few options in controlling the final post-distortion EQ curve. Obviously the cabinet (whether open- or closed- back) will affect the tone, as will the speaker selection to roll-off the top end. But you don’t have a full treble, mid, bass, tone stack to fiddle with so you need to be careful when selecting cabinets and speakers because you can’t adjust them (although there are a few tricks, such as stuffing the cabinet with absorbent foam, or drilling ‘ports’ in the back or closed cabinets. or stuffing the ports up with foam – this will generally tighten the bass up a bit).

Also, bear in mind that for recorded guitar tones or live tones being fed through a PA, the final post EQ is more a result of the microphone choice, the mixing board, and any EQ settings that the front-of-house or the mixing engineer use to alter the sound.

To be continued…

The Compound Radius

I had no idea what to expect with the compound radius since I’d never played one before, but now, having played this guitar for over a month, I can see no reason in having more guitars made with compound radii. Open chords are comfortable and the high notes aren’t as prone to choking when I bend – but very wide bends can still cause the strings to ‘fret-out’. It would be nice if Warmoth offered a few different compound radius options. I for one would welcome a 12″ to 18″ – particularly if I decided to order a 24 fret neck. Warmoth quote the typical Ibanez radius to be 12″ as a guide, but I know for a fact that many of the Ibanez Wizard necks are actually closer to a 17″ radius. Even these extreme radii are not immune to fretting-out and really, for a 24 fret neck, the neck needs to be as flat as possible at the high end of the neck. But remember, since I’m a classical player, I’m already very accustomed to a flat fingerboard. Also, I think that there would be a market for lower compound radii, maybe 7.25″-9.5″ for Fender fans who would like the best from both the vintage and modern strat necks.

Note that USACG (a competitor to Warmoth) do offer a range of compound radii and they will even let you ask for a custom compound radius, for a price. Because of this I thought I might order my next neck from them. Unfortunately my next guitar will be a 24 fretter, but USACG don’t do 24 fret necks!! I’m stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.

Frets and Fretwork

Many reviews on the net report that Warmoth do dodgy fretwork. As far as I can tell, the fretwork is as good as can be expected without them knowing your string gauge, neck relief, nut preference and action. The frets are level and smooth, which is all one can ask for. Obviously, if you want the perfect fret job then you’ll need to get a luthier to do a full set up with a properly cut nut and the works (and maybe get it plek’d). Still, the fretwork was as good as I could hope for.

Neck Profile

When ordering the neck I wasn’t sure exactly what neck thickness I was after. People on the net talk about the difference of a few millimetres making a huge difference – with many people just wanting the slimmest neck possible. Whereas others want giant baseball bat necks that they could hold with their entire palm. I played safe with a standard thin.

In hindsight, I really don’t think that the neck thickness is as big a deal as some people think. Instead, Warmoth have taken the sensible approach by making the order by shape rather than by thickness (although the actual measurements are available on the site). I’d have to say that this is probably my favourite electric guitar neck, possibly sharing first place with one of the JEM necks (can’t recall which model/year). Overall, I’d say the shape and the compound radius had far more to do with the great feel of this neck than its thickness. This neck can easily fit into your palm for thumb-over-the-top stuff, but is perfectly suited to standard technique as well.

The Body

The body was fine – just as it was on the showcase. My only issue is that the neck pocket was too small for the neck. Of course, it’s better if it’s too tight than too large – you can always make a small pocket bigger, but you can’t make a large pocket smaller. I realise that if I had been ordering a replacement body, that it’d be impossible for them to ensure that the neck would fit, since different necks are made to different tolerances. However I would have thought that since I was ordering the neck and body together that they would have ensured a good fit.

In Warmoth’s defence, they do understand that neck pocket size can be hit and miss, and will re-rout the neck pocket free of charge if you send it back to them. The only problem with that is that I live in Australia and there was no way I was sending it all the way back to the U.S. just for that!

As it turned out, I needed my luthier to do some routing anyway for the TremKing bridge, so he was happy to enlarge the neck pocket (free of charge) while he had the guitar in his shop.

Conclusion

Since every little option carries an up charge (a simple battery rout is $15) they are a bit pricey, and their customer service can be terse and unhelpful (at least when emailing with ‘Tony’). But as for the quality of the work, I’m perfectly happy.

What I Wanted

Until recently I have only played classical guitar so I had no idea what pickups/amps could, or should, sound like. So before deciding, I went to many music shops to play their guitars and try to gain an understanding for what good gear should sound and feel like.

After trying various guitars and pickups at music stores, I noticed that cheap single coils tend to have a harsh top-end. Even though single coils need to have a bright, detailed sound, I felt it should be possible without extra harshness. Conversely, the stock noiseless pickups in the American strat which I tried seemed to lack brilliance and detail. Obviously, I was after a noiseless pickup with a top-end that was somewhere in between – not too harsh, but plenty of detail.

Another issue I noticed with some stacked humbuckers was that many did not respond well to picking dynamics, or had a squashed attack or both. Also, the low-noise Lace Sensor equipped guitar I played had a very slow attack which ‘thudded’ rather than ‘twanged’ (very technical terms ).

So I set about looking for stacked pickups known for having a wide dynamic range, a smoother top-end, and an articulate attack. According to reviews and popular opinion the pickups from Kinman were hard to beat. It was impossible for me to audition these pickups for myself, so I ordered them sight-unseen based on the reviews.

I had the choice of a Blues set, Woodstock set or a Traditional set. Being a classical-turned-electric I haven’t developed my own personal taste/preferences yet, so I played it safe and went with the Traditionals which seemed to be somewhere in between the Blues and Woodstock sets.

What They Delivered

These pickups are exactly what I was after. They are open and dynamic, so they respond well to changes in my picking strength, but not excessively open, so a crunchy setting on the amp would not result in overly distorted attack, with little overdrive on the tail. Rather, they maintained a consistent amount of crunchy break-up with regular playing, but would still ‘leap out’ if I played heavily.

Apparently the Woodstocks have an even wider dynamic range, but for me that would have been too much. My guess is that the increased openness of the Woodstocks would suit somebody with a heavier gauge string or a heavier picking technique, or both. For me though, with a fairly light touch and extra light strings, these pickups were adequately open without sacrificing much ‘meat’ or thickness of tone. The Blues set is supposed to be the exact opposite – thicker, meatier tone, and more output but reduced dynamic range.

I found that these pickups are quite sensitive to how high or low you set them. Setting the pickups closer to the strings created a clearer, ‘bitey’ tone, whilst lowering the pickup would create a ‘woody’ sound and smooth out the top end. Either way, the top-end was never ever harsh, and the mids were never muddy.

The K-9 NoSolder Harness

The wiring options in the K-9 harness make the strat extremely versatile – so much so that I will never likely have a strat without a blender pot in the future. Of course, you don’t need to have the K-9 harness to wire these pickups (or any other pickups for that matter) with a blender pot – you just need to have a few basic soldering skills and be able to follow a schematic.

Though I love the blender pot, I’m not so sure about the usefulness of the push-push pot to switch the middle and bridge pickups in series. The series option is supposed to create a thicker ‘humbucker-like’ tone. I won’t be using that setting very often but it is nice to have it just in case – though I’m not particularly fond of humbuckers
generally, so I didn’t really expect to like it.
One setting I’ve never heard of before, which I thoroughly love having, is the option of having the mid and bridge in series (using the push-push pot), AND blending the neck in parallel. This gives a gorgeous hollow haunting sound, which creates a nice (albeit, unconventional) jazz tone. It’s nice to be able to control the amount of neck pickup with a knob rather than a switch (ala tele wiring). It means that I can dial in just the right amount of hollowness, and I can get a wide range of usable sounds just by varying how much neck pickup I dial in.

Conclusion

Like I said, for the heavy strung, heavy handed blues player, you may like to go for the Woodstocks, but for me these pickups felt just right. As for the top end, the pickup can be smooth and woody without being dull; or bright and brilliant, without being harsh, simply by raising or lowering the pickup a few turns. And though the pickups are versatile in themselves, the K-9 harness adds another welcome dimension, which is well worth the extra few bucks.

So if I’m going to play new styles I’ll need a new guitar, right? After all, I can’t rock on a nylon string After playing a lot of guitars, and reading reviews and articles online, I soon discovered that the really fine guitars are either custom built, or are megabucks top-of-the-line flagship models from regular manufacturers. Also, I was afraid that if I did splash out on such a guitar, I’d have ‘kid-gloves’ syndrome and would be too afraid of ruining the instrument to play it regularly.

What I wanted was an affordable, but professional, player’s instrument.

Over here in Australia, because of import taxes, freight and the lousy value of the dollar, guitar prices are ridiculously steep ($3,000 for a basic Fender Deluxe Stratocaster). For that money I felt I could create something a little more personal, and hopefully, as good or better than the off-the-shelf products.

Choosing the Custom Manufacturer

Ordering a truly custom guitar is an expensive investment, but if you want a quasi-custom guitar that is based on standard body shapes and neck types, the prices drop dramatically. This is because most makers of customised standard parts are using CNC machines to handle much of the workload.

I narrowed my choices down to three major CNC based custom guitar makers. These were USACustomGuitars, Musikraft and Warmoth.

These three manufacturers all have their pros and cons, and any of them would have produced a fine guitar that played well, but in the end I settled on Warmoth. My reasons were that I wanted the 10″-16″ Compound radius (note: USACG also have a compound radius), and I preferred to choose my parts from the ‘showcase’. Using the showcase meant that I was able to see the parts that I was ordering rather than having a part made-to-order and hoping that it turned out how I imagined. Both USACG and Musikraft have quasi-showcase equivalents however the choices are limited, since they are both smaller companies. A big plus for Musikraft and USACG is that since they are smaller companies, they are able to accommodate special requests and custom routing etc, which Warmoth refuse to do. This particular guitar was intended to be a straight-ahead stratocaster, so I had no special requests, but for a future build that I have in mind, I will probably end up using USACG or Musikraft.

The Neck Wood

I have heard mixed opinions on the quality of Warmoth’s work/quality of wood – some people rave about them, whilst others have had bad experiences with them. So to be on the safe side, I chose a quarter-sawn maple neck. Although a bird’s-eye or flamed neck would have looked nicer, I went for the superior structural integrity of a quarter-sawn neck. Maple is a typical stratocaster neck wood, and suited the straight-ahead strat tone that I was after.

The Fretboard

I ordered this neck with a pau-ferro fingerboard. Pau-ferro is generally considered to be tonally somewhere between maple and ebony. I loved the dark colour and grain patterns of rosewood, but I did not like the more open grain that some (cheaper) rosewood fretboards have. Also, I wanted this guitar to be bright and ‘spanky’ so a fretboard that was tonally closer to maple or ebony seemed a good choice. Rosewood would have tamed the brightness of the guitar somewhat, so pau-ferro seemed like a good choice.

Pau-ferro not only gave me the sound and the feel (tight-grain) that I was after, but this particular piece of pau-ferro also had a very attractive grain pattern to boot!

The Neck Construction

I decided to use the Warmoth ‘Pro’ Construction. The ‘pro’ construction uses Gotoh’s double expanding truss rod with the side adjust mechanism. The side adjust mechanism is convenient, and the heavier truss rod would increase the overall mass of the neck, which may increase the sustain. Also, the compound radius that I was after was only offered with ‘pro’ construction.

Fret Type/Size

This was an easy one. For me the frets had to be stainless steel. Not only do the stainless steel frets remove the need for a future re-fret, they are also reputed to be tonally brighter than nickle, which suited me.

I also chose tall-narrow frets even though many people prefer short-wide frets. Since I have little experience playing and owning electric guitars, I kinda had to guess with this one – I really had no idea of what sort of fret size I wanted so I just looked around on the net and tried to form an educated guess. Fingers-crossed that I made the right decision.

Body

I chose alder. It’s a standard strat wood, with standard strat tone. Often burst finished strats, such as mine, are made with ash since ash can be visually more interesting than alder, however this particular piece of alder looks just fine. Also, I chose a single piece body. Single piece bodies are generally considered to resonate better since there is no glue line to dampen the resonance. Also, different pieces of wood can have different grain and density, meaning that each piece of a two piece body will not share the exact same resonance characteristics.

I’m not too sure how much this two-piece versus one-piece debate actually effects tone, and how much is hearsay and ‘mumbojumbo’, but since this is my dream strat, I decided that I go with the one-piece… just to be safe.

Plus, I prefer the look of one-piece bodies Yes, I’m being vain, I know, but well… I want it to look purdy, don’t I?

Pickups and Electronics

This one took me a loooong time to finally come to a decision. I knew that I wanted a simple S-S-S layout, but what brand? And what type? Should I get ‘stacked’ humbuckers or ‘side-by-side’ humbuckers… or do the single-coil style humbuckers sound fake and unauthentic? Maybe I should get straight up REAL single coils, without the humbucking. Also, what about the Suhr BPSSC? That system would allow me to use any normal true single coil and then, using active electronics, I could ‘dial-out’ the hum.

In the end I decided that I didn’t want any hum – after all I’m not a vintage purist. Generally, most side-by-side humbuckers had a ‘mini-humbucker’ sound to them and sounded nothing like average single coils, except for the Joe Barden Strat pickup set. These pickups sounded nothing like humbuckers and sounded more single coil than most single coils! What I mean is that they seem very accurate, very bright, hi-fi and even.

The problem plaguing most stacked humbuckers is that many of them require non-traditional capacitor values on the tone pot. This indicates to me that they hadn’t really created a good single-coil sound, and were desperate to retain definition by using higher cap values. Also, stacked pickups often sound compressed, and ruin the attack of the note. The only set of stacked pickups which seemed to have addressed these issues were by Chris Kinman. Kinman stacked ‘single-coils’ retained an open attack, and suited normal strat cap values.

Finally the Suhr BPSSC system seemed interesting. With this system you are able to use any regular single coil, and use the BPSSC to remove the hum. Even though most reviews indicated that the system was very good, I decided not to use it since it was an active system and required batteries, and I wanted to avoid having to regularly change batteries if I could.

In the end it was a toss up between Barden and Kinman, and I eventually chose Kinman because they sounded like a straight-ahead stratocaster. That being said, I’m very anxious to start building another, less traditional sounding guitar and use the Barden pickups!

Also, I decided to get the pre-wired K-9 No-Solder Harness from Kinman. This gives me access to the standard five strat settings, and also some other pickup combinations which aren’t normally available on most strats, which include: all three pickups in parallel, bridge and neck in parallel, bridge and middle in series, and bridge and middle in series with the neck in parallel. I am competent with a soldering iron, but even so, I figured I couldn’t screw up if I bought it pre-wired.

Tuning Heads

I decided early on that I had to have locking tuners. Locking tuners make string changing quick and easy, and provide extra tuning stability – particularly when using tremolo without a locking nut. There are quite a few locking tuners on the market, and the really fancy ones even trim the excess string off while you wind it up to pitch! But in the end I chose a set of simple Gotoh locking tuners.

Unlike most locking tuners these are top-locking. Most tuners have a
(finger-chaffing) knurled nut on the back of the tuner, which you turn
to lock the string. But these Gotoh tuners lock the strings automatically as you tune up to pitch! (Hence they lock the string ‘from the top’ rather than having an extra nut on the back)

Nut

Since I am going to have a tremolo, with a fairly wide pitch range, I’ll need to have a low friction nut. The LSR roller nut was a clever idea, which I considered, but I ended up choosing the Graphtech Nut since it is simple and has no moving parts. The Graphtech nut creates a thin lubricant barrier between the string and the nut which minimizes friction.

I also considered using a compensated nut such as those offered by
Earvana or the (expensive) Buzz Feiten tuning system. These nuts improve the overall intonation of the guitar, and make the guitar more in-tune across all the frets. They are great ideas but unfortunately the
Earvana is not a low-friction and although a low-friction version of the Feiten system is possible it is just too expensive. Besides, later on if I decide that I would like a compensated nut I can always get one then. Also, I understand the concepts behind compensated nuts, so in the future, I might find a way to ‘DIY’ a compensated nut, but using a graphite blank. This would give me the best of both worlds – low friction and precise intonation.

Tremolo

I had a lot of fun hunting down a tremolo for my project. Rather than talk you through my entire decision making progress I’ll just give you the short list: Original Floyd Rose, Schaller Floyd Rose, Gotoh Floyd Rose, Stetsbar, TremKing, Super-Vee, Callaham, Hipshot, or Wilkinson by Gotoh. Eventually I decided that the double-locking systems are too much hassle for me at the moment, plus they didn’t fit the ‘traditional’ look of the guitar (yep, I’m being vain again ).

The Callaham is essentially the ideal incarnation of the standard Fender ‘Synchronized Tremolo’, and the Hipshot was a variant of the Fender ‘Two-Point’ American Deluxe design, however I preferred to have a fair amount of ‘pull-up’ available on this guitar, which ruled the Callaham out.

Between the TremKing and the Wilkinson I chose the TremKing since it will stay in-tune even if I break a string, and personally I think that the satin finish of the Wilkinsons is kinda ugly. Also, the TremKing has a lovely ‘vintage-modern’ vibe to it, which I like.

So my short list came down to two: the Stetsbar and the TremKing.

Honestly I liked them both and ended up ordering both! I’ve now decided that I’ll use the TremKing as it looks more traditional, but I’m looking forward to building another guitar and trying out the Stetsbar too.

The Final Guitar

Unfortunately the only still camera I have is a mobile-phone P.O.S. so apologies for the quality

UPDATE: Got a proper (but super cheap) Kodak, so these images should be reasonable quality.

Click for larger images

Tonal Considerations

Subjectively, higher string gauges will result in a “thicker”, “fatter” or “louder” tone, while lighter string gauges will result in a “thinner”, “brittle” or “weak” tone. While there is much truth in those statements, overall there are other, more important factors that affect tone than string gauge alone. Very discerning/experienced guitarists choose different string gauges for different amps and guitars as it is usually the interaction of all components in the set-up that results in their tone. If you want to improve your tone, simply increasing the gauge won’t necessarily do anything for you; you need to choose your string gauge with regard to the rest of your rig. Tone is a result of the interaction of each part of the chain (we’ll look at this more in a moment).

Inertia

Since heavier strings have greater mass than lighter strings, they have greater inertia. Thinking back to high school physics, you will recall that inertia is the tendency for an object to resist changes in motion. Also, remember than inertia not only affects moving objects, but is also the tendency for stationary objects to resist changes in motion. This means that when you pluck a heavy-gauge string, the string will be slower to respond than with a light-gauge string, which results in a less ‘punchy’ attack to each note. Similarly, once the string is vibrating, a heavy-gauge string will take longer to die away than a light-gauge string. In a nutshell, higher gauge strings will result in a slower attack and increased sustain, whereas lighter strings have a stronger attack, but less sustain.

Anyone who has played with compressor pedals should note that this slower attack and longer sustain of heavy strings, is similar in effect to a compressor set with a long decay time. Thus, higher gauge strings have a more ‘compressed’ sound than lighter gauge strings. One reason I like heavy strings on slightly driven tones is that the softer attack means that the amp won’t distort unpredictably at the start of each note. Lighter gauge strings with a slightly driven amp tend to have a very gritty and overly distorted attack which doesn’t suit my tastes.

Harmonic Content

Another factor affecting your choice of string gauge has to do with the harmonic content of the string. Heavy strings need to be tighter than light strings for a given pitch, and it’s also the case that tighter strings produce stronger harmonics than lighter strings. Overall this means that heavier strings have a ‘brighter’, ‘clearer’, more ‘lively’ tone than lighter strings, which tend to produce more of the fundamental.

Magnetic Interaction

Heavier strings naturally sustain longer, but they also interact more with the magnets in the pickups, which tends to dampen the sustain. The gain in sustain from the heavier string tends to approximately balance out the loss of sustain from the extra magnetic interaction – so the net effect is a string which sustains for approximately the same amount of time!

Because energy is a closed system, the decrease in sustain due to magnetic interaction is effectively changed into an increase in the inducted voltage. The extra material of the heavier string causes more voltage to be inducted into the pickup coil, which results in a louder output.

Of course, if you lower your pickups, you’ll lessen any increase in output, and restore some of the extra sustain which the heavier strings bring.

So, in short, heavier strings tend to have stronger harmonics, a more compressed attack, and a potentially higher output and/or longer sustain.

So Heavy is Better.. Right?

There are many players out there who have followed the ‘heavy-gauge-means-better-tone’ idea to its extremes. If you absolutely must have the most compressed, loud, thick and harmonically rich tone possible then by all means, heavy gauges may just be the ticket. But often you can achieve sufficiently appealing tone factors without resorting to extremely heavy gauges.

Rather than achieving a compressed sound from heavier strings, you may like to consider simply using a compressor pedal. Whilst this doesn’t create exactly the same sound as heavy strings, the effect is still quite similar. Also, if you’re using under-wound pickups, you may like to consider a slightly hotter pickup, which can often create a more compressed tone.

If it’s the louder output of heavier strings which you find appealing, maybe you would like to try a higher output pickup, or simply raise the height of the pickup in relation to the strings. Also, you may consider using a booster pedal if you just want to push the amp a little more.

Before you settle on heavy gauge strings, experiment with other ways of achieving your tone. Like I said earlier, tone is a result of every part of the signal chain working together, and string gauge should be chosen to sensibly match the rest of your set up.

What About Acoustic Guitars?

On acoustic guitars the effect is similar. Obviously, most acoustic guitars don’t have magnetic pickups so there is no magnetic damping. This means that heavier strings tend to sustain more, and are also louder. The general rule that heavier strings have stronger harmonics and a more compressed attack also applies.

Drop Tunings

This is a simple point but one worth making. If you want to use ‘dropped’ tunings where the strings are slacker than standard tuning you may want to consider using heavier strings. This ensures that the lower tunings can keep in tune, and that the strings maintain a good tone at the lower tunings. It is not uncommon for players who use ‘drop D’, to purchase hybrid sets of strings which are a standard medium light set (say a set of 0.010s), but have a heavier low E string, which makes drop D tunings maintain better tone and tuning stability. Also, if you plan to have your guitar in dropped tunings all of the time, you may like to consider purchasing a set of strings specifically for the intended tuning. Again, these have potentially better tone, and better tuning stability.

Of course if you want to use sharper tunings, you’ll want to make sure that you use a lighter set of strings. Also, if you ever want to experiment with extreme tunings, make sure that you visit your guitar tech first, to ensure that your guitar is properly set up for the new strings, and make sure the guitar is ready for the extra stress and tension that alternate tunings can cause.

Disadvantages of Heavy Strings

Obviously the main disadvantage of using heavier strings is that they are more uncomfortable, and generally require more effort to play. If you play with lots of bending and vibrato, this can also result in too much muscle tension in the hand and wrist. If you choose to play with heavier strings, watch out for any tell-tale aches and pains which may indicate that your technique isn’t quite ready for heavier strings. If this is the case, a teacher can work with you on your technique, or you could switch back to a lighter-gauge set.

Also, even if you do have a good, relaxed technique, you may still find that constant practice on very heavy strings will tear several layers of skin from the tips of your fingers. Different people’s skin will callous differently, so you may not have any trouble with this. As a case in point though, Stevie Ray Vaughan who is well known for his heavy gauges, is reported to have used super-glue on the tips of his fingers to create artificial callouses for extra protection (although I’ve used this trick, I don’t recommend it since there could be long-term health effects as a result of regular application of super-glue to the skin).

Regarding tone, there is one significant drawback to using heavy strings, which is how it affects vibrato, and other subtle expressive techniques. Since heavier strings are harder to play, they are also harder to ‘finesse’. Using a string gauge that is not suited to a player’s finger strength and dexterity masks the idiosyncrasies of the individual player. Many people, myself included, feel that these small, subtle differences between players are important to the overall tone, and makes each person’s playing unique. So, heavier strings may increase volume and harmonic content, but might also make expressive playing more difficult.

What I Use/Recommend

For electric guitar I now use a 0.009-0.042 set with an unwound G string. This is pretty light, even though I have played (much) heavier gauges in the past. I personally no longer see a strong argument for using very heavy strings, although if I were to play a shorter scale instrument such as a Les Paul for example, I would almost certainly use a set of 0.010s at minimum – otherwise the strings tend to feel like rubber bands

On acoustic guitars though I definitely recommend heavier strings if possible, particularly for rhythm playing rather than finger-style. Acoustic guitars have the advantage that they are not usually used for lead playing, so the heavy strings tend not to be a problem. Heavy strings also allow you to play fairly hard, without the sound breaking up or going out of tune, whilst quiet playing still sounds ‘solid’ and confident. Essentially, heavier strings will allow for a greater dynamic range on acoustic instruments. If you’re a finger picker, though, you may like to try a lighter set, such as 0.011s or 0.012s. On a well made instrument, you should still be able to achieve a ‘good’ tone without having to sacrifice any of the more ‘delicate’ maneuvers which finger-style can require.