String Gage suggestions for my semi-hollow

which strings should I use?

  • d'addario 11s

    Votes: 3 42.9%

  • ghs boomers 11s

    Votes: 1 14.3%

  • other, explain...

    Votes: 3 42.9%
  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .
Caotico

Caotico

for all the right reasons
I recently decided to fork over the money to have somebody who knows what they're doing fix the intonation and action on my Epiphone Riviera semi-hollow body with humbuckers. I mostly play clean or with moderate distortion, and I occasionally play some jazz and blues. I've been playing for a lot of years, but I have always just used the cheapest strings I could find. Recently, I started using 11s, and I think that may have been what really put my intonation out of wack. Anyway, the repair guy said that he sets the guitar up to use a certain guage and brand of strings, and I have to decide which ones I want. I've searched the forum and found a lot of suggestions. I occasionally do bending, but I don't do a whole lot of it, and I like the tone and the feel of 11s. Let me know if you hate elevens though, and why. I'm thinking that I have my selection narrowed down to either D'addario 11s or GHS boomer 11s. Any thoughts? Other recommendations?
 
Flatwounds aren't as bright as regular wound strings, especially the bass strings. I like the tone, especially on jazz and blues stuff. 11's are just too stiff IMHO. You can bend a good set of 10's too.
 
you need flatwounds. d'addario's chromes. .011 for blues afficionados .013 for jazz (and tone!).



c7sus : the wound strings on .010's are just too skinny imo.
 
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how versitile are the flat wound strings? Can you still do rock too? Any drawbacks?
 
Epi recomends 9-42 sets but they seem too flimsy to me. On my hollow body I use 10-46 (Ernie Ball Hybird) which are a little bright for jazz but work fine for blues and rock. For a set with 11-49 try DiAderio, bright enough for general playing yet mellow enough for jazz. A flatwound set may work well for you but they take a little bit of playing to get used to if you are used to playing on round wound strings.
 
I've played Daddario 11 roundwounds for years for rock, jazz, blues, and country. I put flats on my Bourgeois archtop, but never really got into them. To me, they're fun to play around with, but aren't very versatile. Forget pick scraping too!!! If I'm playing rock, I'll be damned if I'm playing with flats.
 
I use .011's with a wound G string, including on my Epi Casino. I recommend D'Addario EX115W or (cheaper) SIT S1150 medium lights. The SIT's come with both a plain .018 and a wound .020 G string. They are .011-.050, and they will work fine for what you do, which is very similar to what I do. Best of luck-Richie
 
I use D'Addario 11's with the unwound G.

The reason I use 11's - I feel they have a little fuller tone and I like to feel some tension when I bend a string. I play pretty heavy handed and lighter gauges just don't have a good feel to me and I always had issues breaking strings. I tried moving up to 13's, bending is very difficult and the neck tension was hard as a rock.

Ther reason I use D'Addario - I tried Dean Markley and Ernie Ball prior to going with D'Addario. To me, D'Addario makes to most consistent strings from a durability standpoipnt. I could only find Dean Markley with a wound G which I broke all the time and Ernie Ball's were hit or miss when I could find them in 11's. I also like the the fact the strings are vacuum sealed in a little pouch rather than in individual envelopes.
 
I have just bought an Epi Casino and are thinking of adding flatwounds. Why do so many people use a round on the G string (which usually goes out of tune fastest) do flatwound G strings go out of tune even faster?
 
I use Elixers on my archtops, and everything else for that matter. 12's on the Eastman, 11's on the ES 150D and acoustic nano .12's on the L 50. Though I use .10's on solid bodies the archtops just feel better with a little more meat on their bones.
 
I use 10s on my fenderish guitars. I was reluctant to change gauges for my hollowbody epiphony es-295 (which is a hollowbody). However, I took the pluge and put 11s on it. Since it is shorter scale, the 11s are not any stiffer than the 10s on the fenders. I think the tone improved a great deal and the bridge/tailpiece are less rattly.

My point is that fenders have a longer scale than gibsons, so the same string gauge will feel differently on each.
 
Caotico said:
... I occasionally do bending, but I don't do a whole lot of it, and I like the tone and the feel of 11s. Let me know if you hate elevens though, and why. I'm thinking that I have my selection narrowed down to either D'addario 11s or GHS boomer 11s. Any thoughts? Other recommendations?
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SkinnyTop-HeavyBottom or TNT (thick n' thins) here. They go 10-52 but I swap that out for an 11. Overall I need a set up that favors dynamic range and some clean tone over speed. I love digging into the low strings. :p Well, all of them actually. :)
Why's the poll closed?
 
Caotico said:
Anyway, the repair guy said that he sets the guitar up to use a certain guage and brand of strings, and I have to decide which ones I want. I've searched the forum and found a lot of suggestions. I occasionally do bending, but I don't do a whole lot of it, and I like the tone and the feel of 11s. Let me know if you hate elevens though, and why. I'm thinking that I have my selection narrowed down to either D'addario 11s or GHS boomer 11s. Any thoughts? Other recommendations?
Click to expand...

I think it is important to use the same brand all the time, but brand choice doesn't seem to make a huge difference. I buy Ernie Balls because I like that the strings still come in individual envelopes unlike Dean Markley and D'Addario. Plus you can get them anywhere. I wouldn't want to get strings that are hard to find.
 
I may be the last guy on earth who prefers Fender F-150s but I occasionally try other brands and keep going back. I use the .11 set on my Heritage H-555 and I've been very happy with them. They're a little slicker than some of the other brands that have been mentioned. There's less string noise when playing clean. The Heritage has Fralin PAFs in it and they "hear" the fenders much better than the Elixers.

That's just my experience
 
broughtonline said:
I have just bought an Epi Casino and are thinking of adding flatwounds. Why do so many people use a round on the G string (which usually goes out of tune fastest) do flatwound G strings go out of tune even faster?
Click to expand...

Yes, especially if you play full chords or jazz.-Richie
 
I used to use 15 -60 round wounds on my arch top because they gave me a full tone. The only flat wounds that I used were D'Angelica Electric Gold ... they don't make them any more and every other flat wound (including Chromes) just suck. These days I use 12 - 54 guage nickle round wounds ( wound G) on my ES335. They are a little on the light side, but they sound good and wear well.
I find that Pyramid strings sound the best and wear the longest but they are expensive that is why I normally buy Darco. They should work well on the Epiphone.
 
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