Hey guys, I picked up this Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion a couple years ago. I play it now and then but I want to get serious about playing some jazz and blues. I've been prac. all the diff. ways to play F7 at the present time and, like I said I want to get serious about this. I took the guitar to a guy I know that use to set up guitars for a living and he plays in a band at the present time also. He was telling me I should put on a set of 10's and get the roundwound strings, or Flatwounds, I can't remember????? At the present time I'm just using a reg. set of 9's. Anyone play jazz guitar? What strings do you recommend??????? Thanks............
Strings for a Howard Roberts Fusion
- Thread starter Flash
- Start date
I need some help here. Does anyone use flat wound strings? I picked up a set of D'Addario Chromes. They call them lights but, there .012 - .052.....Why do they call them lights???? I fiqure .009 are lights. What's up with this. In the D'Angelico sets they consider .010 - .048's to be ultra lights, and the .011 - .050 to be extra lights. Just to give a couple diff. brands. Can someone give me some help here?
Light
New member
Try a bunch of different strings until you find the ones YOU like.
It is typical for Jazz guys to use heavier strings, but I know plenty of Jazz guys who use 009's or 010's. Flatwounds are certainly more common with Jazz guys, but I always hated flats. Find what YOU like, then use them.
For what little it's worth, when I had my arch top, I used D'Addario Jazz XL's, which are a standard nickel, round wound string, gauged .012" to .053 (or something like that).
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
It is typical for Jazz guys to use heavier strings, but I know plenty of Jazz guys who use 009's or 010's. Flatwounds are certainly more common with Jazz guys, but I always hated flats. Find what YOU like, then use them.
For what little it's worth, when I had my arch top, I used D'Addario Jazz XL's, which are a standard nickel, round wound string, gauged .012" to .053 (or something like that).
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
guttapercha
New member
Flash said:
My former teacher used to play one of these, and he had strings with a wound G. They were pretty heavy.
patlang12
New member
Jazz players use heavy strings and don't bend notes very often. With blues though you bend strings all the time so most blues players use lighter strings. If you like heavy strings for jazz though there is another option. You could do what Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, and many other blues players do and have done. You could put on heavy strings and tune down half a step when you play blues. That way when you play jazz you can have the heavy strings and when you play blues you still will be able to bend notes easily.
Thanks guys, I put on the 12's last night. I really seem to like them for what I'm doing at the present time. I've always been more of a rythum player than a lead player so I don't bend the stings very much anyway. I quess I'll keep experimenting with these 12's, but I think I will drop down to 11's next time. I think your all right, I need to find what I like. Thanks.........