Uncle Ovipositor wrote:

FuzzBob wrote:

Uncle Ovipositor wrote:

Nico Adie wrote:I use 12-54 on every guitar I have. Unwound G.

I'd still like heavier strings for when I tune A-A though.

What brand are you using, out of curiousity? I like my D'Addarios, but the wound G always frays quickly. Nobody at the local shop seemed to have any idea if anybody made unwound Gs that heavy.

Where does it fray? I've never had probs with D'Addario wound Gs. You might have a saddle or nut issue.

Where the very thick metal pick I used to play with would hit it. Of course all of the strings get damaged faster with those picks, but the G would only last for 2-3 hours of playing, then it would turn to mush. I assume that's because of a thinner layer wound around it.

Same problem. Metal picks + metal strings do not mesh well. The I buy a 12 pack of strings plus a 12 pack of just d's to combat this.

Steve V. wrote:

Uncle Ovipositor wrote:

FuzzBob wrote:Where does it fray? I've never had probs with D'Addario wound Gs. You might have a saddle or nut issue.

Where the very thick metal pick I used to play with would hit it. Of course all of the strings get damaged faster with those picks, but the G would only last for 2-3 hours of playing, then it would turn to mush. I assume that's because of a thinner layer wound around it.

Same problem. Metal picks + metal strings do not mesh well. The I buy a 12 pack of strings plus a 12 pack of just d's to combat this.

EAD are all fine for me, using the EJ21 pack, it's just the G. Maybe that has something to do with the way I strum in addition to the metal pick. Dunno.

I just bought a couple of packs of EXL145s with the plain G, so we'll see how they do.

scott wrote:

GooberNumber9 wrote:I'm not sure why, buy for some reason it's almost impossible to bend a wound G up a whole step.

I do it on my baritone all the time, using the middle two of the four fingers on my left hand. That's a heavier string than you're gonna put on a guitar, too, but scale length and whatnot.

I just hate non-wound G strings because I can't recall one ever being capable of intonating properly on the first couple frets. Plus, the wound strings just have a more powerful sound to them.

Well, on my Les Paul with the D'Addario EJ21 set I can't do unison bends, and normally I can bend an unwound G up two whole steps or more (a la the solo from "Another Brick In The Wall, Part II"). Maybe the scale length on the baritone and the bass make a difference (I've bent bass strings up a whole step before).

A quick check on the guitar in question reveals that I have to push the wound D string almost all the way up to the E string to go up a whole step, whereas the unwound G string I only have to push up into the D a little bit to get a whole step bend. That's about half the distance for the unwound G compared to the wound D. Now, the distances are not consistent among all the wound and unwound strings on my guitar.

I suspect that the scale length, string diameter, tuning, and wound/unwound quality all contribute to the amount of displacement required on a particular string for a whole step bend. On my guitar, I just can't pull it off with a wound G. Also, I learned on an electric with a plain G and have been playing plan Gs for 15 years, so I like to stick with what's comfortable.

Like any string choice, personal preference will (and should) rule the day.

Todd Wilcox

Dean Markley Jazz Strings. 12 - 15 - 26(w) - 34 - 44 - 54. I love `em.