New strings, what next?

zepp76

I've decided to treat my Les Paul to a proper set up and think it's time to try different strings, all my guitars have Ernie Ball regular slinky's but this time I want to try something a bit more suited to the guitar/style of playing. The guitar will have OX4 pickups and the style of playing will be anything from Peter Green, Paul Kossoff through to Led Zeppelin so that said, what would you recommend? Or is it a non issue with strings and any old thing will do? I'm very interested to hear your opinions. Thank you.

ICBM

For historial accuracy to what those players used, you want Black Diamond strings - what was called 'light' gauge then, which were 11s. Fit the top E string as the B, the B as the G and so on, discard the bottom E and buy a banjo top string for your top E. Banjo strings have a loop end, so first put the loop end under the tailpiece from behind, then run the long end of the string though the tailpiece and pass it through the loop.

Or if you want to make things easier, any normal set of 8s, 9s or 10s will do fine .

HAL9000

I always used to assume that all strings were pretty much the same, but recently put some D'addarios on my Telecaster instead of my usual Ernie Balls. The difference was night and day. A much richer and fuller sound than I ever got from the EBs.

I guess different manufacturing methods, metallic compositions, etc can all change the way that the string interacts with the pickups' magnetic fields.  Since the string is the first item in your signal chain I suspect it's important to get it right.

Frizer

I like trying out different string brands, it's always interesting how much difference in feel and sound there is between brands. Lately, I really like GHS Boomers. I don't think they sound the brightest, but then I'm not a fan of that bright D'addario sound and they feel nice to bend. DR Pure Blues are nice as well. Maybe splash out and try something fancy like Gabriel Tenorio Strings? Just remember Mr Young uses EBs.

In short, it's not gonna break the bank to experiment.

guitarfishbay

Frizer said:

In short, it's not gonna break the bank to experiment.

Until you start experimenting on bass! 

bbill335

I'm digging EB pure nickel strings lately, just a lovely balance to the sound. The only problems are that they're about 60% more expensive than a pack of normal strings and they don't they come in sets of 11-54.

Sassafras

Can't go wrong with Daddarios.

Clarky

Frizer said:

I like trying out different string brands, it's always interesting how much difference in feel and sound there is between brands. Lately, I really like GHS Boomers. I don't think they sound the brightest, but then I'm not a fan of that bright D'addario sound and they feel nice to bend. DR Pure Blues are nice as well. Maybe splash out and try something fancy like Gabriel Tenorio Strings? Just remember Mr Young uses EBs.

In short, it's not gonna break the bank to experiment.

interesting you mention that, cos I've always found D'Adds to be a little darker than I'm used to..
currently using Ernie Ball..
but I have a set of NYXL's on my Strat and I'm liking them very much..

I've been talking to D'Add and I've created a custom set for my V's
I'm basically trying to get as close as I can tension wise to a set of Hybrid 9's tuned concert on my V's which are tuned D-standard..

with Ernie Ball I've been using the power slinky gauges but with a 40 and a 50 for the 5th and 6th
with the D'Adds they'll be 10.5, 14, 18, 29, 40, 50
they'll be here tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to this lil' experiment

richardhomer

Clarky said:

Frizer said:

interesting you mention that, cos I've always found D'Adds to be a little darker than I'm used to..

currently using Ernie Ball..
but I have a set of NYXL's on my Strat and I'm liking them very much..

I've been talking to D'Add and I've created a custom set for my V's
I'm basically trying to get as close as I can tension wise to a set of Hybrid 9's tuned concert on my V's which are tuned D-standard..

with Ernie Ball I've been using the power slinky gauges but with a 40 and a 50 for the 5th and 6th
with the D'Adds they'll be 10.5, 14, 18, 29, 40, 50
they'll be here tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to this lil' experiment

I've always found D'Addarios significantly brighter (in a 'good' way) than EBs.

horse

Clarky said:

interesting you mention that, cos I've always found D'Adds to be a little darker than I'm used to..
currently using Ernie Ball..
but I have a set of NYXL's on my Strat and I'm liking them very much..

I've been talking to D'Add and I've created a custom set for my V's
I'm basically trying to get as close as I can tension wise to a set of Hybrid 9's tuned concert on my V's which are tuned D-standard..

with Ernie Ball I've been using the power slinky gauges but with a 40 and a 50 for the 5th and 6th
with the D'Adds they'll be 10.5, 14, 18, 29, 40, 50
they'll be here tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to this lil' experiment

I've used this before to try and work out rough equivalent tensions with different scale lengths and strings for my lapsteel:

http://stringtensionpro.com