String gauge gibson es125?

markblack

Hello,

I currently have 12's on my es125, would there be any side effects on the guitar itself going say for 10's?

Only asking as it's a 1953 guitar, if it's had heavier strings on it it's whole life could anything happen, I'm guessing not?

Does anyone have a 125 with 10's or even 9's on? How does it feel?

Cheers

Mark

ICBM

You will probably need to loosen the truss rod, but otherwise no. Personally I wouldn’t go lighter than 11s with a wound G, but you can get 10s with one - if it still has the original wooden bridge it won’t intonate correctly with a plain one.

DB1

I've currently got Ernie Ball Mega Slinkies - 10.5 to 48 - on my 1955 ES-130 (a 'posh' ES-125) and they feel fine, possibly a touch light, depending on your style of playing. It's not a wound 'G', so I've got a tune-o-matic bridge on it.

I've tried 10-46's on it as that's my preferred choice for my usual guitars, but they did feel a little small, proportionally speaking, for the neck as the neck is reasonably chunky.

I'm going to try flatwounds (D'Addario Chromes 11-50) on it next, which I think will feel nice.

They possibly came out with 13's fitted (I don't know, just a guess) but if you're going from 12's to 10's, as @ICBM said, a trussroad tweak might be in order.

You just might find those 10's a little light. I also had an ES-125 which 10's felt a little light on., although nice and bluesy.

markblack

@ICBM & @DB1 thanks for that. Might try a set of 11's think i have a set of flat wounds atcually.

JezWynd

I used flatwound 11-50’s tuned to standard D. Usually on solid bodies I’d use 9-41’s but on the 125 the 11’s sounded and felt fine.

DB1

One observation that I have (and I might be teaching granny to suck eggs, as it were) is that flatwounds vs rounds definitely gives two different characters to the guitar. You'll obviously get the smoother (slightly duller, or more mellow) sound with the flatwounds, but rounds do make it earthier, and relatively light gauge strings that you can bend easily, will give that earthier, bluesier sound.

Probably obvious, but it does seem to affect the character of ES-125's quite a bit.

markblack

@DB1 cheers for the shout on flatwounds.

I actually had a set of D'Addario Chromes 11-50's by fluke. I really like them on my es125, in fact it was one of those 'why didn't i do this sooner!' moments, really nice and mellow, I've never played flat-wounds before so put off trying them - though they might be too dark.

DB1

Glad you like them! 11's are still relatively light, so you can still bend the strings. Anything heavier than 11's feel a bit stiff for me, but 11-50's are a nice compromise.