What Gauge Strings In Your Semi Hollows?

[vashondan]

My new AS153 came with 10's but I've read a number of times of people using 11's or 12's. If you use the heavier may I ask why?

Thanks

[silvertonebetty]

My new AS153 came with 10's but I've read a number of times of people using 11's or 12's. If you use the heavier may I ask why?

Thanks

I have 10’s on my harmony less stressing the neck


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[Spook410]

12's. Fuller sound. Responsive to a pick.

[rpguitar]

11-49 nickel plated steel roundwounds are always my first choice for a semi.

[mtown]

11-49 on my ES-335. Plays and sounds fuller to me.

[omphalopsychos]

12s for my taste. 11s feel floppy for me.

[rio]

Used to do 13s but now I save those for the archtops and use 12s, Thomastik Bebops to be precise. Compared to lighter strings like 10s the only real advantage of the latter is bending and I can bend just fine with 12s with the plain 3rd from the Bebop set (although I don’t use a plain 3rd on my other guitars with that set). But really I don’t bend much unless I am playing a musical that calls for it. The advantages of the heavier strings are that I can get lower action with more dynamics than lighter strings and the sound is beefier. But really the low action/dynamics is the real reason I use heavy strings on all of my guitars. After playing them for so long, 10s just feel weird.


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[Little Jay]

On my ES-333 semi I use the same as on all my 24.75” scale guitars (be it semi, solid or fully hollow): 0.012 set with .013 high E.

[Meggy]

11-52 roundwounds - I'd like to think the tone is a bigger, but mainly because I find 10s flap about too much, and also I can't seem to get the action quite as low without buzzes. 11s just feel more precise to use, and I can still do bends and vibrato fine. In my opinion they hold their tuning a bit better too.

[dconeill]

.12s (d'Addario EJ21) with wound G.

I use this gauge because I prefer their tone to lighter strings. I use this brand because it seems to me to be about the right balance between cost and value.

[m_d]

11-49 nickel / steel D'As with wound G are perfect for me.

[pilotony]

For my 1965 ES-345TD-SV: 11-49s

Tony D.

[339 in june]

My ES-339 is happy with D'A ECG 25 now. (Used to be with ECG 24, but it has grown up :-) )

[vashondan]

Thanks for all your responses. Guess I'll give 11's a try as a change. Wondering about the flatwounds. Are they an adjustment to play? What are the pros and cons?

[rpguitar]

Flatwounds are great. As far as pros; they’ll make nearly any guitar sound like a stereotypical jazz guitar. Interestingly, that’s also the con. I don’t put flats on my 335 style guitars because I want them to sound and play like what they are. I have other instruments that are purpose built for jazz. If you have just one or two instruments, it’s obviously another story.

[Thumpalumpacus]

My new AS153 came with 10's but I've read a number of times of people using 11's or 12's. If you use the heavier may I ask why?

Thanks

I use .011s on my AS-93. Fuller tone without bumping the MV or gain on my amp, and better tuning stability. Plus, going between electric and flattop as I do, the heavier strings mean less adjustment in bending touch. I've played .011s on my Gibson-scale instruments for well over 25 years for these reasons.

[Mark 63]

Gibson VR10 on one and Pyramid pure nickel round core medium (11-50) on the other.
my 59 VOS came with the VR10s and it sounds and plays great so i’m sticking with them.

[John A.]

I use 10-46 D'Addario rounds on my semi-hollow. I use this guitar for other stuff (including, shudder, string bending) in addition to jazz, and prefer lighter strings for that. I don't actually find lighter strings to be inherently thinner sounding. Rather, I find that they feel different, and respond differently to harder picking. But with the right touch and volume/tone settings on guitar and amp I can get very fat/warm sounds. I prefer heavier strings (12-52, usually) on my archtop for the contrast that offers in attack and in the way it responds to picking. But I don't see one set up as better for jazz than the other. Different flavors for different contexts or moods.

John

[miken]

I use 11's on an Epiphone Dot. I found these interesting strings from Ernie Ball. I think that they're called "Beefy" or something like that. So, they're 11's but the middle few strings are heavier than they might be otherwise. I don't know all of the gauges off the top of my head.
I found that it works great for blues and rock with the tone up a bit. Roll the tone down and it gives a nice jazz tone. They are round wounds. Just thought that I'd pass that along.