12/56s on a "Special"!

[Shadbarmy1]

After toying with the idea for a while, I finally put a set of 12/56s on My Shadow Special. Now I know that my ears are not the best but there definitely is a difference. I've been on the 9/42s and the sound is much rounder and fuller, with plenty of volume from the 12 end! It took a good while to set up the floating trem and had to use a full set of springs to even things up, so that knife edge will certainly feel the strain now! Leaving it overnight to settle and then have another play around tomorrow. I've had a good week on ebay, so the "toys" and new "bits" may be incoming again soon, for my stratalike! No "Burns " night for me tonight! Have a good one, Mike.

[dave robinson]

I agree 100% that the bigger strings give the guitar a much bigger voice and for me there have been many experiments over the years in this field.
I fully accept that to get the real vintage early tone of Hank's that we hear on those early singles, it's a trade off between comfort in playing or perfection in tone. With a good guitar set up and super low action it is possible to make it bearable, but those strings are very difficult to bend naturally and I only rarely use the 12/56 option these days in favour of 11/50s which is a compromise.

[Shadbarmy1]

Hi Dave and thanks for your comments (always appreciated). I noticed that just strumming or picking, without anything plugged in, was definitely louder! Even my good lady noticed that! My "Shadow Special" seems to sound almost like a semi acoustic with the fatter strings! As you say, the string bending is more difficult but I'm still working on that skill anyway! I rarely use the Special (It's more my collection piece!) My truck mechanic fingers are still, also learning to be delicate with the plectrum, to let the amp do the work! I blame that on my first efforts at guitar playing, as a teenager, when my acoustic wasn't loud enough! I remember buying a pickup, that could be screwed onto the bottom of the fretboard and played via mums stereo system (only when she was out - much to the annoyance of the next door neighbour!). My plectrum hand was more like an axe! Bert Weedon helped me to "Play in a day!"

[abstamaria]

Someone here (who watched Hank at close quarters) remarked that he was surprised how hard Hank strikes the strings. Someone wrote here also that Hank wears out several picks at his shows, and that especially the GD plectrums were badly worn. That seems consistent with the first observation.

That may be a clue to Hank’s sound.

Andy

[Shadbarmy1]

Or it could be that we Northern lads are a bit rough!

[abstamaria]

Perhaps we should play that way! I am trying to.

Andy

[Uncle Fiesta]

I have long been convinced that heavier strings sound better than lighter ones, although you occasionally get people popping up on You Tube trying to tell us there is no difference. My Strat with 12-56s having just been sold, I now use 10s on Fenders and 11s on Gibsons.

Many years ago a mate found himself without a guitar for some reason and asked to borrow my spare. The strings on it were way past their best but I dug out a set from somewhere, not the correct gauge but needs must, etc.

When he returned it he said, "Nice guitar, but I didn't like the strings,"
I said, "Yes, sorry about that, they were a bit light weren't they?"
He said, "Light? I thought they were heavy!"

I later found out his preferred gauge was an 8! Just shows that we're all different, and how difficult it can be to advise others what to use.

[Shadbarmy1]

I think that we all differ in our playing style, our string bending/tremelo use and our hearing. I have lost most of the frequencies in my right ear, so stereo is wasted on me now. I sometimes listen to my old CD's in the car and wondered why they sounded different! A recent rip to the audiologist explained a lot! I thought that frequency was how many times you went for a Jimmy Riddle but he put me straight! (bad term of phrase nowadays I understand!)

[Somerset]

I only started playing Shads music about 20 months ago and before that I played mainly Blues and Blues/Rock. I always used D’Addario EXL120+ that are 9.5 - 44 guage on my Fenders and 10s on Gibsons.

I continue to use 9.5s on my Strats for Shads stuff (with a .88 Dunlop Puretone pick) and they sound good to me. I have even put them on my Burns Marvin.

Habits/techniques that I developed playing Blues were string bending and left hand vibrato and rightly or wrongly I still do it when perhaps others might use the tremolo arm.

[Shadbarmy1]

Well, I am back on the lighter strings as I was having quite a struggle with my arthritis! To be honest, the sound, I think was better but it "cramped my style" in more ways than one! It also put a lot of stress on the knife edge tremelo and having to add the extra springs to the tremelo block made it a bit harder to use. Back to the old (new) setup and more practise needed!