abstamaria wrote:I don’t have a Burns. Should I play “Flingel” on the neck pickup on my Strat? I’m not to happy with the sound. I have 12-52 strings on. It seems to me Hank’s Burns had thinner-gauge strings when he recorded that.
Andy
Unlikely.
At least as late as 1967, Bruce, answering a reader's query in the music weekly "Melody Maker", said that The Shadows used Gibson Sonomatic strings [E-340] (13 - 17 - 26w - 36 - 46 - 56) on "
...all our guitars". This probably meant that they had a deal with Selmer to be supplied with them FOC, but it is vanishingly unlikely that they would have changed to such a traditional medium gauge if they were used to, and had access to, light gauge sets. Light gauge strings, no matter what is sometimes claimed by players who wish to appear in the know, were neither widely known nor used in the UK until about 1967 (which is approximately when the well of knowledge about guitar components and set-ups started to be a factor in the industry).
Use of Sonomatics would have included the Marvins as well as the Gibson jumbos which were in use until 1970.
A few years later - this would be about 1970 - Hank, post-Shadows and answering another letter in the same paper, said that he used (a) Sonomatics, (b) Sonomatic light gauge [E-340L] (11 - 12 - 22w - 32 - 42 - 52) and that he was experimenting with (c) Fender Rock'n'Roll strings (which were very light for the age: 9-11-15-24w-32-40).