[nagukush]

Hi all !!!

Hope everyone's fine and doin Great

I wanted to know something on Guitar-String Gauges. I really am not able to understand the basics of string gauges and a few articles I google'd are just confusing me. I basically understand that there are Medium and Light gauges strings.

But can someone please suggest me which one's are best for finger-picking and which gauge is the best. I asked my local store too, but they have no idea about them. They just say , what they have is the best and are only available. I have to buy my strings online only and hence kindly suggest me guys, which ones should i go for.

Thanks and Warmest Regards

Kush

[allthumbs]

I haven't really paid to much attention to strings. I have never heard of strings just for finger pickers except nylons. Maybe Kirk knows. As far as guage goes. I would go with 12s or 13s.

[nagukush]

Hey Marty !!! How're you???

Actually i found these Martin Strings, written specially for finger-picking :

http://www.music123.com/Martin-MSP41...-i159468.music

Can you please tell me what do these 12s and 13s mean. I mean which string gauge are they. Is 12s the gauge of a particular string out of the 6.

Kindest Regds

Kush

[allthumbs]

12 or 13 is the gauge of the 1st or top string. Those martins seem to be for finger pickers who really pluck the strings hard. I have never broken a string in finger style. I have busted strings that were getting old by doing big bends though. It couldn't hurt to have tougher strings but, I wouldn't pay a premium for them.

[nagukush]

Thanks for that Marty ! so these are the medium gauges that you mean here, am i rite ?

[Jean]

I use Martin strings-in a light gauge I think mine is a 12 gauge...

I get a pretty good sound out of them, anyway just my 2c.


Jean

[joehere1]

hey kush, i use mostly martin light and yes they are .012 and thats the heavy E string and i find they work great, ir your fingers are soft then try a martin extra light and if your fingers are tuff then try a medium,
i dont believe there is a set rule or a special string, just find what ur comfortable with and have fun
joe

[nagukush]

Originally Posted by joehere1

hey kush, i use mostly martin light and yes they are .012 and thats the heavy E string and i find they work great, ir your fingers are soft then try a martin extra light and if your fingers are tuff then try a medium,
i dont believe there is a set rule or a special string, just find what ur comfortable with and have fun
joe

Hey Joe !!! Thanks for the kind advice buddy
Is it that .012 is the greatest thickness (BAss-E string) ? if yes, then .012 is light Gauge and is .10 even lighter? Just getting confused here.

Thanks for caring, pal

Warmest Regards

Kush

[joehere1]

no kush .10 is heavier then .12 ok, the higher you go below the decible piont the lighter the gauge, the closer you get to a whole number the heavier the gauge

if you use a string that said it was 1.0 ouch, then 0.1 would be lighter and 0.2 would be even lighter and 0.3 lighter again ok

so 0.10 is heavier then 0.12 hope you understand
hope that helps joe

[joehere1]

o kush yes the .12 is the heaviest string the bass E and on the same set of strings the small E is .054 so you see the higher the number below that ( . ) is a smaller or lighter string

[tcliff]

For an approximate listing of string sizes available, check out this link:

http://www.guitartips.addr.com/tip130.html

It should be noted, these numbers represent the actual size of each string in thousanths of an inch.

[justpickin]

Your .012 is your high E string, the .054 is your bass E string (thickest).......as stated iin the previous post, in thousands of an inch. High E string is twelve thousands of an inch in dia, etc.

These are the most common string sizes for an acoustic;
Extra Light.....010 .014 .023 .030 .039 .047
Light.............012 .016 .025 .032 .042 .054
Medium..........013 .017 .026 .035 .045 .056
Heavy............014 .018 .027 .038 .048 .059

Some manufacturers may call the "12's" (guitarists always call a set of strings by the high "E" strings size....don't ask why) medium lights, some may call the "10"s lights, etc. A set of "12" 's should do most people fine.

[Ultimate Garage Band]

From that nice chart/list above, there are a couple of variables for those that can't be happy with a 'standard' set of strings. In between extra lights and lights is a set most commonly referred to as 'light special' which has an 11 as the E/1st string. Also, one baby step up from lights towards mediums can be a set called 'Bluegrass' which typically has light top and medium bottom so that your first string starts out with a 12 but by the time you get to the 6th string you're at a 56.

[nagukush]

Thankyou so much for caring buddy !!!

Kindest Regds

Kush

[aarona36]

I think there is some confusion here, joehere1 is talking about gauge. It can be confusing as well because there is American wire gauge and standard wire gauge. Wire gauge is always represented as a whole number here is a conversion table. http://home.clara.net/brianp/wire.html.

Good for us strings are not measured in guage, they are usally measured in inches. Although refered to as sting guage, i think this is where the confusion comes from.

so the 12 is actually .012 inches, 12 thousandths, this is your first string, the skinny one. the 54 or .054 is the bass sting. these would be light stings (12-16-25-32-42-54)

so 13 is .013 inches and is slighly heavier, these are mediums and probibly look like (13-17-26-35-45-56)

so 11's would be extra light. just for clarification the number 11,12,13 refers to the diameter of the first string in thousanths of an inch.

As for what strings i would recommend, i use martin lights (12's), ive tried those finger style ones you have a link to and cant tell the diffenerce. Id stick with the lights unless your looking for more volume then id go for mediums, they feel quite a bit different and are harder on the fingers, and the guitar i might add. Good luck with what ever you get. Aaron