Different guitar strings give you different guitar sounds
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There are loads of different brands of guitar strings out there, and within the brands there are many different gauges and types. This can be overwhelming for beginners, so I want to briefly discuss different types of strings and associated sizes and why you want to carefully consider the types of strings you would want to use.
There’s nylon guitar strings. These strings are used on classical guitars and are favorable for fingerpicking. If you own a classical guitar or plan to purchase one, these are the strings you will use.
Now if you’re playing a standard electric or acoustic 6-string guitar, you’re going to choose steel strings. Some of the more popular brands are D’Addario, Dean Markley, Ernie Ball, Elixer, GHS, and Fender. Try the same size of each brand and you‘ll begin to notice differences in the sound. I remember trying D’Addario, Dean Markley, and Ernie Ball .009s and I was partial to D’Addario’s because it seemed like my pick would get caught on the strings too easily. So definitely experiment with different strings to find out which you prefer.
As for the different size guitar strings, they come in sizes ranging anywhere from sets of .008’s to .013’s. Now, you may wonder what the heck this means. Well the .008-.013 range describes the thickness in inches of the high E string. So when someone says 8’s, 9’s 10’s, they’re typically referring to a set of guitar strings with the high E string of that thickness. The remaining strings are also thicker or thinner depending on the thickness of the high E string, but you can buy individual guitar strings to suit your personal tastes.
How do you know which thickness to choose? I prefer D’Arddario 9s for my electric and Elixer 10’s for my acoustic. For me, anything thicker then 10s give my fingers a tough time. But the trade off is the thicker strings will have a much better tone. As a beginner, I wouldn’t recommend any stings thicker than 9’s for starters until you build up some left hand strength. I wouldn’t recommend 8’s at all as they tend to break too easily.
If you’re going to be playing dropped tunings, then you should consider thick guitar strings in the .012-.013 range the Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky Strings are great. This will allow you to tune down and still have tight strings that don’t flap around. The thinner guitar strings will usually be too slack when you’re tuned down.
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