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Post subject: Bending, again.
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 6:57 pm
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Hi everyone and here's my question for today. When I bought my Strat in june 2007, it came from the factory with .009 to .042 strings. So to improve my sound, I gradually went to .010 and a few months ago to .011. Now I'm thinking to try .012 but...I don't have problems to bend to a full tone with the .011 and if I don't go too fast even a tone and a half is not difficult to obtain, but I'm stuck here, I can't bend to two full tones. Is it normal? Is there any exercise I can do to improve my bends? I'll try the .012 just for the experience but if I can't bend them enough, I'll get back to the .011 and live with it. As usual, any tip, hint, suggestion, idea etc. will be treated with all the consideration it deserves because I certainly can appreciate that you took some of your time to answer to my question.
Two full tone bends hard to acheive, is it normal and if not, how can I improve my bends?
I mainly play the Blues and I like to torture my Strat.

Cheers.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:11 pm
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I think if you look at the names of the various Ernie Ball strings, you'll get a good indication of their bendability:

.008 - Extra Slinky
.009 - Super Slinky
.010 - Regular Slinky
.011 - Power Slinky / Beefy Slinky
.012 - Not Even Slinky

I use .009s myself, and I get lots of bend out of the strings. The .012s must be like coat hanger wire.


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Post subject: bend don't break
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 6:30 am
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Location: chicago il.
all my guitars have .010 erni ball strings except for my accustic i use bronze .013 martins, the .010 i like because they sound good last long & bend well, if you play.012 on your ele. guitar you must have hands as strong as an ape.

sparky


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:21 am
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Is there any reason why you keep going up in string gauges? If you are happy with 11s, then just stay with 11s. Also, one thing you may run into with strings biggger than 11s is that the slots at the nut may not be wide enough for strings larger than a set of 11s, and you may need to do some modification on your guitars nut. As far as bends, keep practicing them, and you'll get more out of them the more you practice. As far as not getting two-tone bends, could be due to a heavier string, could be due to your hands, just keep practicing them...

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:31 pm
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A lot of guitarists tune down when using heavier gauge strings, it takes the tension off.
If you haven't already done that.


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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:40 pm
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I convined my guitar player a year ago to take those 12s (sewer pipes) off his Fenders and go to 10's (and we are tuned 1/2 step down, drop c#).

He is now a better player in that one year..then all his years combined. He now can play blues (and well I might add)..and play arpeggios..it's like night and day. And as far as tone, I can't tell the difference.

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 6:52 pm
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Rhumba wrote:
A lot of guitarists tune down when using heavier gauge strings, it takes the tension off.
If you haven't already done that.


I tune down everything a whole step from standard tuning, but not for bends, the strings just seem to resonate and sound better to me...

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