Is it really true that Hendrix used 8s? I've also read that he "mixed" with 8 on the high E but super thick on the low E.

I'm curious because Hendrix had huge hands and, of course, was a powerful player, and I'm a nobody nothing crap player and even I'm starting to feel that 9s feel too thin for me and I'm starting to like 10s.

Did Hendrix really use 8s????

if you look at some footage from woodstock then yes i would say he used 8's , and it makes sense with all that bending . I used 10's for donkeys years untill a wee while ago , playing for three hours at rehersals playing hendrix cream gallagher ect my fingers were killing me so i dropped to 9's , it helped a lot . Guitslinger will be along shortly to agree , cheers
Alan

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He may have used 8's but i doubt it with the size and strength of his hands.

I used to use 10/46 but i'm changing them to either 9/46 or 9/42.

I'm learning Eruption and with EVH tuned to Eb i'm tuned down a half as well. I like it, the strings are even easier to bend and i like the feel.

I like the feel so much i might keep this as my regular tuning all the time.

What did someone like SRV, who was tuned a half step down, do when he played with folks at standard pitch though? other guitar players i mean. Obviously play everything one fret higher to compensate, but that's a bit off putting in a way.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Yea, to floss with.

Edit: For all you in the UK, that's when we use a thin strip to go between our teeth to clean them.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

As my esteemed friend from Britain predicted-here I am to agree.It is very plain to see from any close-up photos or film footage it is quite obvious that Jimi used an extremely light gauge string and most certainly no heavier that .009s but I believe that .008s would be the most likely candidate.I remember reading an interview with a long time member of Jimi's Inner Sanctum of friends who accompanied him on tour-so most likely it was Gerry Stickles or Eric Barrett-and he said that Jimi used a super-light gauge string.At that time Fender made a string set called 150 SL and the SL stood for super light with .008-.038 . Regarding Jimi having huge hands,Jimi`s hands were incredibly long but were very slender as opposed to being like big mitts.I have a video with an interview with Kathy Etchingham Jimi`s long time British girlfriend and she talks about Jimi having "very beautiful hands" that were "Very long and slender".With such long and slender hands they most likely weren't incredibly strong and consequently to get the over-the-top bends he was able to pull off he had to use extremely thin strings plus tune down 1/2 tone.I have used this arrangement for years and I must say that set-up does allow incredibly deep bends of over 4 whole tones.Using this method has allowed me to replicate a lot of the seemingly impossible bends that Jimi did without shredding the flesh off my fingers.

Note to Deluxe Matt-You've been able to buy floss in Britain for decades.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I'm getting more and more used to the acoustic (12-53) and my tele has 10's. The Jackson still has 9's though but I haven't touched that guitar in months. When the tele had the factory 9's I kept raising the pitch of notes because I'm so ham fisted. When I switched to 10's that don't seem to happen anymore.

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"Music is what feelings sound like"

Yea, I was just poking a little fun at our friends across the pond.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

As long as your poking fun wasn't construed as an insult by them.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

So do I!
I play 9s. I tried 10s but went back to 9s, it makes bending easier.

I don't believe in the myth (at least that's what I call it) that you need thicker strings for more tone and fatter sound.
There's one exception though: playing slide! I went up to 13s on my strat which I use for slide.
You can apply a little more pressure with the slide, 9s tend to rattle on the high e and b strings.

Dunno what Hendrix used. I simply use what suits me best.

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

my charvel came with 9's and the first time i did a bend i almost hit myself in the jaw. yes, they felt nice and all but when i tuned a half step down they were like wet noodles. i switched to my beloved 10's and even they feel light on the charvel.
i defineitely notice a beefier tone with heavier strings but i know nothing.

Neither do i. Look at guys like Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, Brian May, Billy Gibbons, Eddie Van Halen. All those guys use really light strings and they have great tone.

Any lack of thickness in the sound; well that's what the amp's for! tune the tone from the tone controls.

I like to feel bending is really easy and when i've got a full tone bend that i can vibrato it easily.

Too many guys just try to emulate Stevie Ray with the massive things he used. But they're forgetting one thing; have you seen the size of Stevie's hands? he had huge powerful hands and could shake those heavy guages. Most of us don't have hands like that, unfortunately.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Back in the day , light guage strings weren't an option, they just weren't available
So I know both Jimi and myself used to use a banjo 5th string as a high "E", ( I started to do this around 1964), then a medium 1st string as a second , then a medium 2nd as a third then a medium to heavy 3rd as a fourth string then on the bottom 2 strings, use heavy gauge (a heavy 4th as a fifth and heavy 5th as a bottom "E")

This was standard (eventually) around the Manchester area and enabled you to have a plain 3rd string (the conventional sets were all wound) with ample string bending capabilities (off the neck if you tuned 1/2 a step down), while keeping nice thick sounding bottom strings and overall tone

I have used "light top/heavy bottom" for ages, but tried some regular 9's , 6 months ago and they were crap by comparison , so have switched back now

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

I found this good interview on the subject: http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-ro ... itar-setup

That's pretty interesting. I don't understand about a red spotlight putting a guitar out of tune, but the rest is good stuff. Does Roger Mayer still make pedals?

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Temperature!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!