Hey folks, first time poster, long (long) time strat guy...

I have a 1999 American Deluxe, (purchased new/first owner). It has been setup for nines since the day I got it. Since I've been playing acoustically semi-professionally I'm not used to the lightness of the 9's (and I'm heavy-handed anyway) so I thought I'll switch it over to 11's then re-set it up. I plan on using it part-time in our show, so I wanted a more consistent feel between the two guitars.

Today I swapped the strings over, my action got higher (as expected), but from nowhere my "G" string sounds like crap. Almost like it's being semi-muted. "Plonky" if you will. There is nothing touching the string besides the tuning peg, nut, and bridge... I just threw on a cheap set of Ernie Ball Power Slinkys - could it just be a bad string? I used the cheaper strings before going to something better just to see if I liked the playability.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Oh, the Tremolo has been blocked, but that never made a difference when the nines were on... "G" was still ringing true.

Thanks,
Chris

Hi Flurgin,

Could be a bad string. Are the nut slots wide enough for the larger diameter strings? Maybe the G isn't fully seated in the slot, and a little nut work is required.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

There is no reason that your action HAD to get higher. Did you do a full setup on the guitar? Adjust neck relief, adjust saddle height, set intonation, etc? Unless those were done properly, that could also be the reason your string sounds bad. I have found that the stock Fender nut will handle 10's without modifications, but 11's are iffy.

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Bill

It think it's quite reasonable to expect a higher action if you go from 9 to 11 gauge. The pull will be somewhat stronger, so I guess there'll be more bow thus higher action.

First I'd correct neck relief. I guess it changed a bit. And check the nut.

Cheers

David

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Of course the action is going to get higher when going from lighter to heavier gauge strings. But redoing the setup as I stated will correct that. There is no indication in the OP's post that he did redo the setup and is now having problems as a result of his failure to do so.

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Bill

I did the .011 thing, once. I will never go over .010 again myself as the sound went from nice to soft jazz and my trem didn't react correctly either. Never again!

You need a setup like Bluesky636 write.

Just a thought: With this .011 gauge set, is the G string wound or plain?

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You dig?

Plain.

http://www.ernieball.com/products/elect ... ckel-wound

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Bill

The reason why I asked is, due to the fact that the OP is predominantly an acoustic player, he's used to a wound G string. I would think that switching to a solid body and a plain G of a more familiar (meaning, heavier) gauged set would certainly create a reasonable degree of discordance to what he expects in terms of all around string response. I say this because naturally, the lighter the gauge, the less a given string's characteristics will jump out at the player but the heavier the gauge string/set gets, the more one would be able to notice it/them. Couple this with a nickel wound set vs. a bronze (et. al) wound set and here too, yet another discordance especially if (and by the OP's own admission), he is a heavy handed player.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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You dig?

It had to be the "G-string".

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

You say that like it's a bad thing!

You guys are correct in the fact I haven't had the time to do a proper setup yet (Can't find my hex keys)... but I am also aware of the difference in sound between a plain and a wound - this is definitely neither. I'm going to take a closer look at it on Friday and see if it's seated properly in the nut. It looked right to me at the time, but I didn't get a close up view. I'll also have the time to do a setup (and I can get some hex keys from my dad if mine don't show up)

Thanks for the advice!