Hmmmm....interesting!

Hey gang! I just "re-realized" something! I have been playing a lot on my steel string acoustic guitar lately-even playing and learning lead stuff like Rikki DLTN, Boston songs, Badfinger, and The Rasberries.

I use heavier strings on my acoustic-(.013-.056-Martin Marquis's). I have not been able to take out my electric lately-its kind of pain to haul even the smaller old Rickenbacker amp out and connect adjust, etc, when I can just pull my acoustic out and jam. The only thing is that I can't hit some of those higher notes and sometimes it is really hard to do that heavy bending on some songs!
I guess that all that playing on the acoustic has paid off! I picked up my electric-just unconnected-and tried some of the same stuff that I had been doing on my acoustic. Geez! It felt like I was bending rubber bands! (Kind of!) It was soooo easy to bend and to hit some of those really high notes! And I don't use too light of strings on my electric either (usually .010 to .046's).

I remember quite a while back, I had read in a guitar magazine about how Stevie Ray Vaughn used very heavy strings on his guitars, and the story's author mentioned that a player's finger strength could be increased by using heavier strings. Of course, I wouldn't recommend using heavy strings for a beginning player. I prefer using the heavier strings just because of the feel, and the extra "oomph" I get out of them, but I think the only drawback is that the top (5,6) strings might get a little dead quicker, since they are so heavy. I don't know-maybe that's just my imagination!
If using these heavier strings on my acoustic makes it so much easier to play on an electric guitar, then I will surely continue to do that!

Do any of you play on an acoustic or use heavier strings on one guitar and then move to another? I guess this would be somewhat like what the baseball players do when getting ready to be at bat-swinging with weights on the bat or more than one bat(?)


Related Tags: strings electric+guitar acoustic+guitar