Metropoulos Forum

Alright lets talk string for the jimi tone/feel.

We know he used light string, but how light? I'm guessing they were pure nickel as well.

I'm currently using 9-42, and the bass strings still sound a little heavy, taking away from the treble strings. I'm thinking 9-36 might do it.

what do you guys think?

he used 10-38 fender 150's pure nickle. I used them for years and now they discontinued them about a year ago and have tried every thing to find a replacement but nothing is the same.

I always thought, watching the monterey footage, that he had 11s on that guitar, and have always thought he used heavy strings in te early days.

i still can buy those fender pure nickel light gauge, and they're great ! i love to play on it. my last choice after trying the others.
i'm sure that you still can find them. and yes, that's what would be good with jimi's feel.


http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Original-150 ... 19c36cfee0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


if you say that they're gonna disapear, i might buy a big stock, but over the time, strings seem to become unuseable, am i right ?
i remember this ten years old martin strings for my acoustic guitar, and they were so wierd... i don't know, when it's pure nickel, what it does.

Xplorer wrote:i still can buy those fender pure nickel light gauge, and they're great ! i love to play on it. my last choice after trying the others.
i'm sure that you still can find them. and yes, that's what would be good with jimi's feel.


http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Original-150 ... 19c36cfee0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


if you say that they're gonna disapear, i might buy a big stock, but over the time, strings seem to become unuseable, am i right ?
i remember this ten years old martin strings for my acoustic guitar, and they were so wierd... i don't know, when it's pure nickel, what it does.

those are 10-46 he used 10-38's which you cant get now

Dean Markley F150's? I don't think they're pure nickel though, but at least they got the gauges right.

Snake Oil has a 10-38 set, and are excellent strings. Word has it that customer service is now up to scratch as well...

maybe asimple mix of this 9-38 set and this 10-46 set ... what were the original gauge of all strings, into this 10-38 please ?
but anyway, the 10-46 is really great too. hendrix used a 38 string, but he did it custom, with what he had.
i used to follow some advices , saying that grat guitarists used heavy heavy strings lol, but i wonder why i did, i like these light strings much better in fact. funny that hendrix adviced jeff beck to have heavy strings on his guitars, when he came to England. that's what he was thinking too at some point ?

shakti wrote:Snake Oil has a 10-38 set, and are excellent strings. Word has it that customer service is now up to scratch as well...

I tried snake oils and they sound different and are $10 a set

Pyramids!

Fender pure nickel (well the wraps on the E A and D strings) XL 150's are close enough for me . A 38 low E ? Even if Hendrix used this, I think a 40 (XL 150) or 42 low E would have been better. I like the 15 G on the XL 150's (compared to the 16 G on 'regular' 9 guage sets).

Michael Schenker and EVH used to use these Fender XL 150 pure nickel strings.

yeah, pue nickel 150 , stock, are my definite choice, they have "something" ... and they get nicer when they get old, to my taste, or it's my imagination. though i didn't try the 15 gauge instead of the 16.

also, when i spoke to a guitar seller in a shop here in paris, "experience music" .. the man laughed, when i talked about the supposedly gauges that hendrix used, that we know, i think, from Buddy miles ... he said : Buddy miles ... a drummer .... ! what the fuck he knows about jimi's strings ?
lol, and i think that it makes sens. but yeah, we can think about pure nickel light strings, with no much hesitation.

I currently have Dean Markley's nickel 010/046 on my guitar and do find the lower E to be a bit too heavy. Otherwise they are good for me. I use those simply cause I don't know of any better strings.
Fender only makes pure nickel 010/046. Same for Ernie Balls Rock n roll strings. Pyramids are a bit more expensive and nowhere to be found near where I live, also 010/046.

Xplorer wrote: Buddy miles ... a drummer .... ! what the fuck he knows about jimi's strings ?
lol, and i think that it makes sens.

Actually no, it doesn't make much sense since it seems that Buddy also played the guitar and since he was a lefty as well it would be way too easy to play/try Jimi's guitars and have a "first hand experience" about his guitar gear (just do a little search, you'll find a few videos out there with Buddy playing the guitar)...

Anyway, the last 5-6 years i only use 10-38s, not because Jimi was using them (or supposed to be using them) but because for my needs is an almost perfect gauge combination. It gives me the sound balance i need (all my pups have staggered poles) and the "playability" (warning, this is subjective as well) i want.

I have used to death the Fender's 150TRs (10-38 classic pure nickels), Fender's 3150TRs (10-38 pure nickel bullets) and the Dean Markley F150 (10-38 nickel plated). I used to buy them in large quantities (whenever i could find them) so although i just installed my last Fender 150TRs set i've still more than a dozen bullets and about 15 sets of Dean Markleys.

So, i'd say if anybody is interesting in trying the 38's just buy a single set first, try it, set up your guitar for this gauge and try several tunings as well...i am happy with all the 3 different sets but since i tune one tone lower than usual i thing the Dean Markleys are a bit "better" for my set up they have better definition on the bass strings.