Stevie Ray Vaughan's Guitar String Gauges: They Weren't What You Think...

DESCRIPTION
Many rockers in the 60s and 70s played fairly light strings, by today’s standards at least, but when SRV came around, getting fatter tone than anyone had ever heard from a strat, everything changed. Today we dive into Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar strings and go over the exact string gauges he used to get that huge, legendary bluesy tone.

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[kennethlewis]

The best thing about thicker strings, is that your guitar will play in tune

[newgunguy]

According to René, he'd settled on:
11, 15, 19p, 28, 38, 58

It was pretty much an 11 set with a 58.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd uses an seven string 11 set, but discards the sixth (48) string and uses the seventh (58) string as a low E string.

[DrsJacksonn]

He played 17s?! That's basically playing on prison bars.

[benselectionforcasting]

If you go into a Guitar Store and ask for .13's they either laugh, or ask if you're in a Cannibal Corpse Cover Band.

[whynottalklikeapirat]

Stevie called the low E his favourite note in an interview ...

[KentuckyWindage]

I used regular 13s in standard tuning on my strat for a long time. I bend a lot and I play somewhat "heavy-handed" like most strat players. I broke a lot of strings when I played 13s. About 4 - 6 hours of playing time and I would break one. The wound third was probably nearly half of the total broken strings. I started stepping down in string gauges and finally figured out that I get the longest life out of 10s. I've played 10s ever since.

[Stringjoy]

Stevie Ray Vaughan is definitely one of our favorite guitarists of all time—thanks for checking out this video! I think the big takeaway here is that what one player might need in terms of gauges can be totally different from another. SRV’s set is far from balanced from a tension perspective (he has massively more tension on the 1st and 6th strings in this set), but it’s hard to argue with the results.

I’m particularly a fan of using a heavier 6th string—perhaps not quite as heavy as SRV’s, but I find a little extra meat there can be great for blues playing.

[juddharley]

I used your string tension calculator to figure out whats going on with Stevies set of 13's, and I think the results may interest you.


eb - 26.8
Bb - 20.1
Gb - 20.3
Db - 20.7
Ab - 20.4
Eb - 26.1


I can't say I've listened to so much of Stevies music, but I wander if the high E is deliberately tight as a means of avoiding accidental bends or inflections.

[Sjrm]

He actually went as light as 11’s in eb at the beginning of a tour in his later days due to arthritis

[alphadogstudio]

The other thing that's never mentioned is Stevie had huge frets put on his guitar. I had a custom made Fender and told them to give me the frets SRV really used (not whats on his signature model) and they are gigantic! I was using 10's and they felt like rubber bands at standard tuning. It's like playing a scalloped fingerboard. That, my friends, is the real secret to playing huge strings.

[lyonsson]

I’ve been playing 11s for some time now, I love them! I tend to put way too much pressure on a set of 9s for them to stay in tune, it’s easier for me to play heavier strings than it is to try to baby a set of light strings lol!

[blooeagle]

I'd honestly order a set like Stevie's to try just once. I'm curious to see how I do, I run 10's and sometimes 11's because I tend to really crank on the strings. I snap 9's like balsa wood in a vice

[RocktCityTim]

You guys have brought me back to my preferred 008 - 040 custom set for my Strats and Teles. I'm just frustrated that I didn't discover you 5 years ago!

[jeffelm]

I tried those heavier gauge strings once... I'm a hack guitar player as it is, don't need heavier gauge strings helping me sound worse

[jsket]

Thanks for digging deeper in this topic. One other consideration might be guitar scale length. On Fenders, I like lighter strings than on Gibsons because Gibsons are shorter and feel looser. Although, lately I've kept 10s on both and it's comfortable.

[buddylobos]

Billy Gibbons Custom Les Paul comes with .08's. The Rev said he likes .Dunlap 07's on fat neck guitars. So. I tried it. (Ernie Ball 8's.) Yeah works great. However, my fat neck Jeff Beck strat I go with Ernie Balls Skinny Top Heavy bottom. 10's to 52. Works great. Light gauge didn't work out on the roller nut. Main guitar is a Clapton strat 9's-42. But 13's? No way! I'm only human!

[hansolo]

I see guitarists here on the tube that are trying to play heavy strings, poorly. Loss of control, flat bends and choppy phrasing are the reward. Never is the tone noticeable.

[TheseusTitan]

Some other points is, Vaughan played a Fender guitar. The high “E” string is the longest string of the six which gives it a looser tension and easier to bend than a shorter length. The Fender has single coil pickups and they’re very thin sounding. BB King and Jimmy Page play Gibsons which sounds more full and heavier, where you don’t need all that steel from a heavy gauge string.

[XMetalChefX]

I gotta say i love Stringjoy. Scott is an absolutely amazing guy and he treats me like I am in Metallica. Mmeber for LIFE.

[andycharles]

@stringjoy, it would be super interesting if you could measure the output of different gauges, to look at the "meatiness" factor a bit scientifically. Maybe string up a strat with 8's all the way through 13's, and get clips and make measurements of output and maybe a snapshot of spectrum analyzers? I think there's a ton of "feel" in how people respond, but it should be possible to support that with data.