The Twang! String Along
Back in the 60s, Elliott randall learned a string bending trick that would influence how he set his guitars up for life
I’ve had some very interesting conversations lately about guitar strings, and thought it would be a good idea to share a few pieces of info with you. So for this month’s instalment, I decided to stray from the ‘Student Questions’ series, begun in the last issue, which I will resume shortly.
The first place we’ll go is to the stringing of my‘Number One Strat’, and how I got there. Flashback to the summer of ’63. I led the house band at NYC’s Cafe Bizarre, and had the pleasure of meeting and playing alongside many other acts in that Greenwich Village icon. One evening,The Royal Teens graced our stage.They were really good.Their guitarist was extraordinary – and was bending those strings in a way I’d never seen before. I mean, he was really bending them.After their show, I asked him how he was doing that.He was very friendly and forthcoming, explaining that his ‘trick’was using a banjo string for his high E. It was a 0.009 – and in those days, they weren’t being manufactured for guitars, and had no ball end. So you had to grab the end of an old string, cut it off, and insert it into the little loop at the end of the string. He used his E (0.010) as his B string, his B (0.013) as his G string. He then disposed of the G (0.015) and carried on with the three lower strings as normal.
And what happened then was amazing.My ability to bend notes expanded – in fact, they doubled. I was suddenly able to bend those strings a full perfect 4th (from D to G … or B to E – you get it!). Part of the beauty of this is that with three super-thin strings in a row, you have less tension for neighbouring strings to impede your bend. Simply fabulous.
This learning experience happened two years before I bought my Strat, which means I was using this formula on my ’62 Guild Starfire III. Once I got the Strat, it transferred over beautifully.And I’ve been using the same setup ever since. Other guitars feel more comfortable to me with different gauge combinations. (I did go back to medium flatwounds on that guitar once the Strat was in my hands.)
Since those days, string manufacture has skyrocketed. Instead of half a dozen companies offering a relatively small array or choices, we now have at least 10 times the amount of supply, and the materials on offer are pretty staggering.Two relatively new examples of this are VonYork Strings, which are cryogenically treated (yes, frozen!) and the top-shelf Ernie Ball‘Slinky Cobalt’line. Both of these strings retain both their liveliness and tuning for incredible lengths of time.
From the‘…and anecdotally department’, some interesting items. I have a beautiful old Fender Jazz Bass. In 1977, I strung it up with a set of Maxima gold strings.They still reside on that instrument today – and they sound superb. 40 years!
Back in ’65, Robbie Robertson and I spent the summer playing in a resort town in New Jersey, our respective bands playing on the same bill. I once asked him,“Hey Robbie, how often do you change your strings?”His response was priceless:“Oh, I change one when I break one.”(This accounts for Robbie’s unique signature sound of‘dead but piercing’ strings on his Tele.)
The frets on my Number One Strat have been in situ since back in 1972.‘Skunk’ and I came into a load of Gibson bass fret wire, and decided to give it a go on a few of our instruments.That wire is as strong as Kryptonite! Those frets remain on that lovely rosewood neck to this day. Over the years, my frets have had maybe seven or eight gentle dressings (or, as our US counterparts call this process,‘grind and polish’).
Next month I’ll be back to answering a few more questions. See you then.
“What happened then was amazing. My ability to bend notes expanded – in fact, they doubled. I was suddenly able to bend those strings a full perfect 4th” ellIoTT Randall