Neville’s AdvocAte

Nev discusses how getting string gauge, action height and strap length right for you is the most important thing of all

Afew issues back I talked about the futility of guitarists who play lightly, to ramp their strings up a gauge or two because someone down the pub says it produces “better tone”. This is because if you don’t whack them hard enough, they won’t vibrate and respond for you the way they would for a bigger hitter. Likewise, the other way around: a person who goes in all guns blazing on a set of eights is going to push them all over the place, causing tuning problems, fretting out and all sorts. Weirdly, a light acoustic fingerpicker plucking on 0.011-gauge strings is likely to elicit more tone and volume than they would trying to fight a set of telegraph wires.

But, as I’ve also said – and as we’ve read in these pages from many an interviewee – after a long run of shows, your hands become ‘gig fit’ and it’s naturally time to go for the beefier option.

It’s the same theory with a guitar’s action. Doing a mental straw poll, I reckon those players who like a really high action are about the same as those who love it so low that a breath of wind has the strings running for cover onto the frets. Similarly, those who just like a bit more air under them in order to gain purchase when bending and so on, and those who want them set as low as possible but without buzzing or choking off, are also pretty evenly split.

Again, I reckon it’s partly down to how people address the instrument (both picking and fretting) that determines this, as well as their choice of string gauges. The trick is to get both things right for how you play – not listen to what Joe down the pub read online. I’m in the ‘low as possible before buzzing’ category, as I see no point in struggling too hard with the instrument. Of course, a bit of fight-back is fine, otherwise bends might be sharp and vibrato wayward.

The regularity with which one changes strings is another debate. I know those (I believe Phil Hilborne is one) who change strings for every gig. Other friends of mine do, too (Mick Taylor of That Pedal Show

definitely would for any important show). And were you a mega-earning rock star, you’d almost certainly get your full-time guitar tech to restring nightly (with the free sets you get on your ‘string deal’). And why not? A string break is a traumatic thing to happen at the top of that big bend in your most important solo.

String Along

I’ll confess, however, that on a recent run of 24 shows, I didn’t change my electric strings from the opening night to the last – and I changed my acoustic’s only because I needed to go up due to action issues. But then I play lightly, I don’t sweat and am not exactly Guthrie Govan!

My point is the same one I made last time: not to let people tell you how you should have your guitars set up. You’ll play better, and sound better, with the string gauge and action that suits your playing style.

Another ‘sort of’ related thing I’ve done recently is to change the length of my guitar straps. I’ve never been a ‘round the knees’ kind of player, and think I wear my guitar at average height. But shortening the straps of my stage electric and acoustic by a notch made playing easier and seemed to make the evening less tiring.

There’s a theory that says that in order to play well, your live guitar height should be the same as your practice position. So, as most of us practise sitting down, doesn’t it seem preposterous to take that piece you have spent hours refining and try to play it with your guitar in a different relationship to your picking and fretting hands?

I’ll leave you with that thought, and see you again next month.